We were set about a decade ago to fly into one of the famous lake trout fisheries of the far north. The lodge on this lake set up the trip, we would go to film TV footage, and they hoped the rest of the world would be intrigued by the prospect of jigging for huge fish through the ice. We announced the planned trip in an In-Fisherman “Adventures” column. Surprisingly, no one responded; so the trip would have been a financial bust and had to be cancelled.
A market for the far north still hasn’t developed. Apparently, it’s perceived as too far, too cold, too expensive, and a little too dangerous. Lake trout closer to home, however, are a popular option in winter. Flaming Gorge (Utah), Fort Peck Reservoir (Montana), and a variety of other lakes across the West get a fair amount of winter pressure. Meanwhile, famous Yellowstone Lake (Wyoming) has a population of illicitly introduced lake trout that are damaging a native cuthroat fishery.
Lake trout also have a following in the northeast, particularly in Maine, New Hampshire, and parts of New York. Lake Simcoe in southern Ontario is the most famous of the laker lakes in that region. Where portions of bays freeze on the Great Lakes, lakers are targeted. The north shore of Lake Superior, especially in the Thunder Bay area, is a fine area for trout. A few fisheries also are scattered across the north-central states. We have, for example, a few stocked lakes near our office in Brainerd, Minnesota, about two hours north of the Twin Cities.
We do most of our fishing just across the border in northwest Ontario, where bevies of Canadian Shield waters host laker populations. These are fragile fisheries. Lake trout can live a long time, and over many years, are vulnerable to overharvest. Still, the fishing on top waters can be good—certainly exciting—with a good shot at catching bigger fish each day on the ice.
This is especially true during the earliest part of the season, which begins January 1. The fish haven’t been bothered in a while and it isn’t unusual to have days where a group of anglers will catch 3 to 5 or more fish a day per angler over a three-day trip. On waters like portions of Whitefish Bay (Lake of the Woods), some of the those fish weigh 10 to 15 pounds. Occasionally, someone will latch onto one over 20.
Lake trout approaching 40 pounds (and probably larger) are swimming in a few waters in this region. In over 20 years of winter fishing for lake trout, I’ve had one fish that I really couldn’t move on the hookset, couldn’t move after a minute. Then the fish just started to swim away, and for some reason, the hook just pulled out. I’ve caught 30-pound fish in open water, and I believe this one surely was larger than that. That’s the ever-present potential, part of the excitement, of lake trout fishing.
When they’re active and haven’t been pressured, lakers can be super aggressive and easy to catch, seemingly biting on just about anything you might drop down there. Overall, though, a lot of misconceptions remain about lakers and how best to catch them. Huge lures fished aggressively may, over the long haul, result in some big fish. We’ve tried a lot of that, though, and it doesn’t seem to produce well in most situations. The truth is that conditions aren’t always right, and fish smarten up fast.
