I read a blog article from Outdoors Ontario the other day. It was about fishing with white tube jigs for lake trout. This story reminded me of a time just off the mouth of the Big East River in Vernon Lake. A friend and I were anchored just off a shallow sandbar that dropped off into a deep trough that had been cut by the rivers flow. The timing of our trip was just after ice-out and this meant that the lake trout could be anywhere in the lake.

We started fishing with spoons and spinners on both the deep trough and the shallows of the sandbar. We got some hits but nothing solid stayed on. To change things up (and because they were some of the only things I had not tried yet), I tied on a white twister tail jig. I casted out on the sandbar and jigged across the sand and down the depths of the drop-off. Within seconds, I had landed 2 nice Lake Trout. I threw my friend a couple of twisters and he similar success. The trout seemed to strike just as the jig began to descend down the drop-off.

It was a nice twist of luck.

I later talked to one of the local bait shop owners about the twister tails. He told me that he had many people have similar success in the same with white plastic jigs of any shape. He suggested that the white color of the jigs mimics the spawning smelt that head to the lake that time of year.

If the usual is not working on your lake trout fishing trip – try some white plastic jigs.

Fishing Stories