Lakers! Lakers! and More Lakers! B-Side Bash Report!

[hanson]

I apologize in advance for what might very well be the longest fishing report ever in Fishing Minnesota history...

But da_chise31, Dtro, and myself (hanson) really want to share our story from the Burntside Bash.

Hope you all enjoy!

(I posted this in the BWCA-Duluth Forum as well but figured it belongs in the Ice Fishing Forum too.)

[hanson]

Friday, January 25, 2008

Burntside Lake near Ely, MN was the destination. The Deb Radosevich Burntside Bash was the reason. This was the 6th Annual B-Side Bash and the second that I have attended. My first ever Lake Trout fishing experience was on Burntside in 2005 for the B-Side Bash. I had a good time but it was a miserable experience. The lake had over 18” of snow cover on top of 12” of ice. This meant one thing, flooding and slush. I managed to catch one small Lake Trout, my first ever. I vowed to come back but didn’t realize it would take three years.

It was Friday morning and our trip was starting! My alarm clock was ringing at 1:30 am. Darren “Dtro” Troseth would be showing up at 2am to load his stuff into my truck. We had one more stop to pick up Scott “da_chise31” Mackenthun and we would be on our way. It was now 3:30am and up I-35 we go with a large coffee in the cup holder. The plan was to hit Burntside at 8am and head out fishing. We were right on schedule with a 4 ½ hour drive through the early morning hours in front of us.

While the excitement level was as high as it could be for a 4 ½ hour drive through the early morning hours, there was definitely some cautious optimism in the truck as well. After all, Lakers aren’t the easiest fish in the world to target. Icing one or two fish in a day is a good day. Having a couple Lakers chase your bait is a decent day as well. We definitely knew full well that we could get totally skunked on day one and that would be alright as well.

Before arriving at the lake, we made a quick stop at Vermilion Bait & Tackle in Tower, MN to pick up some bait. A simple bait stop turned into the highlight of my trip as I spotted a discontinued Rapala Husky [PoorWordUsage] HJ12 in the elusive Rainbow Trout pattern on the lure rack! If this wasn’t a good sign, I don’t know what would be.

We arrived at Burntside’s Van Vac access sharply at 8am. The smell of 2 stroke exhaust was already in the air as a small contingent of fellow FMers were already warming up their sleds and gearing up. We chatted briefly with “Stfcatfish” and he got us pointed in the right direction. Lakers here we come!

With -10 air temps and running augers, we cut the ice to swiss cheese on the side of a rock reef. We dialed in the depth with a bunch of hole hopping and then Darren proceeded to hook into a monster lake trout on his very first drop of the trip. I didn’t even have a line in the water yet when he yelled Fish On! Darren and I were both running Jason Mitchell’s 36” Mackinaw Lake Trout rod w/ Abu Garcia baitcasters. When I looked over and saw the bend in that rod, I knew he had a big one on. As quickly as that fish hit, she was gone. The lure popped out and left Darren heartbroken.

We continued to work this area for awhile when I finally was able to connect with a Laker. Not a big one by any means but it was good to get one through the hole.

First Laker of the Trip!

That fish was not going to be the start of something however, as things went from good to bad fast. After fishing for another hour without even seeing a Laker on the electronics, we put our minds together to make a move. A quick look at the map showed 2-3 areas very near us that looked promising. Darren & Scott both liked an area to the east, while I liked an area to the west. It was 50:50 which way we were going and I guess my argument was a bit better. This decision proved to be the best decision of the weekend.

Scott Got Us Back In The Game Almost Immediately At Spot #2

Quickly followed by Darren with a nice action shot

And Scott making the grab at the hole!

Here’s Darren’s Beautiful Fish!

The bite continued in this spot with Darren and Scott each catching one more a piece while I was left entirely out of the action. Guess I shouldn’t say that… I was busy snapping photos, removing hooks, and landing fish. Someone has to do it! This bite window was awesome lasting from 2pm-3pm.

Here’s a photo of Scott with our biggest fish of the trip!

Friday was a phenomenal day of fishing! The weather was beautiful! The company was awesome! And the after fishing socializing with the other FM guys at Bash Headquarters was top notch as well. In case those Lakers gave you short term memory loss, our day started at 1:30am and we were wrapping it up about 11pm at the Crazy Wabbit in Ely. The day was long, the sleep would be appreciated, and we were absolutely pumped for tomorrow!

[hanson]

Saturday, January 26, 2008

The alarm clock ringing at 6:30am came a little too soon but it was the day of the Burntside Bash. Coffee and Breakfast sandwiches from Holiday fueled the furnace and off we went.

The game plan for Day 2 was to hit our spot from yesterday and fish it hard. We pulled 4 Lakers out of there during a short afternoon window and had high hopes of a morning bite.

Almost as soon as we finished augering holes, Darren is yelling Fish On! I know we were all smiling hoping this would be an indicator for the rest of the day. Things were looking good.

But the mad feeding frenzy would not continue. The clouds moved in. The temperature dropped. The wind picked up. I ground it out as long as I could outside and then set my Otter Lodge up and fired up the Mr Heater. Figured as long as the fish weren’t cooperating, I might as well be comfortable. Scott got the same idea after awhile as he popped into my shack and asked if there was room for two. Duh! He went back to grab his Marcum and his rod when I here him yell ‘Fish On!’. He was just in my house… how could he have a fish on? He said when he went to grab his rod, there was a big red mark on his Marcum eyeing his bait up. Soon as he jiggled it… Wham! Fish On! This Laker turned out to be the biggest of them all for the weekend.

Scott with the trip’s biggest Laker!

Darren picked up one more fish later in the day and then it was time to head back to Bash Headquarters. Shoot… I have to show the photo as it’s a beauty!

Darren with another beauty!

After that fish, it was time to head back to Bash Headquarters for the silent auction, prize giveaway, and hot food. We really ground it out on Saturday- hole hopping, rip jigging, hole augering, more hole hopping. The result for me was a skunking. I had one fish thump my bait all day but didn’t connect. I think I saw three Lakers on the Marcum all day. It was a grind.

[hanson]

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Day 3 of the trip seamed like a scene out of the movie ‘Groundhog Day’. Alarm clock rang at 6:30am, got dressed, packed up, picked Scott up, stopped at Holiday, ate the same breakfast sandwich, parked on the lake in the same spot, unloaded the sleds, and headed to our fishing spot one last time.

If this was like ‘Groundhog Day’, I was in for a long day fishing!

At the launch was the moderator of our Women’s Forum, “LisaTealz” and her husband “Jimalm”. We decided to share some of our good fortune with them and invited them to our spot.

Sunday was looking great! Air temps were supposed to reach 30+ degrees, the wind was gone, the sun was out, and we were going to help put some folks on fish! What a great day!

Just like Saturday, Darren goes and connects with the first Laker of the day like we were performing a script. 3 days in a row, Darren connects with the first fish! The guy has got some kind of luck!

But just when you think Darren is going to run away with the show again, I see Lisa’s husband Jim in the distance miss a fish. He’s cussing and babbling about fish all over his Marcum screen. Being the opportunist that I am, I moved to a hole I previously augered halfway between Jim & Darren.

The next 15 minutes was an absolute exercise in frustration as I had Laker after Laker after Laker on my Marcum screen that I couldn’t get to bite. I must have played with 8 fish and couldn’t get them to go until I finally figured out a slight shaking of my spoon about 6’ off the bottom was the ticket! Bam! Fish On! This one was a native with no fin clips.

Took 2 days but I finally got another one!

I rebaited and no sooner than I got my lure to the bottom, I had another fish race up and smack it! Fish On guys! As this fish got under the hole, I could not believe the coloration on it! It almost looked like a pike with the dark background and big light spots on it. This one was also a native with no fin clips but the coloration was absolutely spectacular!

Hanson with a Beauty!!

These 2 fish were the start of something that I will never again in my life experience! My very next drop… Wham! Fish On! This Laker hit so hard and without warning that I didn’t get a good hookset into him. He got just under the ice and that is when I got the shake, it was gone! I put my Marcum transducer back in the hole and I could not believe it. There was a strong mark of a Laker near the bottom, and another one halfway up in the water column.

I had a backup rod rigged next to me baited up and ready to go. Small problem was this backup rod was a Thorne Bros 32” Perch Sweetheart with a Tica Cetus SS500. NOT Laker Gear!! The Angel Eye Jr I had tied on slowly started to flutter down through the water column when that Laker that was halfway up raced up and crushed that spoon. I wasn’t even ready for it and when I got my line tightened up, it was race on! I gained a little ground and then it went on a couple big runs. I didn’t realize I had got the fish up to the ice and then the hook popped out! Darren ran the video camera nearly the entire time on this fish and I said near the end we were going to lose it. Oh well… the morning was going pretty well so a couple lost fish was no big deal.

I re-baited my Jason Mitchell Mackinaw for my next drop and started to get serious again. Uh Oh! There’s a Laker on the Marcum again. I rip jigged hard then held it and shook the spoon in place. That sealed the deal and I got that one through the ice as well!

In the matter of 15 minutes or so, I landed 3 Lakers, lost 2, and missed the hookset on 2-3 more. The bite lasted from 8am to 10am and then just shut down. I honestly believe I will never see a day like that on the ice again Laker fishing. It was something phenomenal how much action I had in that very short time period.

In the midst of all this action, “Jimalm” fishing next to us managed to get one through the ice as well! I know he had maybe 2 more on that he lost and was cussing about missed hooksets and fish all over his Marcum flasher.

Here’s Jim with a Laker!

I really don’t know what else to say about the weekend. Its going to rank right up there with my best trips in the last few years. The weather was great, the friendship was great, the Laker fishing was spectacular!

[hanson]

Lessons to be Learned

A lot of fishing success depends on your own skills, a lot depends on luck, but its when these two combine forces that magical things happen.

- We moved and moved and moved and moved! Not big moves, just subtle moves around this particular structure. And we kept moving around the structure until we got it dialed in. Friday’s “hot bite” area was different from Sunday’s “hot bite” area, but only by 30 yards or so. If we wouldn’t have made these miniature moves, we would have never stumbled onto that.

- Lure selection was pretty darn critical as well. The Lakers wanted big spoons for the most part, with big Northland Buckshot Rattles being the definite choice. There was a point where all 3 of us were jigging Buckshots at the same time.

- Jigging action and sequence also was very, very critical! I do believe this in conjunction with the Buckshot spoon was what sealed the deal. Large rip jigging motions brought the Lakers in but they wouldn’t chase the lure up at all, and rarely hit the lure on these big jigging motions. But when you got their attention and slowed it down to shaking the lure in place, that caused them to strike. Sometimes a gentle shake while pulling your lure slowly up sealed the deal as well. This technique is no different than how I’d approach walleyes through the ice, and the Lakers ate it up on this particular day.

Here’s a parting shot!

I think all 3 of us would agree that the big Man was looking down on us. We’re not Lake Trout fishing experts by any means, and am not going to pretend to be either. We just applied some basic structure fishing concepts, fishing experience, and a little information about the targeted species to a new lake and had a whole lot of luck on our side as well. All I can say is you guys have to try Lake Trout fishing! I know I plan to do more of this in the future!

[Tyler Holm]

Awesome fish guys. Man that looks like fun!

[hanson]

Well... Lake Trout are my new favorite species of fish.

Trout and Catfish have Adipose fins that are very similar so they may not be as different as we may think. LOL!

[Borch]

What an awsome report! Sounds like you guys had a ball!

[PerchJerker]

Great report Hanson, really fun to read and I love the photos.

[thirtysomething]

Ahhhhh, Hanson, you're killing me!!!! I'm heading to The Gun Flint next week. I sure would like to see Lakers like those come through the hole.

Hanson, do you guys have any preference between bait casters or spinning reels? Lines? I've always used a bait caster with braided line, and a spinner with normal ice line but I'm looking for better options.

I think before the trip, I'll head up and see the good fella's at Thorne Brothers for another combo for my arsenal. I've picked up a couple Thorne rods this season, and am very very impressed.

Thanks for any tips!

[Powerstroke]

That was a fantastic recap of the weekend. I've only caught 2 lakers in my life in the two times I've fished them but I would still rank them in my top 3 for fun and fight. I had overheard people say they thought they had a hit....until you actually hook a laker you have no idea the power behind those fish.

[hanson]

 Originally Posted By: thirtysomething

Ahhhhh, Hanson, you're killing me!!!! I'm heading to The Gun Flint next week. I sure would like to see Lakers like those come through the hole.

Somehow I believe you will. Wish I had a trip up there this year as well now.

 Originally Posted By: thirtysomething

Hanson, do you guys have any preference between bait casters or spinning reels? Lines? I've always used a bait caster with braided line, and a spinner with normal ice line but I'm looking for better options.

As I'm sure you read, I am far from a Laker expert. However, I used both spinning and baitcasting gear for those 3 days and I really showed a preference for the baitcaster. Since a new appropriate sized baitcaster wasn't in my budget, I just used a Garcia 6500C3 from one of my cattin' rods. This reel was obviously overkill but it worked well. I had it spooled with 12lb P-Line Floroice which worked very nice. I hope to "upgrade" my Laker reels to Garcia 4500s next year as they are lighter, narrower, and a better fit for an ice rod.

Braids are quite simply a bad idea if you fish outside, especially on the Canadian border. They collect ice so fast that it isn't funny. If you fish out of a heated house for the majority of the time, a braid isn't a bad idea, but I would still got with a 4' floro or mono leader.

What I noticed with the baitcaster was the line didn't have nearly as bad a memory as it did on a spinning reel. The 12lb Floroice wanted to "jump" off my spinning reel spool and it was really hard to manage.

[bassNspear]

awesome report guys. Looks like you all had a great time together.

[thirtysomething]

Thanks Hanson,

I usually swap my baitcaster from my summer rod to the Gunflint rod for this trip too. I'll have to check out the mentioned reel. Thorne just turned me onto to P-line this season and I really like it. I'll have to spool some for the trip.

I'll let you know how we do when we get back in a couple weeks. I've been going to the trail for about six or seven years now, wow they go fast. I love it up there. Anywhere the cell phones don't work and you can't even get a TV signal is fine with me. Some people go on cruises to get away from it all, I go to the border!

Thanks again.

[FishinLogician]

This was a great, well told story but isn't this more a blog than a thread post? The technical data and photos are great and I always learn something from the Hanson reports but the story should be on your blog IMHO.

Just a thought as I was browsing through the forums.

[harvey lee]

Great report Chris.

thirtysomething- I was up at the Gunflint lake a few weeks ago and I hope you have the luck we had. We caught many nice fish and the ice is pretty good.

[DTro]

How about some video to go along with that great story.

[Kyle Sandberg]

great report hanson and gang. You guys sure figured out those lakers!

[Sandmannd]

Great report Chris. Looks like you guys had a great time.

[marine_man]

great report Chris!

marine_man

[sticknstring]

Nice post Hanson - sounds like an absolute blast up there! Gotta love laker fishin... one of the best fighting and eating fish out there.

[outdrzman78]

great post as always Hanson!! nice pics and an awesome video, what more could you ask for

[fishgutz77]

Nice video guys!

[I_Got_One]

I was up on burntside on both saturday and sunday we caught a couple of fish on saturday and then on sunday not so much we moved around on the lake but was unable to connect with a fish. Where I am going with this is that I am kinda of wondering what the change you made from the cloudy saturday fishing technique to the sunny sunday technique beside the way you jiggled your rod. I am planning on going up there agian so this information may be greatly usefull in putting together a plan. Since Saturday was the first time that I had ever been laker fishing. In one of thing that I did notice was the fish that we caught on saturday where in the smelt school in or around 40 fow. On sunday when we were moving around on the lake the one spot that we wanted to try had fisherman in it. The other thing that I noticed that we did mark a bunch in our hoping around but in was on a some what of a steep break on in or around 50 fow. So I quess my real question is when you guys were contacting fish on sunday was it in the same type of are or what kind of water did you move to. We did regret going back to where we caught the fish on saturday but for us the action was in a small window of about 1 hour and the other reason we went back is our auger ran out of gas oops.

Thanks and sorry I was kind of everywhere with this post mind is going nuts trying to put a plan together for next time.

[Catfishunter]

 Originally Posted By: hanson

Trout and Catfish have Adipose fins that are very similar so they may not be as different as we may think. LOL!

Thats what i have been saying. Glad you guys had a great time and got all that cool footage.