Lake Trout

Salvelinus Namaycush

Timothy Kusherets

Lake Trout can be found along the coasts of North America, Europe, and New Zealand. The coloration is a bronze to brown body with white irregular spots the length of the body. The forked tail is sharp at the tips with intermittent white spots on the rays. These fish can grow to become truly monstrous. Above average fish are taken annually between forty and seventy-pounds while the record stands near one hundred-pounds. These fish are so strong that they can literally pick and choose where to swim predominately preferring deep lakes and fast rivers and stream.
These fish can be taken on just about anything that shows a lot of action in the rivers but they prefer baits when fished for in deeper sections of any river. The best way to drift-fish these babies is to seek out the deepest water in the area usually found in pools and drop-offs. To get down it’s necessary to use heavier weights but it’s not necessary to use a heavier mainline more than twelve to fifteen-pounds. The class weight of mainline will give the fish a sporting fight but it’s more than reasonable to expect landing these fish without much of a problem. Lake trout tend to have larger and sharper teeth than most trout so it’s advisable to use heavier leader line than the mainline regardless of what test is used; thought it’s not necessary to use steel leaders.
© Timothy Kusherets 2004/08