My 30th BWCA trip starts 5/29. 8 days in the Knife Lak/Ensign area with my son. I've come in from the east and gone as far as Eddy Falls, but we've never come in through Moose Lake. I also have tried over the years and never caught a Lake Trout. We can catch smallies and pike in our sleep, but really want to catch at least one on this trip.

I've got the full arsenal of lures and also picked up the Klos LCB from Stu Ostoff this spring. I've read the books, read this forum and attended the seminars at Canoecopia and for whatever reason have not been able to make this happen.

We plan on playing around everything from Thunderpoint west to Moose.

Those of you who know Lakers... what advice would you give us? I don't care about the size or anything, just would love to get into one. We don't use electronics so the best we can do is look at the maps with lake depths on them.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

The easiest method I’ve found is to troll around everywhere ya go with a deep diving crank. When your new to Lakers it’s hard to pinpoint them sometimes. I’ve never NOT caught one just trolling as I travel or purposely trolling. Stu had me write an article on it in 2009 fall or winter BWJ. I consider them one of the easiest fish to catch up there, but I struggled at first… so I wrote about my struggle initially to try to help others.

Once you find them then jig with your Clos or other jigs.

T

My trips are at the height of summer when the thermocline is deepest when lakers are the most elusive and deep. Having said that, jigging at a depth of a max of 40' produces well. That's about 2.5 canoe lengths. The best way to pinpoint depth of your lure is to measure the distance travelled by your lure with one rotation of your reel handle. So if that's about 2', twenty unwinds of your reel will get you down 40'. You'll also have to factor drift into that as your line goes out on an angle. The right depth is critical for lakers; however it may be less of a concern until the water columns separates in warmer weather.

I'm sure you will reach your goal. Good luck!

Check out Sema Lake if you can't find them on knife. No giants but lots of eaters. We were catching them late may on the windblown shoreline throwing jigs, spoons and retrieving back. One guy even caught them on his fly rod

They will be shallow this early. Better to fish above them rather than below them. Original floaters and spoons like little Cleo’s and doctor spoons over shelves near deep water. I’d focus on 10-30 ft. depths near Thunder point and the narrows near SAK. Kekekabic is also worth the trip.

Troll a Rapala DDHJ 10. You will find areas that hold pods of fish but there might be miles in between strikes. 10-15' down is all you need. I turn my graph off in the Spring when trolling for lakers, they can be anywhere.

As soon as you get out on the main lake start dragging a trail dancer or like-shaped deep driving crank. We've used blue with red bellies as a good producer. Lakers should be suspended or even near shore. Silver works good too. Good luck.

timatkn: "The easiest method I’ve found is to troll around everywhere ya go with a deep diving crank. When your new to Lakers it’s hard to pinpoint them sometimes. I’ve never NOT caught one just trolling as I travel or purposely trolling. Stu had me write an article on it in 2009 fall or winter BWJ. I consider them one of the easiest fish to catch up there, but I struggled at first… so I wrote about my struggle initially to try to help others.

Once you find them then jig with your Clos or other jigs.


T"

Ha! I found the article. Winter 2009. I love when my BWJ hoarding comes in handy.

Would you just troll right in the middle of the lake as we paddle up towards ThunderPoint, or in closer to a shore?

wxce1260: "

timatkn: "The easiest method I’ve found is to troll around everywhere ya go with a deep diving crank. When your new to Lakers it’s hard to pinpoint them sometimes. I’ve never NOT caught one just trolling as I travel or purposely trolling. Stu had me write an article on it in 2009 fall or winter BWJ. I consider them one of the easiest fish to catch up there, but I struggled at first… so I wrote about my struggle initially to try to help others.


Once you find them then jig with your Clos or other jigs.



T"

Ha! I found the article. Winter 2009. I love when my BWJ hoarding comes in handy.


Would you just troll right in the middle of the lake as we paddle up towards ThunderPoint, or in closer to a shore?"

Well I think you will catch trout doing both, probably some walleye and Northerns as well. This time of year closer to structure would be my guess…but ya never know. That’s why I always have a lure out. I’ve caught so many fish where they shouldn’t be.

T

wxce1260: "

timatkn: "The easiest method I’ve found is to troll around everywhere ya go with a deep diving crank. When your new to Lakers it’s hard to pinpoint them sometimes. I’ve never NOT caught one just trolling as I travel or purposely trolling. Stu had me write an article on it in 2009 fall or winter BWJ. I consider them one of the easiest fish to catch up there, but I struggled at first… so I wrote about my struggle initially to try to help others.


Once you find them then jig with your Clos or other jigs.



T"

Ha! I found the article. Winter 2009. I love when my BWJ hoarding comes in handy.


Would you just troll right in the middle of the lake as we paddle up towards ThunderPoint, or in closer to a shore?"

100' Away from steep shorelines would be my first target followed by right down the middle of the lake. Shallow shorelines would be my last option but you might catch them there as well. They will be where the bait is located.

Troll where the Common Man hits his tee shot on the first hole: right up the gut.

Argo: "My trips are at the height of summer when the thermocline is deepest when lakers are the most elusive and deep. Having said that, jigging at a depth of a max of 40' produces well. That's about 2.5 canoe lengths. The best way to pinpoint depth of your lure is to measure the distance travelled by your lure with one rotation of your reel handle. So if that's about 2', twenty unwinds of your reel will get you down 40'. You'll also have to factor drift into that as your line goes out on an angle. The right depth is critical for lakers; however it may be less of a concern until the water columns separates in warmer weather.


I'm sure you will reach your goal. Good luck!"

This is helpful. I have always had difficulty figuring out how to get things deep enough--this is simple enough even an old coot like me can understand it. The Winter 2009 article in BJW from Tim spells it out very simple too! Thanks!!!

Braided line with a flouro leader?

Line? Often I am fishing walleye and Northerns too so I tend to use braided line with a titanium lightweight leader. A Flouro leader might get more Strikes?

Earlier when I said further from shore. I just meant not right up against shore...the deeper water just off of structure or even try narrows between islands if the water is 20' or deeper. The big thing as soon as you get onto Knife start trolling. You are bound hook one. Good luck!

T

Late May ,Targeting LT , try the deep diving Crankbaits , 1oz+ spoons/cleos , right down the gut of the lake. or along steep cliffs. I'm usually fishing early may or fall time , you might want to look into in-line weights for spoons or F-17 rapala/stick baits blk/gold ;)

This is my Fall set up. In the Spring I use a shallower diving crankbait and no weight.

Thank you all! My son and I both caught and released our firsts. Plus we were able to catch dinner for a night, and we did a pair of grand slams, and one of the Grand slams was actually a grand slam plus one with a large mouth as the fifth.

Vertically jigged the trout on rattling raps and a Klos lipless crank that we just dragged on the bottom as the wind pushed us along Thunder Point Island on Knife. Fished between 30 and 50 ft. Caught fish a couple days in a row. The only negative is we did leave about 50 bucks worth of fishing tackle on the floor of knife Lake due to snags!

Very Nice! Congrats!

T

Damn fine fish. Way to go.

Have been following along and appreciate all the advice as well. Just got back last night and knife lake was producing this week. Caught Lakers in 6’, 20’ and 40’.

Well done Gentleman ! Many say smallies the hardest fighting fish , Try a 5lb laker on 8lb test ,