Kempenfelt Lakers/Pike/Whitefish

[PickerelHunter]

Hey Guys...this spring I purchased a Bayliner 175....not exactly the fishing boat I hoped for when I started saving for it but during the "saving" phase I went from being single to now having wife and 2 young kids so the needs of the boat changed with time. This is a bit more family friendly. However, I'm going to make the best of the situation and try to make it fishing friendly as well. I've always been a big canoe/portage fisherman, but time for that is long gone for now.

I've got a portable downrigger setup (flush mount rod holders, with gimbal mount for the downriggers)...I think I'm all set to go to tackle some Lake Trout, Whitefish, and Pike. The fish finder is on the weaker side (or I am not good at reading it yet), but hoping to upgrade next year, so I'll have to make due for now. Trolling speed is at 3.2-3.6 mph so I've got a couple home depot buckets going off the sides to slow things down a bit to around 2.5ish. I'm trying to stick to Kempenfelt and learn it as best as I can since it's close to marina where the boat is.

Since every lake is a different beast, I was hoping I might get some expertise from someone that knows Lake Simcoe. I've searched throughout the board and elsewhere on the internet and gained a significant amount of info in general. However, I still have a few specific questions...

1. Any suggested lures/colours that Simcoe seems to like? I've got a few things I'm excited to try (Williams whitefish, flatfish in blue/silver, Mepps syclopes blue/silver, Coyote 5.0). Trying to keep to silver's with greens/blues to match whitefish/cisco colours.

2. Kempenfelt is deep. Shallow ledge on shore then a pretty steep drop off. Would you suggest fishing deeper flats (e.g. in the 70-100 ft range) or fishing the steep drop offs in that 70-100 range? I've added a hydropgrpahic map to show an example of what I mean..."A" would be steep drop off...."B" would be flats.

3. Pike...haven't found much info online with regards to the Kempenfelt pike habitat. It'll take some time to find deeper weed areas so I'm planning to start trolling 20-40 foot range on the north shore of Kemp closer to the opening into main lake. Hoping to find some sort of pattern eventually...main concern is that 20-40 range would see a steep slope the entire way along that north shore (very few flats in that range that I can see) and not sure that's where the pike would hold. Kemp must have a healthy pike population (maybe not like Cook's or the east side) but can't seem to find any really interesting spot using hydrographic maps.

4. If anyone is willing to take a passionate and experienced angler, but green Lake Simcoe angler to show the ropes I'd be forever in your debt....gas and Timmy's on me of course.

Thanks for any discussion this may brew up.