Lake Trout Tips?

[chadrickash]

Some friends and I are going up to Priest Lake, ID this weekend. While we'll be mostly bbqinq, hiking, and enjoying a few brews, I'd like to get some fishing in as well. In doing some research, the lake has smallmouth bass and lake trout.

While I'm comfortable with smallmouth tactics, I've never fished for lake trout before. Does anyone have tips on fishing for them? We're a bit limited on capabilities, because the boat is not set up with downriggers. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[h20hunter]

Book a 1/2 day trip with a guide then do the rest of the trip yourselves. Without riggers you will basically be trying to verticle jig for them.

[Rick]

Find them on the sonar and use a Pt Wilson dart to jig 'em up.

[daddysprad]

A couple of years ago, I could tell you exactly where to go and what to use.  But about two years ago they gave a grant to tag (kill with gill nets) as many Macs as they could.  They did a pretty good job of thinning them out.

Here's the advice I can give you.  This time of year, jig or drop shot in 120-150 FOW.  3/4 ounce jig with a 3 inch glow, pearl white, or blue and white jig.  If you can catch (or buy at Priest Lake Marina) a squaw fish, tip the jigs with a small piece.  You can also use smelly jelly or even a chunk of night crawler, but they love squaw fish.  Braided line is a must when fishing that deep and a electric troller to try and stay over your jig (vertical). I kind of combine drop shot with jigging.  I use a 1 ounce crippled hearing on the bottom for weight and a jig about 12 inches up tied to the leader.  A good fish finder will find the fish or look for clowds of shrimp.  If you see a fish over 100 ft. it's probably a Mac.

As far as locations, nearly all good local sporting good stores have the Priest Lake Tyvek map.  It shows the best spots on the lake.  Depending on where your camping, if you PM me, I can give you some starting spots.

I'll actually be at Beaver Creek Campground this weekend and my boat has downriggers.  I usually troll until I find fish and then stop and jig.  If you stop by camp or we can exchange phone numbers, I can let you know where they are.  I'd offer to take you in my boat, but I'll have 5 grandsons, 4-14 with me. May be a little crazy.

[buckcanyonlodge]

Book a 1/2 day trip with a guide then do the rest of the trip yourselves. Without riggers you will basically be trying to verticle jig for them.

I hired a guide on Priest Lake once and he used LIVE squawfish... He kept them in a bucket of water on the rear of the boat and was constantly checking out the other boats with binos. I know now that it was illegal and the bucket on the back of the boat could have been dumped very quickly had a gamie approached us. To top it off the guide was a real pri...k. Almost had a fist fight right there on his boat after he yelled at my wife for losing a fish. We did catch 12 lakers up to 22 pounds. Don't remember the name of the guide service.  Something like Blue Ribbon or something.  Fish in deep water ( 200 ft.) right on the bottom. I think whole herring or plug cut fished on the bottom would do almost as good as live squawfish.

[chadrickash]

A couple of years ago, I could tell you exactly where to go and what to use.  But about two years ago they gave a grant to tag (kill with gill nets) as many Macs as they could.  They did a pretty good job of thinning them out.

Here's the advice I can give you.  This time of year, jig or drop shot in 120-150 FOW.  3/4 ounce jig with a 3 inch glow, pearl white, or blue and white jig.  If you can catch (or buy at Priest Lake Marina) a squaw fish, tip the jigs with a small piece.  You can also use smelly jelly or even a chunk of night crawler, but they love squaw fish.  Braided line is a must when fishing that deep and a electric troller to try and stay over your jig (vertical). I kind of combine drop shot with jigging.  I use a 1 ounce crippled hearing on the bottom for weight and a jig about 12 inches up tied to the leader.  A good fish finder will find the fish or look for clowds of shrimp.  If you see a fish over 100 ft. it's probably a Mac.

As far as locations, nearly all good local sporting good stores have the Priest Lake Tyvek map.  It shows the best spots on the lake.  Depending on where your camping, if you PM me, I can give you some starting spots.

I'll actually be at Beaver Creek Campground this weekend and my boat has downriggers.  I usually troll until I find fish and then stop and jig.  If you stop by camp or we can exchange phone numbers, I can let you know where they are.  I'd offer to take you in my boat, but I'll have 5 grandsons, 4-14 with me. May be a little crazy.

Thanks for your help! I'll send you a PM. It's good to see so many helpful people on this forum.

[Mark251]

I've fished for Macs up there for an awful long time. There are many ways to fish for Priest Lake macs but I'll share the way that has worked best for me.  If you're not going to jig for them then you pretty much have to have downriggers.  I usually fish the north end of the lake, especially in the summer (Huckleberry Bay and north from there).  There is generally less boat traffic up at the north end in the summertime.  The morning bite is almost always the best, especially due to the fact that the breeze/wind usually kicks up in the late morning or early afternoon making it difficult to control trolling speed.  I would suggest starting out with a single-ought chrome/silver dodger with a trolling fly behind 18" - 22" of leader.  Chartreuse and white or yellow and white flies are my favorites.  An old timer I know swears by having just a touch of red on the head of the fly.  Adding some type of meat on the fly is a must.  A small strip of squawfish is best but I've also used perch meat or something similar.  You may also want to use a scent such as Mike's shrimp oil, anise oil or something along those lines.  Trolling speed for me is usually somewhere between 0.7 and 1.0 mph.  It's important to keep  that downrigger weight withing a few feet of the bottom at all times.  If not, you're just taking a scenic boat ride on a beautiful lake.  Follow the contour of the bottom as you fish between 80' and 200' of water.  It's a lot of work but I've had good luck this way.  You can PM me if I can help with more information.  Good luck!

[daddysprad]

chadrickash,

I tried to call you but cell phone coverage didn't work.  Hope you caught some fish.  Here are mine.  I caught 8 in about 3 hours.  Returned 2 small and one oversized Mac.  The bigger one in the pic was 4.5 lbs.  Good eaters.  Much bigger than that they get real fatty.

[CoryTDF]

Here is one I caught way up in the alpine at Eagle Lake in the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Not helpful I know but I just like to show it off. It was my first and only Mac.

[daddysprad]

Perfect pan sized