Shore Fishing Tactics for Lake Trout and Burbot

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Divemaster
Divemaster's picture
Shore Fishing Tactics for Lake Trout and Burbot
<p>Looking like I&#39;m going to get a chance at Lakers and Burbot again sooner than I thought. We were originally planning on fishing for Steelhead this weekend (and still might do a little fishing for them, if time permits) in Lake Erie&#39;s tribs but due to some of the worst conditions in a while (very low, very clear water with lots of sunlight and tons of fishing pressure), we&#39;re going to be fishing a bit differently this weekend. Even the wind has been much more brutal than usual, making unprotected shore fishing nearly impossible. However, conditions for protected shore fishing seem to be great right now.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>So instead of wasting time in the creeks, we&#39;re going to be fishing in marinas and off piers this weekend since our boat is out for the season. One Marina in particular, has had some recent reports of good numbers of lake trout. A species that I didn&#39;t formerly associate with shore fishing, in Lake Erie, anyway. I only got one chance to troll for them in May (caught 5) and that one day got me addicted to them so much that they&#39;re now my favorite fish to catch. I&#39;d love to catch even one or two this weekend and I&#39;m hoping to catch a few. The only problem is that I did tons of research in the spring in how to catch them trolling and now I can&#39;t seem to dig up much info on the Internet regarding shore/Marina fishing tactics for lakers. From the little I have found, spoons like big daredevles and cleos seem to be the ticket around here. I also believe I read somewhere that fish like ciscos make good bait up north, but that wouldn&#39;t work here as Lake Erie&#39;s Cisco population is completely extirpated, as it has been for decades now. Perhaps some other species of forage would make for good bait, such as golden or emerald shiners? The Marina is roughly 4-8&#39; deep by the way. Also, if the lake by chance calms down, I might be able to do some unprotected shore fishing on the beaches. Casting lures up to about an ounce, I can get out to water that&#39;s about 8-10&#39; deep. But getting to my point, are there any essential lures, baits, rigs, colors, etc that I should have for Marina fishing for lake trout? PS, forgot to mention that the current surface water temp is hanging around 48&deg;F.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Moving on to pier fishing, I&#39;m hoping to target Burbot a bit as well if there&#39;s time as I&#39;ve never caught one and would love to see how they fight. The pier I&#39;d be fishing on is actually a shipping channel for freighters to enter the Erie harbor so it&#39;s quite expansive and relatively deep. The entire channel is pretty much 35-40&#39; deep and though I&#39;ve never fished it this time of year, it&#39;s easily the best (and one of the only) place to fish for Burbot in the entire state and right now is prime time. There is a certain local setup and bait that works very well for them which I&#39;ll be using the most but are there any general setups, rigs, or baits that work well for these fish? I highly doubt any lures would work well as I don&#39;t believe they&#39;re known for taking artificials and I don&#39;t think any normal casting lure will dive 35&#39; down to where the fish are.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Thanks again for the help everyone and hopefully I&#39;ll have a great weekend of fishing to report!</p>
Dr Flathead
Dr Flathead's picture
I've had good luck casting cl

I've had good luck casting cleos at dawn and dusk for shore caught Lakers on Superior.  Mostly on flashy silver stuff.  Never got any over 5lbs doing this though.  I used to do this around a breakwall that lead into a harbor area.  Also for the trout and burbot you might consider bottom rigging some cut bait, maybe cut sucker or whatever.  Casting that out in those likely areas where there getting them might be an option.  Probably use a couple ounce weight and bomb it way the hell out there.  If you were around any major tribs dumping in, it might improve the odds for the bottom fishing.  And that shipping channel sounds good for bottom rigging.  There again, especially for the burbs, dusk or after dark might be the key.  Hopefully the weather is decent for ya. 

TonyS
TonyS's picture
Burbs

I've done a lot of shore fishing for Burbot in Superior and some of the lakes in the BWCA.  They'll take clean artificals fine but the only practical option there is vertically jigging spoons or blade baits.  Frankly that isn't very efficient from shore.

 

Best best from my experience is whatever bait fish you can get ahold of.  Since Ciscoes aren't an option for you what about Smelt or Shad?  Those will work really well too.  Otherwise cut sucker, chubs, shiners or whatever you can find.  I don't believe they are terribly picky, crawlers even catch some here and there.  Though I've fished deadbait and crawlers side-by-side and deadbait outproduces at least 10:1.

 

Deadbait on bottom is also very effective for Lake Trout, we've caught many that way - including some really nice ones.

 

It doesn't need to be anything special, just a basic bottom rig.  I've caught Lakers and Burbot in the same spots on the same day, bottom rigging dead baits quite a few times.  Typically the Lakers are caught during the day and Burbot at night but that isn't a hard rule.  If there are tributaries in the area you might have prespawn Burbot moving into those areas too.

vanner
vanner's picture
I got one last night on a hal

I got one last night on a half a smelt. On the bottom.

Love the gitch
Looking for pought in December 2015

Would some. know where I can catch some pought. Now in the Duluth superior area. With no ice I was thinking. Open water  fishing for eelpougt 

Thanks 

TonyS
TonyS's picture
Love the gitch...

Whatever spots you like normally at this time should still have Burbot.  They'll still be staging to spawn, you'll just have to fish from shore/boat instead of from the ice.  

captain_cyprinid
two words

surf rod