Motto for March: Be prepared for anything

Enlarge Image

Don Lamont with a lake trout.

A couple of weekends ago, I was out fishing on Shoal Lake near the Manitoba/Ontario boundary when a serious snowstorm hit. Friends and I had driven out on one of the few ice roads that have been plowed on the lake this year.

We were hunkered down in our portables when I decided to venture outside at about 1:30 p.m. Visibility was down to about thirty metres and a whole bunch of fresh snow had drifted on to the road already. Not wanting to get trapped on this narrow ice road that a commercial fisherman had made, we quickly packed up and headed back to the landing.

We were out after whitefish, but heavy snowfall on the lake had restricted ice roads to a fairly small section of the lake. We ended up fishing a spot that had no visible structure even though the depth was right at twenty metres. While the bottom was covered with good-sized perch, there was not really anything to hold the whitefish. We managed only two fish that were travelling through the area.

Last year in March, we had one of our best days ever for whitefish off a main lake point that stair-stepped down in the main lake basin. During the day we caught the fish in about 25 metres of water, but as the sun started to sink the fish moved up to 12 metres and were extremely active. For the last hour before we left, we had non-stop action. We caught all the fish on a quarter-ounce Northland Buckshot Rattle spoon.

The previous day had been spent fishing for lake trout, but deep snow and tons of slush had really restricted travel. Still, we managed to spend twelve hours on the ice, catching a couple of nice lake trout. On our first spot, we did not get a bite or even mark what we thought to be a lake trout, so we quickly packed up.

Moving down the lake, we finally decided to try a deep flat off the corner of a sunken island in about 25 metres of water. On my first drop on this new spot my quarter-ounce jig rigged with a Berkley two-inch finesse minnow was gulped down by a big fish not even five metres below the hole.

After a back and forth battle I finally managed to the get the head of the fish up the hole. Friend Kevin Siemen helped land it and we quickly released the fish. For a couple years now, Siemen has been using big baits to attract lakers, in combination with a more natural presentation like a white tube jig to get the fish to bite

Having fished for lake trout over the last thirty years on many of the lakes in northwestern Ontario, and northern Manitoba, I have four different boxes of lures to match the mood of the fish on any particular day. They include big aggressive presentations like airplane jigs, buzz bombs and big jigging spoons.

For neutral fish, I like smaller jigging spoons and blade baits like a Live Target or Swedish Pimple. I have also caught quite a few lakers on a Rattlin Snakie Jigging spoon. For inactive fish, those hugging the bottom, a small jig with a dropshot Powerbait can be deadly. On this last trip a two-inch gold flecked model got the job done. One of my all time favourite baits is the Walleye Flyer jig from Lindy, either in chartreuse or orange tipped with a small power grub.

dlamont@mymts.net

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 2, 2013 C8