Whitefish / Laketrout Simcoe Guide

Hello fellow fisherpeople,

I moved my boat to a marina on Lake Simcoe this year (18' Legend) and have been really struggling with catching Whitefish and Lake Trout. Caught 2 Whitefish and hooked what felt like a sizeable Lake Trout that got off all in early June.

All of the above were caught on a vibrado tipped with a minnow.

Aside from that, I just can't figure out how to get them. The technique above stopped working fast and I tried everything from Bad Boyz style lures, swim baits, various colors of vibrado and the fish approach the bait, sometimes chase it for 5-10 feet, but lose interest.

I don't have a down-rigger, but from what I see, other people do well fishing lake trout without trolling.

If any of you out there know how to catch these and are willing to share your knowledge, I would love for someone to join me on the boat and give me some tips. It was extremely frustrating to spend a beautiful day out on the water on Saturday with no bites.

I'm open to professional guides to take on the boat, but I'm not paying lawyer equivalent rates for their services.

Thanks,

Vitaly

You are doing spectacular in my books! I have one whitefish and one Laker to show for at least 8 years of efforts! The guys like xialou and vbb are supernatural and you can't gage yourself by their success all the time! Obviously my track record doesn't give me the credentials to be giving you tactical advice but I encourage you not to be discouraged as your limited success is a lot better than a lot of us can claim!

If you know a lawyer in GTA charging $350-450 for 7-8 hours job please send me his contact information
Often times the good guide is worth every dollar you pay him .
I think you’re doing ok and just have to keep trying . Those are two elusive fish species which are hard to catch , especially knowing that Lakers numbers are significantly down in Simcoe .
For Lakers when you are not trolling You have to move A lot to find actively feeding fish There are many more chasers than takers on any given day so you should not be discouraged by that .
It took years of hard first hand experience for all fishermen which I know who are good at catching those fish but even they cannot guarantee a catch every fish trip.

Good fish finder tuned in is a must and fish as straight up and down as possible when not trolling..
My rate,a beer and burger..lol
Good luck.

If you’re getting chases for only 5-10’ IMO you have either reeled in to slow or to late. You don’t want Lakers to get close to your bait when you start reeling. If they see it well they may find out its not what they want. In my play book I call it keep away when dealing with Lakers. What you want to do is get them in a situation where they are in a committed chase where they hit to find out what they are chasing.

If you try one thing over and over and fail your practicing futility. Each time I go they want a different retrieve speed,lure and even how close you start presenting to bottom.

Once you figure it out it honestly is easy.

I don’t even put a line in the water until I am marking fish. Sometimes my day start with 30-40 minutes of idling around. Even then sometime I find a school of fish that’s white fish or noncommittal Lakers and I have to search again.

Just keep trying.

Dont tip your vibratos with anything. It will drastically change their actions. Do tip your meegz with tubes matching the color. Slow and steady and keep an eye on your rod tip for whitefish. Lakers is all about timing and playing cat and mouse like mentioned before. You are off to a better start then most. Took me a long time to land my first whitefish/lake trout.

Thanks for the replies everyone!
I appreciate the re-assurances, but just because you're as bad as I am at catching them, doesn't mean it's normal

I know of people that consistently pull out whitefish and lake trout and want to understand what I'm doing wrong.

Some good responses here, thanks guys.

Disco, I'm afraid of reeling in too fast and outrunning the fish!

Has anyone had any luck with catching them with minnows during soft water?

You will never out run a laker lol.

Vitaly, I know that you know the guy who is very good at catching lakers in summer so maybe you can ask him to give you a lesson?

I am sure you know who I am talking about.

Another tip for lakers that I can offer - try to use more 4-5" swimbaits like Swammer on a 3/4-1 ounce jig head with a small trailer treble.

As mentioned before - good electronics is a must.

Good luck!

Yes, a good sonar is a must. As what VBB said I also offer to try 4 to 5 inch swammer (swimbait) on a 3/4 or 1 ounce jighead (don't use any minnow) as seen on pic below, leave it at around 30 feet off bottom, and wait for a laker to come up to the bait, and then the laker-chasing-the-bait game is on. Watch this youtube video of my sonar display, and see how I caught this laker a few weeks back off BBP:-):

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFdPYG7Ke9M[/YOUTUBE]

Vitaly, I know that you know the guy who is very good at catching lakers in summer so maybe you can ask him to give you a lesson?

I am sure you know who I am talking about.

Another tip for lakers that I can offer - try to use more 4-5" swimbaits like Swammer on a 3/4-1 ounce jig head with a small trailer treble.

As mentioned before - good electronics is a must.

Good luck!

We're both talking about the same person probably
I don't think he'll respond to my request since my relationship with him was through the father of a someone I'm no longer in touch with.

I need to find the trailer treble jig heads, I don't recall seeing them at bass pro.

As to the electronics, I have a helix 5 at console and a striker 5cv at the bow.

Both units are good enough to see my lures at 100+ ft, although barely. The Helix 5 is a bit too slow with its drawing speed for my taste.

I'm not sure the electronics are the problem.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

I noticed you didn't start reeling until the fish was practically next to your bait, am I interpreting it correctly?

Today was like all other days.

We switched and switched and switched techniques. Finally we landed on a winner.
We got zero Lakers from 7am - noon. Then from noon to 3:30 we landed 6 with one double header.

I also had 9-10 other hard chases and hits But lost each one as soon as they started pulling drag. What I discovered is today when my Dad landed the first fish is it was just barely hooked in the skin of the lip. The fish were chasing hard but not really smashing the bait. When I felt a “thunk” on the chase I would set and kept losing every single one in 1-2 seconds. The solution was to not set on the “thunk” of the hit but to keep reeling and let the fish turn down and load the rod then set. After that we lost zero fish.

They are all still swimming for you to go catch.

I did keep a nice Whitefish that came at 7:15am.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

I noticed you didn't start reeling until the fish was practically next to your bait, am I interpreting it correctly?

yes you are correct.

Vitaly, I know that you know the guy who is very good at catching lakers in summer so maybe you can ask him to give you a lesson?

I am sure you know who I am talking about.

Another tip for lakers that I can offer - try to use more 4-5" swimbaits like Swammer on a 3/4-1 ounce jig head with a small trailer treble.

As mentioned before - good electronics is a must.

Good luck!

We're both talking about the same person probably
I don't think he'll respond to my request since my relationship with him was through the father of a someone I'm no longer in touch with.

I need to find the trailer treble jig heads, I don't recall seeing them at bass pro.

As to the electronics, I have a helix 5 at console and a striker 5cv at the bow.

Both units are good enough to see my lures at 100+ ft, although barely. The Helix 5 is a bit too slow with its drawing speed for my taste.

I'm not sure the electronics are the problem.

The stinger hook is a solution for short strikes or missed hits, it sounds like you're a problem or two short of that. I think James has provided a key tip. Fish higher up. They can see your bait from a lot further away than you may think.