starting to get in to

Laker fishing, but these fish drive me nuts!! what is a good way to get them to hit your jig/bait? I get them following and watching (for up to 5mins or so). but I having little success catching them.

I am far from a laker expert but the few I have caught typically hit while I’m quickly reeling in. If it doesn’t smack your lure by the time the lure gets just below the ice drop back down, play with it a bit, and try it again.

AaronMoore wrote:

Laker fishing, but these fish drive me nuts!! what is a good way to get them to hit your jig/bait? I get them following and watching (for up to 5mins or so). but I having little success catching them.

I assume you’re playing the cat and mouse game. You need to drive the fish nuts. If you’re fishing 80’ that means you have 160’ of water column to tease them. They’ll follow from 80’ down to the surface and all the way back down. I’ve done it.

Also, don’t underestimate how fast they are. One time on Superior I reeled up as fast as I could reel to a mark higher up and a laker smashed it at top speed.

In clear water on Superior I like to keep 10’ of separation. Never lift your rod, always reel with your tip down. You can jig it a little if you like, I typically just reel up. When they go faster you go a little faster. When they get within 3-5’ it’s like the point of no return. Either they smash it or they miss completely. By smash I mean they bite it while swimming toward you. The bite will feel really lite because they are swimming toward you. This is why you keep your rod down. You’ll need 4’ of lift to set the hook.

There’s always the issue of changing baits or color. They can be notoriously picky when it comes to color or even size.

Let’s get some more details on where you’re fishing and what you are using.

I’m fishing clear lakes in Colorado, I know there are a lot of smaller fish (16-22) in these lakes but I know there are larger fish in there. I’ve used the standard white tubes (other colours too, silver, brown, green), swim baits, spoons and raps. I fish anywhere from 90′- 20′ for them. most show up when I fish 60′ at the very bottom with a few marked mid depth.

I’d just say to make em chase. Again, they’re faster than you think. I call them a fish with ADD, if you don’t keep them occupied, they lose interest.

Try something a little out of conventional and drop a a plain gold spinner down, maybe have a little hot orange on a corner of the blade, and reel it straight up with some short pauses. Once you get a follow coming along buzz the bait until it’s ten feet under the ice then let it drop maybe forty feet and repeat.

Like Gill has suggested,plowing a bait super fast can trigger good hits and he’s dead right on keeping the rod tip down.

Jig like this

Good info above!

From the few lakes I fish around here and the mountain lakes in CO, it always seems to be the same thing. Pizz them off and keep’m moving. Forget everything you do with panfish and walleyes. Most of the time if I get a laker “sitting still” looking at a bait – game over. The faster I can get them to chase, the more aggressive they become.

On a very rare occasion during times when the lakers seem more lethargic and not aggressively chasing, I’ll drop a gulp on a 1/4oz jig and let it slow fall. I’ve had lakers that rise and fall just looking at spoons or lipless baits inhale the gulp

Thanks for the tips