Tube jigs are plastic tube baits that are best rigged with a special tube head hook that is rigged inside the hollow body. Regular jig heads work too but you have to rig them perfectly and pick the perfect jighead for it to work.
Alkaseltzer tablets are pretty expensive but the sound and bubbles they make do help attract fish to a tube. There is a product called "crackle", which does basically the same thing but is cheaper and available in larger amounts.
As far as lake trout, in your neck of the woods they act different from the finicky, light hitting bottom dwelling ones of Colorado, where I live. They tend to be found at any area of the water column, being either close to the bottom but most often suspending. Tube baits tipped with a piece of sucker or other baitfish meat work best. A sonar unit like a vexilar is often imperative. Fish off of points, on large flats, near drop offs, underwater humps, and creek channels. Depths of 20 - 50 feet will be best, with 35 being about optimum.
Rainbows like to suspend but will also be around the bottom at times. Fish in 8 - 20 feet of water, with smaller jigs and lures tipped with a piece of nightcrawler. They will also hit a piece of nightcrawler fished still, with the rod in a holder. Areas like the mouths of bays, near drop offs or around creek channels are best.
Brookies will be in the same areas but sometimes a little shallower, as shallow as 5 feet. But still start at 8 - 20 before looking shallower. Many people make the mistake of fishing way to shallow for trout. But most of the time anything deeper than about 25 is too deep. Brookies like the same baits rainbows do, but will be a little more bottom oriented, but will still suspend at times.
Tyler
