Summer Jigging for Lake Trout

[JoeUpnorth]

I am looking for some tips on how to jig for summer lake trout. Once a year we go to a drive in lake, in Ontario, that holds lake trout deep (75 to 90 ft.). My son and I have tried vertically jigging spoons and large jigs w/plastics, but unless it is a day were the water is like glass, we can't stay on top of them. If anyone has a tip on vertical jigging or another technique, I would love to give it a try. The amount of gear we can bring with us is limited.

Thanks....Joe

[RDJ]

Hey Joe, I used to do a fair amount of jiggin macks on Flathead lake here in Montana and still do every now and then. We pretty much use the same tackle. Used to use the large grubs with heavy jig heads alot but anymore use custom made jigging spoons made by a fellow that lives on Flathead. His name is Dick Zimmer and he is kind of the Mack guru of Flathead lake. He really does produce some nice baits and I think he likes to use a tandem type approach with a Lead Jigging spoon on bottom and a foot or two above it he ties in a dropper loop and ties on one of the custom fly's he makes just for fishing macks. Bait the jiggin spoon with sqaw fish meat or sucker meat and the fly with maggots and away you go!! Here is a phone number for Dick's shop,Contact: Dick Zimmer at Zimmer's Lures (406-675-0068) in Pablo, Montana.
His baits are pretty much all I have used in the last few years on the couple trips I've made up there. Partly because they're so readily available in the local stores and partly because they do work well.
As far as positioning to jig, well that seems to be tricky sometimes. We encounter the same problem when trying to fish the top of a ridge or hold on a sharp drop off if the wind starts to blow. The best fix for the drifting problem I've seen is an anchor and alot of rope!! My neighbor goes jigging alot and he has a reel(similar to an extension chord reel) set up with 300' of 5/16" braided nylon he uses. At Flathead its quite common to wind up jiggin over 175'-200' of water and you'll spend a great deal of time in at least 125'-175'. Sometimes throughout the year some good fishing will be shallower but most of the time we start looking for concentration's of fish in the 75'-100' depth and work out from there. Once a pod of fish are located and if its windy, drop anchor and have some fun. I know some people even use 2 anchors so that they can cut down on the swing of the boat as well. Good luck and please holler if you have any questions. RJ in Montana..

[Xplorer1]

Joe,
Try using a drift sock and a trolling motor to help you out on windy days. I would also suggest trying a superbraid (I use powerpro) with a barrel swivel and a @4' leader of flourocarbon. I have a rod with 20/6 powerpro and use 15# flouro as a leader. Try some northland bucktails with a salted shiner, white,yellow or glow, in 3/4 oz is my standard. If it is really windy out, go fish walleyes!!!
I have jigged lake superior and it can be a beast on the best of days, to stay over a hump where there are fish when you combine the current and wind. Good luck, i will be on the ice in 15 hours to ice some lakers near Ely,MN.
Xplorer

[j9f]

I was in the finger lakes region of New York a couple summers ago and the company we were visiting took us on a dinner cruise out of Watkins Glen. I ened up talking to a guy that explained how they "pulled copper" for lakers in that area. I can by no means explain all of the details, but it sounded a lot like handlining with copper line. Instead of using a handline reel they would spool the copper line into a box. The technique sure sounded a lot like handlining with spoons tolled near the bottom off leaders.

I also ran into an old timer near Traverse City Michigan who trolled for them using a large weight and wire line. He basically bounced the bottom with a rod in his hand.

I know I didn't answer your question with any advice you can actually use, but I would think that if you took some time to research those techniques, you may come up with something, or maybe not.... either way good luck!!

[JoeUpnorth]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I think there was an article about handlining in Outdoor Life a few years ago. At the time I thought it looked interesting but didn't have an application for it, so I don't have the article anymore.

If I remember right correctly. There was still a rod and reel involved for battling the fish. What type of line do they use......leadcore? Has anyone given this aa try?

Has anyone tried a portable downrigger? If there ws a light enough downrigger out there? I could probably find room to bring it along if the weight wasn't a problem. This would eliminate the need to fish on super calm days and I would know exactly what depth I was trolling at.

I also have to profess, I am one of those fisherman who loves to try new methods so I am open to any suggestion.