Lake Trout Fishing
WASAKSINA LAKE - Average size
is 3 to 8 lb. Lake Trout up to 22 lb have been caught in this lake. There
are 4 areas of the lake with depths of over 60’ which can provide good
summer fishing for the trout. The deepest part of the lake is 125’. Most of
our lake trout are caught in May or early June when they are shallow and
scattered. As this is a remote lake, it is difficult to bring in down
rigging equipment.
CHANGE YOUR THINKING
This is a LIGHT TACKLE setup ( THAT WORKS ) for catching Summer Lake Trout.
CLICK ON IMAGE FOR BETTER VIEW
Change Your Thinking:
It takes a bit more skill to catch Lake Trout, especially in the
summer-time. For years people have been using trolling rods with thick wire
line or downriggers to fish deep. It's the exact opposite ideology if you
want to catch lots of them. Thick heavy line causes more friction with the
water, thus it is harder to go deep. Thick line is too visible and
downriggers scream through the water spooking the fish, thus you would only
catch 1/5 the amount of fish compared to the method below. Plus heavy
trolling rods are not sensitive enough to feel a small fish hit your lure
when you are fishing 60 feet deep.
You need a light action rod with six pound test line. You also need
three-way swivels and a 3oz weight.
Below is a diagram showing the setup:
By using light
line, the line has less friction with the water and slices through so that
your line goes down to the bottom without having lots of line out. Tie two 4
foot pieces of line to your three-way swivel. Use a 3 oz. weight on one line
and a light lure on the other. Lake Trout like small lures. Use #1 or #0 Mepps or Blue Foxes. The absolute best lure for Lake Trout is the Sutton
Silver Spoon. Try to find a 2 inch weightless. Your local bait store will
have to order them for you. It's very rare to see them on the shelf.
Trolling Slow:
You only want to move just fast enough for your lure to work and no
faster. If your boat is moving too fast, it will be very hard to find the
bottom of the lake. If you are using a boat with a bigger motor and it's
hard to keep slow, try back trolling.
Finding the bottom:
The most important aspect of Lake Trout fishing is letting out line to
get to the bottom. DO NOT JUST LET YOUR LINE OUT UNTIL IT HITS BOTTOM. Hold
the rod in one hand with the bail open. Let the line run through the palm of
your other hand and grip the line. Once the boat starts moving and you have
a good straight troll going, open your hand with the line then close it
again. This way you can let out a foot or two of line at a time. Get a
rhythm going. Open, close, open, close. Your rod tip will bounce up and down
as you release little bits of line at a time. The rhythm of your rod tip
bouncing will be disrupted when your weight hits the bottom of the lake.
When this happens, reel up a foot or two. The purpose of this procedure is
to keep your three way swivel setup from getting tangled.
Trout are funny when it comes to hitting your lure. Small ones will hit
and then take off so you know you have a fish on. The really big trout will
hit the lure and slowly swim away. They are so big they don't know they're
hooked. So if you get a snag, make sure it's not a fish before you start
toughing on your line. If it's a big trout, loosen the drag on your reel
because they will go nuts and strip a 100 yards of line off your reel before
you can turn them.
Weather:
In the summer time, Lake Trout hit best in the morning between first
light and 10:30 AM. They will hit better if the surface of the water is dead
calm and it's a clear sky with high pressure. Any other conditions will
cause them to slow down. If it's early spring, the trout seem to feed in
other parts of the day, thus they are easier to catch. In some lakes the
trout feed before dark.
Structure and wind:
Take a close look at the structure of the shoreline and try to extend the
elevation patterns into the lake. If you see a cliff, odds are the water is
deep at it's face. If you see a string of islands, odds are there is a
shallow shoal that runs between them. Trout like drop-offs so you would want
to troll parallel to the string of shoals and not over them.
When you drop your line to the bottom, count how many times you let out
line. You can get a good estimate of the depth. Try to stay in 40 to 60 feet
of water. If you come across a spot and catch a trout, odds are there are
more of them there. The wind is very important when trout fishing.
Traditionally for warm water fish like Walleye or Musky, you would fish on
the side of the lake were the wind is blowing. The logic being that the fish
follow the surface food that is being blown in. With trout it is the exact
opposite. The wind also blows the warm surface water which does not hold
enough oxygen for the trout. Thus fish the side of the lake where the wind
is coming from.
Depth:
In the Spring, the Lake Trout will be right up to the surface. As the
water starts to warm up with the changing weather, the trout start to go
deeper. Here is the approximate depth for different times of year. This is
not true for all lakes. Some smaller spring fed lakes will have Lake Trout
shallow all year.
Just after ice-out --> Between 10 feet and the surface
Mid Spring --> About 35 to 45 feet deep
Late Spring --> About 50 to 65 feet deep
Summer --> Summer is the tricky part. Many believe that the Lake Trout go to
the deepest part of the lake and stay dormant. In actual fact, the Lake
Trout stay suspended in 53° thermal layers. Why are they there? That's where
all the bait fish are. Lake Trout feed on White Fish and Suckers which they
find suspended in schools. There will be trout on the bottom but they are
not feeding. When they do feed, they come shallower to feed on suspended
bait fish.
Depth Finder:
It's good to have a depth finder so you can map the schools of bait fish
that are suspended. When you do come across a school, troll around the
outside of the school. The Lake Trout sit right underneath the school
waiting for weak or injured fish to venture outside the school. Out in the
middle of the lake, you will find these schools of bait fish in the 40 to 60
foot range. It's different on most lakes but this is a good place to start.
