Searching For Early Winter Brook Trout
By: Tyler Dunn

Regarded as one of the most beautiful fish available to an ice angler, the magnificent brook trout is present for any angler in Ontario willing to put in the time and effort. The appealing colours of the fish attract many in the winter months who are willing to snowshoe into one of Ontario’s Provincial Parks or snowmobile 100’s of kilometres in a day to get into a Canadian Shield lake with a healthy population of brook trout.

Begin Your Search At Home

Your search for trophy brook trout should begin at your local MNR office. The MNR has stock sheets available to the public free of charge. These sheets list the name of the lake, species stocked and the GPS coordinates to the lake. Along with your stock sheet you will need a GPS and topographical mapping program. Simply type in the lakes coordinates on the program and the lake will appear. Now you have the ability to zoom in and locate an access point to the lake.

Locations

By first ice, most brook trout have already spawned but many times I have caught fish that have been spewing eggs, obviously just about to spawn under the ice. Generally most species of fish begin to feed heavily during the post-spawn period. Brook trout have the habit of feeding in the shallows during lowlight periods of the day. Shallow flats and wood are always smart places to target but underwater points that gradually drop off towards the deepest basin of the lake are usually my initial target to locate big active brook trout.

Jigging Presentations

Tackle companies are continuing to develop a variety of new vertical jigging baits as each year passes. Most are geared towards other species like walleye, pike, whitefish, panfish and even lake trout but they also work extremely well with the famous brook trout. Jigging spoons have developed into my confidence brook trout presentation. I normally begin in an area I always know there’s fish and use a 1/8 oz Northland Buckshot spoon. These do not have as much flash as a flutter spoon (Williams Whitefish) but the rattle inside is incredibly loud and basically calls them in to eat. Using a 26-32 inch medium-light ice rod spooled with 4-6# monofilament, jig these spoons very lightly, never ripping the lure high enough to cause much slack. This jigging motion really rattles your spoons buckshot rattle and still gives a bit of flash and dance. If the fish are not taking this presentation I will then switch to a small, flashy, thin gauge spoon such as a Williams.

When I am in search mode and I am trying to cover as much water as possible looking for new areas with aggressive fish present, I tie on a jigging rapala or jigging shad rap. Fish these with an aggressive lift and pause motion. I tend to stay with brighter colours for brook trout such as firetiger, clown and glows. For added appeal and scent thread a few waxies or maggots on the hooks or even my favourite a minnow head.

A few great options for jigging up winter brookies

Dead Sticking

Usually more effective then jigging throughout the entire day dead sticking is a must especially for inactive brook trout. When I find an area that is holding a good amount of fish dead sticking rods can be found in both of my holes. Many different baits can used such as walleye jigs, plain hook, jigging spoons but my favourite is a dropper. First remove the treble from a Williams Wobler and replaced it with a small barrel swivel. Next tie a monofilament or fluorocarbon leader from 3-12 inches from the spoon to a size 6 or 8 octopus hook. Hook the minnow behind the dorsal fin allowing the minnow to stay alive and continue to swim giving the spoon flash. There are two ways to effectively use dead sticking. The first is to punch 2 holes within 10 feet of each other. Jig one hole and then set your dead stick in the other. The concept of this is that the fish will be drawn in for the jigging bait and with either take the dead stick on the way in or out from your jigging presentation. The second option with dead sticks is to completely cover an area methodically with all your lines being dead. If you are fishing with a group of 4 anglers and 2 lines are allowed then that is a maximum of 8 for the entire group. For example if you 4 decide to fish a new underwater point, use the 8 rods in a grid pattern 20-30 feet apart to cover the entire point. With this you will be able to identify if the fish are striking on top of the point, along the sides or even out off the drop-off in deeper water. This will also give you a starting point on your next underwater point that you fish that day.

Remember a successful day for winter brook trout isn’t just about getting the self satisfaction of catching a fish but indulge more in the experience of the adventure for you and whoever you are sharing it with. Oh, and take a lot of pictures!