When ice fishing, oftentimes “takes” can be slight. This balancing technique will telegraph even the softest of bites.

"Dad, you have a bite,” exclaimed my five-year-old son Richard. I turned to watch my fishing rod as its tip slowly rose back up and came to dead level again, precariously balancing on the back of a lawn chair.

I tiptoed over to the rod-and-chair setup, and waited a moment, poised at the ready. The rod tip suddenly bobbed again as the rainbow trout took the hook again below the thick ice and slowly began to swim away with the baited hook in its mouth. As the rod tip slowly dipped towards the ice fishing hole, I quickly snatched the rod and gave it a snapping tug to set the hook.
To our great surprise, the big trout came exploding from the hole instantly — like a rocket launching from its pad — and suddenly landed, flopping on the ice. There was not even a slight chance to fight, he just launched straight up from the hole at the solid set of the hook. Richard immediately pounced on the more than six-pound rainbow like a cat on a mouse and, as he struggled to subdue the huge prize, hollered, “I got him Dad!

The rainbow was a real monster for the tiny southern Alberta lake we were at. Since we usually caught fish in the half-pound to 1 lb range, I was surprised that we were able to nail a true denizen from those shallow waters. I snapped a few photos of my excited fishing partner with the big trout before calling it a day.

Written by WP Williamson