Lake Trout Fishing

[RockBottom]

D-man I tried replying to your question but for some reason I was unable to so im doing it this way. All we were using was the most basic method there can be for fishing lakers and that is a three way swivel rig. Attach a 3-way swivel to your line and run a 4-6 ft snell with a plain J hook, treble hook, or even what works real well is a circle hook, and then off the bottom swivel run 18-20 inches of line and a 3oz bell sinker. Troll real slow or even drift with this method up and down the ridges and drop offs and humps. It is crucial you have good electronics for this and if you dont know the bottom structure like the back of your hand then your wasting your time. We were in 90 ft of water and we were trolling our rigs up and down the drop from 90 straight up to 30 ft and the fish were all suspended at 40-50 ft. Keep jigging your rod so you always know where bottom is if your coming up the ridge watch the angle of your line change ( You might need to reel up line as you go up and you might need to let out line as you come down.)it will take you a little time to graph the lake and see patterns of fish to really know for sure where they are. You can also modify this rig by adding a dodger spoon or some kind of flasher but then you need to increase your speed and as well your weight. Good luck, hope this helps you out a little for the next time you go.

Yours in fishing: Rod Carberry

[D-man]

Thanks for the reply Rod. We couldn't find a drop off as significant as the one you describe as it was our first time fishing the lake. Best spot we found was a drop which went from about 70ft to 90ft. We were using white tube jigs tipped with a minow. What were using for bait??. Unfortanatley this was one of the first times a fished lakers in the summer. Ussually do most of it in the winter time with white tube jigs being the ticket. Ill be heading out to Clearwater bay just before the season ender hope to do beter there as im more familiar with the area.

[RockBottom]

Tube jigs through the ice are absolutly the way to go for lakers thats all we used in aprill when we went to clearwater, this last time fishing we were using jumbo shiners for bait or even better yet if a guy can get his hands on them is a Cisco.

In the winter we keep all of our tulibee and goldeye and then cut them up into chunks for bait on our tubes I only use a 3 or 4 inch tube on a 3/8 tube jig I make all my own hooks here at the store and i pour the tubes with real heavy duty stainless steel hooks. Bucktails also work well i do custom jig manufacturing and custom bucktails and im currently working on a few different ideas as far as lake trout go and i think there gonna be the ticket.

Rod Carberry

[fishmark320]

i like a salty on my tube or strip of sucker, tullibee or goldeye on my hook. lots of action jigging and if no bites in 10 min move. most of my laker action is on the ice on geroge and forbes lk. in mantitoba. going to go for some of the big girls up north once i trade in my 16' starcraft for something a little bigger (wider and more freeboard) + a windshield. i have a 40 and can cruise pretty good even in the rough stuff, but she is a wet and wild ride!