Fishing Forum

Lake Cathrine - We arrived at the parkin lot at 10am and saw the parking lot attendents that always wonder how the last adventure went. After chatting with them we made the mistake of visiting the restrooms in the lodge. The hosts, window cleaners, and out of outta staters just had to talk to us. Gosh we had a big hike ahead of us so we had to get moving! Well then the ski patrol came to talk with us........ again. We had some friendly banter and finally one of them said, it on the house boys, what chair you wanna ride? Oh yeah that shaved a half hour off the day!
We started by skiing down to the trail. We were at Lake Mary in 10mins, but that was not the goal. We arrived at Lake Cathrine by 12:45. We drilled a hole with EXTREME difficulty! We were shaking in our ski boots that the auger might not make it. We made it by 1 inch. The handle was hitting the egde of the hole! IT WAS 5 FEET 7.5 INCHES THICK!!!! We joked how guys were complaining of no ice yet when we almost didn't get through. The holes we dug were in 19 feet of water. After hours of no bites it was time for action.
I drilled a hole at 9 feet of water. A great sign was the weeds on the scout hook! Lost a fish right off the bat! Evil Tye Dye dug a hole at 8 feet or water. Wham he had a fish on the deck. Well one after another later I dug another hole at 6 feet of water. Considering we moved at 4pm and stayed till 6:30pm the action was hot! I caught 6 brook trout and my twin got 9 brook trout. We lost too many to count and had bites every few minutes.

As we packed out we collected all of our gear were eager for the ski down to the parking lot at Brighton. It was a mix of powder, crust and ice the whole way down. The ice was bad enough to chatter my teeth to chipping point and my feet tickled!

All day long we were using the pumpkin pepper jig as well as a pink, yellow, black striped ice fly that glows in the dark. All lures were tipped with nightcrawlers.

The perks of being a local is you get free lift rides!


But eventually you must start the hiking somewhere


Lake Catherine has to be here somewhere


At lake Catherine....finally!


The 1st Brookie of the day was a beauty!


Me and my brookies


EvilTyeDye's extremely colorful brook trout


The Day's Brook Trout collection


Me ice fishing Lake Catherine under Sunset Peak


Me skiing back to the car


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Beautiful pictures and great report. Hard to imagine that the ice would be that thick anywhere still.
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Great trip, guys. Looks like Marys has the healthier brookies. Thanks for the intel!.
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Great pics and really pretty fish. Thanks for the post. Keep them coming.
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Nice pics it looks like u guys had fun!
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Good report Tye Dye's. Would be a shame to see you guys get "banned". So for the sake of those of us who enjoy your reports... []
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[quote brookieguy1]Great trip, guys. Looks like Marys has the healthier brookies. Thanks for the intel!.[/quote] That is what we were thinkin! Still maybe we were not doing it right! One time is not enough. Maybe I missed the lunkers.
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Nice! Love the color of those brookies. Keep 'em coming.
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Nice pics and story guys wish I was there I cried today as I put my ice fishing gear deep in the garage today. KEEP ALL YOUR GREAT POST COMING!!!!!!!!!
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Hmmm, Hike up hill in deep snow....drill a hole by hand through five and half feet of Ice....I would be in the hospital...great to be young... good on ya!
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In before the lock [] gorgeous dead fish .. cool skiing pics as well. Word
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Yup - that's an epic adventure. You guys are truly nuts - 5ft? And for some slimy bright colored minnows. You must have a really fine filet knife.

Lucky to get the ride up (you cheaters!!!) - but with that much drilling ahead - can't blame ya!
So - you running Telemark skis, or those downhills that the heel clips in/out?
Been a while since I hit powder (pretty much since I discovered ice-fishing). Nice that you're able to combine both. And while others are getting out on open water. Reminds me on San Diego where we could go from coastal surf in the morning to cross-country skiing in the afternoon, then end up in the desert by nightfall.

So you never got a response in on the "Ban the Twins" campaign. (I missed it too) If this is your answer I'll take it.
Pretty pix, fun looking adventure - and I'LL NOTE - no tones of disrespect or attack or disregard. I hope you meant to do that.

gotta ask though - is "fishinglover" your little brother or sister? You seem to have added a "TyeDyeFan" to your club. Guess we'll see if his time-out teaches.

Great Report of good times and gorgeous brookies.

TRH
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[quote CoyoteSpinner]Yup - that's an epic adventure. You guys are truly nuts 5 ft.? And for some slimy bright colored minnows. You must have a really fine filet knife.

So - you running Telemark skis, or those downhills that the heel clips in/out?
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Yes the ice was 5ft. 7.5 inches! The longest brook was 12.5 inches but man they are skinny. Not much for the feast.

They are AT skis (alpine touring skis) which are basically downhill skis. We have AT bindings. They have a locking mechanisim that allows you to free heel uphill and then at the top you can lock them to make down hill bindings. Skins make the uphill travel possible.
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Just out of curiosity and im not bagging on you, your allowed keep what ever fish but if the largest fish was 12.5 inches why not release small fish ???

Again not bagging on you you guys have taken allot ish' in the past couple of weeks just asking
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Gorgeous pics brotha. Can't wait for open water with you guys though. I'm dyin to fish. Wish I was still unemployed... haha
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[quote sinergy]Just out of curiosity and im not bagging on you, your allowed keep what ever fish but if the largest fish was 12.5 inches why not release small fish ???

Again not bagging on you you guys have taken allot ish' in the past couple of weeks just asking[/quote]

Fair question and no offense taken on my end.

Brookies taste good! If you gut them instead of fillet them you get more meat. Plus I doubt that the fish are stunted but you can only hope the removal of a few allows another brookie to get bigger. There were over 1,000 stocked at 2 inches like every 2 years or so. There is a decent population in there as it is. The lake mary brookies were 12 inches too but super meaty.
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[quote sinergy]Just out of curiosity and im not bagging on you, your allowed keep what ever fish but if the largest fish was 12.5 inches why not release small fish ???
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When you have a lake like this that is full of stunted brook trout, the best thing for the fishery would be to harvest more fish. Putting them back will NOT allow them to grow larger -- just the opposite. Too many fish = smaller fish. Harvest more fish, and increase the average size of all.

What is the current limit for brook trout at Lake Catherine?
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I don't see any specific regs for Cathrine.
That tells me the limit is 4.
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[quote DKStroutfitter]I don't see any specific regs for Cathrine.
That tells me the limit is 4.[/quote]

+1
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