[Dakota]

Took a friend of mine ice fishing up at Granby on Thursday. It was only his 3rd time ever ice fishing. I gave him the fail safe laker lure (the infamous white tube jig) and caught these 2 fish within 10 minutes of dropping down his first hole. We had BIG fish underneath us all morning, but those were the only two we could convince to bite a hook. Most would follow the lure, but none would commit after these 2.

When I realized they weren't going to bite I decided to put the camera down and see if I could record any of the big lakers underwater. Unfortunately, I only got one on video. It's not a great picture, but out of all of the youtube ice fishing videos I've watched I've never seen a big laker on camera.

Biggest fish was 36 inches and the next was 26 inches. We caught several 18 inch to 22 inchers but there were much bigger fish down there. All fish were released besides four 18 inch fish.

Link to video below.







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOjDdAk41cA&list=UUr_3fjgZmSPGbSyGYfIZ_rQ

 

[TthePikester]

Very nice D. Beautiful fish...Congrats!!!

 

[pistoldog]

nice!

 

[andyrm66]

Those are some sweet fish!

 

[Bionic Man]

Nice fish!

 

[aofisher]

Nice! My thought on lakers: they are the dumbest effin' fish because they will stare at your lure for hours. My other thought on lakers: they are the smartest fish because they will stare at your lure for hours and eventually figure out that it's not the real deal. It's interesting to see that those lakers actually come in and out pretty quickly.

 

[albow]

The video is interesting. Full moon fish are finiky. Maybe try some different colors, vibration, scent or action.

 

[Dakota]

My thoughts exactly Albow.... I tried everything I had. Pulled out every trick in the book. I'll just have to wait until next time and hope they have their feed bags on.

 

[redleader]

Awesome video, shows you what your doing wrong, ha ha. Gotta get your adrenaline going.
Glad you found a big dumb one!! Congrats, Thanks for the release and for sharing.

 

[aofisher]

Awesome video, shows you what your doing wrong, lol.
Glad you found a big dumb one!! Thanks for the release and for sharing.

Care to educate us? Pretty please? :biggrin1: I thought the jigging was a bit agressive (just based on other fish I go after). But I could be totally wrong. :embarassed:

 

[redleader]

Care to educate us? Pretty please? :biggrin1: I thought the jigging was a bit agressive (just based on other fish I go after). But I could be totally wrong. :embarassed:

Ha ha, It seems like some things mean a lot more when you figure them out yourself.8)
Might have to trade for some big Walleye secrets though.

 

[aofisher]

Ha ha, It seems like some things mean a lot more when you figure them out yourself.8)
Might have to trade for some big Walleye secrets though.

LOL. I have no real secrets. If you are serious, I'll trade. But it wouldn't be a fair trade because you would be able to put me on big lakers more consistently than I would be able to put you on big walleyes. My few years of experience pale in comparison to your decades of experience.

 

[redleader]

You didn't do anything wrong that was an epic day and a great video best one I've seen in a while

 

[Dave M]

Rad! Might go up there tomorrow.

 

[Fordo]

Nice! My thought on lakers: they are the dumbest effin' fish because they will stare at your lure for hours. My other thought on lakers: they are the smartest fish because they will stare at your lure for hours and eventually figure out that it's not the real deal. It's interesting to see that those lakers actually come in and out pretty quickly.

My thought is if its hanging on your jig and hasnt bit within 15 minutes or less, its time to bounce and find fish that are in the right mood. Those lookers can burn a lot of daylight up when your sucked in to that sonar watching them hang. I mean would you eat a big ol juicy hamburger every single time some one put one in your kitchen?

 

[redleader]

My thought is if its hanging on your jig and hasnt bit within 15 minutes or less, its time to bounce and find fish that are in the right mood. Those lookers can burn a lot of daylight up when your sucked in to that sonar watching them hang. I mean would you eat a big ol juicy hamburger every single time some one put one in your kitchen?

Yah, don't waste any more time in that spot, those are well trained ones, you might as well just give me the gps points

 

[Dakota]

Ha, if you have the Granby Fish-n-Map you already have them! For those interested in my jigging technique. I generally jig with a very steady, consistent jigging motion going up and down pounding the bottom. In that particular video it was on a dead stick. The sole purpose was to just get one of those big boys on camera. I have another underwater video of my fiance fishing at Granby if you want to see how smaller fish react. This fishing wasn't on fire that day, but the camera was only in the water for about 30 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH4DsTyoD4c&list=UUr_3fjgZmSPGbSyGYfIZ_rQ

Each day is different, some days they want very agressive jigging, and others they like dead sticks. I like to start jigging aggressively and slow it down until I get a few to commit.

We actually did end up leaving fordo, after about an hour and a half of no more bites. The big boys were still there, but my thoughts were that we would come back later in the afternoon hoping they would get hungry. Unfortunately, they didn't... of course.

I had never been on schools of big fish like that so it was definitely a blast. I'm hoping they are still around next time I'm up there in a few weeks.

 

[aofisher]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH4DsTyoD4c&list=UUr_3fjgZmSPGbSyGYfIZ_rQ

That's the video I was referring to. Interesting... VERY interesting... It changed my perspective on lakers. Admittedly, I haven't spent much time trying to understand laker behavior.

 

[aofisher]

Just re-watched the video with Bernie and Nate. Love the part where Bernie says: "walleye guys." Of course, Bernie is a great walleye angler himself. Hard to find videos where people are working fish for more than a 5 seconds... "We don't want dead time in our videos..." Sneaky, sneaky... :lol:

 

[Zman]

Wow thats report and great lakers and video...I threw in my camera and video recording unit...for blue mesa...wanted laker footage...unfortunately never got there...