Amped for MN Trout Opener

I know this is a little premature but I’m really getting excited about the Trout opener in Mid January! I’ll be heading to one of my honey holes up north for Inland Lake Trout.. Last year I took a couple buddies of mine that had never been and they actually took off work again this year because it was such a blast.
In three days we got 31 fish through the hole our largest being 36″ and a pile in the mid to upper 20’s. I dead stick with live bait on an Arctic Warrior and hop around with my 38″ MH Jigging rod and a larger live bait between 3-4″ long. For you guys that have never fished for lakers, it is a completely different experience then anything you’ll ever do through the ice. These fish are extremely juiced up and love radically chasing baits. I normally start out my day with a larger lipless crank bait and if needed I start to downsize my setup gradually.
Personally I don’t keep the larger fish, it takes the giants many many years to get that size of 30+, so normally fish right around the 20-22″ mark I will keep for the smoker, but again thats just my personal preference. But it also allows us to keep fishing since the MN inland limit is “2” Lake Trout and we never have a problem catching 20’s.
I’ve talked to a couple of the Northern MN Fisheries Biologist the past couple years over the phone and in person trying to pinpoint larger inland fish with minimal to zero pressure “Besides Boundary Waters”. The few inland lakes I’ve found on my own through the MN DNR Lake Survey website have really produced for me and the biologist are always helpful with giving current survey info. All in all if you are interested in something a little bit different this year, try your luck at giant inland lakers, it’s an experience you won’t soon forget!!

If anyone else will be up north chasing lakers this year let me know, it’s always fun fishing with other Laker Fanatics!

Same here, I’m sure we won’t be too far from one another since you’re in the Grand Rapids area… Good luck this season

have you ever hit Grindstone north of Pine City? Im new to this whole lake trout fishing and figured Id give it a go this year

My ice fishing goal this winter is to catch a lake trout, as I’ve never fished for them before. I hope to get up to northern MN somewhere to do that this winter. I believe I have all of the lures and rigs I need to do that.
Al

@Sam…I have looked into Grindstone, never fished it but from the numbers I saw on DNR survey wouldn’t shy me away from giving it a shot.. I would assume you’d do pretty good on 20-25″ fish on dead stick tip ups with on mid lake structure

@Al… It’s definitely worth the trip and time… Targeting Lakers is similar to looking for that one mature buck during the season! Once you put a laker through the ice and watch them chase your bait from 60ft all the way to the hole as fast as you can reel it, you’ll be hooked!!

what would you recommend as far as baits go, do lakers hit sucker minnows and shiners?

Sam wrote:

what would you recommend as far as baits go, do lakers hit sucker minnows and shiners?

They do in some lakes, if using live bait it really helps to know the forage base of the lake first. The most popular methods for jigging include jigging raps, silver spoons, tube jigs, hair jigs, airplane jigs, rattle-trap/rippin rap/chubby darter, and other similar baits. These are much more fun and often times much more successful than just using live/dead bait.

Ben has a great point, these fish only get more active during the winter months and love the cold water temps, its like a buck in rut and kind of makes them go crazy! I do us a Clam Arctic Warrior TipUp with live bait but the upper majority of my fish are caught using artificial jigging.. My two faves are 4″ Tube Jigs and Lipless Cranks! Again, don’t expect to go out and catch 10 fish over 25″ every time.. I target big fish so when I do get one, it’s usually a pretty good one and once in awhile you’ll get those that are exceptional, but overall if I catch 5 fish a day around the 30″ mark, it’s a pretty good day…

Thanks for the tips! Hopefully I can land a couple this winter

Well it look as if there will be some ice being made later this week into next week with some temperature drops up north.. This should help the deeper Laker lakes to be safe.. Last year was great with 24 in of ice on the Trout Opener… I would guess around 8-11 inches on the opener, so there should be enough for atv and sled traffic on these lakes but stay cautious and check the ice regularly!! I’ve noticed that a lot of these natural deep lakes are fed by underground streams and have found a few on some of the laker lakes I’ve fished on with the majority of the maintaining well over a foot of ice and all of a sudden I drill a hold 10 feet away and theres only 3 inches.. Just be safe!

With that said, who’s ready to put some giant trout on the ice??????

Im actually hoping that IDO does an “Inland Laker” Episode, I loved what they did two years ago on Superior out of Duluth and probably have watched it 50 times to this point, but would love to see and inland “Laker” version… There are only a few quality inland laker videos from the ice belt, just wish there were a few more that others and myself could reference off of..

Caught my first laker through the ice last season out from Duluth which has given me the lake trout fever bad! Now its not looking good for ice on the big pond this year! Noooooooo!

Do you notice a downturn in action as the winter goes on? I was in ELY for opener a few years ago by accident and we decided to give it a try. We did not do well but we talked to an old local resort owner, that was on the same lake that my buddies cabin was on, and he said the fishing is better the weekend after opener every year.
We are going back up to ELY the last weekend of January and our main target is the DNR stocked Rainbow trout lakes. If we do well we are going to hop to the lake that produces Lakers and give it a try again.

The laker bite typically starts out hot the first few weeks, the second weekend may be better for some because they spent the first weekend working out a pattern. Sometime between the end of January and into February the lakers really change up. This period can be slower for many and better for others, depending on how you fish and which lake you’re fishing. In most situations the lake trout run deeper around this time and require more convincing. I’ve had fish chase the bait from the bottom up to the ice and back down to the bottom 3-4 times in 70-90 feet of water before hitting the bait or swimming away. Size, color, and cadence tend to be the biggest players if you’re fishing in this “downswing”. I usually have one rod set up with a jigging rap, or lipless crank and the other with a silver/color 1/4-1 oz spoon sometimes tipped with a minnow head. If the fish chase the rap without commitment I will quickly replace it with the spoon rod and many times that is the ticket. Late February into early March the trout tend to pick back up and show more aggression, you will see more trout in shallow on many lakes around this time too.

Looks like it’s gonna be a cold one on the opener, but at least the ice should be in great shape for us with this cold snap this past week. Good luck to all going out after trout or any other species this weekend!

If I’m going to fish Lake trout and Walleye on the same rod on the same day, what pound test line should I put on? I would like to use my TUCR for both but if the pound test would not match I could break out my old Gander rod and use that for one or the other.
Also is 4LB test good for rainbows on my bullwhip?
Thanks

I’d minimally use 6lb mono for lake trout. But, depending on the lake and class sizes present, you could bump that up, or even down to 4. I typically use 4lb for walleye, but do use 6 or 8lb when targeting bigger fish. I’d think for most lakes, 6lb mono would be a good dual purpose line to target both on the same rod.

4lb should handle any rainbow you might encounter in MN.

I’ve had lake trout snap and bite through 8 lb test like it was nothing, I wouldn’t recommend anything under 10 for lakers. You may get by with smaller fish just fine, but when you’re tangled with a 30″+ freak that doesn’t want to come up the hole at the last second, the higher pound test rating is your best defense. I’ve had rainbows over and under 20″ that blew through 6# test like it was part of their daily ritual. You can catch big trout with smaller lb test, but finding out your line was too light usually happens with the fish you don’t want to lose. For lakers you want at least a 15# fluoro leader, they do have some pretty sharp teeth.