An Intro to Lake Trout
by Mark Hutchinson 
These swift, torpedo-shaped fish inhabit the cold waters of an area extending from Wisconsin and Upper Michigan to the northernmost reaches of the North American continent. For more than half a century, lake trout were the most valuable commercial fish in the Upper Great Lakes. Then overfishing and the onslaught of the sea lamprey from the late 1930s and into the 1950s effectively eliminated this fish from Lake Michigan.
Thanks to sea lamprey control and continuous stocking, lake trout now live seven or more years in the lake, thriving on a diet of chubs and sculpins (their traditional prey), smelt and alewives. As a result, the return of this preeminent native, along with the introduction of Pacific salmon, has created a thriving world-class sport fishery in Lake Michigan. Biologists hope that ongoing research and plantings of these fish on historic spawning reefs will yet restore reproducing stocks of lake trout in Lake Michigan and enhance the few surviving stocks in Lake Superior.
One of the most important commercial freshwater fishes and a popular sport-fishing species in North America, the lake trout is actually a char, not a true trout. It has now been successfully introduced into lakes out of its natural range. A beautiful fish, it has characteristic pale spots on head, back and sides. Lake trout feed on fish, insects, crustaceans and plankton. From late summer to December, lake trout spawn in shallow, gravel-bottomed water. There is no nest, but males clear the spawning ground of debris. The eggs are laid on the gravel and settle among the stones; they remain there for the winter and hatch in early spring.
The lake trout, like other members of the char family, is typically northern in distribution. In Ontario they occur in Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, Lake Superior and across the deep, cold lakes of the Canadian Shield.
Lake trout normally inhabit only lakes with a depth greater than 15 meters (50 feet).
In spring, just after ice goes out, lake trout are found near the surface and can be taken on a fly rod, or with spinners, spoons and plugs. As the water warms up they go deep and must be sought with special deep-water tackle -- wire line, lead-core line, downriggers, diving planers, etc... Large spoons, spinners and plugs are good summer trolling baits. Jigging, or still-fishing with large, dead minnows in deep water, are sometimes effective in summer. Ice fishing for lake trout is often done with minnows or lake herring, or, by jigging with spoons and jigs with bait attached.
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