We have always fished walleye, smallmouth, and northern pike in the wilderness.
In August we are going through lake trout country and would like to give it a try.
My research shows they might be below 30 feet deep and that we should try vertical jigging blade baits or drop shot rigging plastics. I will appreciate your input.

My guess is the lakers will be deeper in August. I was on Oyster last week trolling a 3/4 oz little Cleo with 1 3/4 oz weight around 50-60 ft while others around me were jigging. I was catching fish while they were not.

I have been very hit and miss with lakers in August. In WCPP it has been miss mostly despite putting in good amounts of time and fishing top to bottom.

In the Quetico, on Poohbah and Basswood and Darky I have caught them well enough to expect a fish even in August.

I am no laker guru that's for sure but I have arrived at a few thoughts which may have some validity (sounds good in theory at least ;-)

First off, they might not be chewing all the time. Yes, an obvious observation but true nonetheless. So I like trying for them at staggered parts of the day until I find a time frame which seems to work. I am also aware that they may decide not to eat for a day or two and then suddenly put the feed bag out. In response my advice is to keep trying. Who know what a day may bring. FWIW I like fishing for lakers right in the middle of the day and focus on other fish early and late. Seems to work out.

Secondly, those fish have keen eyesight and are not the least bit hesitant to rocket up into the upper water columns to grab something. All of my lake trout in August have come off deep diving crank baits which ran about 28 to 30ft with the large taildncer catching the lions share. I would like to jig for them but you must first find them.......jigs are poor searching tools.

Thirdly I have found that a medium trolling speed works best. I have read where guys jigging might get bit with fast erratic retrieves but I have not had good success trolling for lakers running fast.

mastertangler: "I have been very hit and miss with lakers in August. In WCPP it has been miss mostly despite putting in good amounts of time and fishing top to bottom.


In the Quetico, on Poohbah and Basswood and Darky I have caught them well enough to expect a fish even in August.


I am no laker guru that's for sure but I have arrived at a few thoughts which may have some validity (sounds good in theory at least ;-)


First off, they might not be chewing all the time. Yes, an obvious observation but true nonetheless. So I like trying for them at staggered parts of the day until I find a time frame which seems to work. I am also aware that they may decide not to eat for a day or two and then suddenly put the feed bag out. In response my advice is to keep trying. Who know what a day may bring. FWIW I like fishing for lakers right in the middle of the day and focus on other fish early and late. Seems to work out.


Secondly, those fish have keen eyesight and are not the least bit hesitant to rocket up into the upper water columns to grab something. All of my lake trout in August have come off deep diving crank baits which ran about 28 to 30ft with the large taildncer catching the lions share. I would like to jig for them but you must first find them.......jigs are poor searching tools.


Thirdly I have found that a medium trolling speed works best. I have read where guys jigging might get bit with fast erratic retrieves but I have not had good success trolling for lakers running fast.


"

If I were to troll crankbaits, which model seems to get to that depth & do you ever add weight to help control the depth?

egknuti: "My guess is the lakers will be deeper in August. I was on Oyster last week trolling a 3/4 oz little Cleo with 1 3/4 oz weight around 50-60 ft while others around me were jigging. I was catching fish while they were not."

Do you use a three way swivel with the little Cleo to control the depth?

deep rapala taildancer, the biggest one, purpledescent. 200 feet of 10# monofilament or the diameter-equivalent hard line; measure it out with a bobber stop or use a line counter reel. That'll get you down 30' or a bit more. Lakers will come up for it. Paddle around. Stop and try jigging if it becomes obvious that you should. Use a drift sock if you jig; best ever.

Trolling these big lures will ruin 8# mono in my experience.

rockinrod: "

egknuti: "My guess is the lakers will be deeper in August. I was on Oyster last week trolling a 3/4 oz little Cleo with 1 3/4 oz weight around 50-60 ft while others around me were jigging. I was catching fish while they were not."

Do you use a three way swivel with the little Cleo to control the depth?"

My question should have included the length of the line from the weight to the spoon ;-)

Thanks, I appreciate you sharing this since I'm a laker rookie. We accidentally caught one in shallow water in late May, but strictly out of ignorance!

If you want to catch an enormous lake trout you need to fish early in the season, just after ice out, and troll the shallow areas with a 3 1/2 inch hammered silver Dr. Spoon or a 4-1/2” nickel plated Dardevle Spoon. The nickel color imitates a cisco or whitefish which are the primary forage for these fish.

These two spoons can be cast or trolled during the early spring phase. When the water begins to warm, these trout will move to deep water on reefs located next to adjacent deeper water. The summer time phase is when you will need to troll deeper. This can be accomplished by adding weight to your line with a three-way swivel. Tie off about three feet of leader line to the middle loop of the swivel and tie on your spoon. On the bottom loop tie on about a foot and half of line with a one ounce weight at the far end of this line. Tie the remaining loop to the line on your reel. Let out plenty of line, at least 120 feet or more while trolling the depths of the lake. With the three-way swivel set up, if you do happen to snag up, there is a good chance you will just lose your weight and will be able to retrieve your lure. These spoons can also be jigged vertically over deep reefs as well.

Another good trout lure to use in warm water is the one ounce hair or plastic jig. White or black colors seem to work best while vertical jigging over a deep reef. I prefer to use white. You will need to lift the rod a little higher when jigging at extreme depths. Since you will be fishing so deep you probably won’t feel the hit itself as most of the strikes come during the drop. You will just feel a heavier weight on the line, when you do, set the hook as hard as you can.

QueticoMike: "If you want to catch an enormous lake trout you need to fish early in the season, just after ice out, and troll the shallow areas with a 3 1/2 inch hammered silver Dr. Spoon or a 4-1/2” nickel plated Dardevle Spoon. The nickel color imitates a cisco or whitefish which are the primary forage for these fish.


These two spoons can be cast or trolled during the early spring phase. When the water begins to warm, these trout will move to deep water on reefs located next to adjacent deeper water. The summer time phase is when you will need to troll deeper. This can be accomplished by adding weight to your line with a three-way swivel. Tie off about three feet of leader line to the middle loop of the swivel and tie on your spoon. On the bottom loop tie on about a foot and half of line with a one ounce weight at the far end of this line. Tie the remaining loop to the line on your reel. Let out plenty of line, at least 120 feet or more while trolling the depths of the lake. With the three-way swivel set up, if you do happen to snag up, there is a good chance you will just lose your weight and will be able to retrieve your lure. These spoons can also be jigged vertically over deep reefs as well.


Another good trout lure to use in warm water is the one ounce hair or plastic jig. White or black colors seem to work best while vertical jigging over a deep reef. I prefer to use white. You will need to lift the rod a little higher when jigging at extreme depths. Since you will be fishing so deep you probably won’t feel the hit itself as most of the strikes come during the drop. You will just feel a heavier weight on the line, when you do, set the hook as hard as you can.


"

Thanks for sharing this advice. It will give us a much better chance of scoring (given the time of year) but with the proper arsenal we can usually come up with some action.

rockinrod: "

egknuti: "My guess is the lakers will be deeper in August. I was on Oyster last week trolling a 3/4 oz little Cleo with 1 3/4 oz weight around 50-60 ft while others around me were jigging. I was catching fish while they were not."

Do you use a three way swivel with the little Cleo to control the depth?"

I’ve used snap on weights and the 3 way swivel. I prefer using the 3 way swivel as it helps prevent your line twisting up.

lundojam: "deep rapala taildancer, the biggest one, purpledescent. 200 feet of 10# monofilament or the diameter-equivalent hard line; measure it out with a bobber stop or use a line counter reel. That'll get you down 30' or a bit more. Lakers will come up for it. Paddle around. Stop and try jigging if it becomes obvious that you should. Use a drift sock if you jig; best ever.


Trolling these big lures will ruin 8# mono in my experience."

You would be hard pressed to find better advice IMO. I prefer the rainbow colored large tail dancer over the purple but both are solid choices.

But now I will quibble over the finer points of fishing. Lundo suggests that the lures pull will destroy #8 lb line. I strongly disagree.......what gets destroyed is the knot, not the line. And in fact I would never tie straight 8lb line to ANY stock crank-bait equipped with a split ring. The double wire of a split ring provides extremely poor physics with mono or fluorocarbon. To compensate the poor physics you need to increase the lb test.

If you wish to run hard running cranks on light line you must improve the physics of the connection point. Mono dislikes connecting to diameters larger than itself. To compensate discard the split ring and use a single wire snap of equivalent diameter to the preferred mono. I use a fas snap but other options exist including tying to the split ring where it is only one wire thick. Yes that is the weakest point so bear that in mind........very light split rings might come apart.

I like trolling for walleye on lighter lb tests but for lake trout, if I am using mono, I use 8lb green trilene XT which has more in common with 10lb test than 8 if truth be told. I have caught numerous 8lb lake trout and my personal best, a solid 15 lb fish (all weighed on a certified scale and not "guesstimated"). All were caught on green 8lb XT and deep diving crank baits equipped with a fas snap.

The line class is less important than the knot strength and the understanding of the physics required to achieve optimal knot strength.

rockinrod: "We have always fished walleye, smallmouth, and northern pike in the wilderness.
In August we are going through lake trout country and would like to give it a try.
My research shows they might be below 30 feet deep and that we should try vertical jigging blade baits or drop shot rigging plastics. I will appreciate your input."

Interesting....Mind if I ask where you read that drop-shotting plastics for trout was an effective strategy? I *love* drop-shotting, but I haven't really given it much consideration for trout.

Also, I have fished lake trout almost exclusively for the last few years, often in July and August, and I have had very consistent success never trolling deeper than 30'. I'm sure there are fish deeper, and I might be persuaded that some of those fish are the biggest in the system, but we've caught many, many, many fish trolling 10-30 ft deep. (Almost) all trips are in Quetico, so I suspect some of our success is attributable to the weak educational system in Canada that turns out so many dumb fish.

carmike: "

rockinrod: "We have always fished walleye, smallmouth, and northern pike in the wilderness.
In August we are going through lake trout country and would like to give it a try.
My research shows they might be below 30 feet deep and that we should try vertical jigging blade baits or drop shot rigging plastics. I will appreciate your input."

Interesting....Mind if I ask where you read that drop-shotting plastics for trout was an effective strategy? I *love* drop-shotting, but I haven't really given it much consideration for trout.


Also, I have fished lake trout almost exclusively for the last few years, often in July and August, and I have had very consistent success never trolling deeper than 30'. I'm sure there are fish deeper, and I might be persuaded that some of those fish are the biggest in the system, but we've caught many, many, many fish trolling 10-30 ft deep. (Almost) all trips are in Quetico, so I suspect some of our success is attributable to the weak educational system in Canada that turns out so many dumb fish.


"

I saw someone on YouTube doing the drop shot method with the tag end of the palomar knot about three feet long with a knot at the end to hold the shot on the drop line. The idea being if he got caught up in the rocks the split shot would break free for easy re-tie. It looked somewhat believable but the methods I have learned on this thread seem to be from more experience in the wilderness & I will try these methods first.

rockinrod: "

rockinrod: "

egknuti: "My guess is the lakers will be deeper in August. I was on Oyster last week trolling a 3/4 oz little Cleo with 1 3/4 oz weight around 50-60 ft while others around me were jigging. I was catching fish while they were not."

Do you use a three way swivel with the little Cleo to control the depth?"

My question should have included the length of the line from the weight to the spoon ;-)"

I place the weights about 3-4 feet from the end of the lure. I’m no expert, but I was catching fish while no one else was. But fishing trout during the summer is an all day affair to me. If one method isn’t working try another. I was marking fish at at 40-50 ft no matter how deep the water was. It was 50-60ft where I was catching fish.

A drop-shot is the perfect way to catch Canoe Country fish (I usually use them to target bass, though it works for walleye as well) for the reason you mentioned. I just use big split shot, though, because the other weights can get expensive (you will lose some for sure).