Trip Report – Gull Lake – Feb 16,17, 2019

My friends and I had a great time fishing Gull Lake over the weekend. Thanks to Chad Hughes with Gull lake Fishing Charters for renting us an ice hut to use because the wind was bitterly cold.

The shanty was located just off of Brownlow’s landing in 15 feet of water. There was a huge village of tents and shacks set up so it was pretty clear where the spot would be. The bottom had the odd weed but was mostly sand. I drilled a few holes outside the shanty and quickly discovered the deep freeze gave us 34” of ice, just two inches away from needing an auger extension. We saw a lot of fish cruising by, it was a real fish highway, but between 6 anglers we only managed to catch 3 fish.

One of those fish was a 35” pike. We managed to catch him on a 1/16 oz jig tipped with a minnow that was resting on the bottom. The pike put up a hell of a fight and I was worried he would straighten the hook on my small jighead. After a couple of big headshakes and 6 or 7 strong runs we managed to land him. Overall, it was difficult fishing to say the least, all the fish were very wary. They would come in to see what we were jigging but wouldn’t get too close. After examining our offerings for a while they might eat the odd minnow off the bottom but it wasn’t often. First thing in the morning on the second day there was a burbot stirring up the bottom and nesting, it eventually took a minnow but only after an hour or so.

Despite the cold weather and slow fishing we had a great time. I would definitely recommend renting a heated shack when the weather turns cold.