Lakers: Run and Gun or Wait em Out??

[Fred_Bear]

How do you guys fish lakers? Do you keep hitting new spots throughout the day or go to a known spot and wait it out?

Personally I like to keep moving but have seen both methods be successful. I only make a couple trips up each winter so part of the reason I move around a lot is to learn the lakes faster.

I will say my best numbers day was when I was forced to fish the same spot all day due to a broken auger at spot number 2 of the day.

Anyone else ever have multiple fish out of 1 hole and not even mark anything in other holes on the same structure just a few feet away? Last year got 7 out of 1 hole in an afternoon and no one marked a fish around me. Funny story, I went to a virgin point this year by myself and drilled about 10 holes in 20-50 FOW. Didn't mark anything and I had 1 hole left to fish before moving and my dad comes up on his snowmobile so I pointed him to the hole I hadn't fished yet. Sure enough he puts 5 on the ice over then next couple hours and I try everything I can next to him and never marked a fish.

[tearin' lips]

Run and Gun!!! I probably am not the conventional laker fisherman. I like to stay mobile and hit the first few active fish and then move on. I also don't spend whole days chasing lakers either. We like to get a couple lakers and move onto catch crappie/walleyes on neighboring spots or lakes. So far the system works for us.

[superbee]

Both methods work, but run and gun usually puts more fish on the ice and is alot more fun, especially on a bad day. It keeps giving you a sense of hope. I know my best days have been run and gun.

[NoWiser]

Run and Gun all the way for me for a few reasons. It seems like it puts a few more fish on the ice for me at the end of the day, but thats definitely not the main reason I do it. When I'm in Canada I like to fish outside. Being cooped up in a fishtrap defeats the whole purpose of fishing up there for me, which is enjoying the solitude, and the scenery. Running and gunning allows me to stay warm enough to fish outside no matter what the weather is like. -20 or -30 is usually no problem. When you start to get cold......move and drill a few holes. Works every time. Not only that, but I like to explore. The thing that keeps me going is not knowing what is around that next point or island. I find myself passing up proven productive spots all the time just so I can check out new areas that I have no idea whether there is trout there or not. I guess you could kind of say I have ADHD when I'm up there. Often I'll only fish a spot for 5 or 10 minutes before the allure of the next point or rockface is too much for me to handle and I have to move on. Quite honestly, if I had to fish only one or two spots per day up there, I would go completely insane.

Speaking of which, I'm headed up there in under 5 hours! Woohoo!

[Steve Foss]

It really depends on the body of water.

[Fred_Bear]

It really depends on the body of water.

True statement. That pretty much summarizes ice fishing in general.

[Steve Foss]

Where I fish most of the time (Burntside Lake near Ely), staying put on a known productive location, or spending half a day on one proven spot and the other half on a different proven spot, produces more fish over time for me and mine than running and gunning. This is over the course of eight winters.

On that lake, which is jam packed with smelt, lakers can be notoriously picky, coming in hard and then stopping short and not hitting. Windows of laker activity open and close there, and when running and gunning, odds are good you'll be running during the open window instead of gunning. I run and gun if clients like that better, but that's the only time.

I do, however, punch quite a few holes at different depths around the structure of those proven locations so we can hop from hole to hole.

On another body of water with less picky fish and more consistently active fish, running and gunning from good location to good location all day may allow an angler to pick the most active fish or two off each spot before moving onto another spot, yielding more fish over the course of the day.