Howdy folks,

Heading to Ester/Hanson area mid May.

Anyone willing to give me any tips on trout spots?

I would understand not wanting to put your spots on here for the world to see.
Feel free to email me if you would like :)

In the past, I’ve had success trolling spoons with keel sinkers and jigging with white tubes. I’ll have an assortment of different laker tackle with also.

This will be my 1st trip to that area.


Thanks,

Mr. B

I've only fished that area for trout two times, and we had our best luck in either Ester or down in SAK. In Ester, it was nothing special...just paddling around mostly in the middle of the lake until we caught one, and then paddling back and forth in that area to catch any remaining fish.

I do remember watching some guys spend a LOT of time fishing near the portage to Ashdick. I don't know what they were catching because we were far away, but they spent a lot of time sitting in one spot, so either they are exceptionally lazy or they had something good going on.

i dont think you need a keel sinker mid may, but trolling spoons or casting from camp they always produce , my bread & butter trolling lure this time is a f-18 original floating rapala blk/gld , it actually gets down about 10' , but the suspending lures i have great success with lately , trolling in a canoe you have your pauses and that lure stays in the strike zone , slack picks up ,, then the hit comes , pic of 2 of my favs trolling the chartreuse crawdad bomber more a deep rock smally lure but all6a-8a bombers are great trolling lures at any speed. .also a smithwick suspending rattlin rogue is a great lure too , this is gld/grp. money the first time out :)

IMO , if your going to ester/hanson make the next step to the SAK .

I appreciate the advice and info.

Shock- We may just do that. Heading to Ester/Hanson day 1. After that, the possibilities are just about endless.


Going to fish Ester/Hanson at least 1 day though. All I’ve ever heard is that it’s a tricky lake to locate lakers. Then again, that IS half the fun though.

MrBadExample: "I appreciate the advice and info.


Shock- We may just do that. Heading to Ester/Hanson day 1. After that, the possibilities are just about endless.



Going to fish Ester/Hanson at least 1 day though. All I’ve ever heard is that it’s a tricky lake to locate lakers. Then again, that IS half the fun though.
"

send me an email , for some reason i cant see email address's on here ? but i'll share a map of the eddy falls area . Darryll

Shock, I have the same deal with email.

Here is mine.....

Goodoljeff99@gmail.com

In mid may I would bring frozen suckers and circle hooks. After you are done trolling and jigging, you can pick up some more trout from camp.

My favorite trolling lures are a williams wobbler spoon, or a #7 purple glass shad rap. But we take them on original floating raps, deep tail dancers, and just about everything else at some point. #10 silver husky jerk is my favorite to cast from shore. I pack two of those since I lost one up there.

Tyler W,

Ha, just had to wobblers delivered to my door this morning. We have very similar tackle boxes.

Working on a shore fishing dead bait rig. Made a poker to run the line thru the bait and out it’s mouth. Using either float beads or styrofoam jammed inside the minnow to float it a little off of the bottom.


Thanks for the intel!

MrBadExample: "Shock, I have the same deal with email.


Here is mine.....


Goodoljeff99@gmail.com"

e-mail sent

MrBadExample: "Tyler W,
Working on a shore fishing dead bait rig. Made a poker to run the line thru the bait and out it’s mouth. Using either float beads or styrofoam jammed inside the minnow to float it a little off of the bottom.
"

I'm glad you said something. I have tried all of those tricks with negative results. I have tried styrofoam and lindy rig floats and been out fished by non-floating baits. I have also tried threading the bait on. In my experience, if you need to thread the bait on, the bait is too large. Also, the hook point has a tendency to turn into the bait, which makes hooking up impossible. Better to hook the bait securely from one end and know the hook point is exposed.

The best dead bait rig is:
1. tangle proof
2. keeps the hook point exposed
3. snag resistant

I use half a medium sucker on a 3/0 or 4/0 hook. The front half is hooked through the skull, the back half under the dorsal fin at a 45 deg angle. Tie this off to the pike proof leader of your choice (25lb saltwater floro leader is my choice).

Next, use a sinker slide or better yet a bent ledger boom. Pretty frustrating to have a fish drop a bait, only to reel up and see your slip sinker rig is twisted into a fixed sinker rig.

If you want to spend some time preparing tackle, make some 1oz slinky sinkers. Otherwise, buy some 1 oz trolling/ pencil/ drop shot weights. I use 1 oz sinkers because they are too large for a loon to eat, and cast well on most rods. The long and straight pencil weights seem to snag less than egg or casting sinkers. Still, some campsites basically require slinky sinkers.

Ester is an awesome smallie lake.......and if you're on Hanson,, anywhere you have water coming into Hanson can be pretty stellar for smallies. We sat in one location and caught 40-50 smallies on Hanson when they are "right".

I've not fished Ester too much for lakers, but I have pounded the smallies on Ester. There is a really really large flat point by the island campgrounds. That point, will have spawners up and on it mid may, and we have destroyed smallies there. Also that entire north bank and down by the ashdick portage, and the cypress portage....using a small texas rig craw in and around those trees is awesome. We caught fish in every single tree a few years ago.

Finally, if you want lakers, Rabbit off of Ester is a good "goto" lake for small, eater sized lakers. I've caught them nearly every time I've fished for them in that lake.

Checkout my geofisher . com website for some of my early trips and soem of my summer trips. Ester was one of my favorite lakes for many trips.

Later,

Geo

Tyler W.,

Would you help me out with the bent ledger booms?

Where do you purchase the bent ledger? I see them on eBay.

I’m having a tough time picturing how to rig it up.

Never used salt water rigs. I’m all ears though.


Thanks,

Mr. B

After a little more googling it looks like a slip sinker style rig.

Still interested in those bent ledger things though.

The "ledger boom" is just a very long sinker slide. They do a good job of spreading the leader and the main line so they don't twist together on the the 20' drop to the bottom.

My brother brought some back from Europe two years ago. And, they really do save tangles. I have also made them by putting a red straw from a WD-40 can inside a regular sinker slide. Then hit the straw with a lighter for two seconds, bend and done. A littler harder to rig than the commercial ones, but they worked.

We fished for years with out them. If you are using a regular sinker slide, tighten your line up as soon as it hits the water. Less slack in the main line means less chance of the leader twisting around it.

Thanks.

I’ll monkey around and see what I can come up with.