Lake trout depth

[Mrm31790]

Generally speaking in the summer where would one start to catch a laker? I tried 150-200’ bouncing cow bells and wasn’t successful. Ive always thought they were easy😂

[whaler1]

Pm Gambler. Pretty sure he will say to find them on your graph first and then go after them.


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[brandrew86]

Go to Cayuga lake and try not to catch them.. You'll have a boatload.

[adesalvo]

If you going to use cowbells speed, depth and down temp will be your best friend.   Color is important too but IMHO it’s secondary. If your Marking fish laying on the bottom in deep water usually 100 feet or more cowbells could be a good option. 
 

I like using mag spin n glos on the riggers 5 feet from the bottom. Target 45 degree water at about 1.5 mph.

 

greens, yellows, and blues work for me on lake O.  On the finger lakes watermelon always works. 
 

Full disclosure I just started catching Lakers on lake o this year after reading numerous threads and following gambler on this board.  
 

we had good luck at 130ft out in front of Braddocks on Father’s Day going 1.4 pulling cowbells landing a few Lakers in a short amount of time.  
 

also nothing is easy on Lake Ontario. The currents can be almost 1mph and can cause chaos with your setups. 
 

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by adesalvo

[Wise77]

I haven't tried for them this year yet but generally speaking when I fish for them at the end of June in to July I fish 120-150 right on bottom(within 10 feet). Cowbells and spin n glows have always been my go to. I have had a lot of double digit days in that time frame. It's usually my go to if the salmon bite stinks.

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[Wise77]

You definitely have to find them though sitting on bottom, just keep moving till you see something consistent.

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[Sk8man]

Try working on a diagonal starting at about 80 or 90 ft and go outward diagonally running cowbells on or near bottom with cowbells and gambler rigs until you locate either pods of baitfish, marks on bottom, or suspended fish below pods. When you find fish don't just keep going - keep working them back and forth until you connect with something....sometimes you may get a surprise Chinook too and browns can be at the starting point (e.g. in 80-90 ft.) near bottom. The lakers may end up being in the very deep water but not always if bait is around shallower so going on a diagonal you cover a greater range of depths and area.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Sk8man

[GAMBLER]

This depends greatly on the port you fish,  For the most part, 120' is the most consistent depth I have found to catch lakers most of the year.  If you are marking them and not catching them, here are a couple tips to try:

1. Slow down - 1.0-1.8 ball speed is the speed for cowbells

2. change direction - some days lakers do not want to chase baits certain directions

3. make sure you are fishing within 5' of the bottom.  I don't mean using your line counter to see if you are 5' off the bottom.  Due to current and blow back, there are times you have 20-40' of extra cable out to hit bottom.  I drop the ball until I hit bottom, lift a foot, let it settle for a minute and repeat.  A lot of fish finders (especially Furunos) do not mark bottom hugging lakers well.  Zoom in close and lots of times they barely show up.  

4.  change cowbell and spin n glo colors.  I have had days that lakers will only hit on color combo.  Here are my simple tips on selecting proper colors: Cloudy/ low light - glow backed cowbells, sunny or bright conditions - silver or UV backed cowbells.  As for spin n glo selection, I run mostly glows and silvers.  I find bright colors attract too many small lake trout and not many big lake trout. 

5. temp - most lakers will be in water from 39-45 degrees.  Smaller lakers are found in warmer water more often than the lake trout we want to catch!

6. If you are not using Gambler Rigs and Hammerhead cowbells, you are not fishing, you are boating!

Edited June 29, 2021 by GAMBLER

[gonefishing71]

27 minutes ago, GAMBLER said:

This depends greatly on the port you fish,  For the most part, 120' is the most consistent depth I have found to catch lakers most of the year.  If you are marking them and not catching them, here are a couple tips to try:

1. Slow down - 1.0-1.8 ball speed is the speed for cowbells

 

 

thanks for all these tips, 

one thing i struggle with when going this slow, what do you do on your other rigger

 

and what would you put on dipsys, can you run flashers that slow?

[GAMBLER]

6 minutes ago, gonefishing71 said:

 

thanks for all these tips, 

one thing i struggle with when going this slow, what do you do on your other rigger

 

and what would you put on dipsys, can you run flashers that slow?

When I fish lakers, I fully commit to lakers because the other rods get in the way.  I run two riggers on the bottom with cowbells and that is it.  I used to run a third rigger with a Flat fish or quickfish clean 20' up and 40' back, a thumper rod with cowbells and divers but we would get 4-5 lakers on at once and it was actually counter productive.  We had too much downtime redeploying everything.  If you have time, go to youtube and search Gambler Rigs and watch the video I posted a couple years ago.  It shows how good laker fishing can be if it is done right.  

[gonefishing71]

11 minutes ago, GAMBLER said:

When I fish lakers, I fully commit to lakers because the other rods get in the way.  I run two riggers on the bottom with cowbells and that is it.  I used to run a third rigger with a Flat fish or quickfish clean 20' up and 40' back, a thumper rod with cowbells and divers but we would get 4-5 lakers on at once and it was actually counter productive.  We had too much downtime redeploying everything.  If you have time, go to youtube and search Gambler Rigs and watch the video I posted a couple years ago.  It shows how good laker fishing can be if it is done right.  

 

thank you,