Ice Trolling

Tony G and I hit Mille Lacs last week and when we embark on a lake we don't hold back. I give the fish and the lake all it can handle. As some would say, "I am mad at the fish"! On this particular evening we had left "base camp"(the wheel house) and opted to run out on the wheeler to a flat. First thing we do when we arrive on a spot is drill lots of holes up and down the edge of the flat and in the area where we expect the fish to be. We cover as much water as fast as we can. Never fishing a hole more than about 10 minutes. The idea is to stay on the fish as them move up and down the flat edges. Sometimes the fish are on top, other times they are on the edge or in the basin. So we "ice troll" for them. We fish and chase them up as they come up to feed and we will follow them back down. The first 2 major keys to success in this run and gun style of fishing are drilling lots of holes and a Ice Armor Extreme Suit. Thanks to the great suits we are able to fish outside in wind and cold for hours and still be warm and comfortable. I can't tell you how important that is. It allows us to be ultra mobile and stay on the move in a instant. The old way of setting up and just waiting them out in one hole is a thing of the past thanks to the great equipment available today. The third thing that is a must is a Lowrance Handheld GPS or fishfinder GPS combo for finding the areas that may hold the fish. The particular unit that I am using on my 4 wheeler is a HDS8. This unit may be over kill for some so don't think you have to have the 8". It is nice, but any of the Lowrance units will work great. Lowrance has done a great job of making the units user friendly and very simple to read. Thanks to Navionics chips, you no longer have to carry a lake map or hope you are on the spot. You can see the detail and lake map right on your GPS and where you are in relevance to the "spot" or structure you are looking for. That allows us to pull up to a reef or flat and drill lots of holes in the area that we think the fish are going to be on the spot. Another key piece to our arsenal is a Vexilar FL-20. As you will see in the video, I am always looking at my Vexilar to see if a fish is coming into the bite zone! It tells you what is going on in your hole instantly! That is a huge key to our success. I can pick up my Vexilar and carry it with me hole to hole and always know what is going on; once again staying mobile and on the fish. We also set-up a set line or tip up in the area we are fishing around. This allows us to move holes often but always have a second line in the water. On this particular outing Tony and I managed to catch 9 gravel lizards in about a hour or two period of time; 4 of which measured in at over 22" with the biggest being 27" If you have any specific questions in regards to how we get on these giant fish not only on Mille Lacs but also on Minnetonka and Waconia please message me. If you are looking to get around, hook, and land more fish try staying mobile and using a few of the great tools that are available to anglers today. Until next time, Fish On!