Superior the Return!

After not being able to make the first Poutarama weekend we were able to make it up this weekend!  Weather was awesome, the ice was good, beer was cold, and the lotas were going nuts!!  Thank you guys for the invite and putting on us on some ling.  We kept a bunch, released a bunch, and after bringing just a pliers, knife, and a cutting board I'm wishing we wouldve released a bunch more.  After cleaning them on the shorline with a headlamp I'm finally getting the feeling back in my fingers again.  My oldest got his lifer burbot and so did my daughter's boyfriend.

Here the boys are heading out with the gear on a beautiful winter day, warm and no wind!

Our initail plan was to fish for burbot while FP hopped around to try different spots for invasive species for his book since he already had his lifer pout.  Here his older brother is punching holes all the way back to shore while FP checks the depths!

After losing a couple in the first 10 minutes just under the ice, my future son in law bagged his first burbot ever!

Not long after it was my oldest's turn to nab his lifer!!

Fishing was excellent and fast paced, most of the ones we caught were males and most were on the bottom.

After freezing our butts of cleaning these guys we headed to the Super 8 in Duluth and hit the hot tub, what a day of fishing!  No new invasives for FP but we all caught loads of burbot!

The next morning we headed up the north shore to scout for possible salmon fishing spots for the coming summer.

After reaching the Two Harbors area, the break wall looked sketchy we came upon some seriously bad ice in a little area of a bay with a portable sitting on it.  We walked down and caught an older guy just getting ready to leave.  He told us they were fishing for loopers and rarely salmon but had seen a round whitefish.  I asked him if he was sure it wasn't a lake whitefish as rounds are so rare here I guess.  He said nope it was  a round, apparently he knew what he was talking about.  We slowly picked our way out on to the wicked ice and setup camp.  After about an hour of watching tiny trout like fish swim by on occasion, we seen one.  We could tell right away from the tiny little snouts these were indeed whites.  Not long after my oldest brought one on top the ice!

 

 

It was a round whitefish!  Crazy and a big one too from what I've seen of them in pictures!  Not long after that the one I was really hoping for came in and FP had his for his scrapbook!!!

 

Oh, and these guys proved to be every bit as finicky little monsters as their lake relatives!  I missed a couple but really didn't care both my sons got theirs, life is good!  Anyway there ya have it MN Menominees!  Whats really crazy is if we would have been there 2 minutes later the old fella wouldve been gone and we would have kept on trucking northward and would have never found these guys!

Species List:

Comments

vanner's picture

Ahhhhhh!!!!!

Dr Flathead's picture

Nice action fellas!  Think I may head up that way very soon to try for a Round....

Hengelaar's picture

Great stuff!

Those Rounds are awesome!!

Fishn sure is neat

Eric Kol's picture

excellent! that is one hell of a weekend. Congrats on the lifers.
 

Carpy Diem!

andy's picture

Thanks for sharing, and big congrats on catching some nice round whitefish from the Big Lake.

 

 

Cast_and_Blast's picture

Thanks for sharing.  You have encouraged my ambition a little during this mid-winter blues.  I maybe have to give them Rounds a try soon.  Congrats.  

Graceclaw's picture

They're the best sometimes, aren't they?

FP4LifesDad's picture

No doubt!  FP says it all the time when we are scouting a species, from his idol Jeremy Wade "You have to talk to the locals because they know!"  LOL

FP4LifesDad's picture

Thanks gang, it was an amazing trip, still in shock about the rounds!

 

Lake Kantelljuhwhar's picture

thanks for posting

FP4LifesDad's picture

Thank you!

 

Eli's picture

Awesome stuff. Rounds in ice!

Eli

 

 

Mike B's picture

Really cool catch man. Rounds, in my opinion, are one of the toughest fish to catch. Seen lots of them but have only caught a few of them. Mind sharing your methods? Lure, depth? I think most here would agree catching rounds through ice is exceptional.

mike b

FP4LifesDad's picture

Thanks gang!

Mike, 

My oldest got his on a swedish pimple and a single waxie, FP got his with a tiny trout hook a split shot up about 3 inches and a single waxie right on the bottom.  We tried everything we could think of for about 2-3 hours and what we observed was any kind of movement the fish spooked away.  We were in shallow enough water where we could watch them swim back and forth.  I was chucking bait down the hole as we were changing it out (minnow heads, crawlers, fake salmon eggs, waxies) and I noticed that when ever the fish came thru they'd suck up some of the old bait off the bottom (except the fake salmon egg it's probably still there).  This gave me the idea to have FP switch over to a single waxie on a plain hook right on the bottom, wasn't five minutes and bang.  What we think we figured out is you had to keep the bait totally still, but I did have a little fly on with a single split shot about 3 feet up from it and had one come suck up the split shot right under the ice, ignored the fly.  Hope this info helps, good luck out there gang and be safe!

 

Mike B's picture

That is good intel man. I noticed rounds are really spooky. Had a bunch swimming around me last summer and all I did was scare them away every time I tried to cast to them. Most whitefish spook easy. I have read they have some of the best eyesight of any fish.

mike b

philaroman's picture

hey, I vaguely recall reading the same about quillbacks: huge, complex, intricate eyes

pretty damn sensitive to noise/vibration, as well (well-evolved lateral line?)

is it any wonder, both species are such BASTARDS?

P.E.T.A. sucks!!!  Plants are living things, too -- they're just easier to catch!

FP4LifesDad's picture

No doubt, I'm guessing the other two carpsuckers are just as bad!  The rounds weren't nearly as aggressive as the lake whitefish from last year, they were very cautious coming in.

Deftik's picture

yeeeeep, judging from those pictures that looks like a great time.

FP4LifesDad's picture

Thanks gang!