Stepped out of my small apartment today while away working up here in Arctic Bay. The bit of breeze still in the air after a blizzardy night, while holding the coffee mug for the short outside walk over to the hospital, that air within just seconds started nipping quick on the back of my hand. Had cold and ice fishing on the brain over the lunch hour. Was kinda reminiscing about some of the more recent years, and ho-humming aboot a bit of news I had received a week or so ago on Nipigon conditions and the growing crowds of anglers seen there. I was missing it, thinking about the new Otter hut, auger and gear I’d bought only last season. While at the same time, wondering when I might just put it all up for sale? This winter I did sneak away a few days and when on the ice was more or less distracted, disengaged from maybe even half the focus that’d be a normal. Missed some fish out there too and it didn’t register like it used to, I was more in mind like… OK, won’t be the last chance, isn’t like I’m not ever gonna set a hook again. Honestly this is rather peculiar..? Leaves me scratching my head now, questioning what this means or may lead to? Do I still want to ice fish? If you’re not into it, you’re not gonna get as much out of it so, why bother half assing right?

Haven’t done an ice report here at the site for five years and only a couple of ‘em in nearly ten. Every winter those past five though, I’ve gone north for an annual week long trip and enjoyed the hell out of it. Do find that each time gets a little more difficult on the body yeah sure, which is odd because I feel in better shape at 50 than I did at 45, or even 40. One tour though I was near a fucking cripple with back pain throughout, drugging myself daily just to get by. It’s always for that love of lake trout, can’t imagine picking a different fish for a full on winter fun session than these cold water denizens of the deep. Just the perfect mix of dogged determination, challenge and reward. If they’re gonna give that, it’s probably best to keep at it.

After being away from Lake Nipigon for a few years Stevie Z and I returned in 2021 to experience what would then be and still is the most busy ice fishing there we’ve both ever encountered. It was an all week bite for which Stevie set up in one primo spot and didn’t need to move. Just trying to keep up I’d drill all the compass settings around him each different day, and add up almost equal numbers but, it was a lot more work with less line time in the water. Admittedly he nailed the jackpot first hole. Without the journal notes nearby right now I can still pretty much remember this one was 99 fish hooked and somewheres in the 60’s caught. Stevie took a laker or two more and pegged bigger ones overall, but I’d get a great ling and one big grey of my own to equal his top honors. Other than some very loud snoring from my brother each night it was truly a great go. Good eats in the evenings, some scotchy scotch cheers and bunch of seasons of LetterKenny. The two of us were in awe of the fishing, most lakers that came in on the graph Hulk smashed our offerings. Wild fishing acting wild, unaccustomed to lures and hardly anyone around to contend with it was some catching the way happy Fish God’s intend it to be.
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Right out of the gate in 2022 Stevie was back in full swing. He’d figured out something this trip that went against all I’d ever believed necessary on this huge body of water, and I had no idea until later in the trip what he was up to. You see, on Nipigon one would think that fish have to come from far and wide and be continually enticed by the thump, flash and movement of something pulling their attention towards. I’d been up there for years just jiggin’ me friggin’ arms off for hours and hours, always believing that fish needed that lake quaking to come. And yeah, I suppose if you’re gonna practice ice fishing you should be effectively jigging and all but sometimes, as experience and new tech would help me learn is, that lakers don’t always want that noise. That, maybe an over energetic presentation doesn’t suit their mood or even whatever the cosmos that day is dictating energy wise. Sooooo, as it was this season, Stevie’s dead-sticking a tube mid water column was hooking up with more fish than was actively jigging, and bigger ones too. And fishing some years afterwards with LiveScope it actually became more identifiable some days while observing lakers that for whatever reason while on a roaming feed, they sought out a dead or very gentle offering and, that only once the gap between the two would narrowly close, that the lakers would eat on a no or slow bait escape. No cat and mouse, no quick play, none of that fun stuff. If the fish were eating up high or down low it was slow and steady as she goes, dead or quiet. Stevie capitalized. That week though we’d only hook and land about 2/3’s the numbers of the previous year. However, we again caught tanks aaaaand, I got a PB ling that damn near hit an Ontario record weight. And that was after a bigger one had broken me off in the hole. Another mint ice ripping trip!
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VIDEO:
LAST MINUTE ROCKET LAKER
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VIDEO:
SOME LONG LEAN LAKER LOVING
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VIDEO:
A TROPHY LAKETROUT
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VIDEO:
NEARLY AN ONTARIO RECORD LING
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In 2023 Stevie and I were joined by his wife Amelie. Look up “Laker Lure Confusion” on the site here and that might help give context as to what I believe hurt their fishing that week. That and fewer fish around too. Nobody’s fault at all, it was quite likely just a matter of fish moods and conditions meets the wrong timing for two people to be presenting lures within close proximity. Firmly believe in this phenomenon with lakers during moderate to slower bite windows by which they can get over-suspicious when inspecting and turned off for slighter reasons. We did have a day together though, when we took a long road trip, followed by an even longer skidoo ride and several hours later found ourselves setting up for walleye. The first time we actually did something different. Three days lakers, a day of walleye, three days of lakers for me, and two for them. It was a great ride that day for walleye, I enjoyed all of it except losing them in some fog when first setting out on the lake with the sleds. Thought they’d gone off to Nowheresville. I did OK on the lakers for the week staying separated from their hut. It was a tougher time than I’d had up there in some years and finding over twenty pounders didn’t happen. That’s why there’s no pics of fish! Took many short videos which were never uploaded, snapped some other photos too but, didn’t feel it necessary to expose teeners that I’ve caught a thousand times before to unnecessary health risks grabbing and grinning with them outside of the hut.
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It was 2014, 15, 16 & 17 when I was first started going up north to Nipigon for ice fishing. I can recall the numbers easily. First year went 4 for 8, next 2 for 4, next 1 for 2 and then in the final fourth year I iced about twenty fish or more catching ten in just one day. It was a big learning curve. The first laker I hooked there bit right on the noon hour after me taking the first bite of a sandwich. I didn’t get another bite of my lunch for 35 minutes. A laker totally dominated me, nearly spooling the reel a number of times… Fishing Nipigon those first years was work then because I didn’t have an overly willing partner to help eliminate water and find fish, so without hydrographics there were often empty holes drilled for no reason. Most days I either stuck with the little I knew or yeah, tried out areas on my own. Come 2018 the landscape changed and I wouldn’t return again until winter 2021.
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VIDEO:
FIRST NIPIGON ICE LAKER!!
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VIDEO:
BIG ONTARIO LAKER
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In those off years there were some other opportunities. 2018 I’d hit up Lake Ontario for the first time. Set up nearby a pressure crack well offshore only to find out later in the day that it was in fact a channel, that the ice breaker was keeping open. The boat workers were some unimpressed having to slow down while going by me out there. I popped ten lakers that afternoon though so screw dem den!
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During 2019 I attended an annual gathering up around Calabogie but otherwise didn’t do much fishing. One special trip was when touring down to the Peterborough area, staying there but heading off each morning to fish Lake Simcoe. I caught a whitey and a laker but wouldn’t say that the fishing was overly good for me. Shayne and Lori, they knew what they were doing for those whiteys over on that stupid busy place.
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2020 marked the end of the “Reelbuddies” era of gatherings at Calabogie. We didn’t know it was coming then. I left that final party early, sicker than a dog for the second time in just a couple of months. Worst two bouts of respiratory illnesses I have ever suffered, my daughters during the first bout wondering if Dad was even gonna pull through. A few weeks later the World would begin shutting down for Covid. Since then things would never be the same. That wintery season I managed to do some solid ice fishing around home, finding a little love for the splake and, I also took a trip to the Atikokan area to fish lakers with old friends…
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VIDEO:
ONE HUUUUGE SPLAKE
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VIDEO:
BACK LAKE LAKER TOUR
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VIDEO:
BEAUTY BIG SPLAKE
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VIDEO:
FIRST ICE SPECKLED TROUT
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VIDEO:
.HAND AUGERING 101
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The years 2024 & 2025 up north were just mediocre bites. Stevie would join for part trips and I’d be off on my own for portions too. Always a little more unnerving setting out on that lake alone even if only for short distances. With the Bravo I could often use a helpful hand in the mornings too, pulling it backwards out of the trailer. Stevie and I would both notice the traffic on the lake was growing and so to was an MNR presence. Some weeks I’d get several visits with friends in uniform checking in on any baits, bites and barbs. C.O. Nicco was always a welcome visitor to the hut, just a good young man who has that big true passion for the outdoors.

First of those two years I picked up around two dozen fish for the week. The following year though, 2024 we were plagued by tough weather conditions that actually held us off the ice at times. Blizzards man! My buddy Keith would join for a few days and get stuck indoors for one of them, then Stevie would come up and call it quits a day early after a blizzards slow bite day blew the energy out of us. Absolutely enjoyed seeing the boys, talking fishing, doing a little exploring and personally catching a couple really big ones but, just too bad the fishing was on the slower side. It’s a long haul there for me and many, many days to wait between each annual trip, we always dream of everything going exactly as we hope. Reality is, a great bite is never a given, but a great time out fishing always should be.
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VIDEO
SERVING UP SOME GREASY LAKER CHOW
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VIDEO:
ONE SOLID SUPER LAKER
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This season was the shortest I’ve had since ever drilling a first hole. Just a few days out with an old friend is all that’d be managed on a tight work schedule. Missed it some, but again if you go back to the beginning paragraphs you’ll note how it’s kinda changing. Still want to do it, think I should, just not sure I need to break my back and the bank to make it happen the same way. November to May I gotta make hay for the year. If given a choice of a week long ice fishing trip where I’m many hours solo in the hut versus two to three weeks of camping and boating with a partner at same cost… yeaaaaaaahhhhh, lotsa boating is gonna win. That was the choice I made this year, to buy up more summer time over the ice trip and yet, I still took a few days with my old friend Mikey to do some walking out onto Lake Ontario for the chance at those favorite fish of ours. A slow go we only caught a couple each. I lost a bigger one below the hole in an awkward way, Mikey made his stick. A beauty it was.
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And that’d be that for that! A look back at it this way and it’s pretty awesome! Some anglers might dream of catching just one or two of the fish Stevie, myself and others have pulled up topside in recent years. You know, when a laker, big pike, eye or whatever eventually does hook up on a short rod, it’s oftentimes an even more exciting feeling than what hooking the same fish during open water seasons is like. I mean, you’re stuck in one spot on the wait, you’ve got less rod and gear forgiveness, you’ve got this hole you gotta turn ‘em in and a line that’s in danger with surface ice, it’s stuff like that and more, a different set of rules making for one different realm of excitement. Ice angling is really a wonderful thing of it’s own and probably every angler out there who thinks they’re something else, better have solid credentials through winter catches of theirs too. From the study required, efforts needed and skills to be honed, ice fishing lends itself well to better adaptation and greater growth in the sport which without, will surely mean there’s something missing overall in you. I’m glad to have these experiences whether they wind down for me or not… ummmm, maybe I just missed it this year and that’s reason for reliving it now in this way..?

Thanks for reading.

Bunk