lake trout help

[seansean1444]

what do u guys do when laker fishing. where i fish for lakers its about 170 feet deep and kind of a pain to move around allot due to how long it takes for the jig to get down so i usually just sit in one spot and fish. for lakers will it increase your catch rate if u spend only 5 to 10 min maybe longer at each hole? also i dont have any type of fish finder or flasher. all help appreciated

[Woodsman]

If your fishing that deep get some type of fishfinder. Even a cheaper one (under $140) will give you a lot of info. Depth, is there fish present, depth of jigs, how they react to your baits & jigging style.
Many places lakers suspend & if you don't know where they are depth wise you can be wasting a lot of time.

Rick

[thessalaker]

a good sonar is crucial - take  your pick on brand i run a vexilar, but have heard good things about the humminbird ice units.
secondly, i would recommend getting out of that crazy deep water.  spend most of your time on humps and shoals, in 20-50 ft of water.  nothing wrong with a 50 ft flat in a weedy bay either in trout water.  ive caught lots of good ones just off a weed bed in 40 ft of water.
most feeding trout will be suspended, and i find they like that 20 ft level, where, coincidentally, the smelts and herring also tend to hang around.
get yourself 5-6 all around spoons for jigging, 3-6 inches long, and either white or silver, a medium action 32 inch rod, braided ice line with floro leader.  cant go wrong with williams wabler and whitefish, white swedish pimple, blue/silver little cleo, and i love the big lucky strike canoe spoons, in pearl/white.
as far as live or dead bait, not sure what is legal in your area, but i do well with dead smelts, suspended at the depth i am jigging at, about 40-50 ft from my jig.
in shallower water, sometimes laying one right on bottom is very productive.  old timers say to step on the tail end of the bait to squish it up and put out more scent, and it makes perfect sense.
ive seen other on this site say to put slices into your dead bait, which sounds good.  Same principle.
as far as live bait, any sort of big local minow will work - hook it just behind or in front of the dorsal fin, dont clip the spine, and use either circle or octopus hooks.  no need for extra big hooks.
good luck