Lake Trout

Lakers are notorious followers, I've seen them follow the rigger setup for as long a 5 minutes without hitting the lure.  If you can find an area where they are bunched up then persistence should get you into some fine fishing, although like all fish, if they're off on their feeding there's not alot you can do.  One of the things I've found very successful when fishing intentionally fishing for lakers is to put one rigger ball down so its no more than 10' off the deck, then put the lure only about 15' or less behind the ball.  On your second rigger, leave the ball at least 15' higher than the first, and on this run a heavier spoon and put out about 40' of line.  What I have found that happens here is if the first ball scares off the fish and it moves either up or to the side, that second setup is going to come right into its face when it arrives on the scene.  If I'm marking those fish and I don't' get a strike on the lower setup I'll do a quick turn to make sure that second hook comes at the fish from a different direction.  When the fish are on the feed you can be almost guaranteed of a double hook up with this method!!

Another tactic that works well is to attach a willow leaf or Ford Fender (the one I use) right to the cannon ball and then put your lure only 4-5' behind that setup.  When the fish aren't overly active, sometimes that extra flash will be enough to bring them in closer and go after that trailing "fish"!  There was one time last year when I got into a feeding of lakers and as fast as I got the ball down with the hook, another fish was on, if I remember correctly I think I caught 6 fish in less than 20 or so minutes!!

Jigging can be quite successful if again, you've marked those fish or you know the area your fishing normally holds good numbers of fish.  Just because they are not marking on your sounder doesn't mean they're not in the area.  As with any jigging setup you should have a reasonably stiff rod and some low stretch line on it.  Buzz Bombs and Mr. Twister type jigs are just a couple of the hooks that lakers will go for.  If you've got an area that's marking fish all over and can move your boat slowly over that area (electric motor?), you will increase your chances greatly on a hookup.  When I'm by myself I'll have a lure off one rigger ball that's dragging bottom and then jig with the other rod, slowly moving the boat throughout the area,  If I get multiple fish markings I'll just park my butt there and jig,. The Narrows, Totem and Murdock are a couple of great spots to jig when the fish move up onto the shoals on Shuswap Lake!