We caught everything last Saturday, walleye, perch, pike and bass while fishing for Lake Trout. .. And then it happened!

Ok I will admit it! I have Lake Trout on my mind and I have it bad. Last weekend I headed out with Donovan Perease, President of the Walleye Anglers Association of Manitoba, to do a little Lake Trout fishing. Donny has never caught one through the ice and I was itching to catch another one so off we went. We met up at 5am, grabbed a coffee and actually had a nice relaxing and worry free drive. I have not had many of those this winter on the highways. Once at our first spot of the day I drilled a few holes, set up the shack and anxiously waited for nice a big mark on our flashers. All morning the Lakers shot in and out on our flashers, they chased our baits and one even chased Donovan’s right from the bottom all the way to 3 feet below the ice.

Every time we would mark a big suspended mark our heart rate would speed up only to have another fish look and run. Donny then noticed a nice target on his screen, raised up his bait and the fish was on. I could see the excitement in his eyes. Would this be his first Lake Trout through the ice? After a brief (a little too brief I thought) battle I could see the head and again disappointment settled in. Donny had just landed a nice Pike…not the target species but a thrill to catch. Back to Lake Trout. Now we have been fishing for 5 hours and it was getting frustrating to say the least, especially when you can see them on your flashers but can’t quite make them commit to biting. We changed baits every 15 minutes, fished deep, fished shallow and then it hit me. Why don’t we move? I know what you’re thinking…”You are a genius Steven! (Of course you are saying that sarcastically) For me it is very hard to move when I can see the fish and I know I am on a proven spot. My goal was of course was for Donovan to hook into a Lake Trout soooooo….off we went to spot number 2. The first fish on the new spot was a chunky little smallmouth…a bass! My all time favourite species. I was very excited as I had never caught one through the ice. After that Donny continued to catch walleye and even hooked into a few jumbo perch. As Donovan was reeling up one of his many perch I noticed a mark on my Humminbird chasing Donovan’s hooked perch. I quickly reeled my bait up to Donovan’s mark and THUMP! After a nice fight our first Lake Trout of the day was caught and released. Thank goodness we decided to move and we landed a nice Lake Trout but unfortunately the fish was on my line and not Donovan’s.

Although slightly disappointed that Donovan never ended up with his first Lake Trout, we were still very pleased with the day of fishing we had and hey…Who wouldn’t want 5 for the price of one!