Spring Lake Trout On Georgian Bay
The boat was ready, the marine forecast looked good, the rain had stopped, and we were ready to go for our first boat outing of the year. Yay! If you read my previous post, you know that we had only just gotten our boat out of storage, months later than usual. It had been far too long and both of us were in need of a good day on the water, and hopefully a lake trout or two.
We decided to launch out of Meaford to fish one of our favourite spots on Georgian Bay. Rain had fallen most of the morning and the sky was still dark grey when we arrived at the lake. Fortunately, the breeze was barely enough to move the flags and the water looked only slightly choppy. We were good to go.
Once we were out of the harbour it didn’t take long to spot the muddy water coming out of the river. Instead of making our typical run out to our favourite fishing area, we thought it was worth fishing the edge of the muddy water and debris. The clear water on the edge had a surface temp of 11C, inside the muddy water we found a high of 17C. Such a difference in a matter of feet.
After setting the lines and zigzagging in and out of the mud, we found we weren’t marking much on the fish finder. I declared that we would give it another half an hour, and then we were pulling lines and heading out to our favourite spot. Darrell just laughed, knowing that I always want to make the big run and head way on out.
Sure enough, we had no action at the mouth of the river. I was kind of surprised since fishing similar conditions on Lake Ontario always seems to produce fish for us. We pulled lines and I got the boat on plane and raced out to the wide open space that I love so much. If you had told me 15 years ago that I would have enjoyed driving a boat and heading out into 200ft of water, I would have laughed hysterically.
Seeing a couple of boats fishing in tight to the drop-off, we decided to stay further out and fish some shoals in 100 to 110ft of water. The surface temp was a whopping 9.7C. When Darrell asked what I wanted on my rod, I didn’t hesitate to reply with “Silver.” The sky was still fairly overcast, though the sun was coming out, making perfect conditions to fish the silver Northern King spoon. Everyone has their own confidence baits, and this one has become one of mine, thanks to being one of Darrell’s for a very long time. This spoon catches a lot of fish for us every year, but only in the right light conditions.
As an aside, we placed an order of NK’s early this year from Len Thompson and received an awesome, handwritten note from the company, as well as a free lure and sticker. The branding of the whole order was fantastic and made me so eager to get out fishing. If you want NKs or Len Thompson lures, you should definitely place an order!
We were trolling up a shoal, with Darrell driving and me watching the rods, when I saw my rod jump. I jumped in response, grabbed the rod out of the holder, and started reeling. For some reason I always forget how much line there is to reel in and my arm starts getting tired quickly. I felt the weight of a fish, but I couldn’t make out how big it was. She gave a few tugs and then it wasn’t long before I had her to the boat. What a beautiful fish!
This lake trout was the girthiest one I had caught in some time and she was in great shape. After a quick picture I got her back in the water and watched her give a kick and swim for the depths. I was grinning like an idiot and had an adrenaline rush.
Since I had caught the fish it was now my turn to drive and for Darrell to watch the rods. I looked at the time on the fish finder and realized that even though we had only been out there for a couple of hours, it was starting to get late and we would need to get back to feed the animals. As Darrell started to lightly snore in his seat, I figured we could stretch out the time a little bit. Hopefully we could get another fish.
By this time the grey clouds had been replaced by white clouds and the sun was shining bright. The incredible blue water reached the beautiful blue sky, and I let my eyes settle on the wide open blueness of everything, a sight I had very much missed these last few months.
After my third pass over a shoal that held several lake trout, none of which wanted to bite, I moved on to the next shoal. It turned out to be a good move.
Silver fired once again and this time it was Darrell’s chance to reel in a lovely laker. He destroyed our snacks in the process as he kicked the bag out of his way. Nothing is allowed to get in the way of a fish! Another fish to the boat, another picture, and another fish swimming away happily when it’s all over. Lake trout are such good looking fish.
We gave it another few minutes then finally pulled rods and headed back the launch after a fantastic day on the water. The run takes about 20 minutes and both on the way out and the way back in, I wondered why I had left my winter jacket at home. I should know better. Gloves would have been good too. They’re normally in the boat since we usually get out when there’s still snow on the ground. The late start threw us off this year.
It was a great start to our boating season and I can’t wait to get out for the next trip. Maybe we’ll head for pike next. Or maybe we’ll just head back out for another awesome day of lake trout and big water fishing.
argosgirl
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Hi, I’m just wondering where I would go to catch some late trout by me for GPS points ?
Lake trout move around a lot. The best I can offer is that in the areas we fish on Georgian Bay, we usually troll for them in about 100 feet of water on the drop-offs. The steeper the drop, the better. Be prepared to cover a lot of water and watch your fish finder for marks. A silver Northern King spoon is my go-to, but everyone out there fishes something different. Good luck!