Lake Trout Tip

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Lunker Lake Trout



As a fish that prefers cold water, lake trout are active throughout the winter, but March is the best time to target and catch them. One reason is that it is a lot easier for anglers to move around from spot to spot and cover water once the snow has shrunk up or melted. Trout lakes are notorious for having a lot of slush, and that is an issue on most waters right now. Come March, the ice is thick and the slush is gone.

I think that once the light starts penetrating the ice as the snow dissipates, these fish have an easier time seeing and finding our lures as well, because the dark deep water is lit up a little more.



All I know is, March is a great time to hit the ice in pursuit of trout. My bait selection is pretty simple – I usually rely on the classic white tube jig, which has put thousands of lake trout on the ice over the years. Mix in jigging spoons, lipless rattle baits, or other soft plastic minnow imitators, and let the fish tell you what they want.

As for as location, it’s all about moving around to find the fish. Sometimes points with sharp ledges are good, bluff walls can be good, and the mouths of shallow bays can be good – trout like to feed on perch in these places and they are often overlooked.

If you want to catch a big lake trout, focus your efforts on the bigger bodies of water across the region. For more action, the smaller inland lakes have big numbers of fish, but you won’t see trout grow as large.