McQuade 12/6

I never thought I’d be putting the boat back in Lake Superior after my last trip to IR in October. I had the opportunity to take a couple rookies out, something I was more than happy to do. You couldn’t have asked for much better weather in December on the Gitch.

This weather has me wondering what the lake trout were doing after their fall spawn. Would they be on or near the reefs where they spawned? Would they be suspended near the surface like they are in the spring? Would they be on the bottom in deep water?

After some digging online I got in contact with someone that’s been out recently and was able to narrow my search.

We idled out of McQuade Harbor at about 8 AM yesterday and began trolling in about 100′ of water. We had our first fish 10 minutes after our lines were set. It was somewhat slow all day but we marked 100’s of fish holding tight to the bottom in 80-130′.

We went 6/7 all lakers and all came off of dipseys and 10 color suffix advanced lead core. Our dipseys were down about 80′ and the LC was down about 80′ as well. I added snap weights to the lead periodically which I’m guessing reached 90-100′. Our other 3 lines above 80′ never got a sniff.

It seems that I really need to buy a pair of down riggers for these late season lakers. I found out others using riggers were doing much better than myself.

I tried all sorts of colors and found that green/gold and copper were the hot colors. All fish were caught on magnum size spoons.

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Those are nice table trout. Nothing wrong with them at all. I’m envious.

Very nice…Great report too.

Nice report, just wish the boat wasn’t in storage.

How accurate do you think your depths are? Obviously the more weight the more accurate simply because heavier is less sensitive to speed and current changes.

I’d think your right about riggers out producing copper, lead, and dipseys especially when fish are holding tight…. Gotta keep your lure in the smaller zone.

However I offer very little trout salmon experience.

At this time of year when water temps are cold at the top as well as deeper I think the fish can be anywhere on any given day. The barometer can have a lot to do with it and can the sky/cloud cover, especially with Lake Trout. Riggers would round out your ability to stay versatile when it comes to getting to where the fish are at.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

How accurate do you think your depths are? Obviously the more weight the more accurate simply because heavier is less sensitive to speed and current changes.

I’d think your right about riggers out producing copper, lead, and dipseys especially when fish are holding tight…. Gotta keep your lure in the smaller zone.

However I offer very little trout salmon experience.

They are as accurate as you can get. I intentionally inched shallower and shallower until I dragged bottom. The nice thing about that part of the lake is that there aren’t a lot of rocks or reefs to hang up on.

Big gill this time of the year you can do well with a clack’n rap either minnow or lipless down near the bottom. It also seams like they like more vertical presentations for what ever reason. Try jigging for them

Allan Davis wrote:

Big gill this time of the year you can do well with a clack’n rap either minnow or lipless down near the bottom. It also seams like they like more vertical presentations for what ever reason. Try jigging for them

I forgot to mention that we tried jigging with swim baits with no real success. We had a hit right away but couldn’t get any more to commit. The wind started to pick up so I started to struggle with boat control.

Thanks for the tip.

biggill wrote:

They are as accurate as you can get. I intentionally inched shallower and shallower until I dragged bottom. The nice thing about that part of the lake is that there aren’t a lot of rocks or reefs to hang up on.

OK same way I get confident in my depths, so why then do you think riggers outperform in this scenario?

Just an interested noob here.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

OK same way I get confident in my depths, so why then do you think riggers outperform in this scenario?

Just an interested noob here.

In this case there’s a few reasons.

1. I had heard a report where flasher/fly rigs were the hot lure. When you put those behind any other setup, the drag of the flasher will pull your line up higher in the water column.

2. You have a lot more confidence and consistency in the actual depth of your lure.

3. They give you a more inter spread of lines. You can actually stack your lines on a downrigger so you have 2 lines per downrigger. Then also increasing your number of lines in your spread.

4. Not nearly as much damn line to reel in. 10 colors of lead with 4-6 oz of snap weights is a battle.

Downsides include cost and risk of losing expensive gear in the event of hittin an unexpected reef.

For me it just comes down to taking the next step for Great Lakes trolling. I wouldn’t say they’re mandatory to be successful to be out there, it just gives you another option when the fish get picky.