Laker…

[FSH 210 Sport]

Caught this 15# 36” long lake trout today in 125’ of water using down riggers set at 80’.

Forgot to add, this was my first lake trout.

 

[pmustico]

Very nice!

 

[Can0n11]

Huron or LM? We used to run bottom bouncers for Lakers in LM out of St. Joe years back.

 

[zipper]

On a big spoon, envious. Nice fish. You must be excited.

 

[Atadventures]

Great fish!!! I think you should quit now though, you might not catch another nice one for a while!

I fish Winnipesaukee in NH and our average laker doesn’t get much bigger then 3-4 pounds. I’m very jealous of the fish you can get into.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Great fish!!! I think you should quit now though, you might not catch another nice one for a while!

I fish Winnipesaukee in NH and our average laker doesn’t get much bigger then 3-4 pounds. I’m very jealous of the fish you can get into.

You are spot on! I haven’t caught another one since! I’m trying some different tactics now although so far those have not proved fruitful… I see guys catching them by jigging… I’ve tried that myself but I’m obviously not doing it right…

Thanks for your nice words!

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Huron or LM? We used to run bottom bouncers for Lakers in LM out of St. Joe years back.

Neither.. I’m in the Black Hills… bottom bouncers.. may have to give that a try as well.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Took my friends son fishing yesterday…. We caught a couple of nice lakers, just a little over a year from the last ones that were caught off my boat. 120’ of water, down riggers set at 80’ using the same spoon as before except with orange stripes on it.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Caught two more nice lakers yesterday…the first one took about 10 minutes to land. Not a whole lot of fight until it saw the boat, then it peeled off quite a bit of line, still had the clicker on which made for a bit more dramatic runs with the reel singing, this happened several times before I was able to get it into the net. While I was fighting the first one I noticed a pontoon boat full of people had changed course and was heading my way, they kept a good distance from me and when I finally got the fish in the net they all started cheering. I pumped my fishing rod above my head and the cheers got louder- pretty cool !

I only have a picture of the second smaller one as the first one got tangled in the net pretty badly and it was out of the water for a long time. I put him in the water off of the swim step for a bit moving it through the water and it was not responding so it went into the live well with the fill pump and aerator on manual. Held it with its mouth in the stream of bubbles for a few minutes until it kicked its tail free of my hand letting me know it was pissed. I pulled it out out and torpedoed it back into the lake and it shot out of sight. The second one in the picture came off the hook after I got it in the net so I just left it in the net and snapped a pic without touching it.



The day started calm and pretty warm early, it was swimsuit weather starting at 0730hrs when I got on the lake.




I was using 5 ounce spoons that are silver down the middle and have two orange stripes, 120’ of water with down riggers set at 65’ & 80’. I caught both fish at 65’, a week ago we caught them at 80’.

I was kind of surprised I was catching these fish around noon or so and there was a lot of boat traffic, wake boats, pontoons and ski boats, the water then was confused and pretty choppy. This just proves to me that you can catch fish any time of day and not just at O dark thirty.

I hope everyone is getting out on the water!

Edit: I’m pretty happy with the Shimano Talora trolling rods and Shimano Tekota conventional reels I bought over the winter. The actions of the rods are great, sensitive but firm up nicely with a good fish on. The Tekota reels are smooth, the drags are amazing, and the retrieve rate is fast.

 

[zipper]

Are you using a Fish Hawk temp. probe?

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Are you using a Fish Hawk temp. probe?

No I am not…. It sure would be interesting to see what the water temp is down there though! I’m going to venture a wild guess and say the water temp at 65-80’ of depth is in the 40° range, while the surface temp was at 73°.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Great fish!!! I think you should quit now though, you might not catch another nice one for a while!

I fish Winnipesaukee in NH and our average laker doesn’t get much bigger then 3-4 pounds. I’m very jealous of the fish you can get into.

How right you were! It was a year and a couple weeks between Lakers!

 

[zipper]

What weight ball are you using?

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

What weight ball are you using?

Cannon 8# with the Diamond tape sticker on it. Am also thinking of getting one of those fish shaped ones that is just black.

I started running the line back 70-80’ from the line holder. I caught both yesterday at 65’ and 70’ back from the line holder. My thinking on this is to get the lure back further from some the fish may be shy of, and I can run the ball a bit shallower as the lure will be running deeper due to that extra line.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Caught another dandy today.. 29” 9lbs 14 ounces.. 110’ of water, down rigger ball at 65’, lure was at 120’ behind the ball.. water temp 74*, air temp 90*. Speed 1.7 mph using a 5 ounce spoon with two orange stripes, one down each side, very similar to the spoon in the first post of this thread.

Took me a bit to get this one revived.. I believe that it is not the depth change as lake trout can burp to equalize the pressure, I think it is the water temperature difference.

 

[zipper]

Nice fish!

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Nice fish!

Thanks Zip! I need to get one of those nighthawk thermometers you mentioned.. two weeks back they were hitting at 80’ and the last two trips at 65’.

This one put up a heck of a fight.. took about 8-10 mins to get him on the boat.

Side note: Not even one drop of water out of the bilge again… man, that was a journey!

 

[tim h]

@FSH 210 Sport
Why aren't you keeping these Lakers and putting them in the smoker ?
OR taking them to a reputable smoked fish outfit..

Smoked Lake Trout is excellent !

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

@FSH 210 Sport
Why aren't you keeping these Lakers and putting them in the smoker ?
OR taking them to a reputable smoked fish outfit..

I have plenty of trout in the freezer… these fish are pretty elusive and are a challenge to catch and for me just catching them is enough. There are a few guys & gals out there that target these fish, theres one guy who jigs for them, he’s out there all day jigging, just an animal. I did catch about a 6# rainbow yesterday as well but I put him back as well.

From what I have been told these fish in the 10# class are 6-8 years old, the 20# ones are 10-12 years old. The state record is 30#, if I caught one bigger than the state record I’d be tempted to keep it, but, it seems to me that would be a bit of a waste of a 20 year old fish. I am having a taxidermist make me a replica of the one I caught last year since I had taken some good pictures and measurements.

On the other hand if I was catching Northern Pike in the sizes of the lakers I’ve been catching lately they’d be in the freezer. Once I find the crappie which are huge I’d probably keep those as well, any walleye I catch that are good size also end up in the freezer. I also want to make it over to Lake Oahe and try to catch some Salmon.

Your post is well taken and I should get myself a smoker and start smoking some of the fish I do have.

 

[tim h]

Not sure where you are located but, Lake Michigan, in Wisconsin has some great salmon fishing !
That's where I'm from and salmon/trout fishing is a big deal there.