Trolling Bird

Trolling Bird

For those of us who live in the southern extent of the Lake Trout range, we know that lakers head deep in the summer when the water temperature warms up. In the spring, lakers can be found on the surface and trolling a spoon at shallow depth can be an effective technique. Once the water temperature gets into the high 50's however, lakers head deep until the cooling water brings them back up in the fall for spawning.

A number of different techniques can be used for deep water Lake Trout. If you have a good idea where they may be, using a heavy jig is a deadly technique. Other deep water techniques such as using a downrigger can be effective. But perhaps the most efficient, is using a traditional but out-of-vogue technique, namely using wire line.

The wire line technique utilizes stainless wire line on a heavy trolling outfit. A long mono or flourocarbon leader of about 6 feet is attached to a swiveled sinker, which is attached to the wire. A sinker of about 1 ounce gets the line down nicely. A flutter spoon is utilized, these spoons being of very light design, perhaps 4 inches in length. You generally will feed the line from the reel by running the boat quickly and free spooling the reel with light thumb pressure since the wire does not spool out very easily under slow speed until sufficient line is out. When you feel you have sufficient length out, slow the trolling speed to minimum, and work the bait in a forward and back motion to allow the bait to flutter on the back motion. Strikes typically happen in that flutter. You want to keep the bait quite close to bottom, over time you'll feel the difference between your bait rubbing bottom, and just the usual tension as you bring the rod forward

In general, an outfit set up in this fashion with 30 pound wire, and a 1 ounce weight, will run 1 foot deep for every 3 feet of line out. A line counter reel will get you to an accurate depth, otherwise marking the line at 50 or 75 foot increments will help you establish if you have the right amount of line out to be on bottom quickly

Make sure you have your drag set to permit larger fish to take line, can you lay money on wire line not giving you any stretch

I hope this provides you with another tool in your arsenal for catching mid-summer fish. Lakers can be caught quite efficiently on this method. It has the significant advantage over downriggers, that you can work the bottom without worrying about picking up material from the bottom and not knowing about it, or popping the line off the tension release. Using the heavy tackle can be somewhat tiring, but if you want to be able to count on bringing home a fish for the table, deep water wire lining may be just the edge you're looking for.

David Girdwood is a lifelong fisherman devoted to responsible, sustainable fishing practices. He has been the operator of Thefishingnut online store since 2005.

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