My friend John and I decided to head out and try our luck on trout opener. We planned on meeting at the lake early on Saturday. I arrived at the lake about 6 am and was the first guy at the lake. It was a beautiful morning with the temperature hovering at about 4 degrees. It was cold but with my excitement and proper attire I was nice and toasty.
The sky was still clear and the moon shined bright. I had no need for the lantern as I started to drill a dozen or so holes. I finished drilling and cleaning out the holes and then sat down in the house for a break. As soon as I sat down I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. It was three deer and came out of the woods and crossed the lake not far from me. I thought it was pretty cool and hoped it was a sign of good things to come that day.
My friend was running late so I decided to put a line down and check things out. I started with a Lindy Rattlin Flyer in perch color. For bait I used two waxies on each hook. I wasn’t jigging to long when WHAM. I set the hook and the fight began. These fish are all muscle and sure know how to fight. It took a few trips to the hole before I got a good hold on the fish and popped her out of the hole.
I was walking out of the house with the fish when my friend arrived. He was pleasantly surprised and was eager to get fishing. We decided he should try a different lure in case my fish was a fluke. He put on a Slender Spoon in silver with the green sticker. He tipped his lure with red euro. It wasn’t long when I looked over to see John setting the hook. He fought the fish to the hole and after a few attempts we slide a nice 4.5 pound Rainbow on the ice. We exchanged high fives and got our lines right back down.
We had some really good action from 8 – 12 and we iced 5 Rainbows. It then slowed quite a bit. We iced a few northern pike but the Rainbows disappeared after 12 noon. We stuck it out and I am glad we did. The action picked up again about 3:30 and we iced 4 more Rainbows and 3 more pike. We also lost about a dozen fish coming to the hole or in the hole during their thrash fest. We decided to pull the pin at dark. We ended up bringing 5 Rainbows home for the smoker.
I filleted the fish Saturday night and got them soaking in a brine. This morning I pulled out the smoker and fired it up. It was a good day to kick back and watch a little football, enjoy a few adult beverages, and watch the smoker. They finished up a couple hours ago and they turned out awesome. I was pretty impressed as I am a novice at smoking fish.
I can’t believe how these fish fight! The fish we caught ranged from just over two pounds to 4.5 pounds. They were some of the hardest fighting fish pound for pound. I have a whole new respect for the guys over in Milwaukee. I could not imagine bringing a 20 lb’er or more through the ice hole. After this weekend you can bet that Milwaukee is on my bucket list.
All in all it was a very fun day with a good friend and cooperating fish. 
