The Night Bite: Lake Trout

Night time has always been my favorite time to enjoy fishing. With fewer people around, typically no wind, the stars, and just the calm the darkness brings it always draws me. Unfortunately, this usually means having to target 1 of 2 species in my area, Catfish, and Walleye. I chase both regularly during the summer months at night, but when it comes to ice fishing, I have an uncontrollable urge to always want to go after the kings of the cold, Lake Trout.

I had never targeted Lake Trout at night through the ice so this was a learning experience for me. I made a couple modifications to my Clam Arctic Warriors "Glow-sticks and some electrical tape", grabbed the headlamps and headed out to give it a try.

I had fished the area the previous day to check the ice conditions and locate some fish. We arrived about 3:00 A.M. and as you would expect, there wasn't a single person on the lake, on what is typically very busy area. I drilled across a good portion of the area, spread some warriors out over the different depths and started jigging with some glow tubes.

It didn't take very long before I marked fish, which was exciting in itself just to know they were still on the feed and I could draw some in. They weren't however interested in my plastics, so I figured maybe some noise would get a fish to trigger.

I put on a Clam Rattling Blade Spoon and within minutes I hooked up and heard the most beautiful sound in the world, a screaming drag in pure silence! It wasn't the biggest fish, but I was super stoked to see her, Lake Trout at night. I moved the warriors once again to match the depths of the one caught on the spoon, and sure enough had a flag go off. I was on cloud 9 at this point, just knowing that I would be able to target Lake Trout 24 hours a day.

We only ended up catching 3 before the sun came up, not the best bite, but anytime I can hook up with a Lake Trout is time well spent. Being able to do it at night in complete silence, priceless. The best part, I had already claimed the "hot spot" before anyone else was even out of bed.

On a competitive lake where key locations are relatively known, a great way to get out on the water before the crowds and get "The Spot." I will definitely be spending a lot of time in the darkness targeting Lake Trout this Winter after this trip.