Lake Trout

Common Name: Lake Trout
Scientific Name: Salvelinus namaycush

How to Identify a Lake Trout

Lake trout are char, not true trout, and their markings reflect that relationship.

Like brook trout, lake trout generally show light markings on a darker background.

The body is usually:

  • gray
  • olive
  • greenish
  • or
  • dark slate

with numerous pale cream, white or yellowish spots across the body and fins.

Tail

The tail is one of the most useful identification features.

Lake trout have a deeply forked caudal fin, much more pronounced than the relatively square or modestly forked tail of a brook trout.

Body Shape

Lake trout are built for large coldwater lakes.

Adults commonly have a long, muscular body, broad head and powerful tail.

Large individuals can become exceptionally heavy-bodied.

Fins & Spots

Pale spotting commonly extends across:

  • the back
  • sides
  • dorsal fin
  • tail

The fish does not normally show the red spots with blue halos associated with brook trout.

Lake Trout vs. Brook Trout

Both are char.

Brook trout usually show:

  • wormlike vermiculations
  • red spots with blue halos
  • white-edged lower fins
  • less deeply forked tail

Lake trout usually show:

  • pale spotting across a darker body
  • no red-and-blue halo pattern
  • much more deeply forked tail
  • larger lake-oriented body form

Lake Trout vs. Brown Trout

Brown trout generally show darker and red/orange spots on a lighter brown or golden body.

Lake trout show the opposite char-type pattern:

light spots on a darker background.

The deeply forked tail is another strong clue.

Range

Where Lake Trout Live

Lake trout are native to northern North America.

Their natural range includes large coldwater systems across Canada, Alaska and the northern United States.

Major native strongholds include:

  • the Great Lakes
  • large inland lakes of Canada

Alaska

  • the upper Great Lakes region
  • other deep northern coldwater lakes

Lake trout have also been introduced into suitable cold, deep lakes outside portions of their native range.

Unlike Brown Trout, Lake Trout are native to North America.

Unlike Brook Trout, they are not primarily a small-stream fish.

Their distribution is fundamentally tied to large, cold lake habitat.

That distinction is important for Trout Eddy's architecture.

The national Lake Trout page owns the species.

A page such as Michigan Lake Trout owns the geographic fishing intent.

Individual Great Lakes and other lake pages own the specific fisheries.

Habitat

Lake Trout Habitat

Lake trout are specialists of cold, well-oxygenated lake environments.

Classic habitat includes:

  • deep natural lakes
  • large cold reservoirs where established

The Great Lakes

  • deep basins
  • rocky reefs
  • shoals
  • drop-offs
  • underwater points
  • steep breaks
  • open-water forage zones

Depth is one of the defining characteristics of Lake Trout habitat.

During periods when surface water is cold, fish may use relatively shallow water, shoreline structure or near-surface zones.

As the upper water column warms, Lake Trout often move deeper to remain within suitable coldwater habitat.

That is why a lake trout angler can find fish surprisingly shallow in one season and dozens of feet deeper later in the year.

Structure

Lake trout often relate to:

  • reefs
  • rock piles
  • points
  • drop-offs
  • basin edges
  • steep contours

but they can also suspend in open water while following forage.

For Lake Trout, the most important “cover” may not be a log or undercut bank.

It may be:

depth + temperature + structure + forage.

That is a completely different habitat problem from stream-dwelling trout.

Lake Trout Behavior

Lake trout are coldwater predators built for life in large lakes.

Their movement is strongly influenced by:

water temperature

forage location

lake structure

season

spawning

Unlike trout holding behind a rock in a stream, Lake Trout may travel vertically and horizontally through huge volumes of water.

They can:

hold near bottom structure

cruise steep breaks

suspend over deep water

follow schools of baitfish

move shallow when cold water makes shallow habitat suitable

That mobility is one of the reasons electronics, trolling and mobile jigging approaches can be so useful.

Feeding

Lake trout can be aggressive predators when feeding, but they do not need to chase continuously.

A fish may hold around structure or at a particular depth until prey enters an efficient feeding zone.

Large trout frequently focus heavily on fish prey.

Depth Movement

Depth is not permanent.

A fish that spends summer in deep water may be much shallower during colder portions of the year.

That's why the first question for Lake Trout anglers is often not:

“Which lure?”

It's:

“Where in the water column are the fish today?”

Seasons

Lake Trout Through the Seasons

Spring

After ice-out or during the cold early-open-water period, Lake Trout may use much shallower water than anglers associate with midsummer fishing.

Fish can relate to:

  • shorelines
  • points
  • rocky structure
  • and relatively shallow breaks

while cold water makes those areas suitable.

This can create opportunities for:

  • casting
  • shallow trolling
  • and jigging.

Summer

Summer is when Lake Trout's coldwater specialization becomes especially obvious.

As surface water warms and many lakes stratify, fish often shift deeper or suspend within cold, oxygenated water.

That can make:

  • deep trolling
  • downrigger fishing
  • lead-core trolling
  • and
  • deep jigging
  • especially relevant.

Forage location remains critical.

A perfect depth with no food may still hold few Lake Trout.

Fall

Fall is spawning season.

As water cools, adult Lake Trout may move toward shallower rocky reefs, shoals and other suitable spawning structure.

Fish distribution can change substantially from summer patterns.

Winter

Lake Trout remain active beneath the ice and are one of North America's major coldwater ice-fishing species.

Fish may use:

  • deep structure
  • steep breaks
  • reefs
  • or suspended forage

depending on the lake.

Jigging becomes especially important because the angler can work exact depth zones vertically.

spawning

Lake Trout Spawning

Lake Trout spawn in fall, but their spawning behavior differs significantly from the stream-spawning trout anglers may be more familiar with.

Lake Trout generally spawn over:

  • rocky reefs
  • shoals
  • rubble
  • coarse broken rock

rather than excavating classic stream redds in gravel.

Adults gather over suitable rocky structure as water cools.

Eggs are released and fall into spaces between rocks, where the interstitial habitat provides protection during development.

No Classic Stream Redd

This is an important biological distinction.

Lake Trout do not depend on the same excavated gravel redd structure associated with Brown, Brook and Rainbow Trout.

Instead, the quality of rocky spawning habitat matters.

Sediment filling the spaces between rocks can reduce egg survival by degrading that habitat.

Angler Consideration

During the spawning period, mature Lake Trout can concentrate on reefs and shoals.

Local regulations may protect particular waters, seasons or spawning areas.

Trout Eddy should never assume that because fish are concentrated and easy to locate, targeting them is automatically legal or appropriate.

Water-specific regulations belong on the actual Water and State resources.

Featured

Featured Reference

Lake trout are what happens when a trout decides the river isn't cold enough and moves into eighty feet of water. 

Honestly, respectable strategy. 

They're built for cold lakes, eat real meals, and spend enough of the summer deep that you people need sonar, lead core and a small engineering department just to go bother them. 

Find the cold water. Find the forage. Then worry about the lure. 

Also technically a char. 

So at least they've got that going for them.

Eddy