Cranks for Lake trout

  • poppy402
    Eagle Point Wisconsin
    Posts: 948
    June 5, 2012 at 1:39 pm #1319536

    For those of you who pull a lot of cranks for lake trout, what do you find as your top producing bait?

    Right now around Duluth we are seeing the fish as being a little more deep than normal. Around 30 to 50 feet to be exact. My guess is all this mud has them on a different program than normal years when there is less mud. Usually right now there are a lot of fish in the top 15 feet feeding on bugs and other bait that is up high right now. Sunday I trolled for 9 hours and only pulled one fish out of the top 15 feet of the water column.

    You can get any bait down 40 feet by use of lead, snapweights or downriggers, so what do you guys opt for?
    I like to stay away from lead or snapweights if i can, so i mainly go with a Rapala Tail dancer in the 11 size. This is a great bait especially for bigger fish. Putting it back 130 behind a board can get you down 30 plus feet as well!

    Hopefully the big lake stays calm this weekend so we can get out there and put the hammer down on some nice fish. There were a couple giants caught last weekend! Lakers, kings, and browns! Is it saturday yet???

    finman
    Posts: 277
    June 5, 2012 at 1:57 pm #1073733

    Hey Grant- I was up in Two Harbors all weekend with my son(report and pics later today). We caught 2 kings and 2 lakers. One of each came from a Harley colored Jim’s Flashback spoon, 55 ft down on a rigger, 100ft back. One laker was on a firetiger diving Husky Jerk, I think size 10, 150ft back, 100ft out on a board. The other king was on the same setup, but in the hot tiger color. Lost one on that color too.

    kooty
    Keymaster
    1 hour 15 mins to the Pond
    Posts: 18101
    June 5, 2012 at 2:39 pm #1073744

    Grant,

    Is it too early to be targeting these fish with Flasher/Dodger and squid combos? Back in the day in SD, our best plugs were the wiggle warts and Smithwick Rogues. I haven’t fished out on Oahe for so long now I’m sure there are much better tactics.

    Kooty

    poppy402
    Eagle Point Wisconsin
    Posts: 948
    June 5, 2012 at 4:13 pm #1073769

    Quote:

    Hey Grant- I was up in Two Harbors all weekend with my son(report and pics later today). We caught 2 kings and 2 lakers. One of each came from a Harley colored Jim’s Flashback spoon, 55 ft down on a rigger, 100ft back. One laker was on a firetiger diving Husky Jerk, I think size 10, 150ft back, 100ft out on a board. The other king was on the same setup, but in the hot tiger color. Lost one on that color too.

    Awesome glad you had some luck! Yes those Husky jerks especially in those new colors are one heck of a bait!

    poppy402
    Eagle Point Wisconsin
    Posts: 948
    June 5, 2012 at 4:15 pm #1073770

    Quote:

    Grant,

    Is it too early to be targeting these fish with Flasher/Dodger and squid combos? Back in the day in SD, our best plugs were the wiggle warts and Smithwick Rogues. I haven’t fished out on Oahe for so long now I’m sure there are much better tactics.

    Kooty

    It is known as a mid to late summer pattern but yes it will produce fish right now. One could run a dodger and a spoon as well. Both work very well!!

    kooty
    Keymaster
    1 hour 15 mins to the Pond
    Posts: 18101
    June 6, 2012 at 3:36 pm #1074091

    Spoons were one of my favorite tactics. I always liked hooking fish without the dodger/flasher of course to get a better fight. Back in those days, a 10lb king was something special.

    Something I’d like to try on Mille Lacs for the open water eyes also. Just can’t see making the investment yet.

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