Jan 13:

Had a half day out at Oro-Medonte Line 2.  Action was a bit better than Sunday’s dead silence.  Fished 125 fow.  A few chasers and regular risers to the dead stick in the earlier AM until 11ish.  First fish bit the tube and came off in a split second.  It must have grabbed the tail filaments behind the stinger hook… a really careful biter!

Second fish, I barely felt take the lure on the chase, but I must’ve ripped it clean out of his mouth.

Then it went dead for a few hours, with not much going on.

I had a cruiser go by around 80fow/125fow and I reeled past him.  He hit it hard and tore the tail off the swimbait.

Left at 12:30 to get to work.

Jan 14:

Headed out to the same area with a friend. A few chasers, but nothing would commit. Didn’t see anyone get bit, but I heard of two guys landing 1 fish each. Left for work.

Jan 15:

Changed the plan. Mark fish or move in 10 minutes. Plan seemed to work, but there were generally more fish around today.

First fish hit subtly on a bad boy wiggled on bottom. Lost it when it was 1/2 way up to the hole.

Second fish chased my white tube up… of course it was a laker:

Blood on the ice and two guys started coming into my space. Laker didn’t make it, so I kept it for the table.

Then there was a little lull in the action, but I kept moving. A few holes later I marked some regular humps on bottom. Fished the bad boy again. Missed a bite or two and then lost another fish 1/4 way up to the hole when my line got stuck in the frozen guides and I couldn’t run back fast enough. Frustrating!

The humps on bottom returned after 10 or 20 minutes and this time I got one on the bad boy. I was expecting a whitefish because of the subtle bite and lackluster fight., but it was a laker after all!

Then the hole went dead and it was almost time to leave for work. I hopped back to shore along my old holes. Nothing around, so I decided to try a new hole. All the slush that was on top of the ice was now frozen… so my arms were quite spent by then.

Didn’t mark much at the new spot, so I reeled up and put the rod in the holder to deadstick the tube as I packed up. I didn’t even get to turn my back to the graph, something was already coming up to it! Reeled away and it hit me like a TRAIN. Finally, a good laker fight… up to this point they’ve barely given me a single decent run. This one gave me that and more.

At the hole I couldn’t get its head through, the fish was wrapped up in the line. I reached in and tailed my prize up.

9lb laker, and thank-you to the stranger that ran over to take a picture!

Great pre-work session on the unforgiving Lake Simcoe. I hope this string of reports illustrates just how frustrating this lake can be. Lots of skunks, and lots of rewards if you’re in the right place at the right time.