Sk Justin has been targeting some salmonids through the ice in Manitoba.  Here he shows off a beautiful lake trout, and a fantastic hybrid tiger trout comes up the hole.

Click "Read More" for details!

SK Justin wrote:

I fish the tube jigs plain. Some are scented, others are not. I haven't found it necessary to tip them with any bait (and I believe at times it is detrimental). I prefer to run the cylindrical insider jig heads in the tube (especially for lakers), but at times I do just tie direct to a jig head and then thread the tube on. It makes changing up the color or size easier, but at the risk of having the fish be turned off by the lead head or having the tube slide down on missed strikes. Lakers in particular will often hit multiple times if you don't get them the first time around, which is why I prefer the insider heads for them.

General locations are predictable, but covering water is very important, even if it is only a short distance. For example, I've found that you can "burn out" a hole after catching a few fish or fishing in it too long. Fish will keep coming in, but will refuse the lure. Changing to a different jig is usually the first reaction, but if that doesn't help, even moving 20 feet to a fresh hole can make all of the difference. This happened on the tiger trout outing from which the pictures above were taken. A few fish were caught out of one hole, and for close to an hour we watched as fish repeatedly swam in and out with little interest. They seemed completely negative. After moving to a fresh hole just a short distance away, the fish were on our jigs instantly. These very well were probably many of the same fish that had just rejected us minutes before. I've seen this enough times to know that there is something to it, though I don't quite understand why.

How far and how many holes depends on the species. Lake trout require more moving and distance coverage. I fish for them in 15' to 50' of water the majority of the time, anywhere in the water column. They'll come from a good distance to take a lure, so holes are spaced further apart. For the other trout species, we drill the holes a bit closer together on specific structure/cover. As I mentioned earlier, it's amazing how even closely spaced holes will have one seeing all of the action and the other not a single fish. Move move move...

The suckers will be staging towards the end of March, my favorite time of the season!