Next week I am heading up to the Loon Lake region (EP 14) with my fishing buddy for 5 days. We are planning to stay on Loon Lake because of all the diversity (or maybe Little Loon if its windy). The Minnesota lake finder lists it as having lake trout and burbot, which seem like they would be fun to catch. I was on the lake in mid July for a long weekend 20 years ago and had a great time catching bass/ walleye/ pike. I've been reading up on the region and it seems most people would prefer to fish the shell/ lynx/ heritage chain instead. Is it just the motor boat traffic?
Does anyone have experience fishing for lake trout on Loon? Is the fishing really that much better on the smaller lakes?
Any info/advice will be appreciated.

If you have luck catching lake trout and burbot, throw the lake trout back. Burbot is sometimes called "poor man's lobster" and is excellent boiled with some herbs and dipped in melted butter.

A few surveys over the years shows that there are Trout in Loon. That said, there’s probably only a small population. They would most likely hang out in the east basin where it’s the deepest. If you’re looking to catch Trout, I’d head to Fat or Takucmich.

I prefer traveling and fishing on smaller lakes. I don’t like traveling on big open water and prefer the intimacy of smaller lakes. Loon does have motor traffic, and that is another reason. I spent a few days on Shell and then moved on to Slim. When I got to Loon after the 220 out of Heritage Creek, the first thing I saw and heard was a boat-it was a little shocking to the senses.

We may need to go to Fat Lake if we want to find Lake Trout. They have only caught one in the fisheries survey, but it was a 17 pounder! I camped on Loon 20 years ago and remembered being surprised to see motor boats sitting in the middle of the lake. At hte time I figured they were walleye fishing over reefs but now I wonder if they were Lake Trout fishing. The lake maps don't show any structure on the bottom out in the middle.
We may have to move to smaller lake if it is windy. I was hoping that the larger size would mean it contains larger fish but looking at the fisheries data, it seems like there are some big fish in the shell/ Lynx/ Heritage area.

Burbot are related to cod and I have heard they are fantastic to eat. Hopefully we will get to try it!