I am going with three other friends on the Tuscarora Loop the weekend after Labor Day. I am the only person that does a lot of fishing so I am in charge of bringing all of the fishing gear. I personally would like to target walleye and lake trout for eating. Lake trout intimidate me because you have to fish so deep without any electronics. How do you know where you are in the water column and the general depth of the water?

I hear everyone uses leeches, but they won't be selling them when we go. Do worms on a slip bobber rig work for walleye?

Any help is much appreciated. We will be on Round, Tuscarora, Owl, Gillis, Bat, Fay, and Brant Lakes.

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I’ve caught tons of walleye with worms. They will work with jigs, spinner rigs, or slip bobbers.

Cueballer34: " Lake trout intimidate me because you have to fish so deep without any electronic how do you know where you are in the water column and the general depth of the water. "

Without electronics you can just use the contour lines on the maps. Not sure about the others, but my Fisher maps have lake contours for your loop. Don’t be intimidated by the lakers. Trolling a purple deep tail dancer or blue tail dancer has worked ok for me in late summer. Adding some weight and putting out a lot of line will help it get deeper. Others will have other ideas too I expect.

Yep, target deeper water but that doesn't mean you have to fish on the bottom in 80'. If you can have your lure 20-40' down they'll come up to eat if they're around. Listen to one of this summer's Tumblehome podcast episodes, they go in GREAT detail on the campsites of Tuscarora and do some laker fishing while they're at it on an episode. All or some of that one is also on Youtube.

As for walleye, nightcrawlers will be fine. I don't think Tuscarora will have many of those but I'm not sure about the other lakes on your route. Take a couple cranks of varying sizes, colors, and diving depths. You could catch anything on those.

In my many years of experience at the BW, ive tried plenty of lures and baits but i kid you not, grasshoppers and crickets are my go to no matter the lake. hope this helps!!

Not a lot of walleyes on your chosen route. Lakers, yes. Walleye, not so much.

Thanks everyone for your help! How is the bass and northern fishing on the lakes? Those are always fun to catch too. Unfortunately I wasnt in the conversation to decide the lakes we were going on, but I have never caught a laker in my life so this should be a great opportunity!