A step-by-step guide for catching big winter lake trout

I love lake trout and have remarked more than once that I spend at least half the winter chasing them. Part of their appeal is they can grow to gargantuan sizes—my biggest winter Goliath weighed 44 pounds. But just as enticing as their size is where they often live: the starkest, loneliest, wildest and most beautiful parts of the country.

Another reason lake trout fascinate me is that they’re so often misunderstood. For example, most anglers immediately think of deep water when they think of fishing for lakers. That’s certainly true during the dog days of summer, but when the lake is blanketed in four feet of ice and snow, you can catch them anywhere.

LOCATION

Here are some great examples of how you can catch winter lakers anywhere in the water column. Some years ago, I enjoyed my best-ever hour of ice fishing when I landed nine nice trout from a single hole positioned over just 19 feet of water. And last winter, my grandson Liam pulled an old, toothless, gargantuan laker through a hole in the ice when we were jigging for yellow perch in 28 feet of water. Both scenarios illustrate the most critical factor when it comes to successfully fishing for lakers: food.

In lakes such as southern Ontario’s legendary Lake Simcoe, you’ll find the trout on the bottom when you also find invasive round gobies scurrying around like mice on an abandoned farmhouse floor. In lakes where smelt, ciscoes and other forage cruise the middle of the water column, on the other hand, you need to fish that magical depth with matching baits to be successful.