With the winter season now in full effect, ice fishermen have now invaded most lakes that have enough ice. A problem that I see for myself this winter is the soaring cost of gas. Most of the lakes I fish in the winter are a little ways away from home. The fishing is great and I rarely get skunked. Where I am not successful is keeping money in my wallet. I have a two-stroke snowmobile, power auger and truck that I need to fuel up for each trip. Throw in the cost of bait, food and other incidentals and the trip cost becomes very expensive. I have decided that I am going to fish lakes close to home this winter to see if I can generate some kind of success. The attitude towards fishing local lakes are that they are fished out. Let's see if that is true or false this winter. I am judging my success by the amount of money I save + the fun I am having + the amount of fish frys throughout the winter.
The first two lakes that I decided to tackle this past weekend were Robertson Lake and Bone Lake. These lakes are about 10 minute truck drive from home and a 10 minute snowmobile ride down the trail. The species in these lakes are Rainbow, Speckle and Lake Trout. I decided to target Lake Trout on both lakes. Each day of fishing lasted about 4-5 hours. On Saturday I took my daughter and Father-law fishing to Robertson Lake. It was a cold and windy day out on the lake. Thanks to our Clam ice hut we didn't even notice the cold. An hour into the day saw our first fish being pulled in by Tylar(my 5 year old daughter). It topped 3.5 lbs and her excitement really made the day. We didn't officially catch another fish that day but we did have some action and another 3 lb fish right to the hole. The day ended with a great fish fry with my family. The next day I decided to go into Bone Lake for some more Lake Trout. The temperature was much cooler than the day before. The temperature starting out was bone chilling -17 Celcius. It didn't take long before I got my first fish. It was too small to keep. The day saw 8 Lake Trout caught but the biggest was only about 1.5 lbs. Again the action was good and I left there with my limit. I would have to say that the weekend was a success because I saved lots of money in gas, had to great days of fun and caught enough fish for 2 fish frys. The most successful lure of each day was the Macho Minnow(3/8 oz) perch colour by Northland Tackle, the best depth range was 20-30ft and the best time was about 12:30 pm. I also had the opportunity to test out my new Ice Hut by the Clam corporation, it is called the Summit Thermal. I also tested my new Ice Armor Extreme Suit, best suit I have ever owned. Truly made with the Ice fishing Angler in mind.
