Lake George for Lake Trout/LL salmon

[carpedium]

I'm heading up to Lake George Mid-July and am thinking of trying my hand at some Lakers and Landlocked Salmon. I am intending to use Dipsy setups. Does anyone have any tips/tricks for this lake? We will be based out of the north end of the lake.

Initially I am thinking of targeting them at 80-110 FOW based on down temp. I just have no idea on the type of dipsy and fly/spoon/plug/dodger/flasher to start with. Speed is also something I am sure i'll have to tweak. Deep(er) water fishing out of a boat for these species is new to me - In the past I have been mainly sticking to the tribs.

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Matt

[carpedium]

Correction: no I don't fish for lakers in the tribs. Just Salmon and trout in general.

[FX]

How far North will you be?

Shawn

[carpedium]

Shawn,

I'll be up by Rogers Rock

[ERABBIT]

I'll be heading up on the 20th of this month. If you go across the lake from the launch along that shore line tight (it's deep in close) baitfish always seem to stack up along there. The park guy told me one year most people troll n-s , s-n. That a e-w troll will work out better , seemed to at time for me. That area is like a big basin so you can easlier do that type troll pattern. Remember smelt is the main bait fish so thin profile lures work better. The diver is a good idea get it away from the boat , also long leads off the rigger. lil'boyblue fly , dodger (yellow/green) with a (same color/ or glow) peanut behind it. Small spoons ( they use a lot of moosloc wobblier up there ) I have got them on stinger size also. As your going down the lake to Hauge on your left is two large rocks work that area hold bait as well. Farther south will be some bouys on your right stay to the left of them a shelf come up REEL fast. I hooked bottom in that spot with the deepest down 40' then it came straight up.

Have fun and take some pictures it's a great area............don't forget the ICECREAM store up the road.

P.S. you also have to buy a boat permit for lake george.

[Gator]

We were there in mid-July last year, but I didn't fish much for trout. Too busy slamming the smallmouth! I met a couple guys for beers who I'd seen fishing around some of the humps while I was there...they were trolling copper rigs near the bottom for lakers. The landlocks were scarce, or so I was told, that time of year. Good luck!

[carpedium]

Thanks for the info! I'm really stoked.

Yeah, you can never go wrong with the smallmouth fishing around the shoreline. There is a cove about southeast of the boat launch on the other shore that harbors some largemouth as well - just have to get in there within casting distance very carefully.

[FX]

Matt,

Rogers Rock is a great place to be. Good advice given so far. If you don't already have one, get a contour map of the lake and study it. I've had good luck doing figure 8's in front of Rogers Rock from N/W to S/E. Across the lake and South of Rogers Rock is Anthony's Nose. The Lakers get stacked out in front and along it and the active ones are usually the deepest. Be careful of the points and shoals allong there. Many downrigger balls get hung up on shoals throughout the Lake. Out in front of Hague is good too, again, a contour map is very helpful. Early morning will be your best bet in July as boat traffic and jet skis will increase as the day goes on. The evening troll can be very good, but inconsiderate pleasure boaters can ruin that. The Landlock population has declined in the lake, so they are hard to come by. As Ed stated, smelt is a primary food source. Mooselook Wabblers work well as do T-spoons, suttons, and I've had good luck with NK 28's. Streamer flies have their days too and you may want to try them with a dipsey/ flasher/ dodger. Fish 307 should be able to tell you what's hot. Good luck and enjoy the scenery and ice cream at the Windchill Factory!

Shawn

[carpedium]

Oh yes... the large ice cream that is impossible to eat!

I was reading that they were considering reducing the keeper length, and increasing the limit on LT due to the fact that the LL salmon population is so low. They think the LT are competing too successfully for the smelt.

Thanks everyone for your feedback! I really appreciate it

[hairbone]

You will find the bass fishing excellent in that part of the lake. Like people have said the lakers will be deep! Try the sunken island area for perch & bass off hague. Most warm water fish will be down at 40' by that time.

If you are looking for coldwater, then I suggest you trailer up the road to Champlain and launch out of Port Henry or Westport. It is worth the trip!

As a side note, if you have a large boat and double axle trailer be advised there is a red stripe on the dock and to not put your wheels in past that line or you will go over the edge and have costly trailer repairs.

[carpedium]

Wow - 40'? Do you jig for the bass and panfish around 40 FOW near the sunken island?

I never considered going up to champlain. I 'll have to check it out. Thanks for the heads up on the red stripe! I fish with an 18' Sea Nymph Fish n Ski so it shouldn't be a problem but you never know based on the water level.

I plan on doing some Bass fishing, but want to maximize my time on the water with some cold water fishing as well.

Thanks for the tips!

[f1sh-0n]

This will be my third year going up there for the first week in August with the family. Actually got married there last year. Ofcourse the boat and fishing equipment always come with us. We had a pretty good year last with the LL with I think 6 for the week. I have more troubles catching lakers than salmon. Probably my speed has something thing to do with it as I would rather catch a LL any day over the lakers. Anyway for my time of the year, I always have to find atleast 100FOW and fish anywhere from 80-110 down. If you find the depth they are in there are plenty of them, sometimes I can count 18-20 lakers on the my fish finder. I have been doing good on stingers but again probably because I run faster than most of the guys up there and hot shots. For some reason I can't catch them on the peanuts that I have great success in Lake O even when i slow down.

[on the lam]

Try a 00 silver glo or green dodger and a green coho fly, tight to the ball when the fish r on the bottom in late spring/summer. very effective also silver, green or blue flatfish real slow. I used to love fishing there. good luck

[tangler]

I think the lakers eat all the llS! All 40,000 per year! I have fished for them for years and only caught 2. The lakers on the other hand havent been so lucky. Out in front of the campground is our best spot. We start in 50 fow and troll n-s, working our way out to 100fow. Small cowbells, 18 in leader to a flatfish. blue-silver, green-silver-red, stuff like that. SLOW with the flatfish(talkin .5-.8 waterspeed). put some of that smeltrite oil on your lures, its deadly. Good luck. Justin PS will be there may 26-31 .

[carpedium]

I'll be heading up on the 20th of this month. If you go across the lake from the launch along that shore line tight (it's deep in close) baitfish always seem to stack up along there. The park guy told me one year most people troll n-s , s-n. That a e-w troll will work out better , seemed to at time for me. That area is like a big basin so you can easlier do that type troll pattern. Remember smelt is the main bait fish so thin profile lures work better. The diver is a good idea get it away from the boat , also long leads off the rigger. lil'boyblue fly , dodger (yellow/green) with a (same color/ or glow) peanut behind it. Small spoons ( they use a lot of moosloc wobblier up there ) I have got them on stinger size also. As your going down the lake to Hauge on your left is two large rocks work that area hold bait as well. Farther south will be some bouys on your right stay to the left of them a shelf come up REEL fast. I hooked bottom in that spot with the deepest down 40' then it came straight up.

Have fun and take some pictures it's a great area............don't forget the ICECREAM store up the road.

P.S. you also have to buy a boat permit for lake george.

How did you make out when you were up there, ERABBIT?

[ERABBIT]

With all the rain before hand nothing going right with my boat , dog passing , and Lake Champain record high water ( planned to fish out of the Ticondaroga(sp) ramp which was under water) I cancled camp site at Rogers Rock !!!

I hope every thing goes good for you !!!!!!!!!

[carpedium]

Ed,

Really sorry to hear about all that happening at once. Thanks for the info, and I hope it works out next time!

[carpedium]

Heading up on Friday.... pretty excited

[FX]

Good luck Matt and have a great time

Shawn

[carpedium]

I thought I updated this last year... guess i'm getting senile...

Last year we made it out about 5 times, and ended up with many many small mouth bass down 40 to 100 feet taking flasher/flies as well as spoons. These fish were inhaling my one BW fly trailing a mountain dew crush spinny. Nice size to them. Also - one day we were able to get into the chickens, and went 2 for 4 with a 24" and a 32" on the same flasher/fly.

This year I am going to focus more on using some cowbells with spin/glows. I am also interested in picking up a BW grease trap- given the main baitfish is smelt I think the thin attractors will do well. Anyone have any recommendations on color for this application?

[carpedium]

Loaded up on some tackle... Will update on how it worked...

[f1sh-0n]

I'm leaving tomorrow morning for the week. My yearly family vacation and as mentioned before the fishing equipment comes with us. My step son and I will be out bright and early and we'll be tubing and wakeboarding in the afternoon. I'll report when I get back. Should be able to do a little better with the lakers now that I have the kicker and can troll down to 1mph. In the past two years we got atleast two every morning but I had to work for them. Not like Ontario where you can't keep them of the line fishing the bottom.

[carpedium]

yeah it was a real challenge out there. Nobody was catching them - and the charters all headed North. Was getting a lot of strong marks, and they were all coming up to check out the rigs but could not get more than about 30% of them to hit. It was steady action, and it seemed like we did much better than the locals based on what they were saying.

The surprising part was that I stuck a Mountain Dew glow crush spinny out with a tourney fly and that took most of the fish. The cowbells and spin/glows and most spoons had zero takers.

[carpedium]

yeah it was a real challenge out there. Nobody was catching them - and the charters all headed North. Was getting a lot of strong marks, and they were all coming up to check out the rigs but could not get more than about 30% of them to hit. It was steady action, and it seemed like we did much better than the locals based on what they were saying.

The surprising part was that I stuck a Mountain Dew glow crush spinny out with a tourney fly and that took most of the fish. The cowbells and spin/glows and most spoons had zero takers.