Late May lake Trout

[Mattie]

Hi Everyone,

As some know I will be heading up to Kipawa Late May with my Uncle (TBone) for a short trip before our main trip later on in the summer.

Ozzy was nice enough to take me out on his boat and got me hooked on lake trout fishing last summer when I caught my big one and I would like to try for them while we are up in May when they are shallower. We mainly fish walleye however it seems like I may have a better chance catching some trout this time of year than the summer trip since I don't really have the proper equipment as of yet to get my baits down deep besides 1 dipsy diver. 

I'm just looking for a few tips on what to look for and correct structure while I am fishing for them in May. To my understanding and research/ youtube they should be quite shallow? I even saw a video on youtube of the fish coming right up to the surface while the guy was fishing for them on his kayak. I'm not sure if another video I was watching was in Canada but they were catching them off the dock at the lodge.

I figure a good bait to fish for them with is a silver spoon just like we did with the down riggers in the summer.

In the best way I can put it, I guess I just don't really understand these fish because I am pretty new to them.

Any suggestions/ tips on what to cast towards/ look for and depths to jig would be greatly appreciated from anyone. Also lure suggestions would help me out too.



Thank you very much!

Mattie

*Edit - We fish the Alwaki Lodge and surrounding areas of the lake mainly. Not sure if this will make a difference

[RHYBAK]

Troll body Baits ( Rapala, Reef Runner, AC Shinner ) etc. on the surface
No weights, about 100 feet back.
Maybe a large split shot.

Troll anywhere.
Does not have to be near shore or structure.
The spring lakers cruise everywhere in open water.

[Captain Hali]

Mattie,
Lake trout have a prefered water temperature of 48-52 degrees F, which also happens to be favored by Ciscos and smelt, the lakers main diet. To find out at what depth this temp. range is I use a Fish Hawk TD, temp&depth measuring device. It clips onto your line and slides down to your lure recording water temp every 5 feet as it descends. Once it reaches your lure it will record the depth. I use a line counter Rapala level wind reel which then allows me to adjust the amount of line I let out to get to the desired depth.
I troll spoons such as Williams Wablers in silver ( sunny days ) and gold ( overcast days ). Also use Jerkbaits such as Rapala or Live Target rainbow smelt deep dive. Sometimes I use a Dave Davis gang troll followed by a spoon or jerkbait. TROLL SLOW, 1 to 2 mph.
Look for bait balls and troll around and through them. Tight lines.

[smitty55]

Lots of good points here already. I agree with the Captain, the most basic and important consideration for me would be water temp to start things off.  Any time of year that I went to Kipawa before August I always tested the depth/temp with my depth-o- plug looking for 50°, often before I even hit the dock at Alwaki in calm water. That way we knew how much lead core to drag or where to set the riggers. Once the thermocline is well set up it's a different story, any decent sonar should pick it up.
The temp gradient is far different early season, you don't have to go too far down to get friendly temps for Greys. It's the one time of the year too that they get to feed on non pelagic forage closer to shore so don't be shy about fishing shallow water, even to the point of casting to nice structure with Williams or Cleos or Len Thompson or Mooselook or EGB etc. for spoons. Or body baits. Whether casting or trolling it's often a good idea to try both and see if there's a preference.
Here's a little nugget for you Mattie that I've only shared once. I've dragged hundreds of Emerald shiners behind a big gang troll up there, they work great. But the bait that always got the larger Lakers was the real dark Lake Chub(I think) minnows that I would catch off the docks at Corbeau and Alwaki. Just channelling my inner kid hehe.  Their bellies were so dark, just like the natural Lakers we always use to get. I would bring some 4lb test leaders with a real small hook. A small bit of worm. So obviously you can't use them for bait anymore,  but my suggestion is to catch and release a bigger one to get a good look at it so you can match your plug/body bait...

Here's a couple of inexpensive but functional tools you can use. First a small plastic side planer that will get your baits in closer to shore away from the boat. The second a lightweight plastic and adjustable diver that you can use with light line outfits to target those deeper water schools of bait fish. Both multi species tools.
https://www.rapala.com/luhr-jensen/trolling-accessories/hot-shot-side-planer/hot-shot-side-planer/5640-000-0625.html
https://www.davisinstruments.com/product/fish-seeker-clear/

Good luck, never been up that early. Cheers

[RHYBAK]

Your advise is right on the button but in my opinion your over doing your advice.
The main think to consider is the time of year in question.
LATE MAY.

Your advise on temperatured water is fine for July and August.
Late may , the water is cold at every depth including surface.
He will be lucky if the ice goes out the week before or May 12 as I predicted.
You'll be lucky if the surface water is warmer than 40 degrees F

No thermocline. no warm water.just plain cold water.

[Mattie]

Hi

Thank you everyone for the replies and helpful knowledge to help me even better understand! I really hope next year I will be able to get a entry level down rigger/ gang trolls and proper gear for my summer trip. I will probably get getting my line counter reel this year and just give it a try with my diver for the fun of it.

I do agree with all of this for my second trip in late July as in understanding the thermocline and all of that fun stuff as I was taught a lot about this last summer thanks to Ozzy and his family when they were kind enough to take me out for the day. As I remember you could pretty much tell where the roughly where the thermocline was set up just by watching his electronics. As we marked fish (we marked a lot or at least in my opinion we did) he would always point them out to me. The lake trout and the bait balls.  They were for the most part in a very generalized area of 60-70 FOW if I remember correctly. We were fishing in over 100 FOW and set our lures appropriately.

As for Rhybaks comment, he 100% on this. I am talking about late May where I know this water is going to be very cold and I expect it to be.

So what I am getting for this time of year is No Thermocline = fish will be scattered. Cover water. It sounds like when we are fishing for walleye, we may even pick one up. (This happened on my first ever trip to Kipawa when I was younger)  I have a semi good Hummingbird depth finder with downscan that I bring up for our boat every year that does and good and detailed job of locating fish and bait schools. Just don't have the lake maps chip for CA. I will be able to see the surface Temp.

Thank you everyone again for all of  the help/ tips and I can't wait to get up there!

[Captain Hali]

  Mattie, you can view the depths of Kipawa on Navioncs web site https://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=en#boating@6&key=ybk%7CGdzd%60N  and pick the areas you want to try. If you have a map of the lake ,mark these spots up if not you'll have to make a mental note of the areas. The narrows between Corbeau and the main land has lots of structure and is always good. I've picked-up some decent lakers in front of the island just northwest of Sunnyside, in 25/30 FOW on walleye jigs early June. I don't know if the ciscoes in Kipawa surface feed like they do in Algonquin Parks' lake Opeongo, but if they do look for concentrations of Gulls and Terns diving and you'll know where the baitfish are and lakers not far behind. Let us know how you make out.

[Chazz]

Lots of great reading and info here - thanks to all the contributors.   I have a question approx how much line do you recommend behind the downrigger weight ?  This is for mid August deep trolling.

[Captain Hali]

Chazz,
Keep your offerings fairly tight to the ball, approx 20 feet works best. Tight lines.

[RHYBAK]

Chazz,
Keep your offerings fairly tight to the ball, approx 20 feet works best. Tight lines.

Ditto

[Balsams]

Tend to agree that at this time of year the trout are looking to feed and cruising at depth change and structure...saddles, u/g points coming of islands, mid lake shoals, etc. bump a large shad rap of structure with slow troll...have patience, they will hit early morning to mid day. When they are active, multiple fish day is expected...mostly small to med size fish.

[Ozzy30]

I find there really isn't a correct answer to that question.  I usually like a longer lead but on a slow day I will shorten it up, or even lengthen it, every day is different.  It's all on preference. If running 2 downriggers vary the setup and see what is more productive.