Giant Lake Trout!

  • Mitch Bradshaw
    Hugo, MN
    Posts: 297
    January 15, 2014 at 9:54 pm #1359642

    On January 11th Clint, Darv, and I headed West to target some Lake Trout. We spent most of the day marking fish in deep water, we tried all different types of lures, jigs, and spoons and we couldn’t get them to commit. After a few hours of this behavior there was a drastic change – all of these lookers turned into biters! We wound up putting together a solid day and caught over 30 in an hour or two. The highlight was definitely when Clint pulled up a 9lb Lake Trout – we decided that made the trip worthwhile. What happened next we never would have guessed – on that very next drop he hooked up a larger fish. After a 4-5 minute fight up came a 36″ 17.25lb Laker! I decided not to include any of the other catches in the video because the 16-20″ Lakers look like absolute miniatures after those two beasts!

    Check out the video: Giant Laker Video

    Doug Bonwell
    Cedar Falls IA
    Posts: 887
    January 15, 2014 at 11:06 pm #1380163

    Great video and fish! Congrats

    Moonboots
    Iron Range
    Posts: 47
    January 16, 2014 at 12:51 am #1380165

    Nice gotta love it when lakers go on the prowl! I gotta wait till Saturday here in northern minnesota to tangle with lakers. Love waiting around for those line spooling kings of lake. Not alot of people have the patience or experience to pull alot of bruisers threw the ice. The wait is well worth fighting 20 pound fish by hand for 1-2 hours. Thanks for the post that was Knarly!

    Dave Koonce
    Moderator
    Prairie du Chien Wi.
    Posts: 6946
    January 16, 2014 at 6:12 am #1380173

    Great Job on the lakers !!!

    That looked like a blast !!!

    weldon
    Rochester, Mn
    Posts: 304
    January 16, 2014 at 7:05 am #1380180

    Great looking fish, weather, and scenery. Had to be a nice trip!

    icenutz
    Aniwa, WI
    Posts: 2534
    January 16, 2014 at 7:56 am #1380189

    Great fish!! What reel was he using? When drilling outside the ice seemed much thicker than what it looked to be inside the shack, was that just the camera?

    Mitch Bradshaw
    Hugo, MN
    Posts: 297
    January 16, 2014 at 8:11 am #1380194

    Quote:

    Nice gotta love it when lakers go on the prowl! I gotta wait till Saturday here in northern minnesota to tangle with lakers. Love waiting around for those line spooling kings of lake. Not alot of people have the patience or experience to pull alot of bruisers threw the ice. The wait is well worth fighting 20 pound fish by hand for 1-2 hours. Thanks for the post that was Knarly!

    It does take some patience! We sat on the ice marking fish from 7:30-1:30 with only one bite. Then they turned on!

    Mitch Bradshaw
    Hugo, MN
    Posts: 297
    January 16, 2014 at 8:12 am #1380196

    Quote:

    Great fish!! What reel was he using? When drilling outside the ice seemed much thicker than what it looked to be inside the shack, was that just the camera?

    I’m not positive what baitcasting reel Clint was using there, his buddy built him that custom rod. It looks like an older/smaller Pflueger baitcasting reel but I’m not positive. Yea the ice was 15-inches (which is the most I’ve seen yet in CO), his heater chewed away at the snow layer on top and I think it made it look like less ice than there actually was.

    Ben Putnam
    Saint Paul, MN
    Posts: 1001
    January 16, 2014 at 8:39 am #1380202

    Great vid man and nice fish! Our trout season opens this Saturday and I can’t wait!

    Michelle1969
    Member
    NULL
    Posts: 54
    January 16, 2014 at 9:01 am #1380212

    Very nice, sweet video for sure and even better fish.

    mbenson
    Minocqua, Wisconsin
    Posts: 3842
    January 16, 2014 at 9:23 am #1380219

    Very nice video, exceptional releases and sure reminded me of my times north of Winter Park/Frasier/Granby fishing Granby, Shadow Mountain, Willow Creek Reservoirs and Grand Lake. We only had an axe to cut our holes in those days. We only targeted the rainbows and kokanee salmon, but it was sure fun!!! My big fish was a brown on Granby that ate a spoon after the ice left in April…

    Mark

    Jerry Hochhausen
    Madison, Wisconsin
    Posts: 275
    January 16, 2014 at 3:01 pm #1380353

    Thanks for sharing that video. I loved it. What a nice Lake trout.

    Matt Brookman
    Stillwater, Minnesota
    Posts: 183
    January 16, 2014 at 8:21 pm #1380418

    So was it just time of day that turned the fish on or did you make a move?

    Bryan Myers
    Moderator
    Posts: 586
    January 16, 2014 at 8:52 pm #1380425

    Great looking fish, and footage that really looks like an absolute blast! Great job, thanks for sharing!

    Mitch Bradshaw
    Hugo, MN
    Posts: 297
    January 17, 2014 at 11:35 am #1380565

    Quote:

    So was it just time of day that turned the fish on or did you make a move?

    The movement came earlier in the day. We started in 40fow. I marked a few “lookers” then it went dead. So I bumped out to 50fow, 60fow, and then I finally started marking “lookers” again in 75fow. The other guys said they hadn’t marked a fish in a while so they decided to come and try to entice the “lookers” in the deep water. We sat there for a few hours and no one got bit, but we were still marking fish regularly. I got impatient and curious so I relocated to the shallows (20-30fow). That’s when I received a phone call telling me that those “lookers” have now turned into “biters”. So I went back out deep and we popped fish left and right for an hour or two!

    Mitch Bradshaw
    Hugo, MN
    Posts: 297
    January 17, 2014 at 11:36 am #1380566

    So in conclusion, I think it was just the time that triggered the bite. The sun was starting to get lower in the horizon and for some reason the fish in the depths started feeding near the bottom.

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