Ice Fishing: Trout

It sure wasn’t the easiest part of ice fishing, but the Swede made it up in time. Out of the hot shower, he fortified himself with a huge bowl of oatmeal. Satisfied that it would stick to his ribs, he pulled up his bibs. Slipping a flashlight and a small container of the magic lure, here after referred to as TML, into the breast pocket of his ice armor, he hit the road...

Read more


Fog slowed his path, but he cut a steady swath. The bearded winter warrior “K” turned his pickup around, faced outbound, and gracefully unloaded his plastic sled full of ice fishing gear. Two buckets, several professional grade lightweight 30-inch rods with open faced mini-spin reels, bait, water, and lunch.

He drilled out his classic pattern of holes in the ice. He thought of it as his own stamp, a Celtic brand carved through the ice and creating a portal from the freshwaters of the lake, through the ice, and into the skies and terrain of Kootenai Country Montana. Ritual-like, he bent down on his knees and carefully scooped out his holes.  On a trout mission like this, a person wants to bait up with TML and tip it with grubs, worms, eggs, or maggots. Fish works too. Then each of the setups are fixed so that each of the rigs has a different combination of colors and tip bait, as well as fishing each bait at separate and different depths.

The Swede was taught to keep scooping out the holes. Otherwise, a big fish will try to cut the line holding him on the edge of the auger hole. Cluttered lines will tangle and a person can loose a big fish easily. By the time the Swede was setup it was almost light. Towards the East, yellow shafts of color from ultra light to deep gold streamed through darker clouds. All things were quiet and cold, and then a few birds began to sing, and then a few more. The wind blew a cyclone of snow across the lake and suddenly a pole twitched, and twitched again. The Swede slid over lowering his knees and basically coasting into the set-up and hole! The pole bent and he set the hook. The fish made a strong dive to the bottom, but the angler kept the rod tip up and the slack out of the line.

The sub-mariner was fighting to get off, cutting back and forth and darting quickly. After several minutes, the Swede was  able to angle the fish up and out of the hole. He cautiously slid the fish up to his stringer, and hooked it on there! A nice pound and a half rainbow trout lay upon the ice. Knowing trout schooling behavior, being schooled by the old Swedes, the man quickly re-baited and dropped down again. One nice one cut the line and disappeared into the depths of the turquoise lake.

The Swede caught another rainbow, an Inland-Redband Rainbow, and one Brookie for a trout take of four. He noticed the clouds had come back in again. He collected his gear and his fish. Sled loaded, the Swede ambled across the ice, smiling, and dreaming about fresh trout dinner caught in Kootenai Country Montana!    

(Ref: Personal experience.)