Title sounds like a name for a charity event....Anyway, i am heading to cabelas this afternoon, and based on info i have received will pick up few lures to use to hopefully catch my first lake trout.  I am entering French Lake to MCDougall, entering June 17th.  I am thinking of getting a couple taildancers and maybe little Cleo spoons.  So what size and color should I be looking for?
Open to other suggestions as well, although my tackle is already over 5 lbs.

  Cant' get these at Cabela's, but you have time to order online/
I've always done well with these. Heavy for size and work well casting from shore or trolling.

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I like the Spring Frog in green or orange.

Keys for lakers: you want largest sizes, high flash, think Mylar. Deep, big cranks, spoons. I use X-raps, deep taildancers, shad. White, purple, blue, chartreuse are great colors.

On any given day, any given color or lure can be the hot ticket. You have to experiment with different options until you find the magic bait. Troll Pickeral, Upper Sturgeon, and McDougall. If you want more specifics, pm or email me. 8-)

I agree with Old Salt's recommendations.  I would add this, though: not only can the hot color or lure vary on a day-to-day basis, the preferred lures AND colors can vary on a lake-to-lake basis.  Forage foods available to lake trout can vary by lake.  My tried-and-true lures that imitate those forage foods may work well in the park's northwestern lakes but not produce as effectively further east.  And vice-versa.

My primary lake trout lure-types are:
  *  Lightweight "fluttering" spoons worked in conjunction with 1/2 oz up to 2 oz weights (depending on depth fish are feeding) affixed 4-5 feet up the line.
  *  Fat-lipped, wobbling deep-divers (I prefer white OR blue & silver).

OS is right about "experimentation," especially as you learn new trout waters.  If you put the lure-types mentioned in this thread into your tackle box, you'll at least have what you need to begin experimenting on a day-to-day and lake-to-lake basis.

Also, a decent canoe-type depth-finder can help you with your lure selection.  My experience is that "feeding" lake trout will come up a long way to grab your lure.  It helps to know HOW deep they are, however, so you get place your bait in the general ballpark just above them.  When they are REALLY deep, I find myself clipping on those 2+oz weights and using Sutton fluttering spoons more often than not.  Nevertheless, I have been amazed to have LT's occasionally come up from summer-time depths to nab lures that can't be running much deeper than 15 feet.

Anyway, that's my two cents' worth added to OS's dollar.

Jimbo   8-)

I don'r have a lot of experience but have never not caught LT on this version of the Mann's 30+
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Cabelas has the stretch version of the 30+ but not the shorter one. i've never tried the longer version
Best color has been Pearl with blue back
All trips have been mid-June

Craig Zarley who was a presenter at Canoecopia thinks all you need is a jig between 1/4 ounce and 3/4 ounce with a white twister tail.  You vertical jig the jig unless it is spring and the water is cold then you could fish in the conventional way with a jig.
Water temperature is more important than depth.  There is, of course, a correlation between temperature and depth.  I use a thermometer which records the temperature every 5 feet.  A depth finder is also very helpful.  My understanding is that trout will come up to get a lure, but rarely go down to get a lure.  Trout like water around 50 degrees.

Westwood wrote on Apr 16^th, 2017 at 10:08pm:

Craig Zarley who was a presenter at Canoecopia thinks all you need is a jig between 1/4 ounce and 3/4 ounce with a white twister tail.  You vertical jig the jig unless it is spring and the water is cold then you could fish in the conventional way with a jig.

I always start with this configuration ... ALWAYS!  I only switch to something else if this fails to produce.  (I'm not limiting to lake trout here.  I've hit the slam in a single day on multiple occasions using only this.) 

I'll always check to see if I have an adequate supply of jig heads and twister tail grubs (Kalins 5") and if I have any question about an adequate supply, I'll DOUBLE it.

dd

Curious, jigging for Lakers other than spring sounds like you would need a fish finder.  I won't have that option.  I plan on trolling a 20 ft tail dancer first, and switch to a 30 ft if I'm not getting bit. 

You can certainly fish without sonar, but you're fishing blind. Sonar does make a difference when laker fishing. Sometimes they are along edges of holes, sometimes down deep, sometimes suspended. Your catch rate should increase if you can pinpoint where they are and how they are feeding. 8-)

Since you don't have a fish finder and people have posted about using jigs/twister tail, maybe you could do something like this?

You can't have more than 4 hooks on a single line in Ontario except in certain instances/places.

If you could handle the extra drag, I don't know ( assuming it IS legal) why  you couldn't adapt this to different stick baits/jigs or maybe even combo of the two? 

Allows you to cover more water as you paddle. Start hitting fish at one depth, change over to single lure.

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spoons, like a little cleo will most likely just spin and put tons of twist in your line if you are trolling.  troll with them very slowly, or better, vertical jig with them - at least that's my experience

Mad_Mat wrote on Apr 17^th, 2017 at 6:00pm:

spoons, like a little cleo will most likely just spin and put tons of twist in your line if you are trolling.  troll with them very slowly, or better, vertical jig with them - at least that's my experience

Found this quote on a fishing forum. Some high-end spoons come with a swivel, NO snap already. I have a few and it really cuts down on line twist.

" I use a small swivel I only use a couple of ADL spoons in my arsenal and all of them have a small SPRO black swivel (no snap) rigged to the split ring ahead of time.  There is an added benefit to using a swivel that you may not be considering here and that is line twist.  When using any inline spinner or spoon, it is recommended to use a small swivel to prevent line twist."

When laker fishing, I use 2-3 jumbo ball bearing swivels. Used above the lure, they work like a wire leader to prevent bite offs and keep the laker death roll from ruining your line. ;)

I fished the river for smallies while paddling 17 miles on Easter.  I  almost exclusively use a #3 Mepps, gold with bucktail on that river, and man was my line twisted at the end of the day.  I'm going to get some swivels and give it a try.

When I was young, strong, dumb and handsome, I went with enough people to eat a laker. We'd mostly troll tinsel jigs when traveling and stop and vertical jig 'em to have a smoke when drifting in the right direction.

They didn't twist and there wasn't much drag. Two deep diving plugs is a lot of drag and when you snag a what, $8 plug you know you are going back for it. Good barrel snaps ain't cheap either.

If you're a fan of Berkely Flicker Shad or they're Gripper swim jigs, check this out. Bought one of each for big discount and got the other for 50% of that.

.84 for a nice jig and 1.49 for a Flicker shad is a great price. I think that swim jig with a twister tail and weedless hook might be a great one to troll for WHATEVER your fishing for?

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On a recent trip I wanted to see if a 6 inch Williams Whitefish spoon with a 5 inch twister tail would be too large for Quetico lake trout.  A fat 28 inch Oriana laker showed that it was not.

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I thought I would give you an update.  The first attempt at fishing with the 20 ft taildancer resulted in an almost immediate hook-up with something large, which quickly broke me off.  It had to be a pike.  There goes $10, lol.  The next day I decided to troll the purple 30 ft taildancer through the middle of the north end of McDougall Lake.  Because I had a quick hit with the 20 ft diver, I used a short cast, hoping to keep the lure running shallower than it's full potential.  I hooked two 17" smallies in a row, then I hit something a little bigger.  After a few minutes I was rewarded with my first Lake Trout!  Thanks to everyone for helping me check that off my list.  I never did use the spoons, I will have to get those out on the next trip.  If I remember, it was 5.5 lbs, and maybe 25"?

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Quote:

There goes $10, lol.

Get yourself some of these. #25 is about right.
You can buy them pre-made, 3 for about $20 or buy just the wire and make your own.

Somewhere in the archives, Kingfisher our resident fishing expert talks about them and how to tie your own.

I made some but did it using the crimping method but for the price of pre-made, for Q/BWCA use where you don't want to lose those expensive lures, there well worth the money.

A #25 is so thin and flexible you can hardly beleive it's wire. So thin it looks like sewing thread.

You can leave it on even while using a jig, it's that flexible.

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On our recent late June trip my wife surprisingly had good luck catching Lakers on this hot pink rattling HotnTot

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You didn't state what type of line you had.  But if break off is a problem use a braided line especially if you are trolling.  Some of the members on this forum will disagree with this statement, but in my opinion there is no reason to use anything, but braided line.

Actually, that was the only break off I had in 8 days,  and I fished every day.  I retie often, and just got lucky I guess.   I had to have landed 20 or more pike, I didn't bother to count.
Trilene XL clear 8 lbs test.

Westwood wrote on Jun 30^th, 2017 at 8:55pm:

You didn't state what type of line you had.  But if break off is a problem use a braided line especially if you are trolling.  Some of the members on this forum will disagree with this statement, but in my opinion there is no reason to use anything, but braided line.

Depends on whether you want stretch (mono) to absorb shock of strikes or no stretch (braid). I find mono more forgiving. I need lots of forgiveness. 8-)

I've switched to titanium leaders and braid line.  I like the braid for hook setting when trolling a long line.  Gotta make sure to check the drag often though.  I use 14lb. on a 7' medium heavy rod when trolling for the big ones.  8lb on a medium 7' for jigging and bass.

Used 20# P-Line TCB (teflon coated braid) with a 7' Med-Heavy action St. Croix Baitcaster, Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 6500 with titanium 10" leader for trolling.  I doubt I will use anything but P-Line from now on.  Nano may still have the quietness and castability advantage but as far as strength, knot tying and abrasion, P-Line is the way to go when fishing the canadian shield.

PJ,
Is that P-Line superior enough to say PowerPro you would make the switch come time to re-fill, the price being about the same?

solotripper wrote on Jul 2^nd, 2017 at 9:32pm:

PJ, Is that P-Line superior enough to say PowerPro you would make the switch come time to re-fill, the price being about the same?

Yes.  While not as supple as powerpro, if all you're going to use it for is trolling for big fish, yes!

Thanks PJ,
I use a 7 ft Ugly Stik GS2 medium heavy 1 piece as my trolling rod.
I use a spinning reel with #40 PowerPro (mono #10) because being solo, I got tired of breaking line/losing lures if I hit a snag and couldn't react fast enough.

Now unless I have a tailwind, the lure either pulls free or the canoe stops and I can go back and retrieve my lure. Haven't lost a lure since I made this switch.

I suppose I'm losing fish with the heavier line but then fishing isn't my main goal anyway.

PJ,
Maybe I need to dust off my Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 6500 CS3 and 7 foot St Croix rod for trolling in Quetico.  I received the rod and reel as a present over 20 years ago for fishing for muskies on Leech Lake when we had a place on Leech Lake.  I never did catch a muskie, but we spent more time water skiing than we did fishing.  I also thought that the rod and reel was too much beef for fishing in Quetico.  Maybe I will give it a try this July when my wife and I head into BH and Quetico Lake.  Do you lose some of the fun catching fish when you use such a heavy setup?

Quote:

Do you lose some of the fun catching fish when you use such a heavy setup?

Not at all.

For braided lines I have used a 6-8 foot leader of fluorocarbon for its abrasion resistance and lower visibility, but I've grown tired of it's unforgiving knot strength.  For those using braid do you tie directly to a metal leader?

Braided line is much stronger than mono so I only use a leader if northerns are on the catch list.  If I use a leader I would tie the line directly to the leader.  If I am not using a leader, I would tie directly on a small snap.  The snap allows me to change lures with no need to retie.