Suspened trout

[Riverfishin]

Do trout swimout in open water away from structure during the winter? I don't know much about trout but i fish a lake stocked with them and would like to target them this winter.

[chunkytrout]

Good question RF. I'll answer with a couple of "depends on". When fishing the pits I'll usually seek out old timber in deeper water as it holds most of the winter forage for trout. They're generally not "suspended" so to speak.On the more natural lakes I work bottom breaks or where there is a major bottom change ideally in about 20-30 FOW. I find that the streamers tend to be more nomadic, cruising around for feeding opportunities. Sometimes it's a sit and wait game. I don't go drilling alot of holes seeking them. I'll find a good structure and stick there til they come around. Lakers on the other hand don't seem to wander as much from day to day so I'll pick an area and start drilling. Usually 10-15 holes 20ft apart in some sort of circle pattern. Then out comes the flasher and hole to hole I go til I find them. Alot of the time they're right on or 10 feet above bottom. Saddles between reefs or humps seem to hold them well. Hope this helps and good luck.

[The Grebe]

Depends on how soon you get there after the stocking truck has dumped it's load!

I fish stocked trout 4-5 times each winter and if you get there early, anything, anywhere, works to some degree.

After opening week-end, early morning and afternoon seem to be the best? Standard technique still gets them.

After that first week, fishing gets tougher! You have to go with something that they hav'nt been seeing alot of, a different action, jig type, bait, whatever.

Although the stocked pond we fish gets plenty deep, the majority of our fish come from water that is between 3 and 12 feet deep...you can watch them buggers down there sometimes and all of a sudden, from out of nowhere, "POW"

one zooms in and grabs the bait that others are looking at....it's fun for a short time.

After the first week or so, people quit fishing as the ones that have survived the onslaught are wised up and fishing goes on, but catching grinds to a halt!

[REEFRAKER]

Alot of fishermen make the mistake of not fishing up the water column for trout. Lake trout are notorious for crusising around just under the ice. I've caught several nice fish 5' to 10' down. One time on Gunflint Lake I saw my transducer bouncing in my hole' I thought I was snagging it with my line. I looked down and there was about an 8lb. laker triing to eat it. Alot of times they're cruising so high that you have to be very lucky to pick them up on a sonar. The same holds true for other trout species.