Early Ice Trout
It only takes one person to tell me the ice is safe and I am heading out to the nearest lake. My dear friends at Rainbow Lodge on Piprell Lake just an hour and a half from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, gave me the call I had been waiting for. The weekend of December 10th and 11th would be extra special for me as I would enjoy the company of someone near and dear to my heart. Darrell Prokopie from Missinipi Radio in Prince Albert would join me to act as my guide and fishing companion.
We could see four other permanent shacks set up on from the cabin window and had heard of a group who had limited out the day before we arrived. So with that being said set up was within ear shot of the cabin.
In no time at all and our Clam Base Camp was popped up. The StrikeMaster Mag made fast work of the nine inches of ice and lines were in the water. Our techniques would vary with our plan being to see which one would be more productive. Rick from Rainbow Lodge had told me that the best bait is still good old fashioned canned corn.
In my heart I really felt that some of the tackle that I use for crappie and bluegills down south had a great chance of producing the trout we were looking for. It took less than twenty minutes before the first trout hit the ice and my Vexilar picked up many more coming and going.
We had set up two lines just outside the door of the portable and it seemed every hour on the hour one of us would say to the other, “ I am sure we will get something from those.”
As Sunday morning came to a close, Darrell so nicely offered to drive back to the cabin and fill the coffee thermoses; it took only moments after he headed down the lake for that outside rod to bend in half. I never had a chance on that trout. The rod would bend and bounce back up in one motion, producing a snapped line.
After settling back in with a fresh coffee Darrell and I were chatting about how amazing Piprell is when all of a sudden down went that rod again, bent in half and line peeling off. He ran and as he grabbed it from the holder I could tell this was a decent fish. His trophy for the day made the whole trip worthwhile.
We definitely found that we were having our best luck on a Hawger spoon that was 1/32 in size and a piece of canned corn.
The bite seemed a little light but is expected with early ice trout. I did have the chance to try pink larva and meal worms but found they still were not as productive as good old canned corn.
