Mack Jigging on Whitefish Lake

Got out to Whitefish Lake this last Saturday to chase after some lakers.  Original goal was to head down to the NW edge of Flathead Lake, but with some car sharing issues, I just had the misses drop me off at Whitefish State Park for the day.  First time out on the boat for the year, and I was testing out a whole wack of new gear including a Lowrance Elite 5-HDI (worked great, probably do a dedicated write-up once I have some more mileage with it). 

Plan was to head up to Mack Point on the west side of the lake and jig, decided to troll a line with a spoon off a 1 oz banana weight for the journey...certainly didn't expect anything from that but as I was coming up on the point I hooked into a 19" laker.  After that jigged in ~120' of water right off Mack Point and pulled in 6 more in the 15-20" range.  Used a 1 1/2 oz white Zimmer glow-bug jig, off a Zimmer "quick-rig" (glow-fly on top of a 1 1/2' leader).  Cut-bait on the jig, earth worm on the fly.  Hooked two on the fly.  Started with a white Rattle-D-Zastor but the first hook-up I had pulled the treble hook of the jig  .

Good way to start the season, beautiful day and super quite on the lake.  A couple more weeks and that lake will be a constant buzz of ski-boats and pontoons.  Goal for next trip:  Take the camera out of the hatch   

Nice. I had to look up Rattle-D-Zastor. How long do they have to be to retain them?

By the way, the only one I've ever heard use "wack" in that context was by brother and he's from Nova Scotia. Must be a Canadianism but I like it.

You did better than I did.  On Sunday I went to Flathead Lake, launched from the Walthrop fishing access, and downrigger trolled around on the south side of Big Arm and the south side of Melita Island at depths from 40-70 feet.  I saw some lake trout on my fish finder but didn't get a single bite.  A week earlier I got a 25" and a 26" lake trout while trolling near the Big Arm Fishing Access.

We'll have to get together sometime for some lake trout fishing.

No minimum length, just can't keep any in the 30-36" range, and only 1 over 36."  Because they're bullying the Bull-Trout and Cutthroat populations, the limits are high...20 in Whitefish and 100 in Flathead. 

Pete, I'd love to get together for some Flathead fishing...not sure when the next time I'll get a good chance will be, but I'll shoot you a message when I know. 

On the south half of Flathead Lake, which is in the Flathead Indian reservation, this year the Tribal fishing regulations eliminated the restriction on keeping lake trout between 30 and 36 inches long (the "Slot").  Because both the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Tribes are trying to reduce lake trout numbers in Flathead Lake, the Slot never made any sense to me.  It was pparently promoted by outfitters, who want to maintain a trophy sized lake trout fishery.  So now on the south half of Flathead Lake you can keep up to 100 lake trout a day, with no limitations on size.

With respect to the impact of lake trout on bull trout, which is an endangered species, I posted some pictures of a 14.5 inch bull trout I found in a 30 inch lake trout at http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=12894.0 .  Of course, lake trout eat all kinds of different fish, so it's not like they pick particularly on bull trout.