Stocked Rainbow Ice Fishing Tips?

[Fishermanpaul]

Hey everyone, I'm heading up north to try some ice fishing on stocked rainbow lakes. It will be my first time targeting stocked rainbow and I was looking for some tips, mainly on location and depth to target, the lakes I'm looking at fishing are smaller fairly deep fishbowl type lakes with basins that reach 30-60 feet. The only structure I can think of to target on these would be steeper drops near a shallow flat, saddles, inside turns, or possibly a weed bed if I can find one.

Any tips would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Dmanwithnoname]

I usually target downed timber and transition areas.

If you can find a beaver lodge that might be a good place to start.

That was what we used to do on the speckle/ splake/ rainbow lakes around the Bancroft area. Good luck and let us know how you make out.;

 

[Fishermanpaul]

Awesome, I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for both of those, thanks!

 

[RHYBAK]

A few feet under the ice with worms or Berkley power Bait

 

[moocow]

I agree with Rhybak, worms or trout power bait is my go to. The one thing I’ve noticed is the trout seem to be very wary after the initial offering. They will hit several times then seem hesitant. That’s been my experience.

 

[Red Hering]

Before the Covid-19 pandemic , I used to fish in an ice fishing trout derby,( usually at the end of February,safe ice permitting),at the Western Ontario Fish and Game Association in London,Ontario. Back then,most of the stocked trout in their pond,were caught early near the bottom,when the Trout Derby started around 8 a.m. Most ice fishing participants including myself,were mostly using different colours of Berkley Power Bait - Trout Bait. Experiment with different colours @Fishermanpaul because of the colour of water in the stocked trout pond where you will be trout fishing in. Such as,is the water there,clear,muddy,tea colour etc. Trout or salmon spawn bag’s in different colour mesh,( again,experiment), might help as well. Natural bait’s such as earthworms (some Canadian Tire Store’s sell them through the winter month’s ),could also work as well for trout. Light line to not to spook the trout,would also be another benefit. Be safe & Tight Lines & stocked trout ON!!

 

[Truck26]

Gold little Cleo, smallest u can find.

 

[Fishermanpaul]

Thanks everyone for the great advice, I'll keep everyone updated on how it goes!

 

[Fishermanpaul]

We only managed one bite but it didn't stick so we skunked out on rainbows... seemed like a heavily pressured lake, although it was stocked with 7000 trout last year, not a single person we talked to had caught a fish and the one guy mentioned he had been there 4 times and never caught one, we were there for 7 hours, between the four of us we tried wax worms, power baits, spawn sac/eggs, earthworms, jig/plastics, tiny spoons, you name it but we couldn't get a bite, can't say we didn't try though... so second day we said screw it and went to cooks bay on the way home for some jumbo perch. I was bringing my girlfriends father out for the first time ice fishing so I couldn't let us get "skunked" two days in a row (we did catch some small perch on the stocked rainbow lake but still felt like a skunk).. although it was slow still we did end up catching enough for some fish tacos so we were happy.

Thanks again everyone for the advice and stay safe out there on the ice!

Cheers

 

[Dmanwithnoname]

lots of those lakes get plundered in the winter months when you can get sleds in where vehicles struggle. You know what though, sometimes the trout just shut down with the weather. Can’t catch them from the couch. Now I wanna go try some of my old lakes. Regards!

 

[Fishermanpaul]

lots of those lakes get plundered in the winter months when you can get sleds in where vehicles struggle. You know what though, sometimes the trout just shut down with the weather. Can’t catch them from the couch. Now I wanna go try some of my old lakes. Regards!

yeah this one was even easier to get to, I couldn't pick one that was a trek and of course the ones right beside the road are going to be highly pressured. Yet, like you said cant catch them on the couch and now it's just added memory to the data bank of fishing files in my head lol.