Torch Trip
Big water, unexplored ice, and species I normally don’t get to target set the stage for an exciting trip north. Not to mention we had a bunch of machines and a great crew to not only have fun but find fish. Everything you read about Torch is it is extremely tough and we were going to put that to the test.
You’ve got to love when a road trip starts out with 4+ inches of fresh snow. We knew right away that it was going to be slow going and we would arrive later than expected. It didn’t help that our minnow stop at Ray’s Mini Mart was out of minnows. The roads had kept their bait delivery from being on time. Disappointed at first because they have awesome minnow scoops but it worked out in the end. A quick search revealed we would hit Hesperia around the time Hesperia Sport Shop opened. We got friendly service and great minnow scoops there. They also had a good selection of both hunting and fishing stuff so if you are ever on your way north and need some stuff it is worth the stop.
Hours later and we finally made it up there to start determining which accesses are acceptable. There are a lot of road ends on Torch but they are steep and mostly unsuitable for access. Some that are accessible don’t have parking for trailers or machine access. For a huge body of water it was certainly frustrating trying to find a place to fish. We couldn’t find anything near where the historical best trout fishing is so it was off to exploring around mid lake. There was some very trouty looking stuff within a few miles of an access we could use. Although we did get multiple vehicles stuck there briefly it all worked out ok. I also had the pigtail for my trailer come out at some point with all the blowing snow. Drew saved the day by bringing one up and if that is the worst that happened on the trip I wasn’t going to even be a little frustrated. Next we had to decide what the ice was going to let us do. We really had no idea how thick it was going to be. We elected to run the snow dog instead of a quad to feel things out. Ice was solid everywhere we went and the trouting was decent however we thought we could do better so we kept on the move. Most of my lake trout experience is on Grand Traverse Bay so I’m always looking for areas that a bunch can be caught. It doesn’t appear that is a thing on Torch but we did have all of our action in 100-125 feet. Once it got around to afternoon we decided to put it on the trailer and head to the burbot grounds.
We found solid ice there and the “moss” that the burbot like to spawn on. It was just a waiting game to see if they would show up. We marked a few trout but they didn’t want to commit to the burb gear. Once it got dark we started marking the burbs and it just kept getting better and better. They just wouldn’t commit! It was so frustrating, we tried all sorts of things with none of them working well. A few of us did get a burb or 2 but had they bit it could have been special. It gave us hope that we could make it happen the next night and at the very least we would be around them.
Our game plan for the next day was to just go exploring south from that launch. There was one giant point we really wanted to explore. We picked up a burb and a whitefish right away at the burbot spot. There were a bunch of fish still there and we really should have been there earlier but we had a 45 minute drive in the morning and didn’t think it would be loaded still. We also had a full day of trouting ahead. Once we stopped marking fish we headed south only to find a major pressure crack blocking our way. We did find a way around it and continued heading south. Travel was awesome, just enough snow for great traction but not enough to impede travel. The wind however did suck on this day and it was cold! Our hot spot to the south ended up being a ghost town. No one ever marked a fish! We did talk to a local who had been fishing every day for 2 weeks and had caught 2. Drew also briefly lost his phone down that way but made a lucky recovery. Nothing good happened in that area! We started moving rapidly along the break back north. Trout will show themselves pretty quickly if they are around so it was time to cut a lot of ice. This strategy was a lot of work but it did work and we started icing some trout. There was no real pattern other than punch a hole in 100-125 feet and drop a P-Line Laser Minnow. We kept shallower and deeper honest but neither produced any results. Although there was a bunch of small perch in 45 feet. The day was an absolute grind for me. It took me all day to mark a trout which I luckily landed. I dropped down and there was another one and I promptly lost that. 3 minutes later and I had another one on me that just didn’t bite despite going 20 feet up and down multiple times.
In the meantime, our chef was at it again. This time cooking up burgers with all the toppings! We had pulled goose leg sandwiches, poor man’s lobster (boiled burbot), burgers, chorizo and egg burritos, and snacks all out there on the ice. Big thanks to the Dragon for taking charge of fueling us all weekend. Long story short the burbot fishing sucked despite marking tons of them. I lost one right under the ice and one of the other guys had one bite. Frustration was at an all time high!
With crappy weather expected Sunday we all decided to just stay out a little later and start the drive home in the morning. It was a whirlwind of a trip but it was a great time. I think I’ve got another burbot run in me this season. With another little one coming soon it may be my last chance for a road trip and who knows when torch will freeze again. Gas prices certainly aren’t going to be fun but I can’t get enough of those burbs! Oh and Torch lived up to its reputation of being tough.