Chasing a World Record Lake Trout on White Otter Lake

This is my third trip to famous White Otter Lake just outside of Atikokan, Ontario. It's a little over a two in a half hour trip from my hometown Thunder Bay, Ontario. We made the sled ride from Clearwater Lake to a 5 min portage that took us straight to White Otter Lake. Once you've been to this lake once, it's almost impossible not to think about your second trip as soon as you leave. Especially if your trying to land that monster lake trout or at least know about its world record potential. Anything over 15lbs in this area was not uncommon, and we knew that. Almost every fisherman we ran into on the lake has had a story about landing one or even multiple 15 - 25 lb lake trout in the same weekend. Most of these fisherman have been fishing here for over 20 years. A Duluth man caught the ice fishing world record for catch and release on White Otter last winter, this was just a week after our first trip. It had a length of 46 inches, and likely weighed over 40lbs. The ice fishing world record for a kept lake trout was caught on Clearwater West; the lake you leave from to get to White Otter, weighing 40 lbs. Now you can see why our choice was White Otter. Searching for a fish like that becomes an addiction for me. After making the beautiful portage from Clearwater to White Otter we headed straight for a reef in the middle of the lake we'd seen on the map and passed by our last trip. Depths went from 10-60 feet very fast, and there was plenty of action on the sonars right away. All of the lakers caught here were taking to a smelt type pattern jigfly or a white tube with a medium sized dace. The best fish of the trip though, was a nice one caught about 5 feet under the ice, which was quite a surprise. I dropped my jig down the hole and felt it stop, startled, I went to look to see if it had caught on the Vexilar or bottom of the ice somehow. As soon as i peeked my head down the hole I had a pretty nice view of a big Laker hovering right on my jig. I don't think i've set the hook any harder in my life! After hooking into the lakers all morning and afternoon and moving from spot to spot, we decided to give a walleye spot on the way back a try for an evening bite. Within 5 minutes of dropping our jig and minnow in about 18 fow I heard my partner Brian hollering he had one on right away. Just as I was starting to leave my hole, I had something smoke my jig right off bottom. I didn't even mark it on the vexilar. Imagine our surprise as we both thought we were going to reel up two nice walleye, and by the way they were fighting big ones too! The fish I had on was taking massive runs directly under the ice, and got off right below. Brian was still fighting his fish at that time, so I went out to give him a hand. At first it looked like a nice fat walleye, but as soon as i went to grab him out of the hole i was shocked to see it was a big beautiful laker. I now realized what I had just minutes ago was possibly a laker too as well, cruising the shorelines in only 18 fow. Anything is possible at this lake! The funny thing is the next day we went out, we were catching Walleye out of the same hole the Lakers were coming out of, one just shy over 23 inches. The next day when fishing slowed down we made the sled ride to historical White Otter Castle, hence the name of the lake. It was built in the 1900's by Jimmy McQuat all by hand, all on his own. The only way to this is by sled boat or plane, and for him many many portages and 100's of miles from the nearest town. He lived in this castle for 4 years until accidently drowning in his fishing net. Truly an amazing story, and I visit this place every time. Everyone should make this fishing trip at least once in there life. The possibilities to fish are endless with many brook trout, walleye, lake trout lakes near by. We didn't get no world record, but you better believe I will be making plenty of trips back each year until I do, like I said its an addiction this lake!