Getting Started At The Island Lake Ice Fishing Derby
After three days of being sick with the flu, I decreed that we couldn’t go fishing anywhere that required a long walk out on the ice. To his credit, Darrell took the decree in stride and we agreed that Island Lake in Orangeville was the place to head. With parking close to the ice, a short walk to places that yield fish, and a place to grab a hot drink and warm-up if the cold takes over, you really can’t go wrong.
One of my favorite destinations for topwater largemouth bass in the summer and fiesty pike in the fall, Island Lake has never been as kind to either of us in the winter. The hardwater trips usually give us a sampling of perch, sunfish, and small pike, rarely anything too big, but still a fun place to spend the day, and we always go back. Of course, plenty of other anglers have better luck in the winter, and there are so many pictures of nice fish being pulled through the ice.
Today marked the start of the Island Lake Ice Fishing Derby, and having failed to buy tickets online in advance, we stopped at the rental hut to make our purchase and get in on the action.
The leaderboard for the derby when we arrived around noon.
Lots of great prizes for this year’s derby.
Instead of heading for our waypoints from last season (there had been several large schools of panfish we eagerly marked), we decided to head out beyond the pack and fish a little shallower, in an area that holds a lot of vegetation in the summer and often produces nice pike in the fall.
I cycled through lures, unable to decide if I wanted to target perch or pike. A spoon for the pike on the heavier rod, a smaller spoon for perch on the ultralight, hair jigs, micro jigs, different spoons…I think I was just looking for variety. Darrell seemed pretty set on a finding on a big pike, so he stuck with larger lures, while switching it up to something small whenever the fish finder marked movement on the bottom.
In roughly 5 FOW, a fish finder isn’t a whole lot of help, not getting enough distance for the cone to capture much. I missed our Aqua-Vu Micro underwater camera today. I dearly wanted to see what, if anything, was swimming around. Unfortunately, one of our cats had other ideas and chewed the camera cord one night while it was charging. A replacement is on the way.
After moving around a bit, we settled on a spot that appeared to be a drop-off. Without the camera, we couldn’t be sure, but the fish finder jumped between 5 FOW and 8 FOW, usually a good indicator that the ground isn’t level.
Darrell had switched up to a Rainbow Prism Williams Wabler and watched it flutter down the hole, remarking that something just had to eat it. Turns out he was right. After jigging for a bit I heard Darrell exclaim “Oh!” and saw his medium-heavy rod with a nice bend in it. With a laugh he told me, “You’re going to like this!”
Out of the hole came the nicest pike either of us had pulled through the ice on this lake and, realizing that it was larger than the fish we had seen on the board earlier, I quickly called the office to get a staff member out to our hut to measure it.
Since we prefer to practice catch-and-release, it was nice that we could call a staff member out to us, and they come out on the snowmobile, do a quick measurement, and you can let the fish go. Darrell kept the fish in the hole for the short time it took to get things setup, then we decided to forego a nice “catch” picture to get this lovely fish back in the water. It was nice to see such a beautiful, healthy-looking fish, and was nicer still to see it swim off. I think the official measurement came in around 726mm (about 28.5 inches). I have no idea if that ended up on the leaderboard or not. Both of us were just happy to see such a nice fish.
Pulling her out of the hole.
Getting a measurement.
My favourite part – the release!
Darrell’s mom will be so proud that he used a Williams Wabler to catch this fish!
The sun was starting to set already, so we fished for another few minutes while the adrenaline was still pumping, then decided it was time to pack up and get home to our critters.
Island Lake gave us another memorable outing, and gave me a great way to get over the flu! Now we’ve got the rest of the month to get out there and try our luck at more entries for the derby.
Tickets for the Island Lake Ice Fishing Derby can be purchased online or at the Conservation Area. Only fish caught after you purchase your ticket can be entered in the derby. The derby runs from February 1, 2015 to February 28, 2105.
argosgirl
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