Well, I finally made it back after my maiden voyage to Cold Lake. Before I say anything about the trip, I have to thank
mlee for helping me with some spots to try before I left. He also shared some mapping with me that got me to thinking and downloading the social maps for the lake for Lowrance and Garmin. Garmin in particular is very thorough and
mlee reports he has contributed largely to that social map, so huge thanks for that.
I also have to thank
58thecat for providing huge insight into the lake itself, the different fishable areas, and what tends to work when and where. He even came out on Friday morning in a miserable biting wind just to take us on a tour and show us some spots without fishing himself. We met up again Saturday as he and his wife came to fish by us for the afternoon. It's a real treat to meet the people on the forum whose online personalities you like and find you have a lot in common when you meet them.
On to the fishing. We fished 40-75 fow on the point north of the Provincial Park, 15-145 fow out around Garnet, and 50-100 fow at the point near Garnet that leads into French Bay. We caught one small laker near the PP (weren't there for long before heading off with
58thecat), four lakers and three burbot around Garnet (where we camped in 35'...one laker came at 2am
), and one over at the point (again we only spent maybe an hour there). Keep in mind that's in three full days of fishing. Was it slow? Yeah. But I missed some fish I can only blame myself for with my girlie man walleye hooksets. And I had electronics issues that kept me from going much deeper than 75 fow (my son-in-law fished much deeper with his new Vexilar FLX-30...awesome unit). And the chasers....oh the chasers. If I could have caught just half the fish that chased
more than 40' up the water column, I'd have been in the double digits myself. I was watching
Weavster's videos to see what I was doing wrong, but the fish just wouldn't commit. I had several follow right up to 10' from 70' down.
A couple of things I learned that may help someone else out...
- Make sure you come prepared. We had Jaw Jackers and iFish Pros, but my tip up rods were spooled with mono. We did get it sorted, but we didn't fish with our second lines as much as we should have and it likely cost us. I've also been sitting on a cranky HB Ice55 that would have been nice to have had at my disposal if I had sent it out for service sooner.
- Understand your electronics. I thought I did. But I have not ice fished with either live imaging product in water beyond 25' before. So when I had issues on Cold Lake, I struggled to get things dialed in.
- Fish the entire water column. Your electronics are a cone beam. It's easier to miss fish higher up than on the bottom. Many times we'd attract nearby fish by reeling all the way up and letting it fall again.
- Find the balance between working the depths at a given spot and making a larger move. Yes they may be more active elsewhere (they are almost certainly more active somewhere if you're contemplating a move), but no one ever caught a fish without a hook in the water.
- Don't get too hung up on T.C. Moto jigs. With all the YouTube videos you'd swear they are the only way to catch a laker. We did catch fish on them. But after trying several different T.C. Motos, bucktail jigs, maribou jigs, airplane jigs, jigs with plastics, spoons, and Jigging Raps, the only lure that got smashed with conviction for us (rare as it was) was a 1oz VMC Neon Moon Eye Jig with a 5-1/2" Storm 360GT Searchbait.
- There are some big fish in Cold Lake. This guy's not a monster (I didn't weigh or measure him), but I'm happy with him as my first laker through the ice.
