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I woke up very early on Saturday 3/4 and headed off to Fish Lake on a solo trip. My target was splake to add a 17th species to my catch count for this winter. I arrived at the lake just before 7:30 and made my way out onto the lake, then headed northeast from the access point. I had hoped to get on the weed line about 15 feet and hit it right on my first drilled hole. My lite flite auger is 42” and I needed most of that to get a hole drilled. Maybe 3-4 inches of powdery or drifted snow over 6-8” of compacted snow, then 24-28” of ice. No slush. Walking on, off, and around was easy. It was windy in the afternoon but not like it can get down there some times. 

I was hoping to catch a fresh perch for bait, but otherwise wanted to avoid catching them. First fish on was a 7” perch caught on a medium buckshot spoon in super glo chub, tipped with wax worms. I changed the bait on that lure to small pieces of belly meat. The rainbows seemed to love that color and bait combo early and I ended up icing 6. The rainbows would come through in the 8-12’ range and were aggressive biters early. Still no splakes. I set my second rig up first with a large tungsten jig with perch meat, then with wax worms, nothing. So I downsized to a much smaller green/white tungsten jig and tipped it with a nub of nightcrawler. I ended up just dropping that pole on the ice with the jig right down at the bottom while I pursued fish higher in the water column. Next thing I see out of the corner of my eye is the end of the pole bouncing. I assumed I had a pesky perch on, until I set the hook and started reeling. The weight and the fight pointed to a trout on and sure enough it was a 15-1/2” splake. Sent that rig back down, using the same dead stick approach and within minutes had my second splake on the ice, this one a little chunkier and 16” long. I decided to take those two home for smoking. I also caught a smaller splake that I released. 

At that point, I decided to head for deeper water to see if I could catch a laker or some kokanee. I marked several fish in 85-foot water, but no bites. I didn’t see anything that I could identify as kokanee. That part of the day was a bust. 

Final tally was 3 perch, 6 rainbows, and 3 splake.

I met some real nice folks in the parking lot and on the ice. The only down side was a very large group that crowded in after arriving mid morning. They were the main reason I tried deeper water as their combination of people, snowmobiles, tracked UTV, and general noise seemed to shut the bite right down. 

When I got home, I filleted the two splake with skin on fillets. Today, I brined them with a dry brine (Kosher salt, brown sugar, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder) for 1.5 hours, then rinsed, patted dry, and placed on a cooling rack to develop a pellicle. At that point I started the grill with both front and back burners on. On the back burner I placed a foil pouch, filled with mesquite wood chips, and perforated to allow the smoke out. I turned off the front burner. I placed the fillets on foil on the front unlit burner once the smoke was going. Every 15 minutes I would check the internal temperature of the fillets, and rotate the foil 180 degrees to provide uniform coverage of heat and smoke. While those were cooking I prepared some coleslaw and baked seasoned potato planks (mojos). The fish smoked for just under an hour to reach 145 degrees internally. It was a great dinner. 


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Great report. Had me smelling the smoke and salivating. Do you think you could have picked up a bunch of perch if you had targeted them or were you not seeing them on the weed lines like normal.
Congrats Brett, way to hunt them down and catch them, that's got to feel good to target and acquire them... Congratulations... Jeff
(03-06-2023, 12:55 PM)Cowboypirate Wrote: [ -> ]Great report. Had me smelling the smoke and salivating. Do you think you could have picked up a bunch of perch if you had targeted them or were you not seeing them on the weed lines like normal.

Was there 3 weeks and then 2 weeks ago. First day I picked up some where in the neighborhood of 150 perch in 5 hrs.  Second day I would guess I got a few over 100 in the same amount of time.
Son in law and grand daughter caught bunches also.
(03-06-2023, 04:38 PM)PACMEN Wrote: [ -> ]
(03-06-2023, 12:55 PM)Cowboypirate Wrote: [ -> ]Great report. Had me smelling the smoke and salivating. Do you think you could have picked up a bunch of perch if you had targeted them or were you not seeing them on the weed lines like normal.

Was there 3 weeks and then 2 weeks ago. First day I picked up some where in the neighborhood of 150 perch in 5 hrs.  Second day I would guess I got a few over 100 in the same amount of time.
Son in law and grand daughter caught bunches also.

Good to know at least one of our perch lakes is still loaded. Txs
Great report and sounds like you had an awesome day, congrats
Sounds like a perfect day. Nice splake - not skinny. My boys and I will be there early next week for spring break. Thanks for the report.
Rob
Excellent report and smoked trout dinner story. Congrats on your 17th specie this ice season!
Wow…loved the report, but your dinner preparations are really what got me going. sounded so good! Congrats on that 17th species!