New Smokercraft 14' Aluminum + final trout of the season....

Sam got me a new boat! Sam and I went up to Perth to pick up a Smokercraft 14' Aluminum boat on Tuesday. We took the day off, grabbed the trailer and spent the day on the road to retrieve it. By the time we got to the boat launch it was 7pm, and getting really dark. The thunder was rolling in while I 'sped' to my dock.



We spent Wednesday on the water testing the boat out. Quite a low profile. It is just as maneuverable as my 11 ft leaky aluminum boat and seems a bit faster. What 50 years of refinement can do to aluminum hull design.... Sam and I could stand in it without any fear of tipping.

We fished from dawn till 4pm. The thermocline is deteriorating, and the fishing was very slow:

Water Temp: 18 degrees
Weather: Mixed in the morning and clearing up in the afternoon.

I caught 2, and Sam caught 1 (I'm holding it - it's the last pic). The first pic is a fish that was abnormally 'fat'. It is likely getting ready to spawn and is a female....





On the weekend Sandra and I went up. I was skunked all of Saturday. They were on the sonar but wouldn't bite a thing. They are probably gearing up for spawning.

I caught one on Sunday morning... The last trout of the season. (Trout season closes Sept 30th).



The water temp is still high enough for lunker smallmouth.. Stay tuned.

Big Bait, Big Fish? Not for trout on my lake.....

Water Temperature: 18 degrees on Saturday, 17 degrees on Sunday.
Weather: Mix of Sun and Cloud on Saturday, windy. Calm and clear on Sunday.

On Saturday morning I went trolling without my old faithful lures. I used a huge Williams Whitefish spoon. The theory was that the larger the lure, the larger the fish. The Whitefish spoon was around 5 inches long.

This is what I caught:



The fish was only slight more than twice the size of the spoon. Easily the smallest trout I've caught on the lake thus far on the biggest lure. The lure would not even have fit in the trout's mouth! Unfortunately, like the other fish I've caught on spoons with treble hooks on the end, it was hooked in the gills under its mouth and died instantly after I took the hook out. So we had trout for dinner: Dill, butter, and lime in the oven. Very, very good eating.

My theory is this: The mackinaw on my lake can grow to 25 lbs, and indeed I saw a 17 lb fish mounted that was caught in 1969. It had a small head, and small tail, but had a huge mid-section. The baitfish on my lake are small, and the growth of the lakers are 'stunted' due to the limited size of the lake. So the trout are used to 'stunning' prey that looks too big for them before swallowing them whole (see previous article). This small trout tried to stun the Williams Whitefish spoon with its head, and I hooked it as a result under the gill.

Almost every time I've used a spoon with a treble at the end I've severly injured fish:
1. The 3 lb'er hooked in the eye.

2. A small trout last week hooked in the gill and bleeding profusely (again, another small one that I don't catch on the old faithful)

3. The really small trout caught this week hooked in the gill.

As a result I've switched back to the old faithful lure..... It's small, but it catches larger fish and doesn't hurt them quite as badly quite so often.....

Here are the catches for Saturday and Sunday:

Underwater Footage of Lake Trout "Stunning" a Spoon

Many times when trolling I would feel light taps, set the hook and 'miss' a fish. Brad hypothesized that they slap their prey with their bodies before engulfing them. Here's some interesting underwater footage that I found on youtube.com supporting this theory.



Here is a link to the URL for a similar video, but with a 40 lb'er taking a swipe at the same lure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBZwB3tVOkI

Brendan - Fishing is in his DNA

Brendan, comes from a fishing family. Fishing is in his blood. Can't you tell?

Water Temperature: 18 degrees C.
Air Temperature: 5-10 degrees C.
Weather: Unpredictable

I got totally skunked in the morning as the weather was unpredictable. I went out with a spoon and caught absolutely nothing - 5.5 hours of fishing and I caught ziltch. I tried using a huge Williams Whitefish spoon and jigged it at 75 ft. I got a bite but didn't hook anything. I didn't see anything on the sonar either.

When Brendan arrived it was around 12:30pm - we went out after lunch around 2pm. I caught a really small baby trout on the spoon I used last week. Unfortunately it was hooked in the gills and was bleeding badly. But after a few minutes the bleeding stopped and the fish was anxious to get out of the net so we let it go. The markings on the top of the fish were different, more like a Brook Trout, likely because it was young. About a 1/2 hour later Brendan caught his first Laker (above). Nice fish.....




I cut one of the treble hooks off the spoon to make a double hook and went back to the old faithful lure to catch two more.....

Brendan had a lively one on trolling at full speed, unfortunately it got under the boat and he lost it..... mentally. We fished until sunset and didn't catch any more. The fishing was as unpredictable as the weather. It was hot, cold, cloudy, sunny, rainy, drizzly, all changing within 20 minute intervals.



Water Temperature: 17.5 degrees C.
Air Temperature: 2-5 degrees C.
Weather: Clear

We went out at 6:30am the next day. It was clear, but freezing.. Literally. The water temp fell another 1/2 a degree C. The ski-boat cover had ICE on it.

I caught one on the first troll. Brendan then followed up with one of his own shortly thereafter.

Last fish of the day:



Two more weeks to go.. Need to catch another monster 7 lb'er before the season ends....

Biggest Lake Trout Yet - 7 1/4 Lbs

Slightly bigger than the last personal best on the lake - this one was 7 1/4 lbs! This guy seemed much fatter than the 7 lb'er I caught a while ago. I caught him on a Spoon! He didn't "wake-up" until I got him in the net. He thrashed around a lot and I only had a chance to snap a quick video. I managed to weigh him, but he thrashed so hard that he bounced out of the net. I need a better way to weigh these guys going forward.


Saturday, I got completely skunked. Combination of the weather and the experimentation on lures - I stayed away from the old faithful lure and used everything in the tackle box including larger versions of the old faithful lure. I caught ZERO. Sunday I went out with the old faithful lure, and caught 2 instantly. Another fisherman launched his boat and started trolling the other side of the lake. I watched him intently as he had at least 3 fish on. He was trolling in the deepest water available on the lake, mostly likely using lead-core line.

Click on the Video to see the big gut on this fish. Clearly he is eating well:



I hooked another 2 on but they got off the hook - one spit it at me, the other cut the line with his teeth. This was good... 4 fish on the hook within 15 minutes - feeding frenzy time. Then to my horror - I was out of old faithful lures. I had two options: Go back to the dock to get the lures, with would take 20 minutes round-trip with my 55 Thrust electric motor - and miss my feeding frenzy opportunity or: Try another lure. I bought a Spoon from Canadian Tire and put it on. I trolled the same spot a few times, and was about to turn home to get the lures when this 7.25 lb'er hit it. After I caught the video of him and weighed him, I caught a 3 lb'er, but it was hooked in the eye with the treble hook. He was bleeding but it clotted after 3-4 minutes and he wanted to go. I considered keeping him, but the bleeding stopped so I let him go.

I also caught this jumbo perch. I ate this one - can't have giant perch eating all the Trout eggs:



Look at the color on the 1st guy. The last one was hooked in the eye... Not pretty, but he'll live. Perhaps I'll change to single hooks.



My neighbor Mike's boat was dangling by one tie line - the one in the bow broke. I re-tied it for him. Just 3 more weeks until end of season. Need to break 7.25!

Jackson's Monster Mackinaw

Jackson, Lan and Linh came up Labour Day weekend. Jackson and I went out early on Saturday morning. I dedicated my time in trying new lures: Jointed Rapalas, Swim baits, Flatfish, Kwikfish - you name it, I tried it - and got skunked. Jackson kept with the old faithful lure that we caught the first 100 lakers on.

Jackson caught two fish. The first was a 2 lb'er - he hauled it in so fast that the fish wrapped itself in the line, which I had to cut. The second fish was a nice 4.3 lb'er that gave Jackson a run for his money. Interestingly enough it looks like the size of the spots on a lake trout do not change with age, they just get more spots. Look at the face on Jackson's laker: It has more spots than the 2-3 lb'ers.





Here's Jackson's 2 lb'er:




Hypothesis on Lake Trout Spots: As lake trout grow, their spots don't get bigger, they just get more spots (like the rings on a tree) and that laker spots are unique to each fish, like fingerprints. I'll try to use these to figure out if I've caught the same fish more than once.

Hypothesis on Size of Lure vs Action: I am testing the old adage: Big Bait, Big Fish on the macks in my lake and have been using very large bait sizes. Our lake is not that big, but in the past 25 lb'ers have been hauled up from the depths. I have used huge swim baits that have been getting hits, but I have not been able to hook a fish solid - probably because of a) the large hook size not being able to penetrate their bony mouths, and b) there is only one hook and it is located far in front of the bait, requiring a laker to completely engulf the lure. Jackson caught his 4.3 lb'er with a really small lure, but he was working it very slowly. I usually work my lure extremely fast - so it probably is less appealing to a big fish... and as a result I get more hits, more frequently, but catch smaller fish on average. The 7 lb'er I caught was hooked when I was working the lure extremely slowly.

Lake Trout Fishing Tip: If you don't give lakers a chance to fight (i.e. put too much pressure on them), they will wrap their head in the line so much it will squeeze their eyes and cause injury to themselves. There is a fine balance between too much tension, and too little tension. Set your drag appropriately and loosen it more and more as the fish approaches the boat.


I've heard conflicting stories about whether or not lake trout school together or not. I tried a new area of the lake and found the following on the sonar:

Looks like a bunch of lakers in a school. Everything I have experienced and seen online have been that lake trout are loners and don't group together like bass and other species of fish. Considering the depths of the fish on the sonar, they are most likely lake trout, and not smallmouth. Unfortunately I could not get any of them to bite. Could they be preparing to spawn? If so, it's way too early, as the water temp is still above 20 degrees C. If you take a look at the article in one of my earlier posts on trout spawning you will note that lake trout spawn at the same time, no matter what the temperature. The danger here is that the eggs will hatch too early in the spring and will have nothing to eat and die after they use up their yolk sacs. Hopefully it's just dumb luck that I found a bunch of them.... a sweet spot with 20+ lakers all in the same area. I went back the next day and the "stack" of signals was still there. I tried dropshotting some tubes and Gulp! but it didn't yield anything.



I trolled past my downrigging friend (see last weeks article) - he asked: "Catch any?"

"Two so far today", I replied.

"Lakers?"

"Yep"

(He kind of had a look of disbelief at this point, but that's ok)

"You?"

"Not yet", as we trolled past each other.

I'll keep tracking his progress on how he's doing with his rig.