Rig for Lake Trout?

[cannonc]

What is a good set upfor lake trout? Going on May lw.:confused:

[PoorTurtle]

I always have luck with large black and white len thomas spoons. keep your speed down. bring some weights and a dipsy diver just incase, but they should be running high.

[tyee33]

A herring rig and a pink lady or dipsy will work early spring.Secret spoon up here works real well but not made anymore," Manistee"

[cannonc]

What type of rod,reel and line.This wll be my first time.Gong to graham and peerless
Thanks

[KyleM]

The setup earlier in the year isnt all that important.
M/H rod and I prefer level wind reel with a #20 mono and a little lighter leader of fluoro. Thats for a flatline setup. Change up to a heavier leader if your going to do a poormans downrigger.

I like to use lymans (wood plugs) for flatlining in darker colours...not sure if you can even buy lymans out here? Worth a try though.

Northern King spoons work really well too for flatlining but finding a good colour on your first time out is sometimes a little overwhelming.

Dont be afraid to go big on your spoons.

[Jester]

What is a good set upfor lake trout? Going on May lw.:confused:

It would help if you said where you are going..

[Cal]

Whats a "poor mans down rigger"? Is that a varyation of the pickeral rig or a diving board?

[sneer]

Well here's the dilemma with Peerless (very very few Lakers in Graham), the fishing is slow. I have picked up 5 good lakers in 3 hours twice...but on average your looking at 8-10 man hours per fish (in the first few years, I did have weekends where I put in +30hrs without getting a single bite).

So when you try a new lure, how long do you need to try it for to get an accurate reflection of whether it's better or not? There in lies the dilemma.

I've got almost 15 years under my belt at Peerless...so I have found a couple spoons and rapalas that seem to produce a little more consistently. But in my opinion, the key is to have a lure that runs at the right depth and stays in the strike zone...bouncing off the rocks on the bottom. 9 times out of 10 you should be setting the hook on a snag (crevices between rocks).

We catch them any where from 2-25ft...with the bigger ones coming from the deeper end of that spectrum (bigger being middle teens - average 8-10lbs).

In all my years, I've only met one guy that really seems to have them figured out...they use a downrigger and fish 40-50ft when everyone is fishing the shallows. We've tried to figure out what they are doing differently...but to no avail. One year after 5 days of fishing, they had their 12 in a couple coolers...all over 18lbs (4 guys). If they figured them out...one day maybe I will too! It's what keeps me going back.

[winged1]

May long they'll still be cruising depths that can be fished without anything more than a couple hefty splitshot on a solid spoon. Your Len Thompsons are noticeably heavier than the knockoffs, and you'll want something bright for that 20' range. We used to fish them from a canoe under paddle, so slow worked for us.

[guidehunt]

trool spoons and long minnow plugs close to deep water ,points dropoff but in shallow water ,vary your trool speed make lots of turns slow down ,speed up usually will pick them up on turns or when you slow down or speed up jerk your rod while you are trolling ,if you catch one go back over same spot a few times ,good luck

[Hooked07]

Tyee dont know jack about Lake Trout fishing, so...

[Rigg dogg]

I never had much luck @ Peerless the 2 times I was there. A couple little guys. Like Sneer mentioned you have to put in some time.

We went a few years back the weekend after May long, the ice was piled up about 10ft high @ the boat launch. We camped at Graham and took the boat up the creek to get into Peerless.


We use a lot of Eppinger Husky Devils up @ Athabasca when we go up there, I think they are just about the biggest & heaviest spoons going. I had one that was all beat up so I sanded it down, painted it gloss black put some metallic sparkles on it then a couple clear coats. Was a pretty hot hook on a few trips up there.
Try some large flatfish as well, I had a chrome blue one that was jointed used to work pretty good. I used to take the trebles off and just put a large single hook on. Much easier to release any fish if you have to.

Poor man's downrigger is just a 3 way swivel with a dropper line for your weight ( 2 oz or whatever size you need ) then a leader out to your hook.

My brother in law was just in Costco and said they have a sale on Shimano 8ft8" down rigger rods with level wind reels at a good price. Might be worth checking into.

Thought I might add a little info.
Just like guide hunt said, change up your speed, we ran the camera on the down rigger a few times. Those Lakers are notorious for following hooks for long periods of time. S patterns and a little throttle work along with some rod pumping might entice a bite. We used to call them Crazy Ivan's from the Movie Hunt for Red October.

Again don't be afraid to go BIG, here's another Athabasca story.
A buddy of mine hooked some Husky Devils in tandem with a swivel in the middle the entire unit was close to 20" long.
Long story short, he still caught fish with one close to 30lbs being his best. Just make sure you have a BEEFY rod for that RODEO.

[cannonc]

Thanks People:)
Keep them coming

[surhuntsalot]

A line counter levelwind spooled with 17 to 20lb test can be handy. A few Gibbs slip weights (4oz. & 6oz) trolled with 50' to 80' of line out can put you in the zone when trolled in 30' to 50' of water. Try a slipweight on your line, then a snap swivel. From there run a willow leaf, or lake troll. A 30" (prefferably flourocarbon) leader with a Storm Kickin Minow (small or med. size) in a whitefish pattern has worked well for me. Downriggers are definately better for laketrout, but Pink Ladys, or Dipsy Divers can do good as well. The key is a line counter reel so you can easily repeat the process accurately once you find what works.

[tbosch]

First of all the fact that lakers are at the surface at ice off is not always true. Yes sometimes you will find some near surface on peerless but more times than not out there we've had to go to a minimum of 40' to find them. There are a few spoons that have worked better than others in the past for us. Large williams wabler whitefish spoon with the hook reversed and an eye drawn on with black sharpie (i know it sounds stupid but try it anyways), Also if you go to walmart they have the 6 packs of those cheap a** spoons (apex maybe?) well the perch pattern one has actually produced more fish for us in peerless than any other spoon. Also the large gibbs ruby eyed wiggler in 50/50 has produced fairly well. Trolling speed and structure are the two most important things to watch when fishing peerless. We've found trolling between 1.2 and 1.8 mph to be the most productive speeds, with some days having to go 2 mph. A safe speed to start with would be around 1.5 mph (we use gps for speed setting). On your finder look for structure such as ledges and points that have deep water (up to 100' +) adjacent to them. S trolling parallel to these ledges from deep to shallow water seems to entice the bite especially going from deep to shallow over the ledges. If you are using downriggers or 3 way swivel setups dont be afraid to put your weight in to the dirt when coming up a ledge I have found the activity of the bottom being stirred up entices a bite quite often. Also when trolling give the rods a tug periodically, as mentioned here already lakers are famous for following baits for long distances before striking and that quick action seems to entice the bite.

Good Luck and have fun.

P.S.
I'd consider bringing a camp gun or bear spray with you as we've seen quite a few black bears in that area around the long weekend.

[Freedom55]

I know this sounds crazy in an era of great trolling boats but an old purist will remind you that the best way to troll and catch fish is to get the oars out and leave the motor for getting there and back. The erratic motion of the boat will change the speed, depth and motion of your lure/bait more effectively than any twich of the rod or throttle control, both of which tend to become repetitive, predictable, and unnatural. Hard on the chest muscles but good for the heart.
Dave Si.

[BigRackLover]

What is a good set upfor lake trout? Going on May lw.:confused:

Flat line trolling with spoons with water temperature near 10 degrees. Troll near structure.

Spoons:

Alligator
Gibbs croc
pixies
Warden worry