Nestled a few hours north of Toronto lie the Muskoka Lakes, renowned as the playground of the rich and famous, with prized cottages dotting the picturesque lakeshores. The real trophies, however, are below the surface of Lake Rosseau, Lake Muskoka, and Lake of Bays. Lakers inhabit the depths of these lakes — big, hard-hitting, bulldogging, good-eating lake trout.
Lakers at 300-ish feet
According to an Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) State of the Resource Study, these lakes contain the largest concentrations of lake trout in southern Ontario outside of Algonquin Park. I target them from ice-out until fall, but really enjoy being on the water on bright, summery days. From late June until September, lakers escape the warm upper layer of water to live in 9 to 11˚C water between 40 and 80 feet. Since they are widely dispersed and down deep, trolling is the best way to reach them.
Downriggers, Dipsy Divers, and snap weights all work, but I prefer trolling with steel line or lead core line to get spoons down where they live. These old techniques are easy and effective for deep summer lakers — especially when enhanced with some innovations.
I use a line-counter reel to know how much line to put out. Trolling 300 feet of line at a speed of 2 mph (3.2 km/h), most trolling spoons get down to 40 feet.
Heavier spoons like Little Cleos or diving bodybaits go deeper faster so less line out is needed.
Light flutter spoons like Sutton River spoons or Michigan Stingers need more line out to reach the strike zone.
Minor speed adjustments are needed for each lure to give its best action. Check lure action at the side of the boat at different speeds to find the sweet spot. Generally the faster you go, the more line you need to let out to reach the strike zone.
Lead core or steel
Lead core and one-pound, steel lines sink at nearly the same rate. It handles more easily on the reel and comes in coloured sections so you can keep track of how much you have out without a line counter. However, it deteriorates and weakens after two seasons. I have lost good fish and lures due to lead core breaking.
A spool of steel line will last you a lifetime if you keep it from kinking, but you will need a line counter reel to know how much of it you have out.
Adding lead
To get into the strike zone fast (40 to 50 feet down) with less steel or lead core line out, I add a one-ounce in-line weight or keel sinker to the end of the steel or lead core line. Then I tie on a rod length of 14-pound fluorocarbon leader and a good quality snap swivel.
A snap weight placed 50 feet up from the lure has also worked for me.
In the zone
In summer, the strike zone is the layer of water just below the thermocline. The thermocline is the five-to-eight-foot-thick layer where warm water meets cold, deep water. In the big Muskoka lakes, that will be around 35 feet in June and down around 40 feet for the rest of the summer. If you turn up the gain on your sonar, you may see the thermocline as a hazy, dark band. This is caused by the concentration of microscopic biomass or zooplankton that thrives in the oxygen rich, cool water at this depth. It’s sometimes called the cisco layer because these fish, also known as lake herring, concentrate there to feed on zooplankton.
Lake trout, meanwhile, cruise below the thermocline in search of herring or smelt just above them.
I rely heavily on my sonar to stay in 50 feet of water or more so that I can troll my lures at or just below the thermocline around 40 feet without snagging on bottom. Actively feeding trout will be at this depth.
Deeper waters
Inactive trout show up on my graph resting close to the bottom at 70 feet or deeper. Trolling deeper has not produced as well as trolling near the thermocline because deeper fish are either inactive or not lake trout. Also, without a downrigger, it takes a ridiculous amount of steel line to get that deep.
Of course, the more fish I see on my graph the better. I circle back through areas of higher concentration multiple times. But seeing fish on the graph doesn’t always translate into a successful outing. I have had outings where I saw few fish on the graph but caught my limit and other times where the graph was peppered with fish but didn’t get a strike. Lake trout feeding activity turns on and off like a switch. Often, I fish for hours without a strike and then suddenly get hit after hit.
I use navigational charts to find humps or shoals close to the thermocline surrounded by deeper water and troll around them. Other good areas to target are 50-foot flats where lake trout can rest near the bottom and ambush prey just above them. Fifty feet of water near cliff faces are good spots because lake trout herd schools of herring and smelt up against an obstacle then pick off the stragglers.
Pressure check
Lake Rosseau, Lake Muskoka, and Lake of Bays are all big lakes and need to be respected. I only head out in fair weather and gentle winds in my 15-foot runabout. Happily, fair-weather conditions with high barometric pressure translate to fair fishing because in an extended period of good weather, lake trout can find the blend of food, oxygen levels, and water temperature that allow them to maintain predictable feeding patterns.
A falling barometer after a sustained high-pressure system will trigger a hot bite because lower air pressure results in lower water pressure, causing zooplankton to float higher in the water column. This triggers a feeding frenzy for baitfish which turns on the lake trout as well. A falling barometer also means bad weather on the way, so I don’t push it too far on big water.
Baits
Lake herring and smelt are the prevalent baitfish in Lake Muskoka and Rosseau so I troll with spoons or bodybaits that resemble herring like the Williams Whitefish, Williams HQ, or silver bodybaits. Lake of Bays has predominantly smelt, so I go with long, thin bodybaits like the Rapala Original Floater (Live Smelt pattern), or blue- and green-coloured spoons.
Laker love
When a laker hits, the rod bows and bucks in the rod holder and the fish starts ripping drag. After a few runs, it gives in to the reel. But cranking in 300 feet of line still puts a burn on the forearm and wrist. The real fight begins close to the boat where the fish dives again or rolls over and over twisting the line around its mouth and gills.
Lake trout in Muskoka waters average between three and five pounds but can grow beyond 20. I have had fish on that overpowered my tackle. When they broke off, after a see-saw battle, I had more line out than when they initially hit. The first time I saw a lake trout’s huge head and gaping white mouth emerging from the depths, I was hooked.
Trouble with trebles
On my favourite spoons, I swap the treble hook for a single siwash. This greatly reduces snags and fouling if the lure touches bottom or goes through tall debris. Nothing is worse than finding out you’ve been trolling with a fouled lure.
Dress your spoon with just the head of a minnow to put a scent trail in the water and incite following lakers to strike. A whole minnow will impede the action of the lure and reduce its effectiveness. The lakers that follow it will strike short and get away with the minnow.
Muskoka lakers
Lake trout reproduce naturally in these lakes, but they are a slow-growing fish and are easily subject to overfishing. The daily limit is only two on a sport fishing licence and one on a conservation licence. Fish under 75 centimetres are safe to eat, according to the Guide to Eating Ontario Fish.
Big lake trout, containing more contaminants, are good candidates for catch and release because they can survive being pulled up from deep water. With a release duct on their swim bladder you will hear them burp out air to equalize their internal pressure to the lower water pressure at the surface without harm.
To find a boat launch visit: www.discovermuskoka.ca/muskoka-boat-launches
Eating your lakers
If you plan to eat your lake trout, bleed it immediately by cutting its throat and removing the gills and guts. Then put it on ice in a cooler. Before cooking, filet it like a walleye, skin it and trim off any grey meat and fat. Any strong flavour will be removed with the fat and skin.
Originally published in the August 2024 issue of Ontario OUT of DOORS
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