Quick Question on Lake of Bays Lake Trout

[Familyfisherman]

A few of us plan to go north over the next week or so to fish at his cottage -- we hope to target splake which aren't super plentiful but are in the lake. His lake isn't all that far from Baysville. We wondered about perhaps trying to fish for lake trout in Lake of Bays, and I had 2 questions:

 

1. Are lake trout open on Lake of Bays -- I read it as Jan 1 - Sept 30 but wanted to be sure, and

2. Is it worth trolling/casting for trout on Lake of Bays at ice out? I have no experience with it and wondered about fishing in the area near Baysville? I've fished trout quite a bit on Simcoe with riggers, etc, but never on Lake of Bays at ice out.

 

 

Thanks, glad for some feedback!

 

Kevin

[Joeytier]

LoB must still be at least 2 weeks from iceout?

[Familyfisherman]

Aha. You may be quite right. I was looking at current satellite imagery, however for whatever reason at the level of zoom I was on it didn't show the ice. When I zoomed in a bit more it does show it as fully iced over still.

 

I guess either way we're waiting for the ice to be gone.

 

So when it is gone just confirming that trout are open on Lake of Bays?

 

Thanks!

[dr_zayas]

Yes Trout are definitely open on LoB. I think you would be successful fishing for them right after ice out; I plan on trolling for them myself.

I was up there two weeks ago and the lake was still solid - 6" of ice around the parts I was at. The weather has been pretty warm and rainy during the days but still going below zero at night so I am thinking that it will likely still be closed for a couple more weeks like Joeytier said. I hope to go up there again next weekend and will report back with some pics. Let me know how it goes if you do make it out there!

 

Cheers!

[dr_zayas]

By the way, where do you get your satellite images for this??

[Familyfisherman]

I just googled "current satellite images' and chose one of the ones that came up...it brought up a map similar to google maps and you can put in the address of interest and go from there

[wallacio]

Lake of Bays is still quite solid. I was there fishing on Sunday and the ice was still 8-10" where I was.

 

 

Lake Trout are indeed open from Jan 1-Sept 30 there and trolling after ice out should be productive for you as it has a healthy population of Lakers.

 

The link to Sat. images:

 

http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/modis/region_map.html

[dr_zayas]

Beauty wallacio! What part of the lake did you get that one? What kind of setup were you using? I had a lot of success in mid Feb in about 35' of water using a gold Rippin' Rap. Temp rose pretty sharply from about -25C to 0C and that seemed to turn them on.

[wallacio]

I generally fish the same depths ie around 40' and use of combination of live minnows and various minnow imitation lures (Vibratos, Jigging Raps, Swammers etc) I'm not going to mention specifically where I fish on a public forum though.

[Sinker]

Ice out trolling for lakers is generally very productive. Up until late may - early june its the best way to catch them. Flatlining diving cranks works best for me, but a lot of locals troll gang trolls with a minnow threaded on a hook a foot or two behind.

 

S.

[fishindevil]

Flatline a yo-zuri or an xrap on troll with a few decent sized split shots 5 feet ahead of lure and put motor into neutral and let it slowly sink then engage motor again and add a few jerks to the bait !!!!! Killer ice out tactics and hit mouths of bays and flats trout can be on the surface or anywhere early season I have got them in 10 feet of water running my in-line planner board as well as casting the shallows !!!!! There are many ways to get them in the few weeks after ice out experiment and try different methods last year on walleye opener we were getting lake trout in 15-20 feet also lake of bays can blow up real good and get quite rough so be aware it's a big body of water and lots of hidden shoals and areas to be careful.