Lake Trout Fishing 101

[leechlake]

call the following a waste of time but I've got this on my mind as a huge challenge.

We have a place on Kabekona Lake west of Walker. The lake is very deep and clear. There is a huge amount of water over 90 feet and the deepest part is approx 135. The DNR stocked Lake Trout in it for quite a while as an experiment which has failed. They quit stocking a few years ago, no one from anyones understanding has ever caught one in the lake.

My thought is there has to be some still swimming in the lake. I'd like to spend some time trying to catch just one. Kind of like waiting in a deer stand for hours on end waiting for the buck of a lifetime to show up.

I fish walleyes a lot but have no clue the best way to attempt this. The lake has humps that come out of the deep water that top out at about 50 feet. I think the thermocline is around 38, what would you do? I realize this will be very hard but I'd like to try.

[Nate McVey]

Leech, here's a great thread with a lot of great info from some of the Lake Trout experts....

Lake Trout

There are a lot of pages, but they are filled with all the information you are looking for. Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

[JBone]

Jig a 2.0oz white bucktail jig tipped with a half cisco in about on the steepest breaks. 75ft-50ft start out with, set drag, stick hard

[Steve Foss]

Those humps sound like just the ticket, since they top out below the thermocline and drop into the deeper part of the lake.

I'd take an array of sonars, jigging spoons such as kastmasters, and 1-2 oz jig tipped with a Gulp minnow and vertical jig from the tops of the humps all the way down into the deepest basins nearby. Drop the lure to the bottom, reel up a few feet, jig for a minute, reel up a few cranks, repeat until you are about 35 feet down. Then drop back to the bottom.

I'd opt for superbraid, since mono can stretch too much to get a good hookset with that much line out. Probably a 15/4 Fireline type line. You'll either want a ball bearing snap swivel at the end of the line to eliminate line twist, or you'll want to put on a ball bearing swivel and add about six feet of mono/fluro leader, ending in a snap to make lure switching easier.

I just use the ball bearing snap swivel right at the end of the superbraid. You can mess with the mono/fluoro leader if you want to, but my vertical jigging catch rate didn't go down at all after I stopped using that option. Lakers aren't line shy in the first place, and when you are down that deep, even on a sunny day, I don 't think lakers are going to care about whether you've got the leader or not.

Baitcasting or spinning, whichever you like best. I like a 7-foot rod with a fast action in an M or MH.

Best to do this on a calmish day so your drift doesn't goof up your jigging, or use an electric trolling motor to maintain position. If you are stationary or nearly so and try to jig so that your lure ends up in the transducer cone, you'll be able to see the lure on your electronics, as well as the fish coming up to look at it.

I usually cruise around deep structure until I find marks that could be lakers before I start jigging.

With 45,000 yearling lakers being stocked from 2001-2004, whatever lakers remain will probably be a bit on the smaller side, with probably nothing over 5 lbs. Given that, I'd suggest typical walleye-sized jigging lures, not the traditional sizes used for lakes with the whole gamut of fish ages.

Good luck!

[sheephead2]

I agree with Steve .

Jigging on calm days look for fish on depth finder. It work for me last weekend.I ended up catching 6 but that was on different lake. I use mono but it is 12lb test.Wife used 8lb mono she lost 4 fish to much stretching.Wife and I were in Canada I put on 8 lb Fireline on wifes reel didn't get a bite so I gave her my other reel with mono and she ended up catching 8 Lakers So maybe a mono leader would help I am going to try that next time I go up there.I think any jig 1 oz or heavier will work....

[JBMasterAngler]

Actually there is a pretty good chance there are no lakers in there (unfortunately). I believe lack of quality oxygen in the depths is the cause for no success. The only lakers that were ever caught in test nets were yearlings from the previous years' stocking. So I would say your chances are as close to zero as it can get. But hey, you may catch the pike or walleye of a lifetime with those tactics. Good luck, I hope you prove me wrong.

[griff321]

I know this is an old thread, but I was going through looking for laker information and found this thread.

Last year on opener a group staying at point of pines caught a big laker out of Kab, so the fabled ghosts do exist. They were casting up near the shore and caught it in just a few feet of water early in the morning. I'll have to ask my buddy what they were using because I forget, but it was something unconventional. I'd just stick to night trolling for big eyes, because I know a few locals that put in a lot of time fishing and spearing and they've never even seen a laker.