Northern Trout, Inquiry for trout fishing

Good morning folks!!!

Figured I would post here for some advice for an upcoming trip to Flack Lake, near Elliott lake, Ontario.

From what I can see on Navionics it should have some good bass/pike habitats around the edges and deep water for trout in the middle, typical of lakes up there from what I have been told.

I have some white tube jigs - and plan to get some more.

Also, we plan on getting some white swimbaits, a few different varieties perhaps.

Not sure what else to get to properly target trout in those types of lakes (or at all since I never fish for them in my normal fishing seasons down in Chatham)

Any insight and advice would be splendid.

We do plan in sourcing some local minnows if we can as well, but I am a total newb when it comes to trout.

Thinking of using braided line to get more out of the spool so to speak. 15-20lb test seems appropriate. Correct me if Im wrong.

When you say trout, are you talking about lake trout (char), rainbow, brown, brook, or what?

All trout species are scared of heavy presentations; lake trout are less scared because of their explosive run at your lure (they don't have time to care.) You can use a braided line, but make sure to tie on a 10-foot leader of 10+ lbs fluorocarbon on the end. For lake trout, I've used 8 lbs, 10 lbs, 12 lbs, and 30 lbs.

Also, do not use snaps, swivels or anything like that when jigging. This is because you want the fluorocarbon or monofilament straight to your lure. Trout are notoriously picky with presentations.

In Simcoe, 4-inch swimbaits work well, typically in white or chartreuse colours. Every lake is going to be different. You need to understand what their natural food looks like, how big, and what colour works well in the lake for the time of year.

And if it IS lake trout you're targeting, then you won't get any unless you setup your charts correctly. See my video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8O5UoM4o0s

According to the lodge's website it's mainly speckled and rainbow trout there.

Since we are bringing up my 9.9 and renting a 14 footer up there - we won't have electronics (besides my ice flasher which we are bringing up for SOMETHING) unless the boat already has a FF on it (doubtful).

So we might struggle on that front - but so long as we are drifting slowly I think the sonar will help at least.

Good info, thank you for the insight.

Specifically we will be on Flack Lake, Ontario.

Worst case we can target bass and pike etc. which is also has - but I would like to try to land a nice trout up there, while we're at it.

Don't think there are any lake trout like Simcoe from what I am seeing.

For rainbows, I'd suggest flashy silver/gold lures and light lines. Braid around 10-30 lbs, and 10 lbs fluorocarbon leaders of at least 10 feet in length. Tie the lure directly to the line, no snap or swivel (unless you're trolling.)

Awesome, thank you for the insight!!

I will do that - I suspected swivels would be a no go - but didn't think of flouro.

Makes perfect sense though.

Much appreciated!!

We will be up there for a week so it might be a crap shoot at first but hopefully we can narrow down some fish and some kind of pattern.

Cheers.

If your bringing your motor and renting a boat why not troll for rainbows? Just pick up a couple of dipsey divers. That way you can run spoons or body baits easily. The chart on the package will tell you how much line to run out for the depth and oh want.

If you do run dipseys tie a swivel direct to your braid then attach you dipsey. The a swivel from the back of your dipsey direct to floro leader. The longer the leader the better for clear water. I always run snap swivels in front of spoons and body baits when trolling. As for jigging I never run snap swivels unless vertically jigging a spoon.

Thanks for the reply.

We might try trolling as well - but doubt the boat has rod holders - but we can still try.

A bit limited in that respect since I imagine it will be a very basic set up.

I do have some dipsies already and flouro for walleye trolling on Erie - we will bring them along and perhaps try trolling as well.

We will have the electric motor so, we can try trolling with that too.

Just thought with limited knowledge of that kind of fishing and limited gear jigging might be better but I want to try both so thanks.

You can easily troll without rod holders, (although on an alum boat you can just use a c-clamp, tighten it on the top edge of the boat and stick the rod handle in…forward motion will keep it in there, and clamp it low enough that your rod doesnt tip down or fall out) your flasher will likely be useless unless it’s dead calm, except for providing a depth, and you can use 6lb mono perfectly fine without any flouro leaders, it will handle any rainbow or brookie you’re liable to catch, and snap swivels are fine in front of a small (1/4-1/3 oz) little Cleo.

Hey Drew,

Yeah I was thinking of bringing some clamps to see if that might work as a make shift rod holder.

Some spots are 200 feet deep so I doubt I am getting down to them trolling unless they aren't on bottom lol

The flasher will basically be to find depth and that's about it, unless like you said it's dead calm it might help mark some fish.

Making the best of this wedding, since I'm up there for a whole week lol

Noted about the line. I have to buy that or braid so, not sure which way to go with that yet.

If you’re long line trolling just use straight mono IMO.

If you’re using dipseys use braid to the dipsey. The shock of the release can break mono. Ask me how I know. One of my favourite set ups is on the bottom of a 100’ lake because I tied 10 lb mono to a dipsey.

Specks will be in the 17 to 25ft range of water with that said i start to troll using 5/8 oz weight or 3/4 oz and run 70 to 90 feet of line using a gang troll with a full worm 18 to 20 inches behind it
You could also use little cleo but you still need the weight or a dipsey to get it down i have lots of videos showing the dipsey diver back in my earlier videos catching brook trout .
I used just 20 lb mono and a dipsey diver with a Williams silver #60 the bigger brookies love them
I would have to say if your using any type of dipsey or weight added to your line a line counter reel is the way to go then you can figure out the depth you want to run.

Flack doesn't have rainbows and it would be pretty unlikely to find a brookie there. There are some stocked lakes nearby with brookies or splake or rainbows but Flack itself is lakers.

I fished a lake very close to Flack for lakers years ago and got schooled by a group of guys that hardly even fish. They'd been tipped off by a local to slow troll a big williams spoon with the hook removed then about 18" of line to a hook and minnow. It was comical, it was like they all had the exact same tackle boxes with nothing but williams spoons and terminal tackle.

I was confident that I'd be able to get them on the usual arsenal.

By late afternoon the first day I was borrowing tackle and ended up doing quite well.

Can’t go wrong with jigging over deeper water. Drift and jig. Can cover more water that way, jig maybe 30-50ft down over the deep water (60-100fow). Shouldn’t need live bait for lakers. Make sure you give us a report when you’re done!

Will do thank you kindly everyone for your advice!!

Now that it's in the right spot on the forum maybe I will get more advice too

The trolling spoon technique is very interesting. Sort of a rendition of a salmon flasher or something.

I can rig up something like that.

Thanks for the info as well on what is actually in that lake.

All things considered we should be able to hook into something, I hope.

And I will definitely bring my line counter rod - only have 1 working one atm.

Any other tips are always welcome

Tight lines!!

Braid Main line to 3-way.3-way to 2 ft flouro to 3-4 oz weight. 3-way to 6 ft flouro to Williams wobbler. Slow Troll over 50-100 fow until your weight just starts to tick bottom, then speed up slightly.

If you don't catch tons of lakers, quit fishing.