My buddy and I have been going into the park in a serious manner just for the past few years. Collectively we kind of stink as fisherman but we still try. This weekend we did a five day in the central west region of the Park out of Canoe Lake. On the third day (May 17), after 45 unsuccessful minutes of casting lures in an interior lake we decided to try some trolling. Within 5 minutes I had this thing on the end of my Mepps #1 Spinner (red with yellow). At first I thought it was a snag but then it moved. We didn't measure or weight it (I released it so that someone else could have an awesome day like I did) because I wanted to get it back in the water promptly but a conservative estimate would be about 24" 5 lbs. I suspect larger. It was much bigger than the ones I looked at in this website's archive. He clearly was wider than 2/3 the width of my 36" wide Prospector Canoe. I do wish I had slowed down a bit to get better photos. Not much a fighter though. Just Heavy.

I'm wondering what more experienced people think of this thing. Maybe it's not all that unusual for all I know.

Steve

Nice laker! About the size of what I caught on Laveille last year, bigger than either the ones I caught on the WPEx two years ago.

congrats -- nice fish

Nice Gray! Looks like a 3 lber, still a baby compared to the lakers in Grand.

Beauty looks like the moose was even impressed. LOL

good eatin there .

Thanx for sharing your pics.

Nice fish, Congrats.

Nice lake trout! Size really doesn't matter, but without the picture,
I would estimate that laker went at least 14 lbs.!!! LOL


Bo

Estimating weight is very difficult and, unless you've weighed a bunch of them over the years so as to get accustomed to the weight/length ratios, you'll just be "in the ballpark".

Based on the poor angle of the photo, if he was 25" I would estimate at 3 1/2 to 4 lbs. He looked like he had a pretty good belly on him...not the snake-like appearance of the smaller ones!

Lakers are one of the worst fighting fish you can catch. Heck, even catfish and carp put them to shame. It's like reeling in a boot. But that doesn't diminish the satisfaction of landing one, does it?!

Congratulations on a great looking fish and thanks for putting him back to fight another day!

Pa Paddler, we have catching lakers for 30 years in the park and on light tackle 6 lb test line and light action poles they are a lot of fun to catch. Most of the fish we manage to catch are in the 17-20" range so maybe the smaller ones put up more of a fight. Just my thoughts.

I agree, I have boated many 18-24" lakers on 6lb test and 5.5' rod, good fight, but nothing like the old speckle at canoe barrel roll. Nice laker!

"Like reeling in a boot". Best description of the event so far. No fight at all, just resignation. As I said, I thought I had a snag until he moved a bit. Didn't diminish my enjoyment at catching him at all though. Frankly, he wasn't a pretty fish (like the smaller ones I caught), he had a head like a half a cement block, a very big mouth that made removing the hook easy enough and he was very fat.

Next time, I bring the scale.

Cudos on relaeasing that laker. That sized fish is a spawner .

PA - are you serious? Lake trout among the worst fighting fish? We cannot be talking about the same species. Lake trout are very aggressive on the attack and put up an excellent fight. Sure they may come up a little heavy, but as soon as they get close to the canoe up goes that big fork tail and down to the bottom they dive - very aggresively. No lie, my buddy Mike caught a 24" laker last August that took off like a bullet just below the surface peeling 50 yards of line. Then it went straight to the bottom, up and down like a yo-yo for at least 5 minutes.

Steve
Ottawa, ON

Steve:

I agree with Pa Paddler that lake trout this time of year is like pulling in a boot!

Of the 40 lake trout we caught in White Partridge this year, I would say only about 3 put up any kind of a fight. And these 3 were only around 1 lb. The others came in to be netted like pulling in a boot and/or a log!!!
This time of year I find lakers very sluggish.

Perhaps they put up more of a fight as they waken up from their winter slumber!!


Bo

Pa Paddler Lakers may not be as good of fighting fish compared to carp and other trout species, but I bet if you hook into a 12-15 lb Gray out in Grand in the fall you'll delete that opinion from your memory bank.

Or how about the 100lb + grays caught up in the north daily. Tell me those guys don't have big arms

Col. HooT JVFS
www.jvfs.net

But I must say a 3lb Gray from Dickson, Lavaille, WP etc is a Great size for those lakes. Rarley I've seen over 6 lbs which is regular in Grand in the fall in the right area.

Col. HooT JVFS
www.jvfs.net

Also that 6 lb monofillaJUNK mentioned with Grays out at Grand would be snapped in 30 secs if you hook into a 8lb plus spunky gray. When you catch peons you assume the species are peons lol

Col. HooT JVFS
www.jvfs.net

I think we should ask a world record Lake Trout fisherman what it is like to reel in a real Laker. We have an AAer that is just that. I'm not sure of the exact year but Stainless caught a 51 pound laker in Great Bear Lake a few years back which was a world record for that year. I saw the pictures and it is huge. He also had a picture of a little 42 pounder he had caught. I think you should post your pics on AA Stainless. Not many people hold a record like that.

Hey Laffrat Nice Fish.

I think Bo made the point that size doesn't matter and I agree.

First fish good work. Right idea not to keep it.

Bet it fought like an old boot and would have tasted like one too.

Best ones are the smaller 1 - 2lbs max - pink flesh.

Can't wait to see your next one.

Sal

Hey Paddlin, The year was 1988, and there weren't any digital cameras back then.

As for the fight, using 20 lb. Trilene "Big Game" line and a stiff 5 ft. musky rod, the really big fish would either take 100 yard screaming runs after getting them close to the boat, or go to bottom (max. 15 ft. depths) and just hang around down there while you tried to coax them up. It would take around 15-30 mins. to net them.

As for the regular 6-10 lbers, we would catch one after the other casting spinners or jigs, using 6 lbs. test line on a 7 ft spinning rod and reel.

No one ever had their line break. The secret is to retie frequently and make a good knot.

Stainless

Thats a nice Algonquin Laker for sure congrats on a great catch.

I've caught Lakers that were just lame when comming in...like a boot
But, I've also had a laker Take my bait 2 feet off the surface that SLAMMED it from the underside of the canoe, only to completely soak me in a fury of Panic, then run strait down, and peel my line like Fall steelie, but....After that it was just a couple head shakes and it was over.

But who cares, that was exciting as all hell!
Its the anticipation, and the actual time spent chaseing the fish that Makes fishing so fun.
The catch is just the reward, some are better then others but...
That why they call it fishing...not catching right?
Cheers,

A 51 lb Laker, NICE! Yet that 51 lb record is LONG gone since they are catching them that big daily up north but still my biggest was a 13lber and as someone mentioned, when they get too the canoe and that big "forked tail" opens (Adrenilane RUSH), hold on, i know it took me 15 mins to get mine in after he initially forked and ran 50-75 yards of line off my x-LG spool. But then again I've had 20 lb Pike take 3 mins to get in and plenty 10 lbers take 10 minutes+. Time of the year really matters for fish fight.

Col. HooT JVFS
www.jvfs.net

This 42inch 20lber took me literally 2 minutes to pull in after he hit like a log being dropped into the water from 1000 ft up. I've also witnessed Pike this big take 25+ minutes to bring in on heavy tackle while the fish decided to moon walk on water for a few runs(muskie trait).



Col. HooT JVFS
www.jvfs.net

Hey Laffrat,

They are all good fish. We often run into people who have difficulty catching fish in the park, I know it took me a while before I started to figure things out. My first decent (10 lb range) laker in APP occured when I was trolling a shoreline with a #3 silver mepps in hopes of getting a brookie.

Below is my son's first Laker in APP, he thought he had a snag and handed me his rod (sound familiar). After a gentle pull by me followed by a serious head shake by fish, I passed the rod back to Devin and told him to hang on. It took about 15 minutes on a light rod with 8lb test and was great entertainment for George and I. This was the second day of our trip and about 30 minutes into our first lake trout troll. At the time it was the fight of his life!

The one to the left is his fourth ever speckle trout, he knew it was a fish immediately!!!!

Two of his (and mine) finest Algonquin moments.

We do not take scales, any guesstimates on the weight of these two fish?



BTW - I returned from my trip last weekend and have been busting my butt at work trying to nail down some significant issues with our network. I have really enjoyed reading the posts from Bo @ WP, Pa @ Burntroot, Markus @ Birchcliffe, Cookslav @ "???" and other reports and comments and hope to post a trip log in the very near future.

Coach

Heh Coach,

Your son's Spec is (or was depending if you ate it or not) a beauty. That must have given your son the rush of his young life. Thanks for the pics!

Harry

Those are some excellent hawg trout. I myself am no good at Trout fishing, they are too picky for me yet I go enough too see some good trout fishermen in action regularly. As you can see I am a top water master and jigging only serves one purpose for me (pickerel=food) Other then that I'll crank, troll or cast for some big bass or toothy critters myself.

Col. HooT JVFS
www.jvfs.net