Tag Archives: Ice Fishing

A day of quality over quantity

February 2, 2014

I hate one-fish days. They don’t suck as much as skunk days, but at least on the skunk day you can write the day off as a lost cause. On a one-fish day, once you get that one fish, the rest of the day becomes a complete tease to get just one more. Read more

Broke the Simcoe skunk… again

January 30, 2014

After over an hour of walking to the sunrise I was ready to auger some holes and pop the hut. Around 9am I was fishing and marking no shortage of bait inspectors. It wasn’t long before one of them actually bit and gave me the fight of the season! Read more

A more realistic picture of Simcoe

January 15, 2014

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. Read more

Trying to find those whitefish again

January 11, 2014

Walked out from Oro-Medonte Line 2 today in some awesome weather. Wind was nonexistant and the air was nice and warm. Ice was firm, with little slush on top. There were maybe a few inches of slush in some places where snow had accumulated. Read more

Welcoming myself back to Ontario

January 5, 2014

With their short bite windows, fussiness, and mysterious spells of lockjaw, trout (all varieties) may be Ontario’s most notorious fishes. And then, there are the whitefish. My archenemy from 2013 who ran me through immeasurable hours of jigging, driving, and begging in their pursuit. Read more

After 11 trips… After 136 hours… After 842 dollars…

April 12, 2013

Lake whitefish are finally mine! I drove up north on Wednesday for another “one last stab” at knabbing my first lake whitefish through the ice. I arrived at my spot in the afternoon to find large schools of baitfish from 80 fow to 30 fow. Read more

Burbot disaster

March 26, 2013

Following our success last week, I decided to meet Eli once more this weekend. Here’s the bad news: after it all, our hunt for lake whitefish continues. Here’s the good news…. Saturday Eli’s rod baited with a dead smelt produced two fine burbot: And he iced a small laker later in the day. Read more

Burbot blast

March 19, 2013

With the Lake Simcoe seasons for lakers and whitefish coming to a close, I decided to pay a visit to Eli and explore some new ice this weekend. You know, mix things up a little. Eli had a plan in mind, and it was soon decided that our mission would be to catch our first lake whitefish out of a lake in Quebec. Read more

Well, if you want it that badly…

March 11, 2013

As line peeled off my reel, I looked back at the mark that changed my day. One verticle line slowly scrolled to the left on my graph. That was bar that the fish had drawn. My lure was reeled 60 ft from bottom when the fish had decided it wanted it. Read more

Farewell February!

March 5, 2013

Late January blessed me with a terrific first day ice fishing on Lake Simcoe. However, February turned on the skunk factory. What seemed like an endless supply of fish-less days has finally let up. I had to sleep in this morning after yesterday’s “12 holes in 20 inches of ice” escapade. Read more

A morning at the oasis

February 12, 2013

In the right places, the Rapala W2 jigging rap tipped with a pinhead shiner can do serious damage. The past two mornings have been spent fishing my safety spot. I learned the benefits of moving around while ice fishing. It took a lot of moving around to locate fish, but once they were found I was able to keep them in the area by chumming chunks of minnows. Read more

Catching Them All

Michael Verdirame's journey of fishing.