Why are Splake so Finicky?

[arnpriormike]

Every time I read information about Splake, it's always the same thing. "Splake grow fast and are easy to catch. By far the easiest trout to ice fish." Well...... I beg to differ.
With my experience, they are to most stubborn fish to catch. I have tried fishing shallow to deep water, bottom to just under the ice. Jigging and dead-sticking. Countless lures and techniques. And of course, different lakes.
I have had people tell me, "The Splake aren't biting yet."
When do they bite?.....at night? That's the only time I haven't fished for them!

Do you guys find splake to frustrating to fish, or is it just me.

[Troutskiii]

From my personal experience and all I fish for is trout for the most part(browns, bows, specks, lakers,) Splake are by far the easiest out of the bunch to catch, aggressive and they bite anything. If I get skunked for specks I usually swing by a splake lake on my way out and it's almost a gurantee to catch a few.

Not sure why your having issues? I tend to throw a minnow on and let it do its thing or jig with a spoon/minnow.

[jsdx]

Do you guys find splake to frustrating to fish, or is it just me.

Not just you. We've hit so many no-fish splake lakes that we have a saying "Splake don't really exist".When I try to get my friends to go to a splake lake, they claim it's a mythical fish.

We have much better luck with lakers and brook trout, both natural lakes and stocked lakes.

[arnpriormike]

I commonly fish the same as everyone else. No luck.
I was at a lake last weekend. Surprisingly there were 5 other people that made their way to the lake and fished all day. (I was there first!!!) They all got skunked too. I was talking to one of the other guys and he expressed the same thing. "When they are off, they are off. When they bite, buy a lottery ticket!"

Maybe the lakes have a lot of feed and the fish don't bite as often?