Lake trout tips

[go5]

Hey all,

 

So I am going on a canoe trip and the lake we are heading to has basically lake trout (I have heard/read). I have been doing some reading on lake trout and while all advice is to do some trolling I won't have that luxury so my question is:

 

Any tips on trying for lake trout from a canoe? I realize this may be a hard but thought maybe someone has had some luck trying this way. I realize they will be deep and jigging looks like the way to go but any specific setups?

 

Thanks for any help!

[DRIFTER_016]

Use a white tube jig over structure.

Plus you can troll just fine with a canoe so drop a spoon down there and paddle around.

In fact canoe trolling can be really good at times as the lure gets an erratic action from the paddling.

Edited July 21, 2010 by DRIFTER_016

[craigdritchie]

Vertical jigging with big ice fishing lures (Jigging Rap, Williams) also works very well out of a canoe.

[troutologist]

Try and bring a portable fish finder with you. This will help immensely if you intend to jig. Cover some water by trolling a medium body bait or spoon on a 3 way rig with 2-3oz bell sinker.

[dave524]

One of my favourite techniques for trolling from a canoe was a flyrod with a hi density full sinking line and a streamer, the paddling motion would give a pulsating action to a maribou streamer that was very effective on SMB and the occasional walleye. Ok, this would not give the depth you require but I'm thinking a lead core trolling outfit ( like recently on sale at CTC ) would acomplish the same effect at greater depths from a canoe. Another thing I would try would be to place a larger, light gauge williams wabbler type spoon about 18" ahead of the fly with the hook removed and the fly snelled off the back , it has been an effective combo on specs, should work on lakers at well.

[BillsTheBassMan]

Make sure you get a couple Purple & Black Nasty Boy Spoons. You'll thank me later.

[John]

When you get tired of paddling, think ice fishing.............

[Nemo]

Check out this site.

 

Everything you need to know.

 

http://www.laketrout.org/light-tackle-lake-trout-techniques.htm

[Kinger]

Jig a Swedish pimple, can't go wrong if its Swedish.

[Sudzy]

Go with a 3 way rig if you are able to paddle to troll.

 

This is a good video to explain.

 

 

 

If not white tub jigs are pretty effective.

Edited July 21, 2010 by Sudzy

[Gary2242]

Jig a Swedish pimple, can't go wrong if its Swedish.

 

Hi Guys

 

This is Gary from www.laketrout.org

 

The link above is to my motor boat tips. Here are my tips for specifically fishing in a canoe. Me and my buddies catch tons of trout in Algonquin Park this way. Steel wire and flashers is a crappy way of fishing from the 1950s. You will catch 100 times as many trout with my 3-way swivel method. Jigging is good if you find a spot where they are consentrated but you have to troll around to find these spots if you don't know the lake. Try to find dead salted minnows and pink jig heads if you want to do some jigging..

 

Canoe Lake Trout Trolling Tips

 

Gary

[Gary2242]

Go with a 3 way rig if you are able to paddle to troll.

 

This is a good video to explain.

 

 

 

If not white tub jigs are pretty effective.

 

Hi again

 

That Youtube video is not that good. The lead to the lure needs to be shorter than the lead to the sinkers or you will lose all your lures. It does not need to be that long. I use 3 feet to the sinker and 2.5 feet to the lure. I tie a knot in the sinker link to make it a little weaker. That way if the sinker gets snagged, your lure is still off bottom. If you have to break the line, the sinker line will break first beacaue of the knot. You only need a 2 oz weight to fish 60 or 70 feet deep if you back troll with 6 or 8 pound test line. Lake Trout deeper than 50 feet, with the exception of the Great Lakes or massive inland lakes, are usually not actively feeding. Lake Temegami is a big lake so they might be deeper. Feeding Lake Trout in Northern Ontario lakes are usually 40 to 50-feet deep. The Specs will be 25 to 35 feet deep if there are Specs. In small spring-fed lakes the lakers can be 10 feet deep in the middle of summer.

 

Canadian Tire and Wal*Mart sell steel bell sinkers now. It's best not to use lead because you don't want to leave a pound of lead on the bottom of the lake after a week of trout fishing. Lead is nasty and we should try to keep it out of our water system when we can..

 

Gary

Edited July 21, 2010 by Gary from BrookTrout.ca

[solopaddler]

Hi Guys

 

This is Gary from www.laketrout.org

 

The link above is to my motor boat tips. Here are my tips for specifically fishing in a canoe. Me and my buddies catch tons of trout in Algonquin Park this way. Steel wire and flashers is a crappy way of fishing from the 1950s. You will catch 100 times as many trout with my 3-way swivel method. Jigging is good if you find a spot where they are consentrated but you have to troll around to find these spots if you don't know the lake. Try to find dead salted minnows and pink jig heads if you want to do some jigging..

 

Canoe Lake Trout Trolling Tips

 

Gary

 

 

I'm a huge fan of the 3-way rig..but a properly manipulated steel line rig will outfish the 3 way rig most days and twice on Sunday.

 

It is however not as fun catching them on this tackle and frankly much more tiring (you must constantly pump the rod up and down).

 

As far the 3 way rig goes you give some decent advice except...you recmmend using 6lb green XT (mono) to fish in as much as 80' of water.

6lb mono attached to a heavy 3 way rig will stretch like a rubber band in water that deep. You'll miss most of the hits and won't have the ability to properly set the hook on the ones you do feel.

In order to properly fish a 3 way rig braid like Power Pro needs to be utilized.

No stretch means better feel and hooksets.

 

Also you mention using 1-2oz weights.

Personally I'd recommend using 2-4oz weights in a 3-way "wolf river" rig for summertime lakers.

 

1-2oz is too light.

 

'Course that's just my opinion.

Edited July 21, 2010 by solopaddler

[johnnyb]

This is a great thread!! Lots of info and experience being shared. Let me throw a question into the mix about summer lakers and depths. I have been trolling at 30 feet over 70 FOW this summer, and am catching trout consistently. However, they are all on the small side (12-16inchers), and I've been assured that the lake I'm fishing (about 9kms long...3 "bowls" reaching 150FOW...lots of real estate in the 90FOW range) has larger trout in it.

Am I catching the smaller fish because they're more aggressive/less wary and are beating the big guys to the bait? OR...do I need to change depths in order to find the more mature trout?

I catch all the small trout I want at 30 over 70....other guys catch equal amounts of small trout right on bottom in 90FOW....any insight from the trout crowd?

[Gary2242]

This is a great thread!! Lots of info and experience being shared. Let me throw a question into the mix about summer lakers and depths. I have been trolling at 30 feet over 70 FOW this summer, and am catching trout consistently. However, they are all on the small side (12-16inchers), and I've been assured that the lake I'm fishing (about 9kms long...3 "bowls" reaching 150FOW...lots of real estate in the 90FOW range) has larger trout in it.

Am I catching the smaller fish because they're more aggressive/less wary and are beating the big guys to the bait? OR...do I need to change depths in order to find the more mature trout?

I catch all the small trout I want at 30 over 70....other guys catch equal amounts of small trout right on bottom in 90FOW....any insight from the trout crowd?

 

Hi

 

It's the same everywhere. I just got back from Lake Opeongo in Algonquin Park and the biggest trout I caught was 2.5 pounds, which is really unusual since the average size is usually around 3 pounds. Most were 6 to 12 inches. We usually pick up a couple of 4 and 5-pounders but not this time. What I did notice was my depth finder was picking up massive schools of minnows, which I have never seen before in this volume. I would troll 40 yards and be over one school and they were so thick my depth finder was saying it was 28 feet when in fact it was 65 feet deep. I am assumeing they are Lake Herring, Shad and Whitefish. I am thinking that the heat last year and this year has increased the presents of alge and insect larva and there has been a minnow bloom or something. Maybe the bigger lake trout are just stuffed. These minnows might have grown so fast that they are too big for smaller trout.

 

Maybe the secret is to use bigger lures, which mimic bigger minnows. I usually use small Moose Spoons, Sutton Silver Spoons, William Wablers and small Cleaos. Maybe larger live minnows will wok. Or try dead salted minnows on just a hook if you are not allowed live bait like Algonquin Park.

 

Gary

[go5]

wow, thanks all the replies ! Great information

[go5]

also....

 

don't think I will be trolling much as probably just be me out in the canoe. Hope just jigging will yiled me some results (but not holding my breath!)

[alphaalpha]

great informative thread, thanks all!

[johnnyb]

Hi

 

It's the same everywhere. I just got back from Lake Opeongo in Algonquin Park and the biggest trout I caught was 2.5 pounds, which is really unusual since the average size is usually around 3 pounds. Most were 6 to 12 inches. We usually pick up a couple of 4 and 5-pounders but not this time. What I did notice was my depth finder was picking up massive schools of minnows, which I have never seen before in this volume. I would troll 40 yards and be over one school and they were so thick my depth finder was saying it was 28 feet when in fact it was 65 feet deep. I am assumeing they are Lake Herring, Shad and Whitefish. I am thinking that the heat last year and this year has increased the presents of alge and insect larva and there has been a minnow bloom or something. Maybe the bigger lake trout are just stuffed. These minnows might have grown so fast that they are too big for smaller trout.

 

Maybe the secret is to use bigger lures, which mimic bigger minnows. I usually use small Moose Spoons, Sutton Silver Spoons, William Wablers and small Cleaos. Maybe larger live minnows will wok. Or try dead salted minnows on just a hook if you are not allowed live bait like Algonquin Park.

 

Gary

 

Hmmm....I too have been seeing some large clouds on the finder...at first I believed they were baitfish...and yes, the finder would start telling me that the depth was changing....however, I've been over the same area 4 or 5 times over the past couple months, and get the same crazy clouds on screen every time, in pretty much the exact same spot. Starting to think it's something messing with the signal....next time I'm up, I'm dropping the aqua-vu to see what the heck is going on down there!

 

Nice to know I'm not the only one sluggin' through the small ones.

[jayess]

I've used most of the techniques outlined here...

 

The 3-way swivel method is a pain in the ass, to be honest. Try using that on a windy day, by yourself, without tangling up your spoon or dealing with line twist. That's PURELY my experience though...

 

The easiest method I've come across for catching deeper (20'-30') lakers is using the Rapala deep divers -- the Trolls-To series and the Deep Tail Dancers. They go to 15-20' and 30' respectively, depending on what you end up buying. Go for natural colors (simulate their food). They performed well for me in Algonquin Park this year, they were hitting at 20' down in 60-80' of water. No line twist as you would get from spoons, lure action at almost any speed, and if you have to stop your canoe for one reason or another, the lure will not sink to the bottom and get stuck as it would (possibly) with weighted setups.

 

 

Another easier alternative to the 3-way swivel method is to use snap-weights:

 

http://www.offshoretackle.com/weights.htm

 

You can buy two snap weights for ~$10, and hopefully you have a few bell sinkers around. You clip the snapweight-with-sinker about 3 ft up from your spoon/lure of choice. The benefits -- none of this 3-way swivel tangling nonsense, and you can easily switch back to a non-weight setup by unclipped the snapweight. When landing a fish, you can easily remove the snap weight and you are good to reel in as much as you'd like. Admittedly, my line liked to twist between the snapweight and the spoon, but I'm still very much in the experimental stages with this rig.

 

Best of luck!