stocked trout lakes

[macgruber]

tried this on the B-dub forum and trout forum..... thought i'd see if anyone had any info here......

was in the bwca over memorial day and tried our hand at a brook trout lake in the area and only managed one strike all afternoon...... i was just wondering about tactics in the area for these hidden gems......

what water temp do the fish usually sit in-- and thus does depth matter, or do the fish relate more to a certain temp in the lakes?

also what techniques do people use-- we threw every artificial we had at 'em, from flies, to small spoons, to small spinners......

i thought they'd still be shallow this time of year, but we didn't see any fish spooking and we could see down around 10-12 ft. in the water, which makes me think they were perhaps deeper?

thanks for any tips.....

[so haaad]

It can be tough finding trout in the BWCA in the deeper lakes, at least without a depth finder. I recommend bringing in a depth finder next time if it isnt too much hassle. It seems that once you find that majic depth, most of the fish will be near that same level.

[macgruber]

thanks..... sad thing was, i had a depth finder on the trip, but i didn't bring it on the day trip to the lake-- figured the brookies would be up top..... next time i'll learn my lesson......

[so haaad]

The worst is locating lake trout in some of those deeeeep deeeep lakes.

[macgruber]

i've never had a problem with lakers, as i generally come prepared to troll deeep..... if you've got enough weight on a heavy line, you can control the depth well enough to troll down to 80 ft. or so, and like you said, once you find 'em they are in that depth everywhere.....

i just made the mistake of assuming the brookies would be shallow and didn't have the necessary equipment along on the day trip to try deeper......

i just don't get up there enough to hone my skills on the stocker lakes.... one of these days i'll figure 'em out......

[thistlekicker]

Just got back from a trip to the Gunflint. We caught many trout in water less than 15' deep.

Stream trout lakes can be totally hit or miss. A lot of them are marginal habitat, and it's possible for a stocking to completely fail any given year or series of years. Plus, if there is a connection to other lakes, even just a few pike getting in there can wreak havok. Bottom line is the DNR surveys from 3 or 4 years ago might not reflect what's in there right now.

Trout in lakes tend to roam, though it seems like they sometimes bunch up. If it's a lake I've never been to, I usually troll around for a while, trying different presentations. It can take some time to figure out what the fish are doing on a particular day. One other thing: dropoffs.

My wife got this one on Friday, casting a bugger into the shadow of a bush. The fish was probably sitting in about a foot of water, maybe six feet off shore. We had seen him in that spot, rising to something falling off the bush (beetles?). It took the bugger the instant it hit the water.