Here's a lake trout, est. about 3# caught yesterday with the Ned Rig.  Chalk this one up to dumb luck as I was trying to cast on the outside edge of the weeds in about 40' of water but the wind carried me out to about 60-80' (just an estimate as I don't have electronics in my kayak).  I was rigging up another rod and drifting at the time.

 

Started reeling in and thought I had a smallmouth on initially; saw it come up and thought it was a pickerel, and then when it was near the surface, finally knew what it was. This is the second laker that I have caught while fishing for bass over the last few years, so both were accidental, i.e. not planned.

 

Kept in the net the whole time for pics and then unhooked and let swim away.  I know there are better ways to fish for this species than the Ned Rig, as there was a guy on the lake that was targeting them by dropping heavy spoons down on them and he told me that he had caught and released 8 that day.  I never target lakers, but this was a good surprise.

That's pretty cool!

John - yes it was.

 

I have been trying out the Ned thing for a few weeks and have had some success, as I have been catching some bass in the 20 - 40' range.  So after trying shallow, I target deeper water and the suspended fish.  I don't have a depth finder, so I'm just trying different locations, depths, etc.

 

There are definitely many ways to catch bass and on some days , some ways are better than others.  Yesterday was not a great day for catching bass with this technique as I only caught 2 really small ones and one about 2#; hard to say if other techniques may have been better.  It was a beautiful day and the laker made it quite memorable.

Rainbows love Ned rigs, not surprised a laker would eat one. I'd love to catch a lake trout, seems like they're a lot of fun to catch. 

On 8/11/2017 at 9:16 PM, Bluebasser86 said:

Rainbows love Ned rigs, not surprised a laker would eat one. I'd love to catch a lake trout, seems like they're a lot of fun to catch. 

They really aren't.... I've caught numerous ones in the 1-8lb range and couple in the 20s, they all fight the same.  Dead weight until you get it up to the boat then they spin like crazy, getting EVERYTHING tangled up.  Fishing is fishing, so it's all fun, but compared to other types of sport fishing lakers are pretty low on my list.  I still fish for them though, the little ones are tasty.

 

Maybe the real big ones fight better.

2 hours ago, Doelman said:

They really aren't.... I've caught numerous ones in the 1-8lb range and couple in the 20s, they all fight the same.  Dead weight until you get it up to the boat then they spin like crazy, getting EVERYTHING tangled up.  Fishing is fishing, so it's all fun, but compared to other types of sport fishing lakers are pretty low on my list.  I still fish for them though, the little ones are tasty.

 

Maybe the real big ones fight better.

 

I'd echo this pretty much.  I still fish for them from time to time because I have respect for what a beautiful fish and respectable predator they are, plus they taste good and are far less common in much of the country than bass are..  That said, you're right... they don't put up much of a fight.  I've taken a few in the 15lb class out of Lake Ontario.. it's cool to see a fish hit a spoon on a down rigger in 200 feet of water, but the resulting battle is pretty weak considering the size of the fish.   King and Coho salmon on the other hand...  

16 minutes ago, Janderson45 said:

King and Coho salmon on the other hand...

 

Don't forget brown trout.  I would actually put them over the other salmonoids.  While there's no stopping an initial run from a king, after that, it's not quite the mess that brown will cause.  They're like the smallmouth bass of the salmanoid world.  Big steelies are another.  They don't really do a hard run, just a ton of aerial stunts.  I had one launch itself into a stream side tree right after the hookset.  Took all the fun out fighting a nice 33" beast on a centrepin and light leader.  I have no doubt any of these species would grab a poop jig, I mean Ned Rig, when schooling up near shopre to creek mouths on Lake Ontario.  I've even caught a brown on a Mattlures baby bass.  Talk about irony....

Rich I catch them all the time in early spring & fall when fishing for smallmouth on lake Erie. They love jerk baits especially the color white. My biggest on Erie was 16lbs on a pointer 100. They are a fun by catch.