Lake Trout Fishing Guide
Freshwater · Water temp 38–72°F (ideal 52°F)
Quick Facts
- Actually a
- Char, alongside brook trout and Arctic char, not a true trout
- Also called
- Togue in Maine, mackinaw in the West, grey trout in Canada
- Depth
- The deepest-living species on this site. Summer fish hold 80-150 ft down
- Typical size
- 3-10 lb in most waters; Great Lakes and northern Canadian fish run far larger
- Range
- Great Lakes, New England, upper Midwest, Alaska, and stocked deep western reservoirs
- Spawning
- Autumn, on rocky shoals. Eggs sit on the rock all winter and hatch in spring
- Tackle
- Downrigger or lead core in summer; heavy jigging rod through the ice
Overview
Lake trout are the largest char in North America and the native apex predator of the deep, cold lakes across the northern tier of the continent. Like brook trout they are char rather than true trout, which is why they spawn in autumn and why their eggs sit on rock through the winter and hatch in spring. Anglers know them by a dozen names depending on where they are caught: togue in Maine, mackinaw across the West, grey trout in Canada, lakers almost everywhere else.
Lake trout hold from about 38 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit with an ideal near 52. The ideal is well supported: laboratory and field work across Superior, Michigan and Ontario puts the adult preferred temperature between 10 and 12 degrees Celsius, clustering tightly around 11.5. The upper number needs a word of explanation, because no lake trout would choose 72-degree water.
**For lake trout, the water temperature we can measure is not the water temperature the fish is in.** They live below the thermocline. A lake reading 75 degrees at the surface in August is still in the mid 40s at a hundred feet, and the fish down there is entirely comfortable. Every reading this forecast gets is from the surface or near it, so for lake trout water temperature is a much weaker signal than it is for a fish living near the surface, and the profile is deliberately built to let it count for less. If the surface is warm, the answer is not that the fishing is bad. The answer is that the fish are deep, and you need the gear to reach them.
Optimal Conditions
| water Temp | 38-72°F, ideal 52°F |
| air Temp | 10-80°F |
| wind | 0-15 mph ideal, tolerate up to 25 mph; big-water trolling handles chop well |
| pressure | Low sensitivity, and there is a physical reason. See the FAQ |
| light | Low. Depth decouples them from the daily light cycle for much of the year |
| best Seasons | Autumn pre-spawn (September), then ice-out and hard water |
Seasonal Patterns
spring
Ice-out is one of the two best periods of the lake trout year and the one that needs no specialist gear. For a few weeks after the ice goes, the whole water column is cold and lake trout are scattered shallow, in ten to thirty feet, catchable on a flatline-trolled stickbait or a cast spoon from a small boat. As the surface warms through the 50s they slide deeper and the window closes.
summer
The lake stratifies and lake trout go under the thermocline, commonly 80 to 150 feet down. This is downrigger, lead core and deep jigging fishing, and it is entirely doable if you have the gear and difficult if you do not. Surface temperature tells you very little in this season beyond how deep you will be working.
fall
As the lake turns over and the thermocline breaks down, lake trout move up onto rocky shoals and reef tops to spawn, and September is the biggest of the two seasonal lifts we apply to them. Fish are in reachable water, aggressive, and concentrated on structure that can be found on a map. By late October and November they are spawning on the rocks, and many jurisdictions close or restrict fishing over the shoals for it.
winter
A major fishery in its own right and the reason the winter slowdown we apply here is among the mildest on this site. Lake trout stay active under the ice, and jigging heavy spoons and tubes over deep structure on Maine, Adirondack, Minnesota and Rocky Mountain lakes is a season rather than a novelty. They keep feeding in water a degree or two above freezing.
Best Times to Fish
dawn
Good, and a modest edge rather than a decisive one. A fish at a hundred feet is not experiencing sunrise the way a bass in the shallows is, so the daily light cycle matters less for this species than for almost anything else here. At ice-out, when fish are shallow, dawn regains its usual advantage.
midday
Genuinely productive, which is unusual for a coldwater predator. Ice fishing is a daylight activity and summer fish at depth are largely indifferent to surface light. The middle of the day is a normal part of a lake trout session rather than a lull to wait out.
dusk
The best of a fairly flat set, particularly in autumn when fish are up on the shoals and light penetration starts to matter again. The margin over midday is small.
night
Not much of a fishery, and on most lake trout water not a comfortable one either. Fish remain catchable but there is little advantage in it, and the ice fishery in particular is a daylight game.
solunar
Moderate solunar sensitivity. Depth, water temperature and season dominate, and for a fish that is often too deep to notice the surface at all, lunar timing is a marginal input.
Weather Response
One of the least front-sensitive fish on this site. Cooling surface water in autumn actively helps, because it breaks down the thermocline sooner and brings lake trout into reachable water. A post-frontal bluebird day is a perfectly good lake trout day.
Broadly neutral in summer, since warming pushes the thermocline deeper and the fish with it, which means more line out rather than worse fishing. In spring, warming shortens the ice-out window by driving the surface up past the point where fish stay shallow.
Settled weather in summer produces a stable thermocline and predictable depths, which is what a trolling programme wants. It matters less here than for shallow-water species, because a lake trout at a hundred feet lives in conditions that barely change from day to day.
Largely irrelevant, and this is one of the few species on this site where that is true. Lake trout are basin fish rather than river or shoreline fish, so runoff, colour and shoreline food inputs do not reach them. Wind matters more than rain, because it moves surface water and mixes the upper column.
Proven Techniques
Vertical Jigging
A heavy tube jig, spoon or swimbait dropped to the fish and worked with long lifts and controlled falls. The most direct method and the one that dominates ice fishing and deep summer work alike. Lake trout will chase a bait a long way vertically, so aggressive lifts that pull the lure up through the column often trigger the strike.
Downrigger Trolling
Spoons and stickbaits run on a downrigger at the depth the sonar shows fish holding. The standard summer approach on the Great Lakes and the big western reservoirs, where the fish may be over a hundred feet down and there is no practical way to reach them otherwise.
Lead Core and Copper Line
Weighted line that sinks at a predictable rate, letting you reach mid-depths without a downrigger. Useful in the transitional seasons when fish are at forty to eighty feet, and a common approach on smaller lakes where a downrigger setup is more boat than the water justifies.
Flatline Trolling at Ice-Out
For a few weeks after the ice goes, lake trout are shallow enough to catch on a stickbait trolled behind the boat with no weight at all. This is the most accessible lake trout fishing of the year and worth planning a trip around, because the window is short.
Ice Jigging Over Structure
Heavy spoons and tubes jigged aggressively over deep humps, points and drop-offs. Lake trout under the ice are active and willing to move, so covering water by drilling a lot of holes over good structure beats sitting on one. A flasher is close to essential for tracking fish that come up from below.
Lake Trout vs Brook Trout
Both are char, both native to the same corner of the continent, and both spawn in autumn. Then they part company completely, because one went deep and one went upstream.
| Lake Trout | Brook Trout | |
|---|---|---|
| Where they live | Deep basins of large cold lakes | Small cold headwater streams and ponds |
| Depth | 80-150 ft in summer | 1-4 ft, in pocket water and plunge pools |
| Best time of day | Fairly flat; depth decouples them from light | Dawn, decisively |
| Size | Commonly 3-10 lb, far more in the Great Lakes | Commonly 6-10 inches |
| Gear | Downrigger, lead core, heavy jigging rod | A 3 weight and a pair of waders |
| What they eat | Cisco, smelt, alewife | Mayflies, caddis, terrestrials |
Chasing the other one? Read the brook trout guide.
Lake Trout Fishing Questions
Why does this forecast use a wide temperature range for lake trout?
Because for this species the water temperature we can measure is not the water temperature the fish is in. Lake trout live below the thermocline. A lake reading 75 degrees at the surface in August is still in the mid 40s at a hundred feet, and the fish down there is comfortable. Every reading this forecast receives comes from the surface or near it, so a narrow range built around their true preference of about 52 degrees would grade every summer day as unfishable and be wrong. The wide range is a deliberate statement that surface temperature is a weak signal for lake trout, and it makes that factor count for less here than a narrow range would.
What water temperature is best for lake trout?
The fish themselves want about 52 degrees Fahrenheit, and laboratory and field work across Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Lake Ontario puts the adult preferred temperature between 10 and 12 degrees Celsius, clustering around 11.5. Where you find that water changes completely with the season, which is the practical point. At ice-out the whole column is cold and the fish are shallow. By August that band has sunk below the thermocline and you are fishing a hundred feet down for it. The temperature does not move; the depth does.
Is a lake trout actually a trout?
No, it is a char, in the genus Salvelinus alongside brook trout, bull trout and Arctic char. That family membership explains the autumn spawning, which true trout like rainbow and cutthroat do not do, and the unusual egg biology: lake trout eggs are dropped into gaps in rocky shoals in October and November and sit there through the entire winter before hatching in spring. There is no nest and no parental care. Being char also explains the pale spotting on a dark body, the reverse of a true trout pattern.
When is the best time to fish for lake trout?
Two windows, and they demand different gear. September pre-spawn is the biggest seasonal lift we apply, when fish move up onto rocky shoals in reachable water and feed hard before spawning. Ice-out in spring is the other, and it is the most accessible lake trout fishing of the year: for a few weeks the whole water column is cold, fish are scattered in ten to thirty feet, and a trolled stickbait behind a small boat is enough. Hard-water jigging through the winter is a serious fishery too. Summer is perfectly productive but requires downriggers or lead core to reach fish below the thermocline.
Why is barometric pressure less important for lake trout?
Physics, rather than a judgement about the fish. A lake trout holding at a hundred feet is under roughly three atmospheres of water pressure. A large barometric swing is about thirty millibars, which is three percent of one atmosphere and around one percent of what the fish is already experiencing. Whatever barometric change does to a bass sitting in six feet of water, it is a much smaller proportional change for something at a hundred feet, so this profile weights pressure low. Depth, season and forage location do the work instead.
Do lake trout bite in winter?
Yes, and the winter slowdown applied to them here is among the mildest of any species on the site. Lake trout stay active under the ice, feeding in water barely above freezing, and hard-water jigging is a full season on Maine, Adirondack, Minnesota and Rocky Mountain lakes rather than a curiosity. Heavy spoons and tube jigs worked aggressively over deep structure is the method, and covering water by drilling plenty of holes beats sitting on one, because these fish will move a long way to investigate. A flasher matters, since lake trout frequently rise from well below to take a bait.
Best Months for Lake Trout
These are the months our scoring lifts lake trout activity for pre-spawn or autumn feeding. Open one for that month's calendar.
Related Species
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