Lake Trout Parade

[Speedy]

Had perfect weather conditions on Lake Salem, North East Kingdom. 70 degrees, sunny, no wind and only one other boat out (a pontoon). Depth chart showed deepest bottom at 70 ft. Followed the drop-off ledges and soon discovered, what I believed was Lake Trout. Using my 16 ft. Alma Craft, with only one manual down-rigger, I trolled over the three pockets of fish I discovered. Shut off the gas Mercury and used my Minn Kota to quietly troll. Fish finder showed lines of fish at 22-25 ft depth, in all three areas of the lake. First trolled thru at 15-18ft., then 20ft., last below them at 28ft. Speeds 1.5mph to 2.5mph. Hours later, I had run thru dozens of colors, shapes, sizes and actions lures.

Plan Z. I parked right over them, dropped in lines with night crawlers on one side and soft Smelt 3/8oz. jigs on the other. I thought I could hear them laughing at me. LOL

The lines of fish were 15 to 30 each spot. Lake level was 3 ft low. Grass up. Caught a Walleye going back to dock. Final score: Lake Trout 125 and Speedy Zero.
Any suggestions?
Speedy

[Reelax]

The lakes your fishing are tough… the locals typically have it dialed in… what works in Champlain doesn’t typically work on the inland cold water lakes as well.

1st and last light are key in many of these locations. The he locals are off by 9am on many lakes…

Good luck

[60Fishman]

A couple things. Unlike most of the trollers here I target lake trout on Lake Champlain and a couple lakes closer to home, I live near Glens Falls NY. (Someday when I have more time I intend to figure this salmon thing out.) I troll but these days spend most of my time vertical jigging. No. 1 I doubt those are lake trout. First thing I would do if I were you is get the small Fish Hawk temperatur probe (great tool BTW), clip it to your down rigger ball and drop it down to, in the case of your lake, at least 60 feet down. If your water temp at the depth you are fishing is much above say 52 F they are not probably lake trout (most of the lake trout I catch start out at 47-50F). I now do this religiously. When I pull up to the spot I intend to fish I drop it down and get a temperature profile. (Most of the serious salmon trollers run a BlackHawk that gives them a continuous temp at their ball.) Before I started doing this I wasted a lot of time either fishing to warm or to cold water. On Lake Champlain when I move to another spot I recheck the temperature. It is amazing how different it can be from one part of the lake to another. Sometimes it is failry consistent, other times not. Three weekends ago I had 50F at 103' on one section of the lake, 5 miles or so away in a different bay I hit 50F at 80 feet. I was actually fishing 25 feet shallower later in the day at the second spot and it was sunny and I did well in both spots. It can also change a lot in just a few days.

Sure lake trout will chase up into the warmer water but they are rarely camped out there. Lake trout usually relate to the bottom, near some sort of structure. Champlain is sort of unique in that lake trout will suspend chasing alewives and smelt. The salmon trollers pick them up but I truly believe that in a lot of cases those fish see the lure from below and chase up. I have seen this vertical jigging. I have had my jig at 40 feet while taking a break, eating lunch etc., and have seen them rise up off the bottom at 70 feet, I start to reel and they take it. How they see it just sitting there I have no idea. It does not happen often but it does once in a while, especially when they are aggressive. Also, Lake Trout usually want to chase, they rarely hit a jig just sitting there or being jigged up and down, live bait sure.

Reelax also makes a good point. We have a smaller lake nearby that I fish early in the year. On a sunny day those fish turn off by 9 AM, almost like clockwork. You get an overcast day the bite will last longer.

Hope that helps a little. I know this forum has helped me a lot over the years picking up little tid bits here and there.