The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife made much of the information on this page possible.

Fishing:

Lake trout can be taken on the surface, or close to it when the surface water temperature is approximately 45 degrees, usually mid May in northern Maine. Trolling slow with light tackle, including medium weight spinning gear and fly rods with sinking fly lines using live bait, lures or streamers will produce fish this time of the year.

As the surface water temperatures rise, the Lake trout will move to deeper water and the angler must adapt to fishing deep with metal lines or down riggers.

Although we seldom fish for Lake trout, and most are taken incidentally when fishing for Salmon. If you hook into one of the good ones, (8 to 15 lbs.) especially in the spring with light tackle, I guarantee it’s a fish you will remember. The fight of the Lake trout cannot compare to the fight of the Salmon or the Brook trout, but what this fish lacks in fight, it more than makes up for in weight and size.

Habitat:

Typically large, deep coldwater lakes with irregular bottom contours and shorelines covered with rocks and gravel.

Reproduction:

Lake trout spawn in the fall when surface water temperatures approach 55 degrees. Spawning takes place on shorelines and shoals, usually in water less than four feet, with the bottom material consisting of rocky broken rubble. Eggs are broadcast over the bottom and settle into the crevices of rocks. The eggs usually hatch in about five months. Once their yolk sacs are absorbed, the young fish now able to swim and take food move into deep water.

Males reach sexual maturity at ages five or six and are usually eighteen inches or longer. Females reach sexual maturity at ages seven or eight and are usually twenty inches or more.

Feeding Habits:

After feeding for approximately three years on insects and crustaceans, and attaining a length of eight to ten inches, the Lake trout’s diet will change and consist primarily of smelts when they are abundant. If smelts are not available or abundant, the fish will utilize other sources of forage, that include whitefish, suckers, minnows, sunfish, sculpins, white and yellow perch, cusk, and sticklebacks.

Growth:

With the general law length limit of eighteen inches, most Lake trout in Maine attain this length at age five or six. 

Of the salmonids, Lake trout are the longest-lived. The oldest known Lake trout recorded in Maine was 22 years old.

Where Lake trout live under optimum conditions, fish over five pounds are common. The Maine record of thirty-one pounds, eight ounces, was caught in the 1958.

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