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I do alot of ice fishing for walleye on the St.Lawrence but would like to catch some lakers through the ice. I know people fish them on the Big Rideau, but could anyone point me in the right direction. It's all about location lol.. Any help would be appreciated. Im new at this so bare with. Tuesday Jan 20 me and a buddy caught 19 walleye in 2 1/2 hours on the St.Lawrence river in the cornwall area. Usually you catch more fish with 2 minnows on your spoon, but that day they wouldn't touch the lure unless there was 1 minnow. I'm no lurker

white twister tails or BIG LARGE shinners.... set one 4 feet off the bottom with your tip-up and in another hole at a different depth, start jigging 3 feet off the bottom, and move up to just below ice level in incraments of 5 or 10 feet..... dont forget the long slow drops,,,,, lakers love that!

Thanks for the advice

Just white twisters will do it.. no other bait????

Couple of notes...
(1) If possible, use a vex or depthsounder to see what depth they are at
(2) Minnow on a jig works well - move it REAL slow
(3) Will often hit on the drop, which can be really subtle. Basically the line stops before it should - best way I can describe it. Not a "hit" like a pike by any stretch!!!

Big Rideau - season is not open for Lake Trout until June. Charleston is also closed. Both of these lakes are being restored to natural fish - the stocking has ended. Both lakes are also monitored by a lot of homeowners from shore, ministry would be fast to throw fines for people targetting lakers as they are such slow growing fish... most people on Big Rideau will be targetting Crappie and pike (or perch). There are walleye in Big Rideau, but they are tough to find...

Silver Lake and Loughborough both hold lakers, both stocked and then there is also a few decent splake lakes (Dog, Indian) and are easy to access. Ministry is trying to take the pressure off Rideau and Charleston to allow the naturals to recover.

Good luck
O4T

Hey nips,

If you have white tube jigs, give them a shot. Tip them with a minnow, and jig. As plncrzy said, work the water column below you, as lakers like to cruise around at different depths in the winter. I've had them swim right below me when fishing over 60 feet of water, so you never know.

I will usually jig a spoon or tube jig tipped with a minnow, and for a set line I like to rig up a 3 way swivel, with a short length of line to one hook, and then an in-line silver swedish pimple with a short dropper to another hook.

Either system worked well for me when I fished Kaminiskeg Lake in Barry's Bay, before they went to one-line and a slot limit. Still works well on other Laker lakes I have been to.

Good Fishing To All

OVFisherman

Like OVFisherman i have also spent some time on Kamaniskeg Lake in B-Bay area. I have also fished simcoe a fair bit and spent a great deal of time fishing the small trout lakes northwest of Pembroke. In the open water season i have fished Opeongo a fair bit.

Two things that work well for me are:

Using a set line but set only 20 feet down bellow the ice, i find i have caught several fish hunting for food that way, they seem very aggresive.

Key point for the next thing is having a sonar unit i also use this in the open water season.


I will typically drop shot for lake trout only rather that use a weight I use a tube jig on the bottom and 2-3 ft up i use a power bait smelt type plastic.

use you graph to hunt fish through the water colum also.

Location and structure are key.

On the set line I will use a minnow but more often just a strip of sucker, i will dip suckers in the spring and fillet them and use strips throughout the open water and ice season.

On the drop shot line i dont use any bait, just scented plastic.

hope these ideas help, as far as lakes to fish check out the MNR stocking lists and regs.

Right on thanks for the help guys, so your telling me that lakers are out of season on the big rideau in the winter?? I thought you could fish them, anyways i will check the mnr regulations. I was ice fishing on the St.Lawrence river on saturday and sunday morning for walleye. The bite was extremely lite. I caught 5 walleye saturday and 8 on sunday. Nothing very big, everything was under 2lbs.

Yes, Big Rideau is off limits for Lakers in the winter.

Silver is open and so is Loughborough. I haven't fished Silver yet and am wanting to try it out.

Silver Lake used to be a fairly good spot for winter lakers, not sure how it is now. I fished small minnows on the bottom and white tubes all the way to the hole. In late winter they can take your jig just a few feet under the ice.