Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Open Water Lake Trout?

I pay attention when Yukoner talks lake trout.....and rifles!

Ted, I just got back from touring the lake with 21 HB canoe.......just sightseeing except for a dinner fish or two.
Yes, the water is really low......makes one pay attention when leaving 6 Mile river into the lake.

I'll be back over in late July.

Good to hear from you Ted!

Great! Give me a shout when you are on your way.

That will be about the right time to be jigging for lakers in 150-200 ft off Squaw Point.



I know you know where it is, but someone, someday, may be visiting Tagish, and want to give one of "our spots" a try.

Ted

Ted
I might have to make that drive...

Just let me know when you are coming, Art.

Went out last Thursday evening with two friends of mine. Caught seven nice lakers, five of which we put in the canoe in 45 minutes.

Pulled into a nice spot at 10:30 and cooked up a big shore lunch of the two smallest ones. Fried trout fillets, baked beans, fresh home made bread, all washed down with hot tea while we watched the sun set.

Got home around 2:30 am.

My apologies for the not-so-brief hijack, wabigoon.
Ted

"Nirvana" never needed so many words before!

Just returned from a trip near Sioux Lookout, Ontario. The lake had Pike and Lake Trout. Trolled deep diving Rapalas flatline directly behind the boat. Lure would dive to about 20 feet and we trolled in water from 60 to 90 feet deep. Marked fish at all depths below 15 feet, mostly deep and under bait fish schools. Anytime we marked a fish at 25 feet or less we would get a strike. I would cast behind the boat as far as I could then let out another 20 foot of line as I started the troll. Surface water temperature was 68 degrees at the start of the the week and climbed to 75 by the end of the week. Early morning and evening were best action and trout were in the 23" to 30" range. We also picked up Pike on these trolls including a fat 39" one.

Woody, I sit southeast about 45 miles from Sioux lookout right now.

Richard - about 80 miles northeast of you, we have caught them trolling heavy, silver-colored spoons behind a 2 or 3 ounce chain sinker on wire line.

Wabigoon, I grew up fishing Lac Seul out of Ear Falls back in the 60's. Hunted and fished all over NW Ontario from Terrace Bay west to Red Lake since then. Have friends in Dryden that just bought the cabin we fished from. I head back up in two weeks to fish outside Atikokan mostly for smallmouths and walleye. The lake we stay on there has lakers too but I have not spent time trying for them.

Can one fight them up in those warm surface temperatures and then release them back though the warm waters and have good survival rate?
I don't know, . . . That's why I am asking

LouisB,

In my case we were not catching any fish below about 30 feet. They were coming up in the water column chasing bait. As soon as we released them they swam quickly down and did not linger near the surface. We were using fairly heavy equipment so brought the fish in and released quickly. There is a problem if you are catching them deep, say 50 feet or more, and bring them to the surface too fast. Swim bladder expands and they are too buoyant to get back down deep.

There was an article in an old issue of "InFisherman" that dealt with this. If I get time, I will see if I can locate it.

I know a biologist who did several studies on survival rates of released fish. Lake Trout were caught on Sturgen lake and Savant Lake and Long Lake near Longlac. Fish brought up from as deep as 130 ft had good survival rates as long as they swim straight back down to the depths—several fish were caught numerous times.
Surviaval rates for walleye was terrible if caught in water warmer than 60 degrees F—has something to do with lactic acid build-up in muscle tissue—fish seemed fine when released but died pretty regular after a couple of days.

I guess I get around Ontario quite a bit, I have caught trout on both Sturgen and Long Lake. My buddy owned camps on each at different times. Long Lake also had some big Brookies. I'll post pictures if I can find them.

Long Lake
d

Looking good. The last lake trout I caught was at Flaming Gorge in UT/WY about 5 years ago We were fishing 60'-100' down for Kokanee Salmon. I caught 3-4 of them in the 5lb range, and one that was probably around 10-12 lb range. Mighty fine tasting. Put them in my sisters traeger with some apple wood. We caught 6-8 Kokanee too. They were fantastic.

Brookies are my favorite though. Never caught one more than about 3 lbs.

Woody, I fished what they called Long Lake falls way back, same lake. East of Dryden a ways?