C_Run:
So how was your 200 mile trip, Pete? Apparently you lived.
pmmpete:
--- Quote from: C_Run on June 20, 2017, 04:58:38 PM ---So how was your 200 mile trip, Pete? Apparently you lived.
--- End quote --- The Dolores trip was great, and yes I lived. I posted some pictures on Facebook.
pmmpete:
I caught three lake trout on Lindbergh Lake on June 30, including a 30" and a 29." And I lost two big ones next to my kayak.
I started the day by downrigger trolling, but when I trolled over a group of lake trout, I stopped and switched to jigging. I quickly caught a pretty nice one, probably around 26 inches. As I slid it into my net, the lure hooked on the mesh on the rim of the net. Dang! I tried to flop it over the rim and into the net about eight times, but eventually it pulled itself loose and disappeared into the deeps. I should have tried to grab it with my lip gripper.
I kept jigging, and pretty soon I had a bigger mack on the line, probably 28"-30'. But as I was pulling it towards my net it started thrashing around like a tarpon, got loose, and followed the first fish into the depths.
I jigged some more, and hooked a mack which put up quite a fight. I succeeded in getting my net around that one. It was 29 inches long.
The group of fish I was working dispersed, so I want back to downrigger trolling. After a while I caught a 30" lake trout.
I kept fishing, alternating between downrigger trolling and jigging, and got various bites and a 23" lake trout. After lunch, a series of rain and wind squalls drove me off the lake.
sumpNZ:
--- Quote from: pmmpete on June 20, 2017, 04:04:50 PM --- --- Quote from: Dwight on May 20, 2017, 11:21:27 AM ---What do you prefer as the best way to prepare lake trout for the table?
--- End quote --- Any salmon recipe works fine with lake trout. Here is a favorite easy recipe for lake trout, kokanee, or whatever: Sprinkle the lake trout fillets with black pepper, slather them with peach-mango or pineapple salsa, and bake them at 400 degrees until they are done. Walmart sells a nice peach-mango salsa.
The lake trout from Flathead Lake, Lindbergh Lake, and other lakes that I am aware of in Western Montana are not at all oily, and they taste a lot like salmon. However, in lakes which have a lot of kokanee, like Odell Lake in Washington, lake trout can be quite oily. Flathead Lake used to have a great kokanee fishery, and the lake trout were very oily. Old timers joked that if you tried to barbeque a lake trout, it would catch on fire. But after the introduction of mysis shrimp to Flathead Lake, the kokanee fishery completely disappeared, and the lake trout are no longer oily.
--- End quote ---
Curious how you might expect Lake Chelan macks to be in terms oiliness. They have a mysis shrimp population there, but also a substantial kokanee population. Apparently the macks feed mostly on the mysis shrimp until they get fairly large, then they switch to feeding mostly on kokanee, and other trout. Which means the smaller ones might not be especially oily, while the larger ones probably are oily?
sumpNZ:
--- Quote from: pmmpete on July 01, 2018, 10:19:19 PM ---I caught three lake trout on Lindbergh Lake on June 30, including a 30" and a 29." And I lost two big ones next to my kayak.
I started the day by downrigger trolling, but when I trolled over a group of lake trout, I stopped and switched to jigging. I quickly caught a pretty nice one, probably around 26 inches. As I slid it into my net, the lure hooked on the mesh on the rim of the net. Dang! I tried to flop it over the rim and into the net about eight times, but eventually it pulled itself loose and disappeared into the deeps. I should have tried to grab it with my lip gripper.
I kept jigging, and pretty soon I had a bigger mack on the line, probably 28"-30'. But as I was pulling it towards my net it started thrashing around like a tarpon, got loose, and followed the first fish into the depths.
I jigged some more, and hooked a mack which put up quite a fight. I succeeded in getting my net around that one. It was 29 inches long.
The group of fish I was working dispersed, so I want back to downrigger trolling. After a while I caught a 30" lake trout.
I kept fishing, alternating between downrigger trolling and jigging, and got various bites and a 23" lake trout. After lunch, a series of rain and wind squalls drove me off the lake.
--- End quote ---
What kinds of jigs do you find to be effective? How deep are you usually fishing for macks in Lindbergh Lake? If I ever get my opportunity to hit Chelan I want to be set for the best possible success.