Home Forums Fishing Freshwater lake trout ?

I am making a trip up near Flin Flon this spring and would like some advice re the lake trout. I've made the trip before but spent most of the time with the Pike.
How do you do it ?

For jigging, I use a 1/2 ounce jig head with a white double curly tail, dipped in banana scent.

Trolling the surface, I use a 2-3 inch polar bear hair fly off the planer boards, at 1-2.5 knots.

From shore, you can take a smelt, jam pieces of styrofoam up his butt to make him float, and put a sinker about 2 feet up the line.

Off the downriggers, I like kwik fish 1-2 feet off the bottom, and no faster than 1 knot.





Line makes a big difference. I use 12 pound maxima.



These are not bear hair, but they work.

http://www.friskyjennyflies.com/Order_Page.html

Chartreuse is a laker color

Much obliged. Can do the jigs, but will not be equiped for any of the other techniques. Thanks.
Mike

Well, from the shore you can throw spoons and spinners off deep ledges.

I assume vertical jigging or spoons from a boat on the contours ?

we jig for them in Lake Superior with 2-6 oz jigs. either bucktail or twister tial grub. White seems to be the best, but glow and chartruese also worked. We jigged in 80-400' of water. So the big jigs helped. Lakers have big mouths and eat big stuff. Don't be afraid of using large baits. We used fast action Musky rods with braid line on them. 30# braid with about a 5' leader of 15# mono so if you get snagged you can break it off. Just use a double-uni knot to attach them, works great. the braid allows you to feel the jig on bottom at depth and also has very little stretch so you can set the hook at depth. Where we jigged for them, it was mostly rocky, but where we troll for them in Lake Michigan, they prefer a clay bottom. Keep in mind, if you get into a big school of them, the same size ranges typically hang out together. so if you are on 6# fish, the likelyhood of a 20-30# are low. Conversly, if you are getting fewer and larger fish, you are in the right spot for the big boys. At least in Lake Superior, the big ones will eat the little ones, so they dont live side by side. In Lake Michigan, there seems to be some larger and smaller fish mixed in, but that is a trolling prospective so you cover more ground too. Lakers like it slow. less than 2.0 mph for the most part. We do catch them fast on the surface in the spring before the thermoclines set up and the water is all one temp. After the thermos set, they are typically on the bottom near structure or drop offs.
Good luck.

I don't have the right gear to fish them in open water, but I'm just starting to figure out how to catch them through the ice. A live sucker right on the bottom or a foot off has been working fairly well for me.

We've done well trolling for grease balls off Stannard Rock.