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Thanks, but I’m gonna pass on bringing metal spikes and a hammer to pound into frozen ground

@@christopherbittell6501 also, stakes*

The real, just a suggestion, I’m sure your method is sufficient, barring a lot of strong wind. Just threw it out as an option. I’m gonna blame auto correct for the steak/stake debacle.👌🏼👍🏼🍻

@@christopherbittell6501 in the past when we’ve winter camped without snow, we’ve been forced to use ice house steel screw-in anchors, but that is also very difficult to get into frozen ground. The deadman anchor is very effective (when there is snow) and doesn’t require any additional tools/weight in the sled

My experience is limited to cold weather ops in South Korea as an Army grunt. Not Arctic cold, but below O Fahrenheit at times. The aluminum stakes would get blunted, but I assure you, would break through the frozen ground with the assistance of a trusty entrenching tool. Pretty light weight and cheap enough to replace if they break or can’t be removed from said frozen ground. Just a tip if you find yourself in barren land and no snow to work with.😉 P.s.we also carried a couple hundred meters of 550 cord in case you need to extend the guidelines to a distant bush or rocky outcrop.

Yes!

Yup!

Haha, thank you!!!

Knife can certainly be tricky. In June, generally speaking as I haven’t fished knife in June, I’d focus on moving water and weeds if you can find them. Fish will still be shallow along shorelines, especially first sun in the morning and late in the evening before and after sundown. Trolling big crankbaits along shorelines late in the evening is very effective for June walleye. Bass will be in their typical post-spawn spots like shallow dropoffs, rocky points and wind blown shorelines. Pike will be near moving water, weeds or moving to deeper cooler water

@ good info thanks. Are the lakers still moving up and around or are they starting to go deeper? I’d say it depends on the water temps. Hoping to snag a permit today.

@@TechDadTV definitely depends on the water temps, too hard to say. If you have a sonar/thermometer and surface temps are reading 60-65 degrees, they will likely be 25+. Generally, I find them shallow when the surface water temps are well below 60, which is unlikely in June

@@edorvy well, these work well if there’s snow!

@@ryang7602 you’re welcome! Thank you for watching!

@@ryang7602 welcome to the channel! Thanks for watching! I’ve spent years refining my winter lake trout tackle, and it’s still a work in progress. Right now, I’m loving my 42” Della Bay Compensator extra heavy rod paired with a 2500 sized Shimano reel spooled with 15lbs Seaguar abrazx flourocarbon. This setup is ideal for the 5-15lbs fish and baits in the 3/4oz - 3oz size. My smaller setup is the Della Bay 38” Rippin Rattle with a 2000 size shimano reel spooled with 12lbs flouro. This setup is ideal for 2-8lbs fish and baits in the 1/4 to 1oz range. I used braided line for years, but lost too many fish due to line ice up so I abandoned braid. If you fish exclusively out of a shack braid is fine, but braid ices up too much for fishing outside the shack - at least here in Ely where daytime highs rarely break 15 degrees in the winter. Pretty much any rod will do, but don’t skimp on the reel. You’re going to need a reel with smooth operating drag to handle the aggressive fights you’ll run into with the larger fish

@@jesseerickson963 they’re LL Bean Maine Guide pants! My wife bought them for me last Christmas. They’re amazing! Lined with primaloft, super warm and comfortable

​@@therealfarwaterthanks! I'll have to get a pair

@@jesseerickson963 10/10 would recommend. Heavy baselayer underneath and I’m good down to -30 or so. I’ve been fishing and trekking in them all month and they’ve stood up to the cold very nicely

@@livingwiththebrushpeople2948 it sure was! I should film all my outros at sunset!!

@@livingwiththebrushpeople2948 thank you!!

@@cannonstrength I made the switch from braid to flouro for my ice rods. I fish outside a lot, and have lost way too many fish to braid icing up. For this trip, the issue was not the line, it was the rod. I’m not used to catching giants through the ice so I only had a medium heavy rod. I’ve since sized up to a 42” extra heavy rod which will allow me to land them much quicker.

​@therealfarwater hell yeah. That braid is tough when it's cold and windy. Ive also lost Lakers due to frozen line. Gotta pick your battles i guess. My first winter bwca trip i brought an even smaller rod and the tube jig was alot for it. Started going out to peck and upgraded to a broom handle. Have you been out this year? Conditions seem perfect.

Nope! I spend a lot of time on Snowbank, this was on the other side of Ely

Awesome - keep the content rolling man! My crew and I love our spring trips but would love to do a winter trip. Do you do long weekends and stay in Ely and go back and forth? Or camp out on the ice this trip?

@@matthewfeldick1850 I live and work in Ely, so I do A LOT of day trips and 1-2 multiple night winter camping trips during the season. I save most of my vacation for longer open water trips.

They’ve been snapping for me this season! I think it’s going to slow down a little bit with the new snow we’ve gotten in the last two weeks, but I’ll still be heading out as much as I can

This was filmed Jan 4th, there is more snow now, but we’re still way behind on snowfall. Most lakes have some drifted snow on shorelines, but on the main lake mostly less than 4-6”.

@@therealfarwater Oh sure, duh, you were in BWCA, so early start to lk trout fun. Thanks for the update.

No, hadn’t even heard of the channel. I just checked it out - there was only 1 short laker video, am I missing something?

@ just the short of the 4 wheeler starting in the cold

@ dang! Super cold! We tried to use a wheeler this morning and it wouldn’t start so we drove my Subaru across the ice

@@alanruechel2240 thank you! I’ve lost plenty of fish with we cook sets before I try not to make that mistake especially with lake trout

Thank you for watching!! I’ve got a lot more coming soon

@@TamLe-qj1uo thank you!!

@@lukecullett9044 thank you! It’s hen been a great season so far, plenty more to come. I use Altai Hok skin skis, they are phenomenal!!

​@therealfarwater thanks. Was one I was looking at. The 125 with universal bindings. But I'm #250 not sure if I should got to the 145s

@ I’ve got the 145s and I’m only 170. Little more glide and loft in deep snow and over slush.

@@holmmie4433 lake trout are tough, especially through the ice. Be careful! Once you catch one you’ll be hooked for life.

@ I already am hooked for life! Seen my buddy catch a trophy up there!

@ that’s great! You gonna have a chance to get up here this summer?

@ that would be sweet to get up there summer!!

@@DRazz86 every day in Ely is beautiful, but this one especially so. Thanks for watching!!

@@markpotaczek it’s about time I start posting again!! Thank you for watching, Mark!

@@eduffy4937 it certainly would’ve saved us some time hiking out on this trip!

@therealfarwater I've been out on seagul a few times and up on snowbank a few times when a guy could lace up the skates and cover some ground. On seagul it's a godsend. Make it to the west side laker structure in 15mins with a sleigh full of gear. Beats the hell out of skiing through knee deep snow or post-holing your way along.

@ yes! These last two seasons have been phenomenal I’ve travel conditions! Even without skates I can fly with hok skis or boots with spikes.

@therealfarwater yep Can't ask for much better conditions honestly. Little to no slush, not waist deep in the woods, and easy going on the lakes.

I am glad!! I only use hand augers, even outside the boundary waters. These nils augers are all you’re ever going to need! Only maintenance required is getting them sharpened every other season or so

@@lukeaxelson4191 that’s great! Where you headed?

@therealfarwater We are planning on going to Snowbank for sure or other easier to access lakes since we are just hiking in none of us ski or have a snowmobile. Open to any suggestions from a local because we don't really know what we're doing, but had success last year.

@@lukeaxelson4191 Snowbank or burntside are your best options for easy access on the Ely side. I’ve always done best with glow tubes and a tip up with a live sucker minnow on snowbank. If you can hike in beyond the BWCA line you should be able to avoid the crowds and find better fishing. I’d recommend targeting 40 to 70 feet of water right next to shallow structure and or a very deep hole/basin

@@therealfarwater We did catch one on a tip up with a big sucker just past the boundary waters line. We'll be there the whole 1st week of February. I will try jigging with a glow tube as well. I was planning on using 10 lb test fluro is that sufficient?

@ I use 12lbs, ten should be sufficient. Good luck, sounds like a fun trip

Thank you!! I’ve got a lot more coming soon!!

@@paulkuske1457 that’s wonderful! I’ve enjoyed my time there, year round. Thank you for sharing your story. It’s delightful to be connected to this place and the people who enjoy it

Thank you very much for the instuctional videos! No mater what your outdoor level of experience is there is always something to learn. Most You tube outdoor channels now are cooking some food and making a cup of coffee for content. Kind of sad. I do have a snow trekker high country tent. I do place the black skirt on the inside of my tent and then tarp over it. You still are able to bank snow on the outside walls. Tear down of the tent is way easier with this approach. That is the recommendation from snow trekker themselves. A quick email to confirm this way of doing it to snow trekker would be good info for your outfitters. Way less iced up stress on the skirting during the tear down process of the tent. Cheers!

@ thanks for the intel, That makes a whole lot of sense! I will absolutely try that next time and let our outfitting staff know, too.

Hello, Andrew!! Thank you for watching!! I've got more fishing content coming next! It's lake trout ice fishing from this season, but will be switching to A LOT more Spring/Summer content in the next month or so!

It’s a drift sock that slows the boat down in the wind. Generally I’m too deep to use an anchor trout fishing, so this is the next best thing. It slows the boat down anywhere from .25-1mph which is just about perfect for vertical jigging lake trout

@@IceAngler of course they were!!

@@therealfarwater ok....well just an FYI, use and possession of live bait is forbidden on designated trout lakes in MN, which knife lake is. I'm just passing that info on to you. I'm not here to enforce or report. *Edit. I should have said live minnows. Worms and leeches are legal.

@ I’m aware, knife is not a designated trout lake. Live minnows are allowed. There are naturally occurring lake trout, which is different. A trout stamp is required to target lakers, but there are no stream trout in knife Lake

@@therealfarwater I think you might be right. Knife is listed as a trout lake in the online trout lake map from the DNR, but not actually listed as a designated trout lake in the revisor statute. That's very confusing. My mistake.

@ no worries! You’re right to double check the DNR regs rather than assuming or taking my word for it - a regs concerning trout lakes are a bit confusing

@@DRazz86 thank you, Daniel!! We appreciate that. Happy New year!

I'm so glad to hear it! Wendell brings so much joy to our lives, we're happy to be able to share him!

Yup! I’ve gotten a little better with them since this video, but they are a little clumsy for sure. Much better in powder than sticky snow, too

@therealfarwater oh most definitely. I bought a nicer pair of xc skins with wider bodies for more floatation and metal edges I'm going to try to rum this year Get a little better glide out of them on open country vs the skins on the hoks. Both have thier place in my kit

@@smokehousehammock4481 thank you!! The pulks really excel on portages, toboggans are great for lake travel. Some seasons you almost need both.

@@Eyetime30.5 thank you!! Excited to be hitting it hard again!!

This is the Snowtrekker Shortwall 9.5' x 11' - I believe it's marketed as a 3-4p. I've found its best suited for three people or two people and a dog or two. You could certainly fit 4 people in here without the cots, but it would be snug.

Thank you! Yep, much different than my usual content, but certainly a fun change of pace. Believe it or not, this was shot back in 2022 - I am finally getting around to some old content that never got made into footage, it's been fun to look back through the archives. It's great to be back! I hope to post regular content through this spring before taking a break during the summer - my hope is 3-4 full-length video releases/month with a few shorts sprinkled in. thanks for watching!

@therealfarwater look forward to it! With a little thought, Idetermined it was spring 2022 since we had almost no snow here in MN last year and impossible to winter trek in the BW anywhere but on lakes.

@@jeremymaslowski7723 yep! We haven’t seen snow like that in a while. Looks like this winter is shaping up to be dry, too. Makes lake travel easy, but portages not so much

Very cool! That sounds like fun. I was out yesterday and there were definitely places where skates would have fared better than skis or snowshoes. I'll be back out again tomorrow and I'll be going with boots and spikes. I used the Hoks yesterday when we were in sheltered areas with snow still on the ice and switched back to boots and spikes when we were on exposed areas of the lake with glare ice.

For me, it isn't an exact science, just an educated guess and it's easier for me to tell with older/larger fish. The males generally have a longer jaw/larger mouth (like the one I am holding in the video thumbnail image). The females generally have a rounder, less elongated mouth/head. Males are generally more brightly colored (the traditional dark red belly, crazy white tipped fins, and the rich green/brown back with spots) than the females, who are generally paler, more muted colors/versions of the patterns. These fish are stocked and sterile, so harvest sex doesn't really matter - I leave the big beautiful males for others to catch (generally they don't taste as good), and keep the females I catch over 14" or so. The holy grail is a 17"+ female - I like to bake or pan fry those with fresh herbs, garlic, butter, wild mushrooms.

@@therealfarwaterthank you for the info, as always very well done and informative

@@Jason-sf6db there’s a truck and trailer at prairie portage that’ll take boats over into basswood where it’s a 25 hp limit on motors. I think it’s $20-25 each way

Thank you! It is so good to be back. Stay tuned for a whole lot more!~

@@GadgetLabMN-v9i it was a great day! Thanks for watching

@@aaronalto3034 thanks!! Just curious, where do you live? People in MN (me included) rarely eat Largemouth, but I do enjoy a smallmouth from time to time.

@@therealfarwater I'm in Grand Rapids MN. We're Abbey the art teachers buddies she met in GR. Try a LMB sometime, you will be pleasantly surprised. I think it's just a thing like many outdoor "rules", for instance, well my uncle and his buddy said LMB are muddy and no good for eating so everybody just follows the lore. How's your back doing now? Hope you've gotten back your capacities. Take care.

@ of course! Wonderful to hear from you again. I’ve eaten my share of largemouth, but never from these Canadian Shield lakes. I grew up in south central MN and our lakes were full of them. My buddy’s grandmother loves them so we would always keep a few for her. I guess the softness is maybe what I don’t enjoy, not the flavor. I deep fry these whitefish, so being firm is desirable to keep the meat/fillet together. I don’t fish many lakes with largemouth, but run into them every year on accident. I’ll keep the next eater I catch and try it out!

@ it’s been a journey but the back is getting better. Thank you for asking, that is kind. I wasn’t limited much, if at all last summer; I spent A LOT of time in the woods. I did burn out on the other stuff, however. Fortunately, I still love the filming part and have 2 years of summer content on deck. It’ll take a while, but I’ve got a massive content dump arriving over the next 4-6 months as I am diving back in head first. I plan to be out for BWCA trout opener on the 1st, maybe I’ll do a short or update to keep in contact with viewers.

@@therealfarwater Good that you're mostly back to full strength. I've suffered some over the years, but last winter was freaky for me, and xrayed and MRIed and I have a genetic glitch between tailbone and L1 with a super thin disc which sets me up for more lower back delicateness and had very arthritic inflamed facet joints in L 4&5. I was ice fishing like wild doing Fish Donkey contests and hand hauling gear in to beackwoods lakes and paid the price. We never did any canoe camp trips last summer and I'm not sure if I'll be game for them again, which sort of sucks, but there comes a time, and I'm feeling like preserve and protect, rather than push limits. We did two motor in BWCA trips and the first one to Trout was super fun. Our motor boat has a canoe rack so we bring a canoe and paddle around some too. I had more wildlife survey work than ever too last yr March - Aug so wanted to keep myself good for all that which is mostly fun adventures too. Gotta make the most of what we got and get at any given leg of life, and glad I had all the fun I did and grateful I still have solid capacities for 58 yrs old. Take care and keep on making the most of it.

Yup! Especially after I drill 10 holes

I was giddy on this particular day, as I often am when I manage to catch big ones. I’ve fished this lake before, so I had a little intel, which really didn’t end up panning out. I was hoping they would be actively cruising the basins looking for food. Rather than park in the middle of the basin randomly, I chose the deep water side of a river outlet next to a peninsula, hoping baitfish or bugs would be in the area and draw fish to me, rather than trying to find big schools by drilling dozens of holes through 2.5’ of ice. I decided to stay put in relatively shallow water (less than 20) and didn’t see much. Luckily I had the live bait to seal the deal on a few VERY finicky fish.

@@laceysquier8031 thanks babe!!

YES!

@therealfarwater just a few more days then I can get back to catching some trout...

@@SteveSutherland-n5l nope, but I live on the edge of the BWCA where power augers are not allowed, so that’s not an option for me