Okay. I have read many places about catching lake trout in the spring. They always talk about how the trout are shallow and mention casting the shallows to find them.

Consider Jasper Lake off the Gunflint trail. Where and how would you target lakers over Memorial Day on this lake??

They could be anywhere, shallow or pretty deep. I would start on hump betweenthe island and shore. Practice catch and release there, except for a small one or two for the pan, because that lake has pretty low productivity.

Mad Angler - Where did you find this type of map ?

Never fished this lake but checking out the map you have 4 possible trout holes 110, 80, 70, 70 feet deep. They will be in the transition areas off of those holes. If they are up shallow they will be shallow off of those holes.

There is a narrows in the northern end between the 70 and 110 foot holes looks interesting. Then I think the area Arctic pointed out is just a hair south of that (hard to read the depths on your map) so could be good becuase part of that same transition area.

South part of the Lake there is a transition area between the 80 and 70 foot holes. Then you have to take the wind direction into consideration.

If it was me I'd start trolling cranks beginning at the north East end and loop around those holes until I found out the depth to be at concentrating on the structure on the windward side of the trout holes. I'd start on 15-20 feet deep---I consider that shallow for trout. If you are fishing evening or early morning then try even a little shallower.

If all else fails hit the deep water and watch the depth finder for schools of ciscoes. They will be around the ciscoes for sure.

Have fun.

T

How are you looking at fishing them? When we use dead bait, we have the best luck in about 30-40' of water fishing right on the bottom near points and other shallow areas that draw baitfish in to relatively warmer water. This is a great time of the year for lakers and you should do well. After fishing lakers every spring for the last 30 years, the ideal conditions seem to be about 10-14 days after ice out and when the weather is finally warm and sunny.

quote izzy: "Mad Angler - Where did you find this type of map ?"

Izzy,
The map is a screen shot from Navionic Hotmaps Explorer. It is amazing and only about $20 at any Gander Mountain. It has topos for nearly every lake in the US. The basic topo is like the Alpine one I used in this thread.

You also get one free high defintion lake. The high def lakes are even more amazing. They send out their own crews to measure the depths. The high def lakes are presented with 1 foot contours.

Here is another thread that I started about it.
Hotmaps thread

troll the shore lines starting at about 10-15 feet and then get progressively deeper till you find were the fish are. Look for drop offs to deeper water. In the spring the lakers can be any were in the water column. I have caught them at 10 foot over 50 foot holes.

tony

I have never been on that lake but by looking at the map here is what I would do.
I would start on either the NW corner of the lake in the bay and troll the point and to the east or I would start at the island in the center of the lake. I would be trolling spoons and cranks until I found fish and then adjust accordingly. On Memorial Day weekend you should be able to troll the shoreline and find fish, stay tight to points and any shoreline structure. If you don't find fish that close to shore just keep moving out away from shore until you find them. The narrows between the island and the shore should be an awesome place for lakers and so should a couple of the prominent points on the lake.
Good Luck