Lake Superior Lakers

[Jim Hudson]

Just a quick update for you all if you are looking to come over this way for some deep water laker action. Fishing has been slow, very slow I should say, but hopefully as the weather starts to stabalize it will start to pick up again. Today, I went out with two other die-hards and we managed one fish on the ice where we fished from 8AM until 2PM. A lot of fish poking around but I only had one other fish take a swipe along with the one I iced. This fish was caught on a firetiger crippled herring along with a glow twister tail and a small piece of cut-bait in 130FOW. Ice conditions are the best in and around the ice road and along the Madeline Island side. Lots of snow out there, where the Bayfield/RedCliff side of things are really slushy underneath the snow pack. Havent heard of anyone poking there way out into the islands yet, we need another good freeze.

If ya do go out, be safe and be sure to check areas you are unsure about before going over them. And of course GOOD LUCK!!!

[Pete Riola]

Hey Jim, Thinking about adding a laker run to our smallie trip this weekend. Any pointers for me? Is is it worth fishing lakers in Cheq in the deep water or does a guy need to be more main lake? I hear the fish can be deep, few and far between and large do you go with P-line or do you go superline? Much appreciated!

[Jim Hudson]

Pete,

Well first off, fishing everywhere has been off. Fronts moving in and out and no stable weather has these fish really turned off. Include that with a full moon period, which really messes with the lake currents. But if you do venture for lakers, head north. Houghton Point or off Bayfield.

At Houghton Point, there is the red can bouy, which marks the west side of the shipping channel (the same channel that runs into Ashland). Go to the other side of this channel, the 40 to 60FOW area just before it breaks up into 20 some FOW. Here you should hook up with some smaller lakers that cruise this area along with whitefish, browns, salmon, etc etc. Here I would say you could get away by using your regular P-Line, mono, fluro, or smaller fused lines.

Off Bayfield, in all honesty there hasnt been a consistant bite yet. People are catching fish from 50FOW to 170FOW, along the marked ice road and out into the West and North Channels. I personally like to be anywhere from 110 to 170 when fishing these areas, I fish an area for 15 minutes, if no takers I move... if the weather cooperates for this type of hole hopping. You can find these depths along the ice road and off it a bit if you do not want to venture that far out. Use caution here, ice conditions are very variable under the deep snow. One local person went down the other day, luckily it was only one leg through about 1.5 inches of ice. This was along the west shore, along the Bayfield side going towards Roys Point. For gear here, I personally use custom Thorne Rods, 32" to 36" solid graphite baitcasters spooled with anywhere from 30lb to 80lb power pro and fluro leaders. One other rod I love to use is a 36" Genz baitcaster, with 20lb power pro, it has a softer tip so if I want to fish whitefish I can turn to this rod. And another word of advice, with the moon period, the current could be screaming. So be prepared to use BIG, I mean big lures. Up to 4 ounces or bigger to maintain bottom when your fishing deep. For baits, the old stand by white beetles tipped with cut herring is a go to for many, where I personally like using jigging spoons, like rattlesnakies or crippled herring. These I use a single hook, with a white tube and if the fish are finicky I put a small strip of herring on it also. If ya need supplies, stop at Outdoor Allure in Washburn, Craig will hook you up with the essentials.

Hopefully you are going to be running a snowmobile, if not you will be pressed to get to Houghton Point or off into the West/North Channels by Bayfield. You could run a wheeler on the ice road easily.

Good Luck and be safe, if your in the area give me a shout and if I am free I will tag along.

[Pete Riola]

Jim, Thanks for the info! Sounds like a battle. We do have sleds and hopefully that'll make it a bit easier. Probably give it a shot for half a day...fun to learn new stuff..hopefully catch 1 good one. Thanks again.

[Jim Hudson]

Alrighty... maybe I will see you out and about then if your over this way...

Also, for smallies Matt, Northlander, Cheffrey, Quickstrike, Bob, and I fished in and around the coal dock today where there were a few nice fish caught. Hopefully the warm up will get them snapping a bit better.

[Jim Hudson]

Just an update for everyone wanting to know about laker fishing up this way....

The ice is fine but the warm up has made huge amounts of slush ontop... snowmobile or no go is my word of advice... and from the forecast it looks like it may start raising havoc with the ice itself. So lets hope for a good cold snap here in the near future to freeze up the slush and save our bobbing ice.

Other then that, fishing has been great for me and a lot of others. Minus today, where I fished with Northlander and we only managed a few hits and one hooked fish that was lost (fishing off the now closed to vehicles ice road), I have been fishing off the south end of Basswood Island where a few friends and I have hooked into and iced quite a few lakers. Nothing HUGE, but good fighting/eating lakers with the bigger of the fish running around 25". I heard reports of some twenty pounders being caught/released so they are lurking and hopefully I will hook into one this year yet.

here are some pictures of fish caught the other day, more pictures to come as I get them developed or as I catch more and bigger fish!!

25 incher out of 150FOW

20 incher out of the same hole

[Jim Hudson]

For all those interested... We are on the last leg of our lake trout fishing in and around the islands... We are suppose to be getting another warm up and I think that if we do get these higher temps again the ice will vanish and or be unsafe with it... Some ice has blown out in and around the islands and the ice that is still left has taken beatings from our previous warm-ups.... So if anyone is planning on a laker trip, I would plan it soon, as ice conditions are going to get more trecherous as this month wears on... Fish reports are getting better... some bigger fish are being caught and more fish are being caught...I will be out the next few days.... so if people want, I will give them updated info as the days press on...

[outdoor ran]

Jim, I haven't made it over there this winter, but I enjoy reading your fishing reports. Just wanted to thank you for taking your time to fill the rest of us in on how the bay is doing.

[Jim Hudson]

Good day today even with the snowy weather we had... between a friend and I we iced 9 lakers... nothing huge, with the biggest running right around 5lbs... still fun getting into a few fish.... the fish were very finicky today for awhile, then turned on for about an hour then turned fussy again... hopefully tomorrow will turn out to be that much better... I still need a 40 incher...