Men at Work

I'm netting yet another fine Lake Trout for Ward Tollbum in this photograph. Ward is a fine arts painter and picture frame craftsman with a shop in downtown Sandpoint. He's also a knowldgeable naturalist who grew up on the shores of this lake and knows North Idaho like his backyard. Further and without flattery, Ward is a true American sportsman with a heart to share his knowledge with others. He also has a keen sense for what works, why it works, where and when.

I was on the water this particular morning with Ward and his daughter, Delci, for my first experience jigging for Mackinaw. I now have great faith in the technique.

We're dropping weighted lures, of which quite a variety exists, into deep water to imitate wounded bait fish. We're fishing between 90- and 120-foot depths where we've graphed a number of lake trout on the fishfinder. The jig is fairly heavy, weighing between 2 and 5 ounces. It hits the bottom, your line goes slack. You tighten and then jerk the rod tip well up into the air; the higher the better because the monofilament stretches at that depth. The lure jumps up off the bottom and settles down again with a dying flutter when you bring your rod tip down.

Mackinaw will hit your imitation at any point, probably thinking it's an easy take. If they don't actually take the lure, you may snag them as they come in to swing at it or investigate.

Only a week prior to my visit, Ward took national bestselling author Foster Cline (Love and Logic) out for his first Mackinaw trip and they caught 13 in one morning using this technique. I don't yet have a picture of that day but I hope to obtain one and I'll share it when I do.

Idaho Fish & Game currently has a bounty on Mackinaw having determined this deep water predator is a little too effective on taking Kokanee, which once swam by the millions in Lake Pend Oreille. So there's no limit to numbers you can take and the bounty is $15/head. Thirteen times fifteen equals...hmmm. Effective encouragement. Certainly pays for the gas to get there. But it helps also to have a little knowledge from an ardent fisherman like Ward who's spent countless hours, days and weeks learning what he knows about the fish of Lake Pend Oreille.

And here's one for you, that fish I'm netting for Ward was the last of the day. He hooked it unwittingly by snagging the loop in a Fish & Game tag that had been placed behind the dorsal fin. With all that leverage the fish fought hard but in the end lost to Ward's deft handling. You can see the tag attached just behind the dorsal fin in this photograph.

Some guys are just lucky, I guess.

But then, where the tag was once worth a hundred bucks, we learned later it had expired by the time Ward caught this laker. Some guys aren't quite as lucky as we think they are.

###Dwayne K. Parsons