Lake trout, whats it take?!!

[Wyomingbohunk]

 Hey guys, I've never fished lake trout before and was planning on heading up to pactola in the coming weeks, what do you normally use for these fish? jig with wax worm? spoon? I've also heard some people use shrimp? any advise would be greatly appreciated!!!

[appleye]

Pactola doesn't freeze over to around the first of Jan. I use white tube jigs or blue tipped with dead salted minnow 80 to 120' deep. You can use 4 lines so I put 4' rods in rod holders and fish with in 1' of the bottom. The dead rods are the most active. Sunrise and sunset are the best times. Check the Pactola page on the SD blog for a ton of information.

[Wyomingbohunk]

sounds good! ill check that page, thanks!!

[Macjigger]

4" white curly tail will work on just about any water. You can get numbers as well as quality. I also like spoons with a lighter action. Beat that bottom and don't be afraid to move

[Wyomingbohunk]

Alright, I have some white curly tailed jigs! I'll definitely try that thanks!

[missoulafish]

They are swimming stomachs, don't over think it.

[wyoutdoors]

I generally target 40' and shallower at Pactola. Less than 10' at Deerfield. 

[WyoDoc]

Start deep and move shallower as needed, use a flasher and move often, and pretty much anything works on a given day. I like jigheads with 3" colored curly tails (you'll know the color that's working when they start biting - I start with white and black and then mix in between) tipped with sucker meat, nightcrawler, legal minnow, whatever you've got. When they're biting they're not picky - you can jig if you wish, or be lazy and drink beer and wait for them to hit. When not biting aggressively, you need to jig. Never fished Pactola, but like fishing Fremont and Half Moon for lakers.

[SDFlagChaser]

I believe Jenny Gulch is fishable right now, and i've caught lakers there.  We would always use live and dead bait on tip ups and basically lay them right on the bottom.  With our jigging rods, we would use a variety of spoon and white tubes, tipped with minnow heads.  Don't forget about the pike in there too

[vcorys]

We use large tubes with sucker meat and also airplane jigs! Shallower first ice then we tend to move deeper as the season progresses.

[POk3s]

It usually takes me getting aggravated and yelling at them. Sometimes they listen and finally hit. Sometimes they don't and I resort to drinking beer.

[307Fishinfool]

I have caught them on the gorge and in Colorado at grand lake using big flashy spoons tipped with sucker meat.

[Wyomingbohunk]

Thanks guys for all the info!!! . Hope I get the chance to put it to work!!

[prospector]

White Krocodile lure tipped with anything would be my starting point. When lake trout are turned on, not much can keep them off the hook!

[Timberline]

I caught a 25" laker at Deerfield the other day on a little jig and worm in 10' of water while rainbow fishing. Guess you never know.