Lake Trout River Fishing
Jigging for Lake Trout
This is an effective technique for catching Lake Trout in a river. Rivers offer an attraction to Lake Trout due to the schools of bait fish that are found by the mouth of rivers in the evening.
Like many other fish, the hunters follow the bait fish. If the Trout’s preferred hang-outs don’t have any food, they aren’t going to wait for the fish to come to them. Like any good predator they’ll search out the bait.
Knowing this simple fact should help you think strategically about where the Lake Trout should be rather than where they might be.
Focus your attention on the part of the river where the water is moving the most.
Note: Jigging is always second to trolling so only use it when you know the area is a popular spot for trout.
Fly Fishing for Lake Trout
If you like fly fishing, this is where you want to fly fish for Lakers. In fact it’s one of the few places that fly fishing is effective. The other is in the spring when the mouths and lower parts of the river are popular places for Lake Trout due to the numerous spawning bait fish and mating insects.
Fly fishing also works very well at night as the Lake Trout will come to the mouths of rivers and feed on schools of bait fish and insects. The use of dry flies is high recommended along with light to medium tackle. A good fly to use is the dragon fly.
River Fishing Lures
- Using spinners and spoons through casting is also very effective.
Know Your Lake
If you have a lake that you like to fish, learn about the bait fish in the lake. Know their mating cycles. Find out where they like to feed and what conditions and places they avoid. Know this for all major bait fish and you’ll know where the Lake Trout will be.
Do this for insects as well as these are popular foods in the spring when they’re plentiful and literally fall into the water in abundance where trees overhang the water line of the lake as well as the mouths of rivers.