While it’s still early in the ice fishing season, the south end of Last Mountain Lake, Saskatchewan has frozen over. The rest of the lake is just bit behind. Really cold temperatures are making ice fast.
Jered Reiss is a hardcore angler from Regina, who spends a lot of his time chasing down the walleye on this great body of water, located just north of the city. In the story below he shares his secrets to early ice season success on this lake.
Watching a determined walleye come in on my flasher and coaxing it to bite is the most thrilling part of my winter! On Last Mountain Lake, there is no better time to land a trophy fish than early ice season, first ice through to January. This stretch of hot fishing can last longer with mild stable weather. With the short days this time of year the bite can last all day long, often resulting in the biggest fish of the day coming at around noon. Walleye are taking advantage of the young of the year baitfish from the season’s hatch, which means they can be found chasing minnows in any depth. More often than not there can be a good shallow water bite going in unison with a deep water bite.
EARLY SEASON ICE IS BIG FISH TIME ON THE MOUNTAIN
Early ice season is a unique opportunity to make the fish come to you rather than to drop a hook directly over top of them. Take advantage of this and start off fishing aggressive, but be ready to present a more subtle approach if necessary. Bold baits like the Sebile Flat Shad; Live Target Golden Shiner and Johnson Thin Fish are great lures for calling fish in from afar. They are at their best worked on a longer rod with a strong backbone. This longer rod produces the proper lure vibration when worked aggressively.
If the showy approach is bringing fish in but not getting the bite, my next option is a jigging spoon like the PK Flutter Fish, Northland Buckshot or Custom Jigs and Spins Slender Spoon. Usually I prefer no bait on my jigging spoons but there are times a piece of meat helps seal the deal. Another good lure for the more subtle approach is a Lindy Slick Jig tipped with a salted minnow. Remember to have more than one rod prerigged with different options, so you can present precisely the right offerings at exactly the right time.
Last Mountain Lake is a trophy mecca that produces beautiful gold green giants every ice season. Most anglers who put their time in on the “mountain” are rewarded with trophy fish. Just remember such trophy fish can be more than 20 years old and deserve to be handled with care and released to grow even bigger.
Lures pictured above are the following: Sebile Vibrato, Sebile Flat Shad, Johnson Thinfisher. Second row: Northland Buckshot, Custom Jigs And Spins Slender Spoon, PK Flutterfish. Third row: Northland Whistler jig, Lindy Slick Jig.