Kayak ice fishing

On April 20 I went kayak fishing on Flathead Lake from White Swan Bay.  When I headed away from shore, I was surprised to discover that the bay was mostly covered by a crust of ice which had formed the night before.  My Revolution broke through the ice, but it slowed me up a lot.  When I got out of the bay, wave action had broken up the ice, but there were big rafts of broken ice, and I had to avoid them and fish in the open areas until the ice melted.

Hope that’s the last of it for you, that stuff can be a pain in the neck where line is concerned. Care to mention the name of the jigging spoon that’s seen in the photo?

Care to mention the name of the jigging spoon that’s seen in the photo?

It's a Zimmer "Rattle-D-Zaster," light green with glow panels.  I forget its weight, but it's about 3 inches long.  You need a jig that big to get down quickly to the 180-230 foot depths were you catch most lake trout by jigging in Flathead Lake.  I add a second treble hook on the top of the lure, and put pieces of cut bait on the hooks.  Most people, myself included, run Rattle-D-Zasters and other lead jigs with a small glow fly with a small piece of cut bait on it.  The fly can either be on a separate but shorter leader, or in the middle of the leader for the Rattle-D-Zaster.  People who are trying for small lake trout catch most of their fish on the fly, but plenty of big lake trout get caught on a fly.  I caught a 24 inch lake trout on a fly yesterday.

Because of the effectiveness of the fly when fishing for lake trout, some of the competitors in Mack Days take the hook off a Rattle-D-Zaster and use it just as a weight, and probably as an attractant because of its glow.  They run one fly below the Rattle-D-Zaster, and a second fly in the middle of the leader to the Rattle-D-Zaster.  I haven't tried that.