How to Catch Spring Lake Trout in Shallow Water
The author with an early-spring lake trout from Vermont’s Lake Champlain. Photo courtesy Drew Price
Although most anglers don’t consider lake trout a fly-fishing quarry, casting streamer patterns for these predatory char is a lot of fun. Spring, when they are found in shallow water, is one of the best times to target them. Unlike later in the year, when lakers follow the thermocline and go deep, for four to six weeks after ice-out, lakers hold in the upper 10 to 15 feet of the water column. This allows fly anglers easy access to the fish, which are generally on the feed.
Lakers are predators, so the spring bite is all about streamers. The water is just starting to warm up, which really turns the fish on. The fish have been feeding on available forage all winter to try to make up for the energy they expended in the fall for the spawn, and now they really want to bulk up. It isn’t unusual to see lakers crashing bait on the surface in the late winter or early spring, although what they are chasing is really dependent on the body of water that they inhabit.
High-Country Lake Trout
When Alex Deetjen lived in Fort Collins, Colorado, he spent a lot of time chasing fish in high mountain reservoirs. While pike fishing with buddies one spring, he tossed a big, articulated bucktail streamer at the mouth of a tributary. He hooked up with a big fish, which he initially assumed was a pike, but was astonished to find that it was a good lake trout. Lakers are commonly stocked in some of those reservoirs and grow large in the deep, cool waters.
In the high reservoirs of Colorado, you can catch lakers while wading in the early season. Photo: Alex Deetjen
After this surprise catch, he worked on patterning these spring fish just after ice-out. The key was the inflow. Suckers and rainbow trout were heading up the tributary to spawn, and the lake trout were there to take advantage of the situation. Alex found that good-size flies, such as 8- to 10-inch articulated Buford-style streamers, were the key to success. Because the prey items he was imitating hug the bottom, Alex found that sinking lines were key. He recommends a 9- or 10-weight rod to propel the big flies, on a sinking tip a 2X or 0X fluorocarbon leader. In the clear water, you can see the lake trout follow the fly, but they often just fade away without eating. The fishing can be hit or miss, but when the hook finds a home, it tends to be a large fish.
Upstate New York
This is similar to how Luke Bizzell fishes and guides for lake trout in New York’s Finger Lakes, where the native lakers have really keyed in on a non-native baitfish, the round goby. Because the gobies hug the bottom, this is another situation where a sinking line is important to success. Luke uses a Cortland shooting head with an intermediate shooting line on an 8-weight rod to put the fly in the strike zone. His leader consists of two feet of 25-pound fluorocarbon and two to three feet of 0X.
Dragging bottom is the name of the game. Cast as far as you can, let the fly get down, and keep a slow methodical retrieve. Luke recommends a couple of tap strips, letting the fly tap the bottom then stripping, then a pause, and you can’t move the fly too slowly. Luke’s go-to streamer is his Goophead Goby, which rides along the bottom and pushes water. The fly uses rabbit strips and Goop glue for the head to create a combination that has a lot of natural movement and will push a lot of water. The fish stay in the shallows into May, usually holding near drop-offs. Once the water hits the mid-50s, it’s game over and the lakers return to the depths.
The Goophead Goby hugs the bottom and pushes a lot of water. Photo: Luke Bizzell
A very different style of New York lake-trout fishing takes place in the lakes and ponds in the Adirondacks. Here the lakers key in on a native baitfish, the rainbow smelt. George Rogers plies these lightly pressured waters from an ultralight canoe, both casting and trolling. These still waters produce good fishing for lakers into May, but once again, when the waters start getting around 50 degrees, the fish start dropping deeper. George suggests using an intermediate line on a 6- or 7-weight rod with a long leader. As far as patterns go, “almost anything smelty” will get the job done, he says, but he has had a great deal of success with 3- to 4-inch Gummy Minnows. Fish the streamers slowly and focus on drop-offs and structure. While the fish aren’t as large as they are in other locations, George says, “they are essentially a swimming stomach with a mouth,” so they’re usually willing to eat a fly.
Togue Tactics
Zach Pierce typically starts finding togue—as lake trout are called in Maine—in late March and eagerly fishes and guides for them. (He cautions anyone who wants to target them in Maine to consult the regulations to find which waters are open to fishing because the dates can vary a great deal.) Once the ice is off those waters, there is about a month of great laker action. The fish can be found in the top 10 feet of the water column, and as in the Adirondacks, the primary forage for many of these lakes is rainbow smelt. Zach notes that freshly stocked brook trout are also on the menu for larger fish.
Pierce prefers an 8-weight outfit rigged up with an intermediate line, casting along drop-offs and using a long, slow two-handed retrieve to entice the fish. You must keep the fly moving or the togue will lose interest. He uses 4- to 5-inch Deceivers, Clouser Minnows, and oversize Woolly Buggers. The colors of the flies depend on the clarity of the water he is on, but two of his favorites are white and chartreuse. One key element for any fly he uses is to make sure it has plenty of flash.
The first step to catching lakers is figuring out what their main forage is in the weeks after ice-out. Photo: Luke Bizzell
Big-Lake Fish
Lake Champlain has developed quite a reputation for fly fishing lakers in the fall, but my favorite time to target them, as an angler and guide, is in the spring. They are in full predator mode and are aggressive and voracious—exactly what I am looking for to shake off the winter blues. The fish are found throughout the broad lake, but fly fishers should focus on shelves, rocks, and drop-offs near deeper water. They are also very fond of mudlines created by tributaries.
I use a 7- or 8-weight rod rigged with an intermediate or floating line. I particularly like the Scientific Anglers Sonar Stillwater Clear Camo intermediate line, as it offers extra stealth in the clear water of the lake. For a leader, I use 1 foot of 20-pound to a micro swivel, then 3 feet of 12-pound test. With a floating line, I tie a fluorocarbon leader of 3 feet each of 20-, 16-, and 12-pound test. Fluorocarbon tippet makes a huge difference with the water clarity and stands up to abrasion from rocks and zebra mussels. My mainstay flies with the intermediate lines are Hybrid Game Changers and Jerk Changers in white and pink. These flies are also effective with floating lines, but I more commonly use Clouser Minnows in white, pink-and-white, chartreuse-and-white, and purple-and-silver.
You’ll need to vary your retrieve to figure out what the fish want on a given day: sometimes they want it fast, sometimes they like it slow, and sometimes a strip-pause is required. One of the keys is to keep the fly moving. If you see a fish following your fly, move it faster. These are predators, and when a baitfish stops, it no longer looks natural. Strip the fly right back to the boat because lakers will often hit the fly as you are pulling it up to cast again.
Angler Kay Wozniak landed this snaky fish on Vermont’s Lake Champlain. Photo: Drew Price
When I had first heard about fishing for lake trout, I wasn’t interested. Broomstick rods with lead-core line and many hours of boring trolling wasn’t something that I was eager to participate in. Now I am champing at the bit for the boat launches to open up, so I can get out and toss flies for these deepwater predators in the shallows. For the first month or so after ice-out, lakers are easily in reach of fly anglers and offer a lot of action before they sink to the depths whence they came.
A note of caution: Lake-trout fishing in late winter and early spring can be outstanding, but it is a time of year to be very careful on the water, notably larger lakes. Always wear a PFD, file a float plan with family or a friend, and pay attention to the weather conditions. A recent incident on Lake Champlain led to the Coast Guard being called to rescue fly anglers stranded on islands in the middle of the lake because of weather and navigation issues. Safety first!
Drew Price runs Master Class Angling, a guide service in northwestern Vermont, where he takes clients fishing for everything from smallmouth bass and pike to bowfin and carp. But he also loves chasing big trout and landlocked salmon in the rivers that flow into his beloved Lake Champlain.
