Lakers and white fish, what lures do you recommend

I'm hoping to land my first laker this winter.... Can anybody recommend what sort of lures I should focus on? I seem to have the white fish figured out but can always use other ideas.
I also hear there's a bit of technique to getting lakers to bite. Care to share?

Jigging spoons and rattle baits will bring them in and get the active ones but for me not much can beat a white tube on a 1/4-3/8 jig depending on depth. Find some structure, drill a bunch of holes and move from hole to hole until you find them. Don't be afraid to jig all depths, some of my largest trout have come right under the ice. A fish finder helps, you can see the lure and any trout coming in for a look. If they don't hit it right away try reeling as fast as you can. They'll chase it right to the top and smash it.
Good luck.

I have my best outings on live bait. Simcoe seems to be better for plastics. But up north most come on minnows. I guess it depends how u fish. Me I like to set it down and wait. I don't jig or video game fish much. Maybe that's why I catch more on live bait.

FF.

Use the biggest and most energetic minnow you can. When a laker gets close the minnow will freak out and do all the work for you.

Good luck!

A XZONE SWAMMER for me (or similar one from some other lure/bait companies would be just fine now that Xzone swammers are no longer made) (simply do a goolge image search on XZONE SWAMMER, then you know what it is). It works for me on Simcoe in winter and in summer. When ice fishing I'd usually have the swammer on a 3/8 oz jighead, leave it around 20 feet off bottom of water, watch my sonar graph and wait. Once a laker comes up from bottom towards and gets really close to the swammer, I start non-stop reeling in playing the laker-chase-my-bait game, until the laker commits, then it's time to set hook, and game is on:-)

x2 On the swammers or similar baits like sniper shads.

Thanks for all the great tips! I'm really hoping to pop the laker cherry this winter.
Still have some time to stock up on the lures but the count down has begun!
Let's hope for an early freeze!

Lipless cranks. Only caught 6 last winter all on lipless cranks. Tried everything else but they were the only ones that worked for me.

no doubt about it, pearl white swammer is the way to go!! have to say i caught 95% of my lakers on them last year. although they don't make them anymore, i stocked up on 10 packs of them before they were gone, as for white fish, i use a tip-up with a 2-3 way spreader and a top hoo about 5 feet off bottom.

Ha! The XZONE pearl white swammer! I could only wish I could find and get some....

Hey grasshopper first you need to be aware that lake simcoe has changed over the past few years, "zebra muscles". So traditional methods (tip-ups, spreaders, salted minnows etc..) are slowly being phased out, sadly, I have seen underwater cameras showing zebra muscles carpeting some of the best whitefish spots, sorry, I am going off topic, for trout plastics can be killer, white being the go to colour for many, ( berkley gulp 3",4" minnows in white or shad, powerbait 3-4" smelt, white, berkley power tube (with stinger hook tipped with minnow)(white), and lunkerhunt bento baits 4/12" dace, emerald shiner) are my go-to's ..don't forget the classics ie...lil' cleos, williams whitefish etc.... Hope this helps, I will be happy to answer all your fishing questions in more detail anytime, good luck!

Bill " TROUTSLAYOR"

All depends how you fish really. Cannot tell someone to use swimbait with no flasher/fishfinder. I had lakers come up to my swimbait and idled for 30 seconds looking at it. Did not bite until I started to reel up. So without a fishfinder or flasher swimbait may not be the best. Before my flasher days I caught them with a spoon jigging from 30 feet going down and they used to smack them hard.

But if you do have a FF or flasher... Yeah the swimbait it the way to go. Sooooooo much fun and I cannot wait!