Advice For A First Time Lake Trout Fisherman?

Well we finally booked a lake with lake trout in it! McInnes Lake outpost is where we’ll be going this summer, it’s a 20+ mile long lake with depths of almost 200′. It’s a fly-in outpost.

Now I’ve only fished for lakers a handful of times, and never on a fly-in in August. So any advice you guys can give me would be great. Am I looking for fish relating to shoreline/near shore structure at all? Say, fishing a shoreline point, but doing so out in 80 feet? Or should I just troll around in the middle of the lake looking for fish/bait? As far as rods/reels go, I have some catfish/musky poles that I’m sure would work if I wanted to try running divers or really heavy 3-ways. I also have plenty of lighter stuff for jigging spoons/jigs. My problem is, I have no idea what to try first. Is it worth investing in dipsy divers or some other method? By the time we go I might even have a couple leadcore setups. However the obvious problem with this is it’s specialized gear, and we’re doing a fly-in. So if I bring up divers or lead, I want to know that it’s really worth it. However if you guys all tell me I’ll catch a ton more fish with them, it’s worth it.

Otherwise if I go traditional, what advice do you guys have there? In a lot of quick blurbs I’ve seen on outfitter websites, they say just find some deeper water and jig off the bottom. Is it really that simple? Like I said, I’ve never really done this type of fishing before, so I’m looking for any and all information and advice possible.

Plus I’m trying to cure this damn cabin fever!!

If you go traditional tackle, get some 1-2 oz jigs and some 3-4″ white trigger x tubes, or some heavy spoons; Blue Fox and Lhur Jensen have some really nice spoons for dropping deep… odds are you won’t be able to actually see your jig or spoon on your electronics, but you will be able to see if any fish are suspended. If you find a lot of suspended fish, work the water column with the spoon or jig in 5-10 foot increments. If you don’t see any suspended fish work the bottom 10 feet of the water column. Fast on the way up, slow on the way down. Some guys just control drop until it hits the bottom… let it pound the bottom a few times and then reel up, then drop again… the fish usually hit it while you’re bringing it up, but keep tension on the line during the drop so you can feel a strike if they hit it on the way down. As for depth, in the beginning of August the fish will likely be anywhere deeper than 60 feet, at the end of august the game could completely change depending on the water temperature, those same fish may be shallower. It’s always good to find out the habits of the fish in the lake you will be fishing, when you will be fishing there. Shoreline structure is a good place to start; deep water off a hump or island can hold a good amount of fish. You don’t necessarily want to be in the deepest part of the lake, but say 80 feet next to a steep drop into 120 on the windward side of an island can be good start.
Jigging is the simplest method, while running downriggers may be more successful, if you get a few things wrong it could mean no fish at all. Will you be in a canoe, or will they have a boat on the lake for you? There are some important factors to consider when it comes down to what you are going to bring in!

Thanks for the info! We’ll have boats/motors, and I’ll be bringing up a Elite 4 HDI so I’ll have good quality sonar and GPS capability.

Any advice on finding the best deals on those larger jigs? I’ve started to look around online but I haven’t narrowed it down yet. As far as colors go, I’m guessing natural/lighter colors for plastics, and same (plus flash) for spoons? I doubt we’ll run riggers, but I could possibly bring up a leadcore setup or two. Or run dipsy divers. One thing I that I think will up my chances is that I plan to bring along quite a few salted sucker minnows. I work in the fishing department at a local Gander Mountain, and every now and then I save up all the dead suckers and salt them. I imagine a smaller sucker on a jig, or a larger one trolled with a quick strike rig would be deadly? Although I’m not sure on how I’d handle depth control, as far as trolling them goes. Thanks again for your advice!

As far as I know, at least in Ontario there are areas where you cannot bring any bait from the US, salted or not, I would check with customs about it to make sure.
As for jigs, I can do some scouting for ya, I go with plain white tubes… And to make it simple: blue/silver spoons for cloudy days and red/silver spoons for sunny ones. I usually do the same patterns for running Rapalas as well.

Putn’am, thanks for the heads up but we’ve taken salted minnows up to this area for a number of years, and the guys at I Falls/Fort Frances haven’t said anything yet lol.

Thanks for the color tips, I was thinking light/natural colors in tubes, paddle tails, and maybe some larger twister tails. I have a number of smaller Little Cleos and the like that i use for northerns/bass, but I’ll have to get some larger spoons. 1-2oz?

And when do you run crankbaits? I’ve always heard about three-way rigs, but I always wondered how you get the depth figured out. Guesstimate? I know the old trick of running it in water as deep as you want it to run, and let it go until it hits bottom, then troll out at that level. Any other tricks? What rods/reels do you run? Thanks for the tips!

Trolling cranks is where it gets tough, 3 ways with a #9 or #11 original floating rap is one way, but there is a lot of math involved in getting the right depths unless you bounce the bottom… that pairs with what I mentioned earlier about either having massive success or getting one thing wrong and not catching a thing.
As for spoons here are some links for you with some options other than cleos (I love using cleos as well) Anything from 3/4oz-1.5 oz should be fine as long as it isn’t too big.

Laxee Spoon
Rattlin’ Pixie Spoon

Pearl/Goby Colored tubes
Tube Bait Jig Heads
As for rods and reels you want a heavy action rod to get a good hook set and strength to fight the fish, line counter reels are nice… everyone has their own opinion on which ones to use, but a Diawa Accudepth can be a decent start if you aren’t putting 50 days a year on it. There is a lot for me to learn/try when it comes to rods and reels, so a post in general discussion about what rods and reels to use should turn up some good results. And by all means don’t just stop with my suggestions, try and get as much local information as you can.

I usually run cranks when the fish are higher in the water column or shallow… So May and Early June, then again in Late Sept. Hope this helps.

Hard to beat perk minnows they are hard to find but a flat slab spoon. Just rip it 3-4 ft and slack line down. Also the cabelas real image spoons are similar and work well. Krocodile spoons are also good.

There is an excellent spoon made that work’s extremely well for catching lake trout, however it does come with a caveat! They are very, very expensive! I’m talking about one of my old favorite’s, the Sutton Spoon! One of the reason’s they are so expensive is the fact that they are plated with a precious metal. Precious metal will reflect light at a greater depth than any other metal. One thing you need to do when trolling with a spoon is to remember to vary the speed at which you are trolling. Laker’s are in the bad habit of following a spoon without striking when it is being trolled at a constant speed without varying it at all. I haven’t tried it yet myself but I would think that a Rapala Deep Tail Dancer could be deadly! Laker’s are usually sucker’s for anything bright and shiney! Good luck! DIRTBALL2