NADO
Unaccomplished Steelheader
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2010
- Messages
- 3,064
Well seeing as last year when I went out for lakers for the first time I didn't have enough line on my reels to get to the bottom of the lake i'm calling yesterday my actual first time out laker fishing. We got on the water and had our lines down the holes by about 10 am in just over 70' of water. I started off fishing a dead stick with a live shiner on a forage minnow jig and jigged in the hole with my fish finder using a 3/4oz jig tied like a marabou jig. After about 40 minutes I had my first mark on the finder that seemed interested. I teased it up from 70' all the way to 40' but it still wouldn't take. O.My.Buddy yells over for me to speed up my retrieve and then whammo! it smashed the jig at 30' of water and my rod doubles over....and then one second later it was off. Needless to say I was pretty choked at that point. Did I just miss my only chance of the day to ice a laker today? I wouldn't be able to rest easy after that until I had a laker on my line. 30 minutes later we decide to pack it up and move because we know deeper water is out there. As O.My.Buddy is reeling up his line to pack it in a pig laker smashes it, this one is actually hooked! After a good fight the fish gets close to the hole and the hook pop's out when it turns to go for a final big run...dang gummit again!
We punch and fish a few holes along the way, 73'...80' and then finally 83'. There was deeper water out there but we had walked over quite a few cracks in the ice where the ice had pushed together and I was starting to get a bit nervous as we were twice as far out as the other people. We were sitting on at least 5" of top quality black ice but i'm still new to the ice game so it makes me nervous. We get all set up and I drop the big 3/4 oz jig through my jigging hole, as the jig gets close to the bottom I notice quite a bit of interference on the flasher and start fiddling with the gain to clean up the screen. This ends up being a mistake as I get a good hit on the drop and was not able to set the hook in time, I look down at the screen to see a big mark slowly disappear off the screen. Had I been paying attention I would have been able to see the fish coming to take the jig on the drop and get a good hook set...dang gumit. We jig for a while and don't mark anything so I decide to give my hole a rest and switch to a 10 gram gold spoon tipped with a minnow.
After giving the hole a good rest I drop the new presentation down the hole. As I am getting to about 45-50' of water I see a huge streak come off the bottom right for my spoon, I feel a bump but the fish misses! I start reeling up quickly to provoke a chase and then at 40'....WHAM, the hardest hit of the day. So hard in fact that my newly gutted fly reel shatters at the reel seat and the reel falls off the rod! (yes that sweet new reel that I was so excited about in the fishing gear section) Now I am truly in the fight of my life I try holding the reel against the rod with my right hand while reeling with my left but this fish is just too powerful and it is fighting hard! Thank god Buddy was there, I set my reel on the ground and start hand bombing the fish on my 10lb mono (im pretty happy about my decision not to use a leader at this point). Buddy sets up my broken rod and reel away from the hole and sets the reel on the ground so that the line can freely come off, good thing too because the fish starts going on some big runs. After what seems like an eternity we get the fish on the ice. What a fight it was hand bombing the fish, I used to think it looked boring to hand bomb but after this fish I am converted. I felt every little pull and every big run, i'd put it right up there beside fighting fish on the pin. This fish tipped the scales at 6lbs 7oz and had the spoon not been deep down its throat I doubt I would have landed it.
Before
After
After fishing those holes for a little while longer we decide to go back to the holes at 70' where we each hooked a fish earlier in the day. Buddy ends up landing two nice lakers in 30 minutes between 3:30 and 4. The first was a tank at 8lbs 5oz and gave buddy quite the fight, luckily his reel didn't explode like mine. Gave a really good fight in the last 10' of water and just didn't want to stick its head through the hole.
I am pretty sure we were the first ones to ice some fish at this spot, my first true first ice fishing.
We punch and fish a few holes along the way, 73'...80' and then finally 83'. There was deeper water out there but we had walked over quite a few cracks in the ice where the ice had pushed together and I was starting to get a bit nervous as we were twice as far out as the other people. We were sitting on at least 5" of top quality black ice but i'm still new to the ice game so it makes me nervous. We get all set up and I drop the big 3/4 oz jig through my jigging hole, as the jig gets close to the bottom I notice quite a bit of interference on the flasher and start fiddling with the gain to clean up the screen. This ends up being a mistake as I get a good hit on the drop and was not able to set the hook in time, I look down at the screen to see a big mark slowly disappear off the screen. Had I been paying attention I would have been able to see the fish coming to take the jig on the drop and get a good hook set...dang gumit. We jig for a while and don't mark anything so I decide to give my hole a rest and switch to a 10 gram gold spoon tipped with a minnow.
After giving the hole a good rest I drop the new presentation down the hole. As I am getting to about 45-50' of water I see a huge streak come off the bottom right for my spoon, I feel a bump but the fish misses! I start reeling up quickly to provoke a chase and then at 40'....WHAM, the hardest hit of the day. So hard in fact that my newly gutted fly reel shatters at the reel seat and the reel falls off the rod! (yes that sweet new reel that I was so excited about in the fishing gear section) Now I am truly in the fight of my life I try holding the reel against the rod with my right hand while reeling with my left but this fish is just too powerful and it is fighting hard! Thank god Buddy was there, I set my reel on the ground and start hand bombing the fish on my 10lb mono (im pretty happy about my decision not to use a leader at this point). Buddy sets up my broken rod and reel away from the hole and sets the reel on the ground so that the line can freely come off, good thing too because the fish starts going on some big runs. After what seems like an eternity we get the fish on the ice. What a fight it was hand bombing the fish, I used to think it looked boring to hand bomb but after this fish I am converted. I felt every little pull and every big run, i'd put it right up there beside fighting fish on the pin. This fish tipped the scales at 6lbs 7oz and had the spoon not been deep down its throat I doubt I would have landed it.
Before
After
After fishing those holes for a little while longer we decide to go back to the holes at 70' where we each hooked a fish earlier in the day. Buddy ends up landing two nice lakers in 30 minutes between 3:30 and 4. The first was a tank at 8lbs 5oz and gave buddy quite the fight, luckily his reel didn't explode like mine. Gave a really good fight in the last 10' of water and just didn't want to stick its head through the hole.
I am pretty sure we were the first ones to ice some fish at this spot, my first true first ice fishing.
