Lake trout (laker)

A char: gray-green to dark body covered with pale cream spots (no red spots) and a deeply forked tail.

4–10 lb.

Over 4 ft and more than 70 lb; giants come from Great Bear and Great Slave lakes.

Cisco, smelt, sculpins, whitefish, insects and freshwater shrimp.

Lives in big, cold, clear lakes; near the surface right after ice-out, then follows the cold water deep in summer.

Found from Yukon, NWT & Nunavut, Northern Ontario, Canadian Prairies, Hudson Bay & Labrador, Ontario Great Lakes and Quebec. Big, deep, cold lakes: Great Bear and Great Slave lakes, Lake Athabasca, the lakes of northern Ontario and the Canadian Shield, and Lakes Ontario, Huron and Superior.

Big, deep, cold lakes: Great Bear and Great Slave lakes, Lake Athabasca, the lakes of northern Ontario and the Canadian Shield, and Lakes Ontario, Huron and Superior.

Surface to 20 ft after ice-out; 40–150 ft in summer.

Surface to 20 ft after ice-out; 40–150 ft in summer.

Right after ice-out (shallow), late summer (deep), and through the ice in winter.

Any time of day; morning is best in shallow water.

No tide.

Calm days for jigging deep water; cold, windy days in spring keep fish shallow.

Cut cisco or smelt on the bottom, or a minnow on a jig.

Spoons, white tube jigs, big swimbaits and blade baits.

7 ft medium spinning or casting rod; downriggers or lead-core line for trolling deep.

Spoons and tube jigs with single or treble hooks; small hooks for whitefish.

10–20 lb braid or mono.

10–15 lb fluorocarbon.

After ice-out, cast spoons along rocky shorelines. In summer, jig tubes on deep humps or troll spoons on downriggers in the cold water.

A 30-lb laker from a northern lake can be 40 years old. Keep a small one for shore lunch and let the big ones go.

Catch and release: wet your hands, keep the fish in the water when you can, and release it quickly. Use circle hooks and a dehooker.

Good eating when fresh.

Bleed and ice it right away. Fillet, then remove the skin and any dark bloodline.

Rich, orange to white meat, excellent grilled or smoked. Smaller fish taste best.

Cold water kills fast — wear a life jacket on big northern lakes, and test ice before you walk on it.

Northern lake trout grow very slowly, so many lakes have a limit of one fish, a trophy size limit, or catch-and-release only. Licenses, limits and seasons are set by each province, territory or state, and many lakes and rivers have special size limits, slot limits or closed spawning seasons — check the current regulations for the water you fish.

Keep only what you'll eat, release the rest quickly, and follow size and bag limits.