Lake trout tips

[kingfisher]

We are planning a trip to Canada next week, it will be mostly for pike and walleye, however I just found out the lake has lake trout in it and I was curious if anyone could give me some tips on trying to catch lakers. I am hoping there may be some tactics that I could try without investing in new equipment. Have all the normal pike/walleye gear i.e. crank rods, jigging gear etc. Any tips would be great. Thanks

 

[KDM]

White jigs in the 1/2 to 1oz range in either bucktail, tube, or twister are your huckleberry. If you can tip with a sucker minnow or other large minnow you will get more strikes. Look for fish with your electronics and when you find them, note the depth, and drop your jig ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM!!! Jig for 10 seconds or so ON THE BOTTOM, then reel up 10 feet or so and repeat the jigging process. Many times the feeding trout will be on the bottom, but they will hit the jig all the way up to the boat so don't stop the process until you get to the surface. If you can find a vertical wall that has 60+ft of water, give that a try as well. You can also use the large sized swedish pimples or similiar jigging spoons. You can tip these with a big minnow head or 3 smaller whole minnows, whatever you have available. Good Luck!!!


Oh and if you have a chance, you may want to upsize the trebles on the jigging spoons. Lakers have big tough mouths. When you get a hit, set the hook two or three times REAL GOOD. They will roll and roll and roll while bringing them up. Much more than any pike.....ever!

 

[Enslow]

Another cheap method is making a 3 way rig and trolling spoons. A daredevil or kastmaster will work. Bring some heavy weights to get down. This method worked on ft peck for lakers.

 

[SDMF]

3-Way swivel. 2+oz snap sinker. Rattle-Trap/similar on a 12-24" snell. While stationary, drop to the bottom, reel up as fast as you can allowing the 'trap to spiral up towards the surface. Probably works with a crankbait on the snell too. I'd consider the white/pearl glass shadrap as well.

 

[Enslow]

And if ur arent marking them move. U should be able to mark lakers before they bite.

 

[kingfisher]

Wow, thanks for all the good advice. All those suggestions seem like they would be very doable with little extra equipment needed.

 

[huntorride365]

Not to side track too much, but does anyone have experience fishing them at Pactola? I'd like to get down there and give it a try; I have downriggers so that would be the method.

 

[MuskyManiac]

Get a large Kastmaster lure and a Little Cleo. They are John Gillespie's favorites for lakers!

I use these same lures on a smaller scale for Winnipeg walleye too.

 

[Riggen&Jiggen]

Bring 1 to 2 oz. jigs, white, green, chartruse in colors. Get a few heavy spoons that you can use for vertical jigging. Tip them with bait like pieces of smelt. For trolling buy a couple big dipsy divers and/or get 3 to 5 oz. snap on weights, or three way rig like mentioned above. Years ago I used to tie together 5 1oz. bottom bouncers and trolled a flat fish 4 ft. behind the bottom bouncers. I caught several lakers this way at ft. peck before I got downriggers. Any how having a few heavy jigs, spoons, flatfish and asorted weights/dipsy divers you should be good to go. Like mentioned before lakers are fairly easy to see on the electronics and they relate to deep water structure just like walleyes only they are 50 to 100ft deeper. So don't fish until you see big marks hanging off of deep structure. I would think in Canada with a lake that has cool water you would have a shot at them as shallow as 60ft. on down to 150ft. Good luck.

 

[svnmag]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QmUGGVEMTo