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Lake Trout
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Lake Trout - Salvelinus namaycush
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Identification

• Length:17 to 27 inches
  
• Weight:3 to 9 pounds
  
• Coloring:light spots on darker background, light underside

History
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.

Habits
Lake trout do not leap, but instead wage a strong, determined underwater battle. Most are taken by trolling with spoons or minnow-like plugs attached to wire-line rigs or downriggers. They can also be taken by bottom fishing with whole or cut fish.

Range
Lake trout need cold, clear, well oxygenated water, so they are found almost exclusively in oligotropic lakes. In summer they often move to depths of 50 to 100 feet, but in spring and fall you can find them at depths of 20 feet or less. They prefer water from 40 to 52 degree F. The siscowets live at depths of 330 to 500 feet, but have been found as deep as 600 feet.

Eating Habits
Lake trout rely on small fish like ciscoes, smelt, or sculpins. But in some lakes, they feed almost exclusively on plankton, insects, or crustaceans. In this situation, lake trout never reach the size of those in fish-eating populations.

Biology
Lake trout are slow-growing and long-lived, sometimes reaching an age of 40 years. In the far North, it may take 15 years for a laker to reach 2 pounds.

Record
1991 - 66 pounds, 8 ounces, caught in Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories. A 102- pound lake trout was taken in a gillnet in Lake Athabasca, Saskatchewan, in 1961

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