New years is a time of celebration not only because we are welcoming in the new year but more importantly it’s the Lake Trout ice fishing opener in Minnesota in the boundary waters. Lakers hold a special place in my heart and many of my hardcore fishing buddies will probably agree. These tasty fish can shoot up from the depths like a rocket, offer up fantastic fights and can grow upwards of 40 pounds. Lake trout are mainly found in Oligatrophic lakes along the the northern borders of the United States and throughout Canada, they need deep, cold waters to survive . Lake tout are known to roam around basins, shoals and along steep break walls feeding on high protein forage like ciscoes, smelt, herring and suckers.
Lakers don’t have an air bladder like most fish so they don’t experience barotrauma from rapid changes in depth, they have the ability to burp air which allows them to shoot up from the depths and blast back down, some people affectionately call them “burp sharks”. In the early spring when waters are are still cool lakers can be shallow and can be caught while trolling stickbaits and spoons along steep shorelines and over reefs and points, planer boards help cover water and keep fish from spooking from a passing boat.
As waters warm from spring to summer lake trout will transition to deeper water, sometimes depths in the triple digits. It’s often difficult to reach those depths with conventional gear so many anglers resort to down riggers, lead-core line, dipsey divers and snap weights to get flutter spoons and stickbaits down deep, sometimes all this extra gear can become expensive and cumbersome and some of the fight is lost by all of the gear in between you and the fish. Certain lures like Rapala Taildancer Deep can reach depth of 35-40 feet and work well when trout are in the upper columns of water. Lakers can also be caught vertical jigging on hairjigs, airplane jigs, swimbaits and spoons, it can be difficult to keep a boat steady over deep structure on windy days but advances with spot lock on new trolling motors can help hold the boat steady. Lake trout can also be caught with bait usually by laying a dead cisco or sucker on the bottom and waiting for them to find it.
Lake trout spawn in fall and the Minnesota season wraps up at the end of September and then reopens for ice fishing in January and goes through march.
Winter is my favorite time to target lake trout and I usually make it up to the Grand Marais or Ely area a couple times each winter to try for a trophy trout through the ice. I like depths anywhere from 30 to 80 feet and try to find structure like steep walls, troughs and reefs where lakers can chase clouds of bait fish into structure. Electronics aren’t necessary as long as you are jigging down towards the bottom but they sure make the game a lot more exciting, especially when you see a nice big fish chasing your bait up like a rocket. I try to to reel up just a little faster than the fish, this cat and mouse game can often get them to strike. Make sure you have a sturdy rod and a quality reel spooled up with a superbraid or decent monofilament/florocarbon. I like 20lb powerpro with a 10-15 lb florocarbon leader. If you are fishing for a 20 pound fish I’d recommend using a 10″ auger or drilling 1-3 holes next to each other to help pull a big fish out of a big hole.
If you’ve never been lake trout fishing there’s no time like the present for a Northwoods adventure, these hard fighting fish offer up some epic battles in some of the most beautiful areas found in North America.
