My son and i are planning a 5 day trip on Seagull lake. We want to catch it at the optimum fishing time, our options are open. When would you say would be this "hot" time, knowing that there are never any guarantees!!! Walleye, smallies, slimers are what we are after. Thanks for the tips.....

Why, late May/Early June of course. Or early ice.

Oh, and carefull how you throw around the term "slimers"... I belong to "L.T.H.R.T." (Lake Trout Have Rights Too) and we have a big problem with such derogatory remarks :-b

Hex

Hexnymph, it sounds like you might be pretty knowledgeable on the topic of laker fishing. If you wouldn't mind you should check the post in the trip planning forum called "september trip". There are a few threads there asking about laker fishing and it's tactics. If you could do that it would be much appreciated!! Or anyone else who knows anything about laker fishing.
Thanks,
HBN

For the most part, as far as laker fishing is concerned, I've just stumbled upon them fishing for eye's.

By the pictures in the gallery... Lyn's probably the resident expert.


I've caught them with floating lindy rigs and leeches in front of camp still fishing off the bottom.
I've caught them with jigs and leeches/drifting jigging
I've caught them drifting with a good wind with spoons (small daredevils)
I've had my best luck tageting them by using floating rapalas trolled about 4 feet behind a bottom bouncer (weedless trolling sinker) to get the lure down. (my favorite colors are 1. gold 2. silver 3. perch)

One of my best laker day's was on Kekekabic(sp?). I had them follow the bottom bouncer/rapala rig up to the canoe... and hit the rapala floating on the top.

I have only caught them in June. Most of my BWCA trips that involve a lot of fishing are late May, early June.

One thing I do look at is the lake finder:
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/index.html
and check out the lakes that I'm gonna be crossing to see what types of fish are in there. I've eliminated a lot of wasted time on dead lakes that way. I've also changed my tacktic from targeting pike to targeting walleye and lakers.(Get a little deeper) Even using these methods, we've caught bigger pike than we ever did throwing spoons and topwater lures at shore.

I am in no way a laker expert. But, around here they really love em... The Laker to the Upper Penninsula (the 51st state/superior state/ gods country) is like the Walleye to WI and MN. I know the locals around here fish for them in winter on the ice and summer with steel line and jigs and cutbait (slices of whitefish, sucker, smelt, whatever) but they are fishing 100+ feet. But in the spring - July some time they may come up the the reefs in the big lake (Superior) to feed. Also they come into shore in the fall either spawning in the shallows or sucking up eggs of the other spawners (Browns, Coho)