Spring Lakers, Is it time?

[GBayJoe]

Happy Spring everyone, particularly for us non-icers… Going to give spring Lake trout a shot… using my boat, and thinking about south end of the tomb west of sawlog bay…? Not sure where they are in the spring. Will try usual spoons and maybe planer boards shallower… Any advice friends?

[Brooktrout]

This time of year I have caught them in as little as 10 ft of water.
I used to fish (haven't in years) off the mouth of the Notty, and around Collingwood, Thornbury etc. I'd catch them in shallow amongst the rainbows.

As the water warms, you will naturally have to fish deeper.

[Krawler]

You can target Lakers this time of year a little shallower in the mornings or evenings than you would in mid summer but come 10 am fish tend to move deeper to summer depths. Dont stray too much from what you normally would do in summer. However Natural lakers tend to move even shallower but again only during low light hours especially in clear water that you would experience off the tomb.
The notty can get the naturals a lot shallower often 10-50 fow off the mouth in the stained water. Look for the warmer waters and only target shallows when the water is stained otherwise push past 50 fow if the water is clear. Down size your baits too, standard size spoons or as some would say a size 28. Also dont be afraid to pick up your speed to go in search mode. a big misconception is cold water equals slow trolling, try the opposite, you may be pleasantly surprised at what you catch but also how much water you can cover.

[GBayJoe]

Thankyou for commenting. Right now info says water temp in southern end is only 35F. My understanding is lakers prefer closer to 50F ideally. Should we wait until it warms you think?

[Krawler]

You will not find 50 anywhere. Go explore areas adjacent to deeper waters. Fish shallower in low light and deeper after mid morning. Ignore temps completely unless in shallow water. Just go troll! run and gun, try a spot for 30 min and go elsewhere. pattern them

[Disco]

I don’t know gbay pattern in the spring but I am sure they are similar to Lake O.

Find water with colour. Coloured water warms faster and can be 6-8 degrees warmer than the clear water. Usually this will be around an outflow like a River or creek.
In spring you will not find preferred temps so find as warm as you can. The bait will be there and so will the predators.

[Krawler]

Unfortunately where he wants to fish you wont find any colored water. outflows are great this time of year but the closest one is the Notty.

[steelheader]

As others will tell i,m not a huge laker fan but over the past years my spring experience has been ..find structure..rocky bottoms even in 10 fow, slow your troll way down and long leads.. run small body baits ac shiners, or silver spoons raps etc anything smelt resembalance..a 8lb floro leader dont hurt either.. hey an observation , watch for diving birds, same as down south they are feeding on bait your fish enjoy...

All in all have fun and enjoy your time on the water but be prepared among those lakers there lurk crazy bows and line peeling salmon and even a chance brown...


Tight lines

Dave

[Disco]

That’s one THICK Laker in that pic. What a slob.

[steelheader]

Heres a good question for you...in 2024 we caught many many lakers some were absolutly gorged with bait fish and youd wonder why they hit a big spoon ..just greedy i guess ..and in cotrast the many salmon we caught were basically empty??? even spring fish where your fishing smelt schools with smelt imitations...still emty ..what gives...

Dave

[sdcaller]

I've never fished Spring lakers on GB, but for many years I would go to Lake Manitou on Manitoulin Island and fish just after ice out.

We usually caught fish in anywhere from 3 to 20 fow. If they weren't shallow, we would head for deeper water, watching the sonar until we found the fish and/or bait.

Green/silver spoons and smelt pattern Rapalas usually did the trick.

SDC

[Krawler]

Ive studied this a bit. Apparently salmon have extremely fast metabolisms, less than 24 hours. even though the fish are empty they could still be eating. Salmon travel further and faster than lakers hence the increased metabolism. lakers are predominantly lazy fish and dont travel longer distances.
Another thing to consider is that out smelt are temp dependent and structure dependent, they love the cold and bottom. Lakers love the same habitat as smelt so its an easy feed for them. Our salmon prefer neither. Salmon will go to those temps to feed momentarily but they prefer to hangout in warmer temps where they have less to feed on. Plus warmer water tend to increase the salmons metabolism. They will however hangout in colder temps during the mid summer sun but only for a few hours and prefer to be suspended but often the smelt are not that deep and never suspended.