Inland Lake Trout Gear & Tactics

[JBMasterAngler]

Hmmm, I bought some pretty small ones then One was 1/4 oz and 1.75" inches and the other was 2" and I think 3/8 oz. Do they sink to the desired depth pretty quick?

[Mike Stark]

i think the 2in is as big as they make em.

[Wanderer]

JB,

On any given day a laker could take either of those. We've had good fish hooked on the smallest darter made.

[Jim Almquist]

The size Lisa seems to have great luck with is the #4 which is around 1 3/4". The #5 is about 2 1/4" and the #6 is 2 5/8". The panfish version is a #3 and is 1 3/8"

My only complaint is if you are in 80' of water they take a long time to get down to the bottom but that may be a good thing - who knows

[JBMasterAngler]

Thanks for all the info guys

[Steve Foss]

Aside from sinking slowly, you don't get as good a return on the darters on your electronics, so you often have to bump the gain a bit. In order to fish them best, lighter line (say, 8 to 10 lb) is best. A good idea when possible to match the lure weight with line and rod. That being said, I fish the larger and medium sized Lindy and Chubby darters on limp 12 lb mono and it works out OK. Just gotta get used to the feeling that you've got a little panfish jig or something down there.

[sparetime]

Bump, because I was thinking about Ice Fishing for Lake Trout today.

[Steve Foss]

You musta had some spare time.

[Mike Stark]

LAKERS!!!

[Surface Tension]

Sheesh Mike.

[Mike Stark]

my laker addiction gets worse every year.

[Surface Tension]

This should help then.

Burntside Bash Laker

[Mike Stark]

that helped a lot frank. thanks.

[reinhard1]

nice fish. good luck.

[Sherpa]

I really hope to get my first one this year!

[grousehunter]

oh how I miss living right near burntside. Can't wait to get up there a couple times this year!!

[HNTNBUX]

It has to be close. I put in my days off for the opener on the next scheduling period, the snowmobile is getting tuned up,I picked up two more laker rods and have the reels on ready to go, I am just trying to decide which lures to tie on. I guess I am a little excited too.

[Mike Stark]

im going to try out a couple of the new colors on the lindy darter. "purple smelt" and "dance" look nice.

[Northlander]

That purple smelt looks like a winner Mike. I got a bunch of the Lindy Flyers in that color.

[Steve Foss]

As well as the usual fun and camaraderie on Burntside, I'm going to be spending time exploring new water via snowmobile, such as the Canadian side of Sag and La Croix. I got all my papers in a row early last March for that, but then winter abandoned me a few weeks too soon and I wasn't able to follow through.

Doesn't look like snow will be a problem come Jan. 1, if what we're getting so far is any indication.

Not quite sure yet what new tactics or gear I may pick up for lakers, but I'm sure there'll be a few new wrinkles. I'm likely to switch from tip-ups for live bait lakers to baitcaster rigs, for one thing. Meanwhile, it's early trophy pike for the next month+. Yay!

[Steve Foss]

I bumped up the "Smelt changes . . . again" thread so we can discuss any updates in status of the use of untreated smelt/cisco there instead of pushing this thread (which is already a gazillion pages long) off topic.

Thanks!

[caseymcq]

I am getting some more Slender Spoons and some Vertiglo Lightning Spoons. Other than that, I haven't seen much new that I thought I had to have.

[Steve Foss]

An oldie but a goodie. Back to the top it goes!

[JBMasterAngler]

Steve, you mentioned in another thread that you don't prefer frozen bait on tip ups for lakers...do you usually use suckers then? Do you use the same home made rig you use for pike, or do you hook them differently?

[Steve Foss]

On Burntside I use either light pike suckers (about 3 inches long) or golden shiners. Larger rainbows work well, too. Lakers will nail them all if they're in the mood to eat. While I have used dead cisco and smelt before for lakers, and caught them on those baits, I like to use the tip-up in conjunction with the jigging rod. So the tip-up is 20 or 30 feet from where I'm jigging, usually, and with a live minnow wiggling about half way down the water column, I believe I get more action with live bait because some of those finicky Burntside lakers, when they turn away from the jigging lure for good, see/hear/feel that easy meal 20 feet away. Sometimes they open their mouths and gobble it.

On lakes where the eater-sized lakers don't seem to prefer smaller forage, I may go up one size to light northern suckers (6-7 inches). When I use the larger suckers I bite off the tail fin so they can wiggle like crazy but can't pull hard enough to give me false flags.

I don't use a wire leader at all for lakers. Single hook, few split shot a foot up the line, 14-20 lb mono, depending on which tip-up I grab. Some are rigged with 30lb braid, and then I tie on a swivel and 10 feet of mono. I used to use 10 ft of fluoro leeader even on the mono tip-ups, but abandoned that a couple years ago. More hassle to re-rig, more carp to spend money on, and my tip-up catch rate hasn't dropped off after the switch.

From this winter on, if I want to lay a dead bait on the bottom with a tip-up, I'll just kill a sucker and use that. I honestly don't think lakers are that picky, and they are VERY used to vacuuming up fish and fish pieces off the bottom.

[401TE]

On lakes where the eater-sized lakers don't seem to prefer smaller forage, I may go up one size to light northern suckers (6-7 inches). When I use the larger suckers I bite off the tail fin so they can wiggle like crazy but can't pull hard enough to give me false flags.

Gross, Steve! Better not let the wife read this or no more kisses for you!

[Steve Foss]

Hey, our dogs lick their butts and then lick my wife's face. I'm thinking the sucker thing is no problem.

[Murdock268]

I rigged up 6lb white fireline this season for lakers. Thinking that less stretch is better. Anyone object to that? the past I've used 8lb P-line...Just wondering.

[Surface Tension]

The less stretch will give you more sensitivity and as far as pulling hooks loose because to that doesn't concern me too much.

The rod and your wrist can take up that shock. That 6 lb line is going to let you fish lighter lures more effectively. That also leads back to the sensitivity deal. Coiled mono on the fall and at rest is no good.

I don't use the braids on a spinning reel that'll I'll be using outside. When the line freezes it'll pull off spool in clumps.

One thing your going to notice with braids is they have tiny microscopic air bubble inside to the line. Your going to see them on your sounder till the line become saturated. When I reel up for the first time I run the line between my fingers and that usually solves it for the day.

[Wanderer]

FWIW, I would put a mono or flourocarbon leader on any braided line but especially white line.

With the talk of using tip ups and the new smelt regulations I'll add a trick I started doing last year instead of putting out a tip up.

Since lakers often chase lures up and down the water column without committing, I used to have a second rod at the ready over its own hole while in my fish trap. If I could pull a laker up the water column twice without it hitting, I would just pull that offering out of the water completely and dump the other down the hole to get a different offering to it just that much sooner. 5 seconds can matter IMO.

When I quit putting out a tip up because I didn't have a live smelt for it, I opted to just lower that second offering down about 10-15 feet and dead stick it. Now, when a when a non commital laker gets up that high in the column I just pick up that second rod and start jigging that one too. It usually forces that chaser to make a decision and it's usually the second line they'll hit - much like the close tip up offering.

Whith both lines up that high at hook up, I can simply set the other rod in the back of my fishhouse to raise the hanging lure that much more, then at some time during the fight I can simply reach over and grab the line and pull the hanging lure completely out of the water in one move so I woun't get tangled while fighting the fish at the hole.

Two other advantages with this is you're more visible to a hight flyer if they come in and if there's a double, the second one usually hangs out long enough for a throw back shot if it saw the second offering.

So these days I only plan to put out a tip up to cover a close but different depth.