Last Lake Trout Trip of the Year

Rick Bolstad (owner of Island View Realty) and I ventured northwest of Atikokan, Ontario for one last trout fishing trip. We flew in Rick's airplane on a beautiful March morning.  We were hoping to put a couple big boys on the ice to close out the season. Usually we get at least another three weeks on the ice but not this year. Ice conditions are getting bad fast.

Rick did not waste much time in putting the first nice trout on the ice an even 10 pounder. He caught it on a ciscoe suspended about four feet off the bottom in 52" of water.

We had a couple more misses then I connected with one on a ciscoe in 30 feet of water.  We drilled double holes with an 8" power auger to make it easier to get large trout up the holes. It is much easier to start larger fish like Ricks and possibly the one I had on.  Rick had to help out with mine as it wanted no part of seeing the sky. rick actually chiseled the hole even bigger while the trout continued his battle.  We finally got the fish coming up the whole, Rick was able to get his fingers in the gill and slide him on the ice. A real beauty 16.3 lbs.  Great way to end the season. On the way home we saw huge changes in ice conditions, the Turtle River became ice free, Little Rocky Narrows, American Narrows, west end of Jack Fish Island, Dr. Mary's Point, and the Campfire Island areas all had large amounts of open water. It won't be long before we will be fishing in boats.