After an extended period of cold weather recently, it’s fair to say that we are well into the winter season at this point. Heck, the days are even starting to get longer! Ice fishing is in full swing and conditions are pretty good across area lakes. The new lake trout season opened on January 1 and it’s prime time to get out there and chase these fun, aggressive fish. While lake trout do like some meat on the back of a hook, they can be caught throughout the ice season on artificial baits, probably better than any other species. Let’s take a look at getting rigged up to catch some lake trout on artificial baits.
For years, the January 1 lake trout opener has been a big date for ice anglers. Over the years I used to always have guide trips booked over that first week of January with American anglers looking to catch trout. Some years we had good conditions and nice weather. Other years, the ice wasn’t quite ready or the temperatures were -30, taking the fun out of being out there. There have been plenty of memorable trips and fish caught.
Most of my fishing has been done on Lake of the Woods, mostly because it offers the best shot at big fish, which was what we were always most interested in. I enjoy eating a lake trout here and there but for years we never kept one, mostly just hunting for big ones. The nice thing on Lake of the Woods is it’s usually easy to catch a few walleyes for dinner, sometimes mixed right in with the trout.
I have taken plenty of back lake trips where the numbers of fish are great and you still have a shot at a big fish. Some of these lakes are the most beautiful waterbodies we have across Northwest Ontario so they always offer an adventure. Most of the best fisheries require snowmobiles or ATVs to access them during winter. If I’m going to keep a trout to eat, I like to keep one from one of the back lakes where they are plentiful.
When it comes to rigging up on the ice for lake trout, I seldom stray from a handful of artificial baits. When I was a kid, we used to catch suckers with dipnets in the spring and freeze them. On our ice fishing trips, we would cut off a strip of belly meat and add it to our spoons or airplane jigs. I can remember you could sometimes use one piece of meat for multiple fish catches.
Many of the best trout fisheries across Sunset Country don’t permit the use of meat (live or dead bait) for lake trout during the winter and most of these waters require barbless hooks as well. I think it’s helped keep our prized trout fisheries in good shape. Fishing these waters was where I gained confidence in the ability of artificial baits to get the job done.
There are several proven options for anglers to use on the ice. Tube jigs have been popular for decades, usually in white, to emulate a dying baitfish. Jigging spoons are also effective and do a good job of getting down quickly in deep water. In recent years, it’s tough to beat a jig head like a Smeltinator Jig tipped with a soft plastic minnow. That’s been my go-to bait for the past decade. A lipless rattle bait, a bait designed for bass anglers, has also proven effective under the ice, especially for its ability to call fish in from a wide range because of its rattling sound.
Lake trout are aggressive under the ice. They prefer cold water and I compare them to sharks, constantly on the move, looking for something to eat. That’s why some of these loud, rattling baits are so effective. Of course, there are days when trout are not as active and don’t bite, but that’s fishing. While I’m jigging, I like to cover the entire water column, moving my bait around constantly from near to the bottom to right under the ice. I would say that on the days that trout are most active, you’ll see more of them higher up in the water column.
