Lake Trout I can hear you calling my name!

While these windy days of spring are miserable to work in, they sure help thaw out the lake in a hurry. This means one thing, BIG lake trout in shallow water. I have heard two different reasons why the laker's move shallow in the spring and the fall. One theory I have heard is that the lake trout really like a certain level of oxygen in the water which is constant at a certain temperature, the other is that the bait fish that lake trout eat like a certain temperature of water. Either way, their movement is directly related to temperature. As the lake warms up they will move shallower and shallower until a certain point when they reverse and start moving deeper. During the month after and before ice out, the fish will move all the way to 10' of water or less. When the surface temp hits 50-55 degrees magic starts to happen. Even though these fish are shallow, they will not be caught all over the lake. The old saying, 90% of the fish live in 10% of the water still holds true. The nice thing about big lake trout is they are very predictable and the places they are caught is consistent from year to year. In fact the last two state records where caught within a few yards of each other but two years apart. And don't be afraid to use big bait. It's not uncommon for people to catch fish on 10"-12" whole suckers or 3oz jigs. The best part is, as soon as the fishing on blue mesa starts to slow, Taylor is just getting started. There is really 2 good months of lake trout fishing between the two lakes. So get your rods and reels out of the closet, it's fishin time!