4x4bassin

I was up fishing a cottage lake in the Parry Sound area the last couple days and hooked into my personal best lake trout . Not sure of the weight but it was a thick fish and was just over 33" long . I always bring out the jigging gear when I'm at this lake , seems the jig bite is better here then flatlining . Monday morning was calm and warm perfect for jigging . At least that's what I thought , the lakers were not cooperating . I tried everything and could not get one to move on the finder . They were there but eating my jigs that morning was not happening so we called it a morning and headed back for breakfast . Mid afternoon came and we decided to go on a little cruise around the lake to enjoy the sights , while cruising around I decided to head over to my "honey hole" and turn on the finder and see if there was anything swimming around down there . Sure enough there were 4 big hooks on the finder in 50' over 60' From my experience this is the perfect scenario , when the lake trout are suspended around 10' off bottom and in a group of 3 or more they are feeding and aggressive . Drop a jig on them and it's a race to see who gets it first !!! I had changed my jig weight just prior to 3/4 oz and took the stinger off to see if I was going to have better results in the afternoon with this setup and like any good lake trout hunter I was ready to drop when those hooks appeared . Sure enough when the jig got to about 10' above the hooks the race was on and I think the biggest of the pack smashed my jig . Fought her for a good 10 mins. before she unwillingly swam into the net . She was real beauty and after a couple quick pictures and a measurement she was back in the water to swim again . The bait of choice was a 3/4 oz darter jig (home paint job) and a 4" white/silver flaked fluke . Cheers

Yes it is chris , no luck this time but we will be back there again in August . No , I don't tip the jigs in the spring . The lake trout seem to like a smaller profile in the spring , but in late August/September I tip with a 4 " fluke or Gulp minnow .

I spend a lot of time on the water during the summer jigging lakers and to be successful you need a couple things . A fairly good graph with the sensitivity turned way up (mine is at 95) Some heavy jigs , I use nothing under 3/4 oz . The heavy jig gets you straight down in the water column which is important to get an accurate reading on your graph and a some what calm day on the water so you can stay on top of the trout . This is what a 15 lb lake trout looks like on the graph when it comes out of 50 feet of water and chases my jig to 35 feet and smashes it , game on !!! There is another 3 lake trout on bottom as well . This one just shows you how far a lake trout will chase your jig . He came out of 49 feet and followed the jig up to 15 feet then back down to 32 feet and still didn't hit , it was fun anyway ! If you look back a bit I have a couple trip reports on here with some lake trout jigging . Good luck , once you get the hang of it . It's a blast

Looking good . By the looks of it you are going to have a great view from your cabin to the lake .

Nice Brian , some good bass there for sure !

Thanks guys , ya it's a sweet spot for sure . A little piece of backwoods heaven . Forgot to mention that the EGB had an added red feathered treble on it as well that got destroyed on this trip .

Cheers Canada

Bit of a delay in posting this report , had some technical issues to work out but better late then never. We had our annual boys weekend away chasing lake trout around on a central Ontario back lake in May and as usual it was a blast with lots of fish and good times had by all . We arrived at our camping spot mid morning after a long truck ride/quad ride . The trail in was pretty straight forward with just a couple washouts and blow downs to clear away (standard procedure after a central Ontario winter) The site was just how we left it from our last trip 7 months prior , clean and a bit of fire wood to get us going . The weather for the first couple days was a bit dreary but it didn't stop us from laying a beat down on some beauty lake trout . This trip my one friend seemed to have them dialed in or is pretty lucky because he was really hauling them in even though he was sitting in the middle seat and we were trolling most of the time . Trolling was the pattern for the week with water temps in the mid 50's . The jig bite was on as well but just wasn't as consistent . The next couple days brought clearing skies and calm winds , not the best for lake trout fishing but it didn't slow them down any . The lakers were all in shallow with the 15' - 20' depths being "money" Out of all the lake trout we caught (and we caught a lot) not one was deeper then 40' . They were all relating to rocks and rock points , not the usual mud bays that we have caught them in the past . Troll over a rock point and bang , fish on . It was like that all week . One of our last days there it was sunny , calm and felt like we were in a furnace . Which was nice after a long winter and the couple days before being a bit dreary . The fishing slowed a bit that day so we spent most of it around camp relaxing Camp table picture , as everyone knows after a week in the bush these tables can get pretty messy The lures of choice for the week were a 1 oz bucktail jig , egb spoon , cleo with an upgraded treble (red feathers really helped) and to get these spoons down to the 20' mark a 3/4 oz inline weight . For me the egb was the money lure . As you can probably tell , you needed something red on the spoons that week to be really effective . The last night came with some beautiful weather and great friends around the camp fire having a "few" drinks and laughs. As well , telling the usual stories of the "one that got away" and of course a fresh lake trout fish fry . Delicious !!! Hope you guys enjoyed , I know I did . Next trip in should be August for some big smallmouth and jigging deep water lakers . Cheers .

This lake trout has been caught on jigs every time Oh ya , actually we are going to try to get in there in 2 weeks ! Ya , LOL ! She hasn't grown much that's for sure and no , it's not time for a new spot ! The MNR know about this lake and they tell me that these fish are mostly planktivorous (bug eaters) so they are very slowwwww growing . No big greasers in this lake , these lakers work for every meal !

I have been meaning to post this for awhile now and I personally find this story amazing . Many of you might know that I head out on some interesting trips to the backwoods of north/central Ontario in search of that perfect lake , well several years ago I found such a lake through a lot of leg work and investigating as well as some great help from a friend in the MNR . This lake is strictly a lake trout and smallmouth lake with the only access being by float plane or quad and the closest cottage being 20 km away (few hunt camps are in the area) Anyways , this story started in 2011 when a friend of mine caught a nice lake trout and as always I took a picture . 2012 came around and another friend of mine caught a trout (one of many) and another picture was taken . When I got home from the trip I started to go through the pictures and noticed one of the trout in the picture looked familiar , it had a scar on its side and a deformed tail . I went through the trips from 2011 and sure enough there she is . Same fish , same area one year earlier . We all thought that was amazing and once in a lifetime experience but we all kept our eyes open for that scarred laker in 2013. Well wouldn't you know it good ole scar side came for a boat visit that year as well as the fall of 2014 . Same fish , exact same spot (give or take 40yds) four years in a row . Now you might think this lake is a small lake but it is fairly large (around 200 hectares) and deep . The bay we keep catching this fish in is roughly 40-60 feet deep . I told this story to a couple MNR guys and they both told me to go buy some lotto tickets because that is very , very rare especially for a lake trout . Lake trout move around a lake following food and don't really have a "home" like a bass or a pike who can literally live under the same stump there whole life . The MNR also advised me that this lake trout is probably an old fish (20-25yrs old) due to the growth over the four years or lack of . Anyways enough of the jib jab , proof is in the pictures . Enjoy !!! 2011 2012 2013 2014 I guess live release works eh

Thanks for the replies everyone , they are really not that bad so I think I might just leave them as they are and hope for the best . They are mostly copper/gold with paint so I don't want to ruin them with a cleaner .

That looks like a mess you see on power lines beside a lake . Any one remember the old sanctuary cable in Thornbury under the bridge , I remember it as a kid and thinking how many lures were stuck on it and coming up with a plan to get them . Never did come up with a plan ! You guys are talking about mattress springs , I can remember many years ago sneaking into a "private" speck pond every opener and the pond was full of these old mattress springs put there by the owner to keep young "adventurous" kids from fishing his pond . Lost many mepps to those springs but caught the odd monster trout as well , ahhhhhhhhh the good ole days

Love seeing the kids out there getting into the steelhead action , great report !

Came across my stash of egb's that have been missing for 5 years , it was like finding a small box of treasure Anyways they are looking a little dull , anyone here have any ideas on buffing these guys up without taking the paint off of them ? Want to get them tuned up nice for my lake trout trip a week from now .

Some real beauties there , love the back lakes . Thanks for sharing !!!

Great Lake Ontario report , That brown in the first picture sure did a number on that middle hook . Strong fish

That's brutal.....!

I agree chris , the next couple weeks will be prime !

From my experience on fishing ice out lakers is try to find some warmer water believe it or not . The warmest part of the lake will be in the north section , start there . The lake has to wake up from the winter and start the cycle of lake life . Once this happens (usually around 2 weeks of ice out) the lake trout fishing heats up . No need to fish deep , just make sure the bait is a long way from the boat while trolling especially in pressured waters or clear water . As for baits try to match the hatch . I like to use rapala tail dancers or deep husky jerks in natural colours or cleo/williams spoons . I find jigging very productive but this pattern doesn't really get going till the early summer when the lakers are schooling in deeper water as apposed to being scattered at this time of year . Good luck , can't wait for my own laker adventure in a week

Great report , thanks for sharing ! I have a cottage just down the road from tiny marsh , spent a lot of time there over the years . Great place for watching birds

I was smiling all the way through that Bunk , thanks

A couple of the lakes I fish are strictly lake trout / smallmouth waters and when summer comes around all the big smallmouth are caught roaming open water and at the thermocline . We catch them jigging for lake trout !

Great pictures , thanks

Getting reports from a couple inland lakes in the Parry Sound area and they are telling me 17" - 20" of ice still .

About 15 years ago I was in Algonquin Park portaging into a couple lakes deep in the park when I started talking to an old timer on one of the trails . He asked us where we were going and what we planned on using for lures . I showed him my selection of spoons , mepps and rapalas and he looked through them and said " is that a countdown rapala " right at the bottom of my box was an old countdown perch rapala that I had never used before and to tell you the truth I don't know why it was in there but it was . Now , everyone has some secret lakes and spots that you wouldn't share with anyone but this old timer told us to fish in this certain spot on lake X with that perch coloured countdown rapala . Well I didn't really believe him because he was so willing to give up his secret spot/lure to a complete stranger and that is very rare in the fishing world . Well wouldn't you know it we went to that spot and trolled these countdown rapalas and were literally catching beauty lake trout on every pass and the other canoe who didn't have these rapalas caught about half as much as we did . So to end this quick story I would like to say thanks to that very kind fisherman who shared his stories and secrets with us and also to say that countdown rapalas do work , especially in a certain lake within Algonquin Park