In around a month I will be going on a family vacation to Acadia and I hope to bring home some trout one day to smoke up outside. I understand there are native brook trout and stocked lake trout in some of the deep lakes, but the water will be warm - my guess will be that surface water temps will be in the upper 70s by that time, and the fish I want to target will be deep. I will be bringing a kayak with a fish finder but have no means of deep trolling which I know is effective in the lakes near me. I am open to the idea of using live bait but since I am not very familiar with this style of fishing I was wondering what is an effective way to tackle this situation? 

Maybe spool up some leadcore line and troll with that.

If you have a sonar to mark their depth here are two options:

 

Drop jigging -

Freshwater Deep Jigging - On The Water https://share.google/H5cI8pqyGVXvPDJiK

 

Cannon ball weight on a 3 way swivel: 

 

 

Probably more than you want to get into, but people use dipsy divers from kayaks on Superior.  

I have spent quite a bit of time fishing trout in lakes (including the lake in that video).  Their depth is going to vary from day to day depending on how direct the sunlight is.  But the rule of thumb is they are going to hang out right at the very bottom of the euphotic zone...right where the sunlight ends in the water column.  Blue sky they will be deeper.  Overcast they will be shallower.

 

If you cannot troll, best bet is to use your electronics to find schools and get yourself a heavy silver color kastmaster and some heavier but smaller profile jigging spoons.  Cast them out let them sink.  Pull up with rod, then reel down with rod to take up line slack, and repeat.  They will usually hit the spoon when you start to pull up on the rod again.  Bait will flutter down, and then you pull it up.  Or, if you have a pretty stout rod, you can use a 2 to 3 oz banana weight with about 2 foot of leader behind it tied to some sort of inline spinner (big rooster tail, wedding ring, VIP spinner, etc) and just cast, sink, and retrieve.  But you have to get down in the water column otherwise you are just fishing above their heads.  Local lakes to me sometimes we are down 90 to 120 feet in direct sunlight, other days we are fishing 15 to 30 feet.  The BIG lake trout typically always run deep though, just fyi, and are usually caught by simply jigging straight down below the boat.

 

If you can somehow figure out how to troll, use a string flasher with a banana weight and a wedding ring and some cream corn on the hook and troll it at the depth the fish are at.

On 7/28/2025 at 12:35 PM, MassBass said:

Maybe spool up some leadcore line and troll with that.

I wonder if the leadcore would drag down a crankbait like a rapala or if it's more suitable for a spinner.

 

14 hours ago, MontanaBasser said:

If you have a sonar to mark their depth here are two options:

 

Drop jigging -

Freshwater Deep Jigging - On The Water https://share.google/H5cI8pqyGVXvPDJiK

 

Cannon ball weight on a 3 way swivel: 

 

 

Probably more than you want to get into, but people use dipsy divers from kayaks on Superior.  

Thank you for the video!

2 hours ago, Rockhopper said:

But the rule of thumb is they are going to hang out right at the very bottom of the euphotic zone...right where the sunlight ends in the water column.  Blue sky they will be deeper.  Overcast they will be shallower.

Thank you for this information. One follow up question, does the euphotic zone align with the same depth as the thermocline?

1 minute ago, AverageAngler said:

Thank you for this information. One follow up question, does the euphotic zone align with the same depth as the thermocline?

Kind of.  The Thermocline technically begins where the euphotic zone ends.  So, yes in a sense.  However, on just a day to day basis, if you have one random day of clouds in an otherwise long stretch of sunny skies, the thermocline will still be down deep even below the euphotic zone as it takes a bit for the thermocline to adjust.

1 minute ago, Rockhopper said:

Thermocline begins where the euphotic zone ends.  So, yes.

Awesome, thank you! I will update this thread in a few weeks after my trout excursion, hopefully these tips will help in the trek for a nice fish.

Totally gave up on the trout after several hours of nothing, I will try again in the fall 😕 

When I fished in Canada with my in-laws during the summer the Lake trout were in 90’-120’ deep water basins. We used 2 techniques 1) 1/2 oz chrome Sonar lure vertically dropped then reeled back up, 2) trolled a thin (.010thick) flutter spoon on a 3 way swivel rig about 2 oz weight on a 12” dropper and 36” leader for the 3” silver spoon. Drag slowly adjusting to deep changes. Both techniques worked good.

A simple flasher sonar unit is all we used to determine depth and locate fish.

Tom

On 8/26/2025 at 9:27 AM, AverageAngler said:

Totally gave up on the trout after several hours of nothing, I will try again in the fall 😕 

 

Lake trout are tough to catch...except in the spring, when you can find them shallow and hungry for a week or two. Fishing from a kayak makes them even harder to catch. There are exceptions, of course. One summer, my dad and I found them in 20' of water tight to a particular shoreline. One morning on another lake, a howling wind had them feeding off an island where I was camped. On yet another lake in June, I found them shallow in a bay. I've caught them deep using a couple different tactics, but only a few. 

In Colorado they vertical jiggle them with large tube jigs. 4-6” tube jig with an appropriate-weighted head to get it down. Little bit of sucker meat can sweeten the deal can help. The problem is always finding them and getting a bait to depth.

 

i know it says ‘vertical jiggle’… I’m leaving it.

Wow, this is all awesome information! Once the water really cools off these lake trout don't stand a chance!