Ice Paradise!

The 2012 ice fishing season is off to an amazing start here in northwestern Ontario.  Unlike our friends in more southerly areas, there is lots of ice and snow to play on up here.  We’ve had some great days on the lakes with some really big fish caught already. 

Walleye and Lake Trout get most of my attention during the winter but we get other great species like pike, whitefish, bass, specks and other trout as well. 

One of the coolest fish I’ve seen hit the ice so far this winter is this Rainbow Trout that my buddy Greg caught.  

The MNR stocked these fish a few years ago and needless to say, they’ve grown to an impressive size!

We’ve been getting good numbers and sizes of walleye from Lac Seul and Minnitaki Lake.  The morning and evening primetimes have had noticeably better action than mid-day.  We’re getting fish in classic wintertime spots like prominent points, humps and bottleneck areas in and around the main lake basins.  Depths of 25-to-30 feet have been best.  Hot baits are Lindy Darters, jigs/minnows, Jigging Rapalas and Rattlin’ Flyer Spoons.  

Lake trout are one of my favourite fish and there’s no better time than during ice fishing season to catch big lakers.  I have the same philosophy with lakers as I do with muskie – I’d rather catch fewer big fish than a bunch of small ones.  Luckily a couple of my buddies feel the same way, so we set off on a hunt for big lakers last week.  We landed multiple fish over 30-inches, including 4 over 35-inches.  I'll let a few of the pictures do the rest of the talking!

This is my good buddy Mike with one of the biggest lakers I’ve ever seen hit the ice.  A beautiful 38-incher. 

Here’s Mike releasing another big lake trout.  Congrats buddy! 

Another nice lake trout for Greg. 

Turns out Mike was on a big fish hunt… check out this FAT 41-inch pike!!

Rounding off the great multi species action from the past couple weeks are small mouth bass, splake and whitefish.  

Big hump-back whitie that slurped down a Lindy Slick Jig.

In other news, be sure to check out the new Ontario OUT OF DOORS.  I’ve got an article in there about a fly-in trip I went on back in September to Richter Lake, north of Nakina, Ontario. 

Check out this video I made from the trip too.    

Keep up-to-date with all my ice fishing reports by visiting the Lindy National Audio Fishing Reports page.  Click on the National Audio Fishing Reports logo on the top of the Lindy page, then click on Ontario on the map, and then click my name/picture.  An up-to-date audio report that I recorded will play, giving you the details on what's happening on the ice.  

Be sure to check back soon for more ice fishing action here in NW Ontario.  

Cheers and good fishing!

Ben