Lake Trout Advice

As I continue to diversity the types of freshwater species of fish; I often find myself leaning towards continually fishing for Lake Trout. As I have caught a few lakers on Pokegama I find myself thinking that since that lake is known for lakers I should go to a lake that is fished specifically fished for trout to try and refine my tactics.

I have heard of a few Lakes in the area that are known for lakers, those being Caribou, Bluewater and Trout Lakes. I have decided that Saturday I will be heading to Caribou. That being my decision I have two questions you as readers.

As I am a newbie to this type of fishing I would like to ask for some suggestions or tips from experience fisherman for this species. Has anyone fished Caribou and is this a good choice on my part to continue to learn how to catch this species?

What are some good lures or tactics to trigger more bites from Lake Trout on smaller inland bodies of water?

I have typically been using a wide variety of rapalas in different colors and sizes and briefly tried a gold crocodile spoon.

Any suggestions would be appreciated?

Hopefully be successful enough this weekend to report on my fishing excursion.

I fish superior myself, I assume there are quite a few likenesses to inland lakes.

Speeds are generally 1.8-2.5 max.

I am not sure on your depths but I have seen LT come up 40′ to get a peak at my rigger ball so you should be able to cover the water column in 20′ incriments.

Spoons or cranks work. I will often use Storm thundersticks (about 5″ long) and get all size of LT. Sometimes chromes and other times bright colors work best. Trolling spoons are different than casting spoons. They are about 1/4 the weight and flutter much better at the slower speeds and can often be 5″ long.

Riggers- 10′-100′ behind the ball. Closer if you are using some atractor like cowbells or a dodger or further sometimes when trying “stealth” or a SWR (2 colors of Leadcore behind ball to be a bit lower than the ball).

Leadcore works well to. Many try to say a full 10 colors will sink a board. Not true. Church walleye boards and offshores work fine towing a full 10 if needed. they dont get super wide but work fine. you can also clip a board anywhere along the line if you dont want to runn all the colors out. You will want to keep the rod tip high as the lead will sag a bit. Trust me it has done me fine for 3 years.

LT fishing is not rocket science, watch your graph and find a way to get a spoon or crank down to them and you should get results. Vertical jigging works too. Buck tail, white tubes or a big minnow. Best of luck.

Do you often stick to one particular method when fishing or after several passes and trying different colors and lenghts of line do you switch to vertical jigging with the lures/bait described? Have you ever tried jigging spoons for trout in the summer. Somone also told me that putting four to five bells attached to your line before the lure or rig works.

By bells I would guess they mean “cpwbells”. Which are 3-5 large spinner blades. Jump on a few websites like Lhur-jensen, scotty, Marine general and check out their trolling gear selections. It will help put ideas togther. Also you may find info on http://www.glangler.com it pertains primarily to trolling the Greaat Lakes, lots of info.

As for jigging and jigging spoons I have only tried it early when the sun comes up.

I cant say that i change up my presentation too often. On Sup MN you can fish 2 lines each and Sup WI it is 3 lines. With that I am pulling 3 presentations. Riggers deep close to the boat, dipsey divers mid depth and wider then LC or flat lines with planerboards wide for the shallower depths. With that said I have a better chance of patterning colors/depths and lures. So I would have to say that yes I do change when one type is working best.

We also have vast space and only turn around when we find a school or working a reef. Sorry its not the best answer but yes if I found fish I would turn on them and switch up trying to get them to go.

Dond be affraid to change colors and depth often.