TECHNIQUE

General

For shallow-water fishing, as is the case in spring, an angler has the choice of trolling or casting. For deep-water fishing, an angler has several options, among them wire line fishing, vertical jigging, or using a downrigger with deep-water tackle. These three very popular deep water techniques have their own unique advantages but they all produce consistently.

Except for the times when you choose to cast from shoals or reefs the angler will have to use some sort of craft. Fishing for lake trout demands special techniques of boat control to get the lure to a pocket of fish and to manipulate it so it will appeal to them.

Temperature requirements of the lake trout were described earlier as well as the fact that the fish were bottom oriented because of these requirements. Oxygen produced by wind action and water stratification into different temperature zones were also discussed. But it is also important to remember that some lakes have a rollover characteristic in summer months as a result of continued wind pressure in a particular direction. When this happens fish disperse throughout the entire lake. The lake will ultimately retain its composure but it can sometimes take many days. Fishing can be very poor when a rollover takes place but if you are aware of the conditions you can still take fish. In any case, checking water temperature should be a constant activity when fishing under any conditions.

Proven most useful for wire line and downrigger methods, the graph recorder in combination with jigging is lethal. Although hydrographic maps can provide some necessary information to get you started, they are often too general and in lakes with very irregular bottoms are not explicit enough to use by themselves. The hydrographic map exhibits only a plan view of a lake bottom with interpolated contours that provide limited information, yet when used in conjunction with a graph recorder to provide the profile information, the two become an invaluable aid with which to locate feeding fish.

The other clue to successful fishing, whatever technique you are using, is attracting fish with the appropriate lure, as mentioned previously. Find out which of the forage fish will be found in the area you are going to fish and choose your lures appropriately (see Figure 00). Sculpins, for instance, are small and dark and generally do not venture away from the bottom, so you should use a smaller, darker pattern and keep the manipulation of the jig very close to bottom. Similarly, in other lakes the forage fish may be cisco, limiting your selection to the larger, more flashy, baits manipulated more actively at greater distances from bottom.

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