Lake Trout Advice

[cf03lj]

Hi All;
First time poster to OFF but have read some helpful tips on here so thought I would sign up and ask for some insight. I'm typically after bass at my cottage but am lucky to be on a deep lake that holds lake trout. We went after them for the first time last week trolling with a tri swivel rig with a 1.5 oz weight and spoon set up. The lake holds up to 300 ft of water in some spots but we are targeting 50-75 ft for lakers in the summer.

First morning out I managed to hook one in about 50 ft of water and had it up to the boat before it spit the hook right in front of my eyes. Completely devestated! Didn't hook into anything else in the next few days as we are trying to find good runs of water with consistent depth.

Any tips on how to go after lake trout with this set up? Secondly, any advice on how to bring a laker in? My guess is I got caught up in the moment and brought it in too fast and should have let it run a bit more before dragging it to the boat. It seemd to almost roll in from the depths before a huge burst of energy right at the boat.

Thanks!

 

[Dozer]

You got the right idea - jigging for them works wonders ( white tube ). A fishfinder helps lots. I have luck using jointed Rapalas as well.

If you plan on releasing them work fast to get the fish back down. The drastic temperature change especially near the surface can kill the fish.

 

[MuskieBait]

Not too fast though as they need to burp out (expell air). Their air bladder expand due to the pressure change. With summer temps, the water is warmer than their cooler, deeper habitat. Warm air expands more...and their air bladder will expand even more once the fish is in warm surface water...so it is even more important to allow them some time to burp out before bringing them up. Otherwise, you will have a bloated fish that can't burp out, float around on the surface and the warm surface temp will certainly kill them.

I would assume though, with a lake that is 300 feet deep, the water stays cool even just a couple of feet under the surface...so this may not be as severe of an issue...unless you search in smaller, shallower bays.

Don't bring them up like a bass on a MH flipping stick...but don't fight them out like a 5lb brookie on an ultralight.

It's much less of an issue with icefishing when the surface temp is at 0C while the denser, deeper water is at 4C.

Lakers like to spin. They often get off the hook doing their silly circles on the surface. They usually try to dive 2-3 times before tiring out. Sometimes, they will come up cooperatively after the first run, but that's deceptive. Once they sense the pressure change and when the see the light on the surface, they'll dive down again. Next time, just don't hurry the net job and let the fish run back down if it's not ready.

 

[cf03lj]

Thanks - good advice. We just started using a fish finder but primarily use it for depth and not actually for spotting fish so far. Do people generally see a correlation between seeing fish on the finder and actually catching them?

Also good insight on how to bring them in. Slow and stead and let them run rather than reef them in seems like the best thing for the fish and for actually bringing them in the boat. We certainly would release the vast majority of the time.

 

[MuskieBait]

Just speaking from trolling experience on Lake Ontario, if we can spot school of salmon on the graph, we have better chances of catching them. Of course, you can troll with fish on the graph and still have fish not willing to bite. Finding fish doesn't necessarily mean finding feeding fish.

There are also times when you don't see fish but you still catch them. Fish can be attracted from further distance away from your boat, and the cone of your sonar beam comes into play in this case. So it depends on the size (angle) and number (of beams) of your sonar unit...and depth vs. cone size (detection area) is more important in deep water.

But, it's always good to know you are in an area where fish frequent...so seeing fish on the graph is always good. At least then you can determine the depth they are holding (and if you have a temp probe) the temperature preference they have for that time of day or time of year. Once you know certain aspects then you can then try to sort out which of these factors contribute to the activity level of the fish.