Looking for lake trout under the ice near Missoula. Thank you!

[Onthehatch]

Looking to find big lakers under the ice near missoula... I know there is a mediocre lake trout fishery on silver and a phenomenal one on flathead but flathead doesn't freeze over much that I know of. Any and all information would be appreciated!

[pmmpete]

Try Whitefish Lake and Swan Lake.  There are also modest populations of lake trout in Holland Lake and Lindbergh Lake, but you'll need a snowmobile to get access to Lindbergh Lake.

[Onthehatch]

Thank you for the info bud! Where do you think the best lake trout fishing is out of those lakes and what part of those lakes do you fish?? Thank you so much bud!

[ColdHole]

I will be targeting lakers for the 1st time also this year.....what bait/lure styles do you guys use?

[pmmpete]

If you are new to lake trout fishing, there are some excellent videos and brochures on catching lake trout on Flathead Lake available on the Mack Days web page at https://www.mackdays.com/Movies/.  You can also get free copies of a 2 DVD set of videos and copies of the brochures for free from Cindy Benson at [email protected] or 406-675-2700.  I recommend that you review these very useful resources.

In the lakes in western Montana, lake trout tend to hang out right on the bottom, often in pretty deep water.  For example, in the late winter and spring in Flathead Lake, a lot of lake trout can be found on the bottom between 170 and 240 feet down.  And they hang out around various kinds of structure, such as on top of mounds and ridges, just below the top of steep slopes, and at the base of steep slopes. As a result, a fish finder with GPS maps such as the Navionics maps or a bathymetric map (i.e an underwater topo map) will be very useful. However, because lake trout tend to hang out right on the bottom, when the bottom is sloping you may be unable to see fish in the bottom five or ten feet of water.  You are more likely to see fish on your fishfinder when the bottom is pretty level and the fish are pretty big.

However, lake trout can also come into pretty shallow water in search of small fish to eat.  For example, I have caught a lot of lake trout in 5-6 feet of water way out in the middle of East Bay on Flathead Lake, a mile and a half north of the Ducharme fishing access.  It's mighty exciting to see three foot long lake trout cruising by your bait only a few feet below the surface.  East Bay is the part of Flathead Lake which is the most likely to freeze up, but the ice is often pretty thin, and it often only lasts a couple of weeks.  So don't go out on the ice unless you see other people out there.  And remember that for the first 3/8 of a mile north of the Ducharme fishing access there is frozen mud right under the snow and ice which will dull your auger blade if you try to drill a hole there.  So don't start drilling holes until you see holes drilled by other ice anglers. You can also catch lake trout in 20 feet of water in front of the docks in Polson when that area freezes up, but be cautious because there is some current heading towards the outlet which can thin the ice.

There are two primary methods which people use when ice fishing for lake trout:

1. Tip-up fishing.  Put a bait fish such as a northern pikeminnow, peamouth, herring, or smelt on a quick strike rig with two treble hooks and either lower it to the bottom or suspend it a foot above the bottom. If a tip-up flag goes up, let the lake trout run off with the bait for a ways and swallow it before you set the hook.  This is the same as pike fishing, except that you will probably position your bait closer to the bottom, and you may be fishing in much deeper water than people typically fish for pike.

2. Jigging.  This is typically done with a lead jig baited with a piece of cut bait.  Jig gently within about six inches of the bottom.  The jigs made by Zimmer Tackle in Pablo are excellent for this style of fishing, and Dick Zimmer is an excellent source of information about lake trout fishing technique and up to date information.

One of the charms of lake trout fishing is that you never know if you are going to catch a one foot long fish or a three foot long fish.  Choose your equipment accordingly.

Get out there and have fun.  And after the ice melts, participate in the Mack Days fishing derby on Flathead Lake.  It's pretty fun to get paid to go fishing.

[ColdHole]

Wonderful! Thankyou very much!

[Onthehatch]

Pmmpete where do you like to fish for lakers on linbergh? or Swan/whitefish.... it wold be nice to narrow down the areas they hang out if you don't mind sharing thanks! Also do you know if linbergh is good to fish yet as far as ice goes?

[pmmpete]

You can see something about the status of the ice and snow on Lindbergh via a webcam at luckylablodge.com.  Click on the icon in the lower left corner of the box if a picture doesn't appear after you click on that link.  Lindbergh Lake freezes later than Seeley Lake and Salmon Lake.  As of this afternoon, there was a thin sheet of ice over the outlet end of the lake with no snow on it yet, but you can see some open water further down the lake.  So I think it's definitely too early to be venturing out onto the ice. I used to start ice fishing as soon as a couple inches of ice formed on a lake, but that can be pretty sketchy conditions.  As I have gotten older, I have either gotten smarter or more timid, and I wait until there is four or more inches of ice on a lake.  I may miss out on a week or so of ice fishing, but I think I'll live longer.

The only way to get access onto Lindbergh Lake is via the state campground, unless you know a cabin owner who will let you get access to the lake via their property and the private road through the subdivision.   There is about a mile of unplowed road which runs from the county road to the campground, so unless you have a snowmobile, it's quite a trudge just to get to the lake. The lake trout fishing on Holland Lake is also pretty far down the lake from the campground at the west end of the lake, so a snowmobile may also be necessary to get access to lake trout on that lake. I have been told that on Swan Lake there is good ice fishing close to the highway on the southeast end of the lake, but I haven't ice fished on that lake.

Lindbergh Lake and Holland Lake, like other high lakes in the Clearwater and Swan drainages, often develop deep and long lasting slush and/or layer cake ice when heavy snowfall pushes down the ice.  When there is slush or layer cake ice on a lake, I don't take a snowmobile out on the ice, because you can get really really really stuck in those conditions.  I remember one time I snowmobiled to the launch ramp in the state campground on Lindbergh Lake and walked about fifty yards out onto the ice to check the snow conditions.  The snow in front of the launch site was firm and dry, so I headed down the lake on my snowmobile.  After a while I noticed that my snowmobile was slowing down.  I looked behind me, and my snowmobile track was full of water from slush. I kept going, made a long gradual turn, headed back to the boat ramp, and got the heck off the ice.

If you walk to the boat ramp on Lindbergh Lake, or there is too much slush on the ice for snowmobiling, you can trudge out to the first point on the right, and try fishing there in 15-25 feet of water. There are other places to fish further down the lake.

There are a lot of bull trout in Lindbergh Lake.  Before you pull a fish out of the water, be sure it isn't a bull trout. The penalties for taking a bull trout are pretty severe. If it is a bull trout, leave it in the water, remove the hook, and get it back down the hole ASAP. Don't take any pictures of a bull trout unless it's still in the water; such pictures could get you into trouble.

[Onthehatch]

Thank you so much for all your information I really do appreciate it!!! I am a serious advocate for bull trout and am reluctant to target them. I also b***h people out who do and give them an ear full. I usually fly fish strictly but am really wanting to get back into ice fishing as when the inversion sets in, in Missoula it sucks as you may already know... I love Georgetown but I wack the hell out of them for a lot of the year so I am a little reluctant to fish there during the winter sometimes. I really want to find lakers both fly fishing and ice fishing so I do thank you very much.

[Fortpeck1]

I use a 1/4oz ball jig with a 3"-4" white tube or swim bait.
Jig it hard and when you see them on the screen, start reeling and make them chase it.
On my tip ups I use minnows, sucker meat or herring from the store.
I put one tip up about 3'-5' under the Ice,
If the bait fish are high in the water column, lakers will be just below them.
Keep your transducer  right at the bottom of the hole without going out of the hole.
This will pick up the fish that are just under the ice.
FP1

[pmmpete]

I put one tip up about 3'-5' under the Ice,
If the bait fish are high in the water column, lakers will be just below them.
Keep your transducer  right at the bottom of the hole without going out of the hole.
This will pick up the fish that are just under the ice.
FP1

Fortpeck1, fishing right under the ice is a strategy I haven't tried, because in the areas where I ice fish for lake trout I don't see lake trout suspended or high in the water column on my fish finder. What is the depth of the water in areas where you find lake trout right under the ice?

[Fortpeck1]

Anywhere from 30'to75'.
If your transducer is 6" below the hole you miss the top 6'-8' of the water column.
Transducers cone down and won't read above the cone angle.
If you don't see anything under your hole , pull your transducer up a little bit.
In the winter I have caught more lakers  in15' of water than I have deeper.
In the summer I catch them deeper.
FP1

[FishingCowboy]

Flathead Lake, Swan Lake...