Ice fishing tips - having no luck!

[Lotep]

Hey Folks,

I have been attempting to ice fish for a couple years now without any luck in this particular lake. I have yet to punch holes in the entire lake due to the lack of time to fish and having to drill by hand! The lake is deep and cold with lake trout, pike, and burbot. I generally try right near the bottom with jigs and spoons by bouncing the bottom for the first bit then raising it up 4-6 inches. I am generally fishing in 40-60 feet of water as the shore drops off very quickly. I try and target uderwater islands and features but have yet to connect.

Other than getting out more, can anyone give me some pointers as to what lures or anything else that could help?

Thanks

[Gust]

Hey Folks,

I have been attempting to ice fish for a couple years now without any luck in this particular lake. I have yet to punch holes in the entire lake due to the lack of time to fish and having to drill by hand! The lake is deep and cold with lake trout, pike, and burbot. I generally try right near the bottom with jigs and spoons by bouncing the bottom for the first bit then raising it up 4-6 inches. I am generally fishing in 40-60 feet of water as the shore drops off very quickly. I try and target uderwater islands and features but have yet to connect.

Other than getting out more, can anyone give me some pointers as to what lures or anything else that could help?

Thanks

if you know the structure well, try to move onto the literal drop and bait at the top of the steepest incline or drop and then work your bait deeper every hour or so,, or set up a second hole where you are jigging the greatest fall of the drop,, i.e., feed out and walk your lure down the face with lotsa twitches then back up again. Ist it solid, hill-like or rocky how steep a drop off?

[Dust1n]

40-60foot range is getting out of pike territory and shallow for lakers.
target the 90FOW+ for lakers and jig the whole water collom with silver spoons jiggin aggresivly.
Pike are getting out of the shallows and moving towards the deeper water right about now(depending on the lake) and will be back before ice breakup.
The burbot will be in shallow by febuary just pound the bottom with a glowjig and a minnow.
Invest in a fish cam to see if there realy is anything in there.

Good luck.

[Speckle55]

Use your jigs and bring it off the bottom afoot then jig it up 4 to 6 feet and let it drop .. or Williams Worbler small or medium and whitefish/ spoons/Cold Lake Special.. if you get them excited hang on .. Wow can be great:sHa_shakeshout:!!

Food for Thought
David

[TROLLER]

Might help to know which lake, you might find someone here that has been fishing it. That being said, 40-60 FOW will never get a pike or burbot.

The pike are best targeted in the 6-15FOW and the burbot in 25- 30

Any lakers should be out in 70 plus FOW like at Spray, best fishing for lakers is in the 80 plus FOW Find a topo map of the lake it will make your life a lot easier as to where to target.

GOOD LUCK

[Lotep]

Thanks for the quick replies.

The bottom of the lake was covered in volcanic ash a couple thousand years ago. The lake shore has cobble sized rocks and then when it drops off it turns back to ash. There is about 5 feet of shore then it drops off at probably 3:1(feet) till it reaches a max depth of 80-100 feet. Unfortunatly I can not get a topographic map of the lake so I am going off summer fishing information and orthophotos.

The only bites that I have had were probably 1-5 feet from the bottom using a glowjig but I never managed to hook up.

As far as people fishing the lake, I doubt anyone here has. I moved to Yukon a year ago and am having fun learning the new lake :sHa_shakeshout:

Thanks again

[Gust]

Thanks for the quick replies.

As far as people fishing the lake, I doubt anyone here has. I moved to Yukon a year ago and am having fun learning the new lake :sHa_shakeshout:

Thanks again

I don't think you'll get a mad rush to the lake but could you post it's name so we can suss it out or PM the people who have responded and we can do a forensic approach for you???

[TROLLER]

If there are in fact lakers then go down to the bottom with a Chubby Darter, not a knock off like the lindy darter but the real one, Jig it agressively for a few minutes then slowly jig it all the way to the surface. The lakers will follow it and sometimes attack it maybe 5ft. from surface.

Try some smelt on your jig and maybe dead stick it on the bottom while jigging one a few feet away.

Good Luck

[TROLLER]

Almost forgot post up what lake, my friends son lives in whitehorse and claims he fishes a lot but who really know.

[Lotep]

Braeburn Lake.

Thanks again for the info, I will have to hit up the sporting store for some new lures before heading out next time! I think I will have to try some new techniques as well.

[ak-71]

FH7,
Winter Lake Trout doesn't have to be in 90+FOW, right? If the water is cold enough and food is shallow, am I wrong?

[fish gunner]

FH7,
Winter Lake Trout doesn't have to be in 90+FOW, right? If the water is cold enough and food is shallow, am I wrong?

no u are completly correct! with the water temp being stable over the lake, the trout and burbot can be found at any depth. and the pike tend to hold in the top 30 'burbot will travel in the bottom 5' or so, no matter the depth.the trout tend to stay at the limit of light penitration (excuse spelling) allowing ambush from below . in my opinion the op needs camera - sounder of any sort to locate bait fish. isolate ledges- burbot staging areas and gullys or valleys at the ends of these cliffs- pathways used by predators moving to and from food
sources or call him self a trophy hunter and eat the skunk till monster predator shows up I feel. for him I fish a a lake here in central AB, that I have seen monsters on my sounder in the open water but have yet to put hooks in one

[Jwood 456]

I don't know if the lakers go deeper in the winter than during the summer or not, but when I went up to the Yukon in the summer of 2004, I was being told that the lakers were anywhere from 50 to 80fow. It turns out that the Lakers were only in 15 to 35 FOW.

Perhaps you should try anywhere from 10 to 100FOW until you locate them.

[Dust1n]

nope lakers will move shallow aswell and also chase suspended baitfish. Just because your fishing the deep water dosent mean theyre at the bottom.
the bigger lakers in spray lakes will move into the shallows and feed on the whitefish in the shallows.

[fish gunner]

nope lakers will move shallow aswell and also chase suspended baitfish. Just because your fishing the deep water dosent mean theyre at the bottom.
the bigger lakers in spray lakes will move into the shallows and feed on the whitefish in the shallows.

I totaly agree these are big slow growing fish it is my feeling the feed very heavy for a very short time .then go to there happy place who knos in winter a month at a time even 3 months not sure. as the lake is all roughly the same temp they roam at will ling on the bottom ,trout in the mid depth to the shallows ,pike shallow for the most part

[ak-71]

That's what I suspected - not much experience with lake trout, but after a lot of hole punching we were catching them in 45-65 FOW at Spray with my son and didn't see much deeper on my sonar last couple times.

[Lotep]

Thanks for the help guys.

I was also under the impression that lakers could be at any depth during hardwater. I am going to have to try a a cold lake special (among others) to go from bottom bouncing right up to the surface. Unfortunatly I do not have any sounders/cameras yet but i might have to look into it. Setting a dead bait might also be an option near the bottom for burbot.

[sportster]

may i suggest a flasher. they are quite expensive, but imo are the most effective tool for locating suspended fish allowing you to get right into strike zone.also may need to drill many holes till u locate some good structure and fish holding areas.

[TROLLER]

I will say this about lakers. I fish the crap out of Minnewonka and after the middle of July they leave the shallows and go to the deepest part of the lake.

All my best fishing in winter at spray has been in 80- 100 FOW have tried many times in 30 FOW and only once got a baby laker.

[Lotep]

The lakers up here are in the shallows just as ice off happens and then head for the deep(ish) for the rest of the summer. I have not spent any time with a camera through the ice so i am not 100% sure where they are in the winter months. I can only assume that they are lurking around features just under the light penetrating area waiting to find some bait.

[Gust]

Under ice water isn't as stable as one would think and Lakers are finiky apparently they go into a feeding frenzy at 42 F,,, anyhoo, looking at the lake and some lodge pictures, there are some massive fish in there,,, try a larger bait rig in one hole (is herring allowed) and then at another hole close by, aggressively jig a very large flashy spoon or even power jig a large buzz bomb (I always liked the pale blue one),, looking at the lake, I'd start here as it appears a creek either enters or exits the lake and there is what appears to be a decent narrowing.

61.474243,-135.807152

and I agree on the depth 60-80 fow

[fish gunner]

now that is sum proper advice. I have lost some ,what I believe to be large pike on the purple clakn rap at rattlesnake down south. 4 yr old picked jiging pattern lol