Cold lake up dates 2016

[-JR-]

Originally Posted by mikebossy

minnows, smelts, doesn't matter, either/or, even a piece of squid i.e. rubber band like strip of squid has worked for me, just something with a bit of smell so if the fish hits it without biting it a little 'smell' is picked up by the fish and it will come back in and bite it, , if you get a hit and it doesn't stick, put the jig back in the same place, more than likely the fish will hit it again and stick the second time, you want to be using braided line as main line, and 2 or more feet of fluorocarbon for a leader to the jig/lure, using monofilament or other non braids as a main line will give you little or no chance to stick the hook in the fish's mouth before he has already bit and buggered off, an idea that came to me in the last few days is perhaps the best thing to do after a failed hookset, is to ever so slowly let the jig sink back down, even past where the depth of the first bite, so the jig acts as though it has been wounded by the first hit, kinda suspect lake trout slash at bait to stun it more than we believe and would expect to see a slowly sinking, wounded bait/jig after they have hit it once, making it an easier target the second time around, just an idea i wanna experiment with in the summer

You almost have it right! What I have seen down the hole with those larger Lakers ,they are not nippling on it . They try to knock it out with their tails.
Very interesting to watch 20 ft below the ice as they follow it up. they circle the hook and smack it until it starts to fall .Thats when they gulp it up !

[BRvalley]

Hi guys,

Our annual ice fishing trip to cold lake is coming up this weekend...how are the ice conditions?

I've been reading about 12-16" of ice overall, some spots with flood water...would you guys say that's an accurate report?

Are we talking a good 16", or crap ice with bad layers in there? Are guys driving around yet?

with the logistics of our travel, just not an option to tow my buddies sled/quad with us...I have a lifted 150, and tire chains, and we could usually just bomb around wherever we wanted to go

growing up fishing lake simcoe we could pay a day hut operator half his day rate to tow us in/out, but doesn't seem to be any day hut operators on cold lake? or hoping there might be something I'm just not aware of??

[RavYak]

The only places I would drive are places I could see other full size trucks have already gone and I would be darn sure not to park or pass close by any other vehicles.

Your 12-16 in and floodwater in spots is probably accurate for the most part but there are spots that must still be thinner then that based on what I have seen and heard on trip reports from past 2-3 weeks. Literally just over 2 weeks ago a buddy found 6 inches of ice, with very little cold weather since then there is no way that would be thick enough to drive on yet.

Sounds like a lot of guys are getting trigger happy and that many want to or are planning on hitting it up this long weekend. Hopefully we won't be hearing stories of trucks through the ice up there...

[Kale 19]

Was out there Feb 6th. Staged at the PP and made our way out to Newfie Hump. Lots of flood water on the way out there and in pockets. Ice was 8-11in at the hump. Then headed over to Garnet. Ice was 8-11in and still many pockets of flood water. We were on sleds quads and a side by side. 9 of us in all only managed a few trout and windy like crazy.One truck out at the hump but boy it seemed awful risky to have a half ton out there with those ice conditions. No vehicle tracks at Garnet yet. Packed up around 2 and headed out. Fishing was not good enough to put up with the wind.
Hope this helps out some.

[laker]

Weirdest year ever I can recall for ice conditions on Cold. One area in Long Bay close to shore has 6" of white slushy ice. And some spots out in the deep water have less than 6". Sure you'll find 12 and 14" ice out there but 50ft over and it could be 4" with flood water. That is crazy for Feb.

I am not driving my truck out there.

[-JR-]

Originally Posted by BRvalley

Hi guys,

Our annual ice fishing trip to cold lake is coming up this weekend...how are the ice conditions?

I've been reading about 12-16" of ice overall, some spots with flood water...would you guys say that's an accurate report?

Are we talking a good 16", or crap ice with bad layers in there? Are guys driving around yet?

with the logistics of our travel, just not an option to tow my buddies sled/quad with us...I have a lifted 150, and tire chains, and we could usually just bomb around wherever we wanted to go

growing up fishing lake simcoe we could pay a day hut operator half his day rate to tow us in/out, but doesn't seem to be any day hut operators on cold lake? or hoping there might be something I'm just not aware of??

I have not been on the lake yet this year , but french bay normally has the best ice normally. If it was me in a truck I would be hitting the lake at the ski hill camp grounds . And would not drive out any farther as soon as it hits 80 ft
french bay campground is also free camping in the winter months

[biggyJ]

Forgot bait at home, where is the best place in Cokd Lake to pick some up?

[cory3006]

Originally Posted by biggyJ

Forgot bait at home, where is the best place in Cokd Lake to pick some up?

Esso station in Cold Lake, Sobeys, Canadian Tire all carry frozen bait. No Frills sells big bags of "minnows" for cheap too.

[mikebossy]

glad to hear someone has seen this, and thanx for relating it, i've got some new ideas for this summer but boy i was frustrated this last summer, some days i'd have over 30 hits, and actually only get one up to the boat, lots of those hits the fish would be on for 5 seconds or more and be gone within 10, drove me nuts, was using those big Kramer Lake tube jigs from TFH, gonna try lighter jigs, maybe 1/2 to 1 once, instead of the 2 oz,,, and perhaps a medium instead of a med/heavy rod, hope that makes the difference, and i'll be quicker to slowly
drop the jigs back in hopes of the more committed second hit, anybody wanna chime in go for it, i'm all ears,
forgot to add the last day i got out there i landed 3 out of 10 in about an hour, one of them was 32inches, released, another hit on the controlled drop and tore off 30 yrs of line before i could react, loved it, finally also had one that i thought was gonna be the TUNA, finally get him in to find a solid 8 lber tail hooked, man they fight hard when tail hooked, all released, can't wait to get back in the summer, camping at fishing at Cold Lake is a summer experience that's hard to beat

Originally Posted by -JR-

You almost have it right! What I have seen down the hole with those larger Lakers ,they are not nippling on it . They try to knock it out with their tails.
Very interesting to watch 20 ft below the ice as they follow it up. they circle the hook and smack it until it starts to fall .Thats when they gulp it up !

[-JR-]

Originally Posted by mikebossy

glad to hear someone has seen this, and thanx for relating it, i've got some new ideas for this summer but boy i was frustrated this last summer, some days i'd have over 30 hits, and actually only get one up to the boat, lots of those hits the fish would be on for 5 seconds or more and be gone within 10, drove me nuts, was using those big Kramer Lake tube jigs from TFH, gonna try lighter jigs, maybe 1/2 to 1 once, instead of the 2 oz,,, and perhaps a medium instead of a med/heavy rod, hope that makes the difference, and i'll be quicker to slowly
drop the jigs back in hopes of the more committed second hit, anybody wanna chime in go for it, i'm all ears,
forgot to add the last day i got out there i landed 3 out of 10 in about an hour, one of them was 32inches, released, another hit on the controlled drop and tore off 30 yrs of line before i could react, loved it, finally also had one that i thought was gonna be the TUNA, finally get him in to find a solid 8 lber tail hooked, man they fight hard when tail hooked, all released, can't wait to get back in the summer, camping at fishing at Cold Lake is a summer experience that's hard to beat

If you are using those big tube jigs from TFH. It also help to bend the hook out a little . I also tie a stinger hook behind it and one in the head as they like to hit the head first if you are jigging with them.

Don't you ice fish that lake in winter Mike ?

[-JR-]

Almost sounds like its going to be a zoo out on the lake tomorrow.
Just might cancel also .

[Pinhead]

Originally Posted by mikebossy

glad to hear someone has seen this, and thanx for relating it, i've got some new ideas for this summer but boy i was frustrated this last summer, some days i'd have over 30 hits, and actually only get one up to the boat, lots of those hits the fish would be on for 5 seconds or more and be gone within 10, drove me nuts, was using those big Kramer Lake tube jigs from TFH, gonna try lighter jigs, maybe 1/2 to 1 once, instead of the 2 oz,,, and perhaps a medium instead of a med/heavy rod, hope that makes the difference, and i'll be quicker to slowly
drop the jigs back in hopes of the more committed second hit, anybody wanna chime in go for it, i'm all ears,
forgot to add the last day i got out there i landed 3 out of 10 in about an hour, one of them was 32inches, released, another hit on the controlled drop and tore off 30 yrs of line before i could react, loved it, finally also had one that i thought was gonna be the TUNA, finally get him in to find a solid 8 lber tail hooked, man they fight hard when tail hooked, all released, can't wait to get back in the summer, camping at fishing at Cold Lake is a summer experience that's hard to beat

I found in the summer it is hard to use a jig smaller than 2 ozs because of the wind and boat movement. If you can keep yourself stopped, I will be trying this with my new ipilot system, you might be able to get down to 1 oz.

My last trip, a few weeks ago, I was able to use 1/4 & 1/2 oz jigs. They take longer to get down but they worked. Just try to find a jig head with big hook, a standard 1/4-1/2oz uses too small a hook for lakers.

I also believe that they sometimes slap it with their tail, I tail hooked one this winter, and like you said I thought I had a 20lber on.

I am planning on going up next weekend, I'll be in a side by side pulling a couple of tents, a clam and a frabil. If anyone sees us come over and say hi.

JR when are you planning on going?

[-JR-]

might head out next weekend also

[mikebossy]

Originally Posted by -JR-

If you are using those big tube jigs from TFH. It also help to bend the hook out a little . I also tie a stinger hook behind it and one in the head as they like to hit the head first if you are jigging with them.

Don't you ice fish that lake in winter Mike ?

now there's another question, have you seen or have good reason to believe they hit the head? because that makes sense, as i've said before some days i've counted even 50 hits, a high percentage which bend the rod for 5-10 seconds so i believe the only way they could do that is to hit the head with no hook in it, i do use stingers, but haven't bent the hook out yet, will surely add that to good ideas for the summer. I have fished it in the winter but much prefer the summer when its so easy to move and find fish whereas in the winter its a royal pain, too lazy? ya probably, lol, but too far from Edmonton if you can't figure it out and get into lots of fish kind of a bummer for the driving and gas to come up empty,, they all go back after all, love catching them though, got hooked on lakers after spending a summer guiding at Great Bear back about '87, that was unreal, hooked ever since.

as to Pinhead's post, i love fishing when the boat is drifting, though haven't tried the lighter jigs at the same time so maybe that would screw it up, but i get better hooksets when moving, and i end up covering way more water which usually leads to me finding more pods of fish, i don't have a million dollar sonar but the humminbird 565(i think) that i got with my boat has dual cone and the real time 'flasher' on the right that i've finally kind a figured out to use advantageously against the trout that i can see appear, i need to figure out how to get rid of the fish id and then i'd get better at it but it seems if i drop id i also lose the flasher, need more time with it, my hits also went up when i figured out how many feet per pass on my bait caster, times so many passes puts me right at or slightly above there level, might move up to a line counter to make that easier as i can clearly see the depth of the fish but often can't tell for sure where my jig is, as for the fish id it's really helpful when you don't see any fish for a bit, so you take a break and then all of a sudden the beep beep goes you look at the screen, a school of fish, drop to right depth, jig a bit, bang, you get hits, note also i've been doing most jigging without bait, will be going back to minnows and squid in the summer, think that hurt success too,
back to the drifting part, i don't have a kicker nor a bow mount yet on my 19 foot Starcraft, but i love deploying a min kota drift sock, works like a charm, ya sometimes i'm moving too fast even with the sock out, but at those times it seems the fish come way higher in the water column anyway, or at least are looking up and closer to the surface based on the hits in that kinda weather, kinda like 'laker chop' ala previous 'walleye chop', i've seen guys with anchors and buoys set up, so after asking Team Protz on here, i got the 'release' which allows you to use boat speed to pick up you're anchor when you need to move, now just need to get a buoy and lots of rope and will be able to sit in one spot, though in a moderate to light wind i think the drifting is very advantageous for finding more and more fish, hope this helps

[mikebossy]

love this forum, lots of info to trade and gain, thanks guys, love it

[Pinhead]

Originally Posted by mikebossy

as to Pinhead's post, i love fishing when the boat is drifting, though haven't tried the lighter jigs at the same time so maybe that would screw it up, but i get better hooksets when moving, and i end up covering way more water which usually leads to me finding more pods of fish, i don't have a million dollar sonar but the humminbird 565(i think) that i got with my boat has dual cone and the real time 'flasher' on the right that i've finally kind a figured out to use advantageously against the trout that i can see appear, i need to figure out how to get rid of the fish id and then i'd get better at it but it seems if i drop id i also lose the flasher, need more time with it, my hits also went up when i figured out how many feet per pass on my bait caster, times so many passes puts me right at or slightly above there level, might move up to a line counter to make that easier as i can clearly see the depth of the fish but often can't tell for sure where my jig is, as for the fish id it's really helpful when you don't see any fish for a bit, so you take a break and then all of a sudden the beep beep goes you look at the screen, a school of fish, drop to right depth, jig a bit, bang, you get hits, note also i've been doing most jigging without bait, will be going back to minnows and squid in the summer, think that hurt success too,
back to the drifting part, i don't have a kicker nor a bow mount yet on my 19 foot Starcraft, but i love deploying a min kota drift sock, works like a charm, ya sometimes i'm moving too fast even with the sock out, but at those times it seems the fish come way higher in the water column anyway, or at least are looking up and closer to the surface based on the hits in that kinda weather, kinda like 'laker chop' ala previous 'walleye chop', i've seen guys with anchors and buoys set up, so after asking Team Protz on here, i got the 'release' which allows you to use boat speed to pick up you're anchor when you need to move, now just need to get a buoy and lots of rope and will be able to sit in one spot, though in a moderate to light wind i think the drifting is very advantageous for finding more and more fish, hope this helps

I like drifting as well, but you will never stay on the bottom using jigs less than 1-1/2oz. That's the problem, the good part is the fish don't seem to mind the big jigs. One day last summer we were fishing in 3ft waves and downriggng was very hard because I had to set them up and drive the boat. So we jiggled, but in those waves, with a sock out, we used 2oz tubes with another 2 oz snap weight a couple of feet up the line. We caught fish.

As to your sonar, go into the menu settings and you should be able to turn the fish I'd off, this should not effect your flasher mode. I think you would be better served in the summer to not use the flasher mode. The nice thing about lcd sonar is it gives you a history, it's not a quick flash and gone. When I'm drifting and I see fish up in the water, I stay on the bottom unless I see fish, I immediately reel up to that depth and jig aggressively. These fish higher up in the water are feeding and almost always are aggressive.

Hope that helps,

Dan

[trouty]

Poke a hole in the front of your tube and buy crawfish juice, Berkeley or they have it at wss, and fill up the front of the tube. Leave a little space, squirt some in the back of the tube too. It is bright orange and glows and stinks like hell. The harnesses they make at FH Calgary north are awesome with glow tube..

[-JR-]

Yesterday I decided not to go to cold lake because of the crowds and all by buds had other plans. ....Today I decided the lake is big enought and I am not going to sit around the house on this nice weekend , but go and catch some lakers !
If any one has room on their trailer for my quad give me shout .Other wise I am just going to load my truck with quad and head early Sunday morning.

NE Edmonton

[-JR-]

For those that are on the lake today ,how is the fishing ?
A lot of fishermen being the long weekend ?

[Badry33]

Fishing was slow, picked up around 4:00PM. Caught 3 Lakers after four. The lake wasn't as busy as I thought it would be.

[laker]

If you hadn't noticed Cold Lake is huge. You can catch fish in places that you won't see another vehicle or sled or even a raven at. Don't be scared to get out and explore. The best places are where no one goes. especially this year with the crappy ice conditions all the close places are getting fished out. The ice is getting thicker......finally.

[-JR-]

Good to hear its getting thick. Will be at french bay 8:00 am.
Were they bitting more deeper at 110 or 70 ft

[-JR-]

Made it out to cold lake sunday and monday . Ice just on the inside of French bay was just under 10 inches and and 50 ft over was a full size truck on 12 inches and 50 more out into main lake was 18 inches . Driving around the main lake on 8 inches of snow then every once in away you hit around 4 inches of water that was between thew snow and the ice . Do not know how thick the ice was there !
Fishing was slower than normal .


Found on lake .
Just off the Prov. boat launch I found a Auger blade cover ,hung it on the sign That is pounded in the ice hopefully it was found.
Also found a knife with it . If the owner can pm me and describe it ,I will have it for pick up.

[BRvalley]

we ended up doing pretty decent, stayed at the dockside and fished straight out from the marina on day one, 15" of good ice, only 4 fish landed on day one and all between 9am-12, lost a real gooder.....countless lookers and chasers on the Marcum...couldn't believe the massive schools of smelt, I've seen big bait balls but not quite like that, the fast bites definitely coincided with the movement of baitfish

9 fish on our second day, we drove the truck around the shoreline and walked the last 800m to get to my hot spot I gps'ed a few years back

my trusty white tubes got skunked this year, plain old jig head tipped with a smelt was what we mostly used...a lot of lookers and we switched up a lot, chartreuse was our hot colour, it got hit at least 4:1 compared to anything else we used....most fish were within 10' of bottom, with a few suspended fish...I usually find the quality fish are suspended but those were few and far between on the Marcum

big fish of the trip



tons of smelt








cheers, good luck out there, almost want to drive back this weekend

[-JR-]

Congrats ,nice healthy looking laker thanks for posting pic.
Noticed the colours on your sonar .Never tried those colours .
Do you always have it set like that ?

[Mackinaw]

Originally Posted by -JR-

Made it out to cold lake sunday and monday . Ice just on the inside of French bay was just under 10 inches and and 50 ft over was a full size truck on 12 inches and 50 more out into main lake was 18 inches . Driving around the main lake on 8 inches of snow then every once in away you hit around 4 inches of water that was between thew snow and the ice . Do not know how thick the ice was there !
Fishing was slower than normal .


Found on lake .
Just off the Prov. boat launch I found a Auger blade cover ,hung it on the sign That is pounded in the ice hopefully it was found.
Also found a knife with it . If the owner can pm me and describe it ,I will have it for pick up.

Went out Tue-Wed took trailer out found ice from 12- 17 inches snow and flood water was a pain. Fishing was slow. Seamed to be morning bite only.lots of bait fish filling the flasher.

Mack

[BRvalley]

Originally Posted by -JR-

Congrats ,nice healthy looking laker thanks for posting pic.
Noticed the colours on your sonar .Never tried those colours .
Do you always have it set like that ?

I like those colours, I play around with it now and then but always go back to those settings

[mikebossy]

hey BR, how big were those smelts you saw and photographed in your hole?

thanx

[mikebossy]

"I like drifting as well, but you will never stay on the bottom using jigs less than 1-1/2oz. That's the problem, the good part is the fish don't seem to mind the big jigs. One day last summer we were fishing in 3ft waves and downriggng was very hard because I had to set them up and drive the boat. So we jiggled, but in those waves, with a sock out, we used 2oz tubes with another 2 oz snap weight a couple of feet up the line. We caught fish."


actually have had best luck jigging in water 30-60 feet deep, look for the fish on the finder in those depths while driving boat, when i see a few stop, drift sock out, start jigging, and when its crazy rough the fish seem to bite better, harder, i.e. more solid hooksets, and when you think you have no idea where in the water column your jig is you get hits, like to be jigging in the middle of the water column more than the bottom,my observations

as for my fish finder it has dual cone, wide and narrow, if i shutoff fish id i lose the wide cone, gonna have to do some studies on water to decide which is more effective, both cones with id and dumb fish symbols or lose id and lose the wide cone, will be fun trying to figure it out, and yes i'd rather see arches as sometimes with fish id it seems like there are 100 fish down there, might be, but makes you wonder, arches would be easier to disseminate,

[steveo955]

Headed up in the morning, any reports from the last day or so?