Ice-fishing Friday: A snowy backcountry trout trip in the Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve

Despite the near white-out conditions at times, it only took 15 or 20 minutes to arrive at our destination. Steve immediately got to work drilling holes while Ted and I followed behind with a shovel and scoop to clear them. With a gas auger, he drilled about 10 holes at different depths, ranging from five to 15 feet, to try and intercept fish moving up and down an underwater shelf as the day progressed.

Once the holes were drilled, and Steve checked for activity with his Helix 5 portable sonar, Ted and I started jigging small spoons dressed with minnow heads. Meanwhile, Steve rigged up a couple more rods with live minnows to use as deadsticks. After 10 minutes or so of jigging, I missed the first fish that bit and stripped my Kastmaster spoon, so I re-rigged it with a minnow tail. It wasn’t long before I was on the board with a beauty 16-inch brookie (above).