I usually prefer jigging for Lakers using a silver type spoon or a blue and white rapala minnow jig. I have had the most success hooking a live shiner or sucker behind the dorsal fin and with a medium size sinker dropping this down the hole. Changing the depth at various intervals as Lakers can be at any depth under the ice. Simple rig but it works.
“Icepuppy” from the ice-fishing forum at fish-ontario.com suggests this technique in his forum response.
Posted: Jan 18, 2006 5:16 PM
“Re: lakers in Muskoka”
-Well I have mainly fished for lakers and whitefish, so I might be able to help. Lakers can be found at nearly any depth when the lake is cold, they will go where the food is. However, you can usually find some near the bottom. A lot of people jig for lakers using spoons (hammered look williams and other shiny, minnow like spoons. Sometimes they are more likely to go for live bait, so a drop line with a sinker at then end, and a minnow rigged off the bottom at 1′ to 10′ works well. Since you can have 4 hooks I use a simcoe spreader on the bottom, and then two single hooks with minnows, one at 2′ and 4′ up the line. This will let you catch both whitefish and lakers. Last Sat with that setup caught me 7 small lakers. This is of course with a tipup (balance stick in this case) and the jigging works well with a 24″-34″ medium action rod with 8-10lb test for smaller guys, bigger if you like. Guys have their own ways of fishing but this is the way I was shown and you get better when you know the fish better. Oh yeah and lakers hunt looking upwards, so keep the bait above them if you can, this is where a flasher/fish finder comes in.-
I am going to give this a try the next chance I get.
Hunt Proud. Fish Hard!
-Muskoka Outdoors
