Triggering Lakers on Lake George

With great electronics like our Garmin 7610 xvs, you can actually watch the lake trout come up off the bottom and inspect your offerings. But more often than not, they will snub their noses at your lure. So the trick isn’t just getting their attention, but figuring out how to seal the deal.

So this year, I took a page from our ice fishing manual. When you get a laker to come in when you’re ice fishing you play the cat and mouse game with them. You keep your lure up above them and make them chase it. So that’s the exact same thing I’m doing now.

If a fish comes in, I begin the process of ripping the bait up and reeling. The goal isn’t to take it away too fast, just fast enough that you make the fish chase. So far we have caught several fish doing this. Another interesting option is just reeling your bait up. The sight of bait swimming away stirs laker’s instincts to chase and eat.

So the next time you’re out, try playing the cat and mouse game with lake trout and see if you don’t end up hooking up with a few more fish!