Hello Montana! Flathead Question

Hi,
I don't want your secret spots or baits, I just wanted to know how the lake trout fishing has been and if there is anyway to get to them without down riggers. I have trolled divers  in the 15-20 ft area  and jigged blindly at 50ft. Are they still deeper then that. I would like to get some pullage before the weather sets in.

Thanks for any advice!
Dan

In the second half of October, lake trout will be spawning in shallow areas along the shore with a rocky bottom, and will be staging to spawn in 20-40 feet of water near those areas.  And they'll be moving into shallow water pretty soon as they get ready to spawn.  So you can try trolling with divers or longline trolling, and you can try casting spoons and other lures towards shore.  Call Dick Zimmer at Zimmer Tackle in Pablo for suggestions about when and where to go fishing for lake trout during the spawning period.  He knows way more than I do.

However, I fished south of Blue Bay on Saturday, September 20, and I fished in the Narrows area on Sunday, September 21,  and I didn't see much of any lake trout in shallow water.  They hadn't moved in yet.  But they should pretty soon.

Thank your for your response  \
Dan

Yesterday Dick Zimmer told me that due to all the warm weather we've been having, water temperatures haven't dropped as low as they usually do, so the lake trout haven't been coming in shallow yet.  He thinks that it'll be a week or so before they do, unless we get a spell of cold weather. 

On the other hand, an article in the paper about Mack Days this morning claimed that "Organizers report anglers are using both trolling and jigging methods to catch the lake trout, which are starting to move into shallower areas of the lake.  Trolling in depths of 50 to 80 feet is said to be working well, while jigging is occurring between depths of 180 to 230 feet."  So they may be starting to come in a little bit.  Two weekends ago I was finding lake trout in the 70-110 foot range.

Check out the Mack Days statistics at http://www.mackdays.com/Statistics/page70/index.html . The current leader, Mike Benson, has turned in 232 lake trout so far, and he turned in 60 on October 5.  I'm impressed - I think I'm doing OK if I catch 60 lake trout a year.

Greetings from Rollins. Every August, I peg dozens of Lake Trout on the FF 150' deep and jig for them. When I was a little kid the whitefish used to be so plentiful, the past few years they have either completely migrated or have been decimated. My father did catch one nice whitefish with me this summer, maybe they are returning!

The guys that are supposed to know claim that there are huge numbers of lake whitefish in Flathead Lake, but that for some reason nobody has been able to catch them in recent years.  I'm a bit dubious about the claim that there are huge numbers of whitefish in the lake, because whitefish have been real difficult to catch in recent years.  This year there was a good perch hatch in Flathead Lake, and the guys that are supposed to know said it would finally be a good year for catching whitefish.  And towards the end of the summer people (including your father) were apparently catching some.  But I've never tried fishing for whitefish in Flathead Lake.  Seems like a waste of time, since they're so hard to catch.

When fishing for lake trout, I spend most of my time downrigger trolling, and I'm not very good at jigging for lake trout from a kayak.  If you're good at jigging for lake trout from a kayak or other boat which doesn't have a GPS controlled trolling motor which can lock the boat in place over a point on the bottom, regardless of wind and currents, I'd appreciate a chance to fish with you.  I'd like to get better at jigging.

I go in August for a few weeks, I can message you next year I would love to. It's usually so hot when I'm there that the fish are so lethargic and deep. We used to catch tons of whitefish jigging a small spoon/rattlesnake with maggots at about 35' deep in the weed beds. (Near the Methodist camp was our favorite). They used to be extremely aggressive and plentiful, my grandma used to can the big whitefish we kept. It seems the weeds have disappeared and the fish with them... I didn't catch any for a few years so I went targeting the deep Lakers. My dad, his dad, and his brothers grew up fishing the Flathead River.

When I jig I stay closer to the shore or islands so I have some good reference points in addition to the depth finder. Off Shelter Island (The 75 million dollar island home) there is a deep ridge about 75' from the west side where I have noticed the lakers are schooled. It's easier in a little boat with a trolling motor than in the kayak I'm sure haha.

It's possible I've been seeing fish on my fish finder which I thought were lake trout, but which were actually lake whitefish.  For example, this summer I caught a bunch of lake trout in various places in Big Arm at depths of 30-60 feet.  But I remember times when I found concentrations of pretty big fish in 30-40 feet of water, but couldn't get any bites.  That may have been because I was downrigger trolling or jigging with the big lures I use when fishing for lake trout, but the fish were actually whitefish.  Perhaps I should set up some whitefish jigging rigs, and if I find fish which won't go after lake trout style lures, see if they'll go after whitefish lures.

Where do whitefish tend to hang out in the water?  Do they sit on the bottom like lake trout, or do they suspend in the water like kokanee?  What size of schools do they hang out in?  Do whitefish produce sonar returns which can be distinguished from lake trout sonar returns?