My group will be on the Gunflint Trail next week. Poplar to winchell to frost and back. The BWCA Fishing Book i have says that winchell, town, frost and long island lake all have lakers in them. I've been more of a small mouth/pike guy in the past. Any tips on catching lakers the first week of June? Thank you in advance.

troll a little cleo

quote aholmgren: "troll a little cleo "

+1

I also like trolling Rapala Tail Dancers, 12 ft regular and 3o+ ft deep variety. Have had the best luck on green, blue and purple. I also like loose line a dead cisco out from camp, always fun to fish when youre stuck in camp (dishes, dinner, etc)

What size Cleo for open water trolling?

3/4 oz. I think it is. It will sink to the depth of the amount of line you have out and the speed you are moving. I prefer spoons over rapalas (tail dancers) as they seem to create less drag being easier to troll with.

Anyone ever tried a Bay de Noc laker taker flutter spoon?

I will be in the same area in about 2 weeks or so. Here is what I like

Tail dancers ( purple)
Little cleo's ( blue/silver) (silver)
Williams warblers ( ( gold/silver) ( blue/silver)( red/silver)

I use a walker deep diver when the fish go a little deeper to get my lures down deep. It's a little bit different fishing but it works really well.

Flutter spoons can work really well, but they are a pain, and you better be ready to lose a bunch of trolling weights and spoons, gets kinda spendy. Although the best numbers I have ever seen for trout was on flutter spoons on Mcewen, I think we caught more in that day than all other 7 day trips.

I generally troll a 1 oz. red eye spoon. It has caught lakers , sm. bass, and walleye. Gold or silver are what I like.but I lean more towards gold.

quote BearDown: "Flutter spoons can work really well, but they are a pain, and you better be ready to lose a bunch of trolling weights and spoons, gets kinda spendy. Although the best numbers I have ever seen for trout was on flutter spoons on Mcewen, I think we caught more in that day than all other 7 day trips."

How do you recommend weighing them down? The ones I got are 3+ inches long but only 1/4 oz so they're going to need some serious weight to reach any depth. Will they work with a drop weight off of a 3 way or are they best with inline sinkers?

use a dipsy diver, it's the best way in my opinion to get spoons down deep. It works great for cranks down deep also. With a dipsy you can fish smaller profile lures if that is what the fish want that day.

in his book Mike Furtman explains how to catch them using a Heddon Sonar, I've found them to be effective and have never lost one of those. People always look at me kind of queer when they see one of those lures in my tackle box and I tell them it is my go-to lure for deep lakers.
good luck finding one though, you may find one among ice fishing lures, thankfully, I bought an extra one last time I saw them.

if the water is still cold enough they may be near the surface in which case I use the same thing I do for smallies and pike, a jointed Rapala

I have also found spinners to be effective, I use Blue Fox in the largest size you can find, simple and cheap, just one blade and treble hook

3/4 oz little cleo - silver and blue or green, or rainbow trout type color.

Alternatively one of those highly colorful and patterned Great Lakes trolling spoon behind a trolling weight.

I replace the trebles with a single Big Gun catfish hook.

Just had lake trout three days in a row over the fire last week west of the Gunflint.

Caught my first lake trout several years ago in Frost Lake.

Winchell will be tough. My advice for lakers is 2 things. Long line troll DR Spoons in 40-50 ft in June or find the fish on your graph and jig them with yellow double tail twister tails on a 3/4 jig. Success with both. Go get em

I like Cleo's and have also had good luck with KO Wobblers and Red Eye Wigglers. Try both silver and brass colored.

I like to troll a #6 spinner travelling slowly, when they are shallow. Truth be told, when the lakers are feeding shallow, I've never found them to be picky.

Thank you guys for all of the info. I'm gonna take a picture of what I'm bringing , that way if anyone can point out a glaring hole or a good pick . Thanks again.

Travis

We used a bottom bouncer, like this:

http://www.zaplures.com/catalog/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=43

I have several X-raps, original floating, some spinners, some spoons, and the 4 or 5 soft power bait plastics, black grape, white and char are the couple of the top of my head. Targeting smb, pike and lakers. We were thinking about bringing leeches but are not sure.

Nothing like a little Memorial Day fishing lure porn!

Definitely take the leeches.

OK. I will take leeches. On a slip bobber, or just on the bottom? I also added a couple of deep tail dancers to troll with based on another post.

quote aholmgren: "troll a little cleo "

+1 and Beautiful fish .

Now I'm hungry for a laker.

This will be my year to catch open water lakers!

I've had good luck with purple deep Taildancers.

For you spoon guys, how do you deal with line twist? Even with the best, most expensive ball bearing swivels, I still get horrible line twist. It pretty much ruins a good spool of line in one trolling pass.

I'm not sure what you are doing. I use ball bearing swivels with braid and I don't get line twist when I troll with spoons. Perhaps slow down. If you troll too fast the spoon will spin, you don't want that. Only have on person paddle and do that at a leisurely pace. If that doesn't work try different spoons. Daredevil work well for me.

For the leeches:
Slip bobber for Walleye
For lakers, I don't know. They are difficult fish for me to catch.

Get a dipsy rig it with some spider line, then run about a 4 foot leader of 20 lb mono to a flutter spoon. Silver, blue/silver, gold. Troll 1.8 to 2.3 miles per hour. Let out about 80 to 100 feet of line that should get you down at least 40 feet that should do the trick

Heddon Sonar Lure

quote Ray59: " Heddon Sonar Lure "

Yep use these quite a bit also, very good search lure, you can sit in a bay and cover the entire bay in about ten minutes because you can cast them to Pluto.

quote Basspro69: "

quote Ray59: " Heddon Sonar Lure "

Yep use these quite a bit also, very good search lure, you can sit in a bay and cover the entire bay in about ten minutes because you can cast them to Pluto."

How is fishing in Pluto this time of the year, do you really need to go that deep?

quote QueticoMike: "

quote Basspro69: "

quote Ray59: " Heddon Sonar Lure "

Yep use these quite a bit also, very good search lure, you can sit in a bay and cover the entire bay in about ten minutes because you can cast them to Pluto."

How is fishing in Pluto this time of the year, do you really need to go that deep? "

LOL, they cast a country mile and you can bring them back at whatever depth you want, that is their greatest attribute. p.s. The Pluto fish are really big .

When I use flutter spoons, I will tie on a ball bearing swivel about 10' or so ahead of the lure. At the lure, I will use a #3 size ball bearing snap swivel. Just ahead of the first swivel, I use a snap weight (Off Shore tackle) with a banana weight of 1 1/2 oz or so. The banana weight is on a swivel chain, so it can freely spin without fouling the rig. I've never had line twist with this system.

When reeling in the laker, just reach up and remove the snap weight. I just drop it in the canoe, then grab the net or fish grabber, depending on whether I intend to release or keep the fish. Make that decision while the fish is in the water.