How to know it
A lake trout is grey to green with light spots over the whole body, a deeply forked tail and a white leading edge on the lower fins. It is a char, like the brook trout, so the spots are light on a dark ground, never dark on light as on a brown or rainbow. The forked tail separates it from a brook trout, whose tail is square. Splake, the lake trout-brook trout cross stocked in some waters, falls between the two and is told apart with difficulty.
Where it lives
Lake trout want cold, clear, well-oxygenated water, and in the Upper Midwest that means Lake Superior, the northern parts of Lake Michigan and Huron, and the deep inland lakes of northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan — the Boundary Waters and the big lakes near the Canadian border especially. In summer they live below the thermocline, often deeper than a hundred feet, over rock reefs and the deep basin. In spring and fall, when the whole lake is cold, they come up and can be caught in shallow water.
Through the year
Right after ice-out, lake trout are shallow and reachable with a cast — the best few weeks of the year for an angler without downriggers. As the surface warms they go down, and summer fishing is deep: trolling with downriggers or wire line, or vertical jigging over reefs found with electronics. In fall they spawn on rocky reefs and shoals, usually in the dark, and some states close inland lakes to protect them. Winter brings them back within reach, and ice fishing for lakers — jigging big spoons and tube jigs in deep water — is a tradition on the inland lakes.
How guides fish for it
On Lake Superior, trolling: spoons and plugs behind downriggers and dipsy divers along structure, often miles from the ramp, on a boat built for big water. On inland lakes in spring, casting spoons and jerkbaits from a boat or shore; in summer, vertical jigging heavy tubes and spoons over deep rock; in winter, the same jigging through the ice, with the guide's shelter and electronics doing most of the work. A lake trout guide knows the deep structure and the thermocline, and reads the weather, because big water closes quickly.
Handling and release
A lake trout brought up from deep water may have an expanded swim bladder and need a careful release — a guide will know how. Fish caught shallow in spring and winter release well. Lake trout are also one of the best-eating fish on the list, especially the smaller ones, and many trips keep a fish.
Rules
Seasons, bag and length limits vary by state and by water, and Lake Superior has its own, including rules on Canadian waters. The Minnesota DNR and the Wisconsin DNR publish the current rules, and a guide will know the ones for the water you are on.
