Cold Lake Lake Trout Newb [Archive] - Alberta Outdoorsmen Forum

Boreal

02-23-2010, 01:23 PM

I am planning a trip to Cold Lake on Sunday, as I have heard that Lake trout can be some real fun. Unfortunatly I have never fished this lake before and furthermore I have never fished for Lake Trout before. If some one could offer me some advice as to what gear, bait, and or locations on the lake it would be greatly appreciated.

Best Regards

nicemustang

02-23-2010, 02:58 PM

While I never been to cold lake, I've fished for lakers lots in Spray and northern sask through the ice. Just a couple of tips I will offer.

1. Electronics are your friend. If you have sonar, it will be a huge help fishing the deep water for lakers. They aren't always on the bottom, often finding them throughout the water column. A good flasher will be your best friend, a fish cam at the bottom can be helpful as well. In spray for example I have the camera setup at the bottom. We get a decent amount of fish that come in as we fish mostly on the bottom. But nothing huge. All of my above average sized fished have been caught off the bottom. Since using a flasher, you can see them alot easier off the bottom and can quickly reel up to their level. Back in Sask, we fished primarily on the bottom but didn't have any electronics back then...but we still had luck as fishing is generally better up there.

2. Fish the whole water column. In relation to #1, it's important to fish the whole water column. Let you lure hit bottom, jig agressively and then pause, repeat. If you get no hits after a few minutes, move up a couple feet and do the same, repeating this technique until the top. I've caught fish 5 feet under the surface in 80 FOW before. When you get to the top, drop it back down rapidly again. The action of it falling oftern triggers a fish to come in a check it out from far away.

3. Agressive jigging. Lakers are agressive feeders, I've found using the camera that most lakers prefer the agressive action. Bulls not so much.

4. Lure choice. Personally my favorite is a buzz bomb with smelt. Anything white or mostly white or glow in 2.5" size. Larger double tail jigs, tube jigs or plain rattle jig heads and smelt. Also larger spoons or a puppet minnow off bottom have done well with.