Catching Lake trout
 

Anybody have a suggestion on the lure I should use to get a lake trout. Im all set up with downriggers and fish finder but I cant get em to bite!!

can't go wrong with a ruby eye or good ole williams wobbler

This should work good and troll at a speed of 5.5km . Use a GPS that can track your speed and make lots of turns.

That's seems on the top end of the speed for what I try and troll at for Lakers - mostly 1.8mph up to maybe 3.0mph (roughly 2.5km/hr to 4.5km/hr).

The trick is to find the speed they are striking at - the faster you go, the better the hook up is, however, sometimes you get less bites going a bit quicker.

5.5km/hr?.. Wow that's clipping along.

Just give it a try, any of the quality northern lakes I've fished, 5.5 was the ticket. However using the twist throttle on the 9.9 motors was tuff to keep it locked on that 5.5km so we would often be bouncing between 4.5-6.5km .

If its not working on Cold i will keep your speeds in mind lol

I like to keep the speed fluctuating from aobut 1 to 5 and drive in a zigzag pattern.

use your sonar find the bait fish or suspended trout and jig em. way more fun than trolling. Swedish pimples, deadly dick and white tube jigs is probably all you would need

How do you anchor in the deep water WC? or do use an I-Pilot?

Lots of rope or back troll if its too windy and the drift is too fast.

Lots of rope !:sHa_sarcasticlol: I run 180ft plus 20ft of chain. If its calm , you can drift but I like to stay in one spot if jigging.

Gotta love jigging. Set your spot lock on the I-Pilot and dance those white tube jigs tipped with herring right on the bottom!

Electric winch for pulling or Armstrong anchor?

White or yellow rope?

Soft white rope with an orange ball anchor retriever. Hook on the back , power away then just pull in the rope. All my big trout have come jigging.

X2, most of the time its the change of speed or turning of the bait that triggers a hit. I do think 5.5 is quite fast but it wouldnt hurt to try if your not catching any as is!!!
Run a gold williams wobler behind a green or silver flasher, thats the meal ticket right there.

For triggering strikes I like letting the ball bounce bottom, every few minutes, as far as speeds 1.5mph to 2.5mph will go slower w some lures like flatfish as the have a tendency to blow out past 2 mph. Never found much benefit to going much faster than 2.5ish.

For lure I have had tons of luck with 4.5 apex anything in silver

The best lake trout trolling lures can be hard to find. If you can find sutton silver spoons, buy them as they are the best trolling spoon out.

If you want to go big bondy baits are one of the best. I believe bass pro and the fishinhole carry them now.

send incept a pm im sure he can give you the best info on lake trout as he slays some big ones.

You are letting your down rigger ball hit the bottom of the lake?

That's one way to get a new rigger, new rod/reel and you get to pay for some expensive repairs to your gunnels.

Sounds like a great idea ........... I'm going to try it this weekend.

I run as close to bottom as I can without hitting it. Need to reset too often. Catch bigger fish near bottom than suspended on most trips.

why would touching the bottom damage your gunnel ?? there are several designs of downrigger weights specific for ticking the bottom, although pancake weights have seemed to do the trick for me. have been ticking bottom for 10 years never damaging anything, just have to know where the bottom is soft, lakes like la plonge and cold lake are lots of muck and sand, Just don't try this on a shield lake unless you are 100% that its a soft bottom w/ no rocks.

This actually made me LAUGH OUT LOUD, thank you saskpikeman, i know you were kidding but the downrigger balls bouncing off bottom...thats a knee slapper.

Best success I had LT fishing was either slow, zigzagging troll from a canoe in early may/june, with a big gold or silver double-spinner thing...real flashy..maybe a 2 or 3 inch rig. Or, locating the baitfish and downrigging at that depth with a williams wabbler - treble taken off - and a single hook with either a frozen smelt or worm. Like a charm

I guess i should have said ticking off the bottom and no i'm not joking, caught a couple thousand lake trout over the years using these techniques.

really, that is interesting/scary at the same time. I know i've hit bottom twice with my riggers, and one of those times the ball ripped right off and bent the shaft on my big jon downrigger...

its not something i would recommend on a lot of lakes but some lakes have forgiving bottoms... others not so much, gordon lake sask comes to mind that bottom will swallow a weight the minute it touches. cold lake it seems drag when you are marking bottom huggers and they nail it. I'll let it hit bottom bring it up[ a foot, then let it skip bottom every so often.

Best luck I had with Lakers was with a large silver Canadian Wiggler trolled slow or cast and retrieved slow . In the Arctic it was legal to tip a lure with some guts, and this was incredibly successful.

SaskPikeMan,

Thanks for the reply ........... Typically if I need my presentation to hug bottom I leave my ball suspended up about 10-15 feet and run a diving crankbait, flatfish, heavier flasher or, alternately, run an inline jet planner and/or mooching sinker with bead chain.

Just set back a little further.

No need to let the ball even touch (on purpose) at least.

I can see my lure bouncing off the bottom but the ball stays up and over all the snags that could be costly.

Have I ever hit bottom ......... yes .......... but that's not the intent ........ scared the crap outa me.

x2

I guess weighting your lure or a jet diver works but just seems like more gear than is necessary to get close to the bottom, we fish cold lake and la plonge several hundred hours every year never have hooked bottom with a weight. lakes like athapap or clearwater, lac la ronge i would say stay clear of the bottom.