Search for splake in the same places you’d find lakers and brook trout

Your total guide to catching splake through the ice

Advertisement

TACKLE

For my splake tip-up, I use the same set-up as I use for brookies, but with a bigger minnow attached to the #2 or #4 Gamakatsu hook hanging below my half gold/half silver W30 Williams Wabler (above). When jigging, however, I go with a beefier set-up: a 30- to 36-inch medium-action jigging rod spooled with 10-pound-test Sufix Ice Fuse and an eight- to 10-pound-test Ultragreen leader. And my go-to bait is a white Bass Magnet tube jig, which I present the same way as I would for lake trout.

Advertisement

It helps to know how big the splake grow in your favourite lake because the hefty heavy hitters tend to behave more like lake trout, while the mighty mites act more like brook trout. Can’t decide which is the case? Then use a dropper rig with a 1/4-ounce Mepps Little Wolf (in glow pink/gold back) or Acme’s gold Kastmaster spoon with a small jig dressed with a piece of cisco or herring belly meat a foot above it.