I bring my nephews up to the BW every year. We pride ourselves with the ability we have to go into new lakes and catch wallleye. Yea, sometimes it's a lot of work to find them on new lakes, and sometimes they don't bite for beans, but we almost always get enough for dinner. We are fishing fools and just cant get enough of it.

My problem is this: I want to learn how to catch trout and have no idea what depths to fish at depending on water temps/time of the year, and also I have no clue what to use. Live bait, artificial? Still fish, troll? I dont want to know anyone's favorite hole, just best ways to catch those critters. I am aware of the DNR site, so knowing what lakes have trout is managable, ANY suggestions from you trout masters would be helpful.

Thanks!

I am assuming you are referring to lake trout. Lake trout are native thoughout the CN shield and are found in deep clear lakes. I will be brief because I do not have lots of time for typing, but will try to provide some basics. Spring and fall are your best chances because the surface water temps are cold. The optimum and critical temp for lakers is 42 degrees. Therefore, in the spring and fall they are found w/in the upper 20 feet of the water column. During this time of year one of the best ways to catch them is by trolling large crank baits or spoons. As the water warms lakers will go deeper in search of cold water and will concentrate off of deep drop offs, often suspended in 60-80 feet over 100+. The best way to catch them this time of year is the use of electronics. Once you located them try jigging with jigs tipped w/ large shiners or ciscos. Following is a picture of one of my customers with a nice laker caught in Sept on a lake in the BW. We caught all of them (37 total in 3 days) via trolling and jigging.

Michael Furtman's "Boundary Waters Fishing Guide" might be a good book to get you started. He details species specific tackle, lakes and techniques.
When it's warm out it is my understanding that you have to find out what temp. they're holding at and troll that depth, and they're far shallower mid spring and mid fall. They like 50-something degree water.

When we were on McIntyre Lake, up in Quetico, this last July 6 - 17 we camped on a site on the west of the lake that had a message jar. In the jar were many story's,some about catching trout just off the campsite by trolling between two points....so just for kicks we went trolling. First I tried some spoons with weight,....kept snarling on me . Then I put on a Rappala Deep Tail Dancer (Purple) and let out a lot of line.....depth finder said 42 to 47 ft......bingo! Right place....and in July. they weren't huge, but just right for a dinner for three!
fishguts