Whitefish / Laketrout Simcoe Guide

There's a lot that goes into it. You have to have your depth sounder set up correctly, you have to have many techniques down pat, you have to set up your tackle just right for the day.

You are correct, it really takes a good guide or someone who knows what they are doing to teach you to consistently get fish. Either that or you're going to have to put hundreds of hours in of trial and error. At first, I had no idea what I was doing and fished them like salmon. These fish are smart and picky. There is a reason people call them the elusive lake trout.

Also, when you said:

Those are not lake trout. Those are whitefish. Lake trout don't screw around. They will missile at your bait and not stop (rarely.) Whitefish will screw around and chase your bait, stop half way, etc. Most of the time you need to alter your technique against whitefish.

Thank you so much for the input.
That's really good to know. I was thinking of dropping a camera down there to understand what it is that's chasing my bait up and down.

A camera is good for ice fishing since you are sitting in one spot and much more shallow.

You do not need a camera for open water.

The fishing is horrible right now and the fish have been shut down for a few days.

The lake trout are lazy. If you were fishing a few weeks ago when it was like 6c in the morning, you could have easily hooked up a few.

I was thinking of one of these:

https://gofishcam.com/products/gofish-cam

Honestly, unless you are ice fishing, I wouldn't waste your money.

Trust me when I say this... If you stick with it, you'll get so good at reading your fishfinder that you will know exactly what type of fish is down there with about 90% accuracy, and be able to predict their next move or their aggression levels.

Like you, I thought about getting a camera when I was inexperienced. But put the hours on the water in, and you won't need a camera. It's either going to take someone guiding you for a few days, or at least 100 hours of trial and error. Either way, you'll get there. My girlfriend can see two small blue dots on the FF now and call out what's going to happen next... it's just time on the water and experience.

Thanks for the helpful advice!

I sent you a PM, check your email or PMs. There is so much to go over it's impossible to do in a forum.

First thing first, you need to have your FF setup exactly perfect. If it's not perfect, you are missing a lot of chances and vital information.

didn't get a PM from you