Fishing trip report: February 11, 2012

After a delayed start to the season due to an unseasonably warm winter here in coastal, Downeast Maine, I’m finally getting in a few ice fishing trips and this morning managed to ice my first decent fish of the winter.

I was out on the ice by 6:30 a.m. and almost called it quits after a short two and a half hours on account of the rain and snow mix that was falling on me the whole time. I’m the sort of fisherman who will endure all kinds of nasty weather, but only if I’m actually catching something. 

I was fishing with three lines total. Two were the Ice Rigger and Arctic Warrior rod tenders I wrote about in my last post and the third was a short, heavy action, jigging rod rigged with a bucktail jig. The static lines were baited with whole dead suckers. 

I drilled six holes along a straight, 200-yard line over water that ranged from six to approximately 40 feet in depth. I set the rod tender rigs at opposite ends of the line of holes and then moved along in between them, jigging over a range of depths.

I hadn’t had a single bite in three hours and I was considering calling it a day and getting warm when something of reasonable size slammed my jig. After a short but vigorous fight, I iced a 21-inch, two pound, lake trout. It certainly wasn’t a trophy sized fish, but I like catching lake trout in this size range as they are big enough to fillet, but not so large they are too strong to be good table fare. Lakers like this one are delectable when kippered.

The fish was caught just off the bottom in approximately 40 feet of water on a blue, ¾ ounce, bucktail jig tipped with a small piece of sucker meat. I didn’t give the jig too much motion, just a slight bouncing action interspersed with occasional pauses.

Shortly after my initial catch, I also hooked and iced a much smaller lake trout that was promptly returned to the water. After that I didn’t have a single bite and ended the trip an hour later.

While I was happy to catch what I did, it was unfortunate that I did not get a hit on the Ice Rigger tip-up so I could see how it performed. On an earlier trip, I did learn that both the Ice rigger and the Arctic Warrior are sufficiently wind-resistant, which is a definite plus. I also found that a few drops of Smelt-Rite oil applied to spools, guides, and the surface of the water itself went a long way to keep rods and reels from freezing up.