Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Alpine lake trout lures?

Heading into the Mt. backcountry in a week to fish some alpine lakes, my wife and I are taking our spinning gear, what are some of your favorite trout lures?

Never been to a beaver pond that had fish, that I couldn’t catch one with a panther martin. Seems like the preferred color changes from year to year, but the style has always been a producer.

Panther Martins size 2 or 4 ....

Agreed on Panther Martins and I've had good luck on mid size yellow Rooster Tails on high lakes in Sept.

Panther Martins in black with gold spinner.
I also like to have along a small Adjust-a-Bubble and a few bead head woolly buggers in black, also a couple grasshopper and Renegade flies in the summer and fall.

We'll need a report on your return!

As stated, small spinners, spoon or two, maybe a small Rapala (there is ONLY silver and black), and a Clear fly bubble with a selection of locally popular flies.
Just a thought, unless the lakes are stocked, natural reproduction is not real strong so if you do catch and grease, do so sparingly.
What you end up with with from bad hooked fish may fill the pan.

Panther Martins are my first choice also, black and gold spinner and the yellow/red/orange dots with gold spinner. Others are small Kastmasters in gold and the silver/blue combo. Lil cleo spoons can also be very effective.

Another favorite of mine for trout is the Pistol Pete which is a small wooly worm with a propeller on the end fished with a sliding bubble and a leader. My favorite color is yellow. But I tie these in a variety of colors including, red, peacock, orange, black, olive and various sparkle colors. Fish it by casting and letting it sink then retrieving, vary the retrieve from just barely moving to fast and find the one fish are preferring.

When the trout are rising in the early AM or late PM another favorite of mine is to use the sliding bubble and fly using a Renegade in sizes 14 to 18 most popular is size 16. Toss it out, retrieve to straighten the line and let sit for a bit then very slooooooooooowly retrieve it, barely moving the fly. Typically for the bubble and fly technique I use a 5X leader. Good luck on your fishing.

Anyone still use the old Colorado spinners? I used to have good luck with them in gold or copper in small pond, sometimes with a salmon egg added.

Panther Martin, Joe's Flies, Mepps; all spinners will work on Trout - only the trout can tell you what they like that day. My last three Brown Trout were caught on a Joe's Flies 1/4 oz. Black Gnat, a 1/8 oz. Cleo gold spoon, and a 1/16 oz. Dardevle red/white trout spoon - all on the same fishing trip.

In the high Uintas of Utah, anglers swear by the Phoebe spoon, the Lil Jake's, the Kastmaster, and black or brown maribou jigs - in addition to the Panther Martins and Roostertails mentioned above. If you took along some small jigs and a jar of Gulp! minnows, you'd have to hide behind a tree to tie one on.

thanks for the advice guys, I'll report back!

HW how’d you do?

My go to lure for high country trout is a Mepp's "0" size with a gold blade.

I've often had luck with small flies behind a bubble. Prince nymph, hairs ear, etc. And I've had luck with most mentioned above.

Hildebrandts have always worked for me.

But, Alpine lake's all about gettin the bait in front of em, really.

Gold on sunny days, nickle on cloudy.

Trout magnets. I'd never heard of them till about four years ago; I thought something that simple had to be hype, but I got some and can't believe how they work on stocked trout in the tailwater and on crappie, bluegill, and even a few stray bass and catfish in the reservoir. The best colors I've used are pink for trout and bison for everything. Watch the instructional videos on the trout magnet website and youtube. They've worked for me under a float and on a slow retrieve. Use them with the trout magnet shad dart style jig head. You will have trouble casting the 1/64 oz head unless you've got a light enough spinning outfit, but I've also used them on a 1/32 head. Much easier to cast with a float as long as you're not fishing too deep.

So how did ya do?

Trouble with high country lakes they can be hot or cold on any given day . . . hour.

Yep, one time I was on a high lake, had waded out a short distance on a fan shaped lip which dropped off rapidly. I had been working small nymphs and wooly buggers for a couple of hours to not so much as a looker. Then suddenly the fish (cutthroats) started to rise. I switched to red humpy and caught fish on practically every cast for about an hour then just as suddenly the fish seemed to disappear. As far as I could tell no flies were hatching, not even no see-ems.

Trout magnets are killer around here. Put a couple split shot about 18" above and twitch them all the way in. The trout will just pound them.