03-06-2023, 03:21 AM
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.
![[Image: AAE9-A197-5-BB5-419-E-BCE3-B383728-B4847.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/N9GqwkZt/AAE9-A197-5-BB5-419-E-BCE3-B383728-B4847.jpg)
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.