This year marks the second year I have targeted lake trout, ever.
For a beginner, I think we have been dialing it in and figuring out how to catch lake trout, but we still have many years of learning ahead of us.
There are many things that I think of when targeting lakers. I have heard that lake trout can live a long time and that we need to preserve the fishery for future generations to come. The larger, usually more sought after lakers become the center of attention for most anglers looking to pursue these fish. They are aggressive and bite many lures and jigs they come across.
These bigger lake trout can produce more eggs than younger lake trout and it is recommended that they are released to help maintain the stock. To me, this makes sense, because as far as I know, there is no hatchery program for these fish. As social media becomes more popular, we must advocate for these fish and help educate people so they can help keep this species continue to thrive in our backyard. Some would argue that posting pictures and videos of lake trout might harm local populations. While this might have short term effects, there are many other species anglers can target when populations fluctuate. The other good news, local biologists can also help maintain populations by adjusting daily harvest numbers.
This year was the first time we have retained a couple lake trout as part of our daily harvest. I have heard that fresh lake trout (not frozen) is the best you can get. Some people say they do not freeze well, so it was an easy decision for us to only eat freshly caught lake trout. We tried a few different sizes and have decided (in our opinion) that the smaller 18 to 20 inch lake trout taste the best and are a perfect portion controlled size for a meal. The smaller fish tasted as if we were eating halibut. The larger, 26 inch lake trout we kept did not taste as good. It had a stronger, “fishy” taste to it.
We tried two methods of fishing this trip. My preferred method was jigging, because I troll a lot for kokanee. Jigging for lake trout was a change in pace and was very relaxing drifting in the wind and listening to our surroundings. I also tried double stacking our downrigger and fished for lakers at 50ft and kokanee at 30ft. We got one big hit on the trolled lure, but nothing else.
We tried multiple jigs and tubes, but the only lures that worked were our buzz bombs and a Big-Nasty Tackle rattle jig. Green/silver and blue/silver in different sizes and shapes of buzz bomb worked for us. The glow rattle jig worked too and caught a few of the smaller lakers that came home for lunch with us.
My method of jigging was what has been tagged as the “Ben’s bottom bouncing” method. A member described my method this way and moving forward this is what I’ll refer to it as. Simply put, troll around until you mark a lake trout on your fish finder. Quickly drop your lure and put your boat in neutral. Then, back up until your line is straight up and down and start jigging. If you watch your fish finder, it’s like ice fishing. You can actually see your jig on your finder and see how the fish react to it. A lot of the time you will see the active or “aggressive” fish move up the hit your lure. If fishing the bottom (not the suspended lakers) then drop to the bottom and bounce your jig off the bottom a few times. Then, reel up a couple turns and jig a few times. If no bites, drop it back to the bottom and make some noise bouncing your lure off the bottom, while hopefully stirring up the bottom. Repeat this process until you get a bite. I prefer a slight breeze when jigging. This allows me to drift and fish different areas of the lake I’m fishing without motoring around. The only thing that would make this method better is an anchor lock boat motor system. I would lock onto a position until it was time to “drift on.”
Lastly, I have heard that lake trout are affected by barometric pressures, just like kokanee. Thunder and lighting storms almost always put lakers off the bite as well (which I’ve seen a few times now). On our last trip, the sky was clear. The lakers were biting well until the clouds moved in. Then, they went off the bite. Coincidence?
I’m looking forward to my next lake trout adventure. There are so many great lakes in British Columbia to fish for lake trout. Finding that information might seem to be a daunting task, but I’m hoping that overtime we can help bring that information to anglers and also help educate people so we might all continue to have a chance at “catching a big one.”