torch lake (traverse city) lakers?

[arrowdog]

I am going camping next week near torch lake. I have heard that the lake trout are hugging the bottom in 150 fow. I don't have any downriggers to get that deep. I am thinking of trying jigging with 1 oz jigs and minnows. Any thoughts or alternatives is appreciated. I also have heard that Skegemog is a maze of stumps. Is this true? Will I be able to get my 18 ft deep V through there?
Thanks,
Norm

[youngguns]

I have never been to torch lake but i have been to lake skemog. It has alot of stumps but they are located in the southern part of the lake, you could easily navigate that size boat through it. If you have any questions about skemog fishweb.com has a pretty good map of the lake and pictures of the stump fields

[Linda G.]

Most of Torch Lake's bottom is a lot more than 150 feet. The lakers are usually suspended in anywhere from 85 to 150 feet, over anywhere from 175 to 350+ feet.

The Atlantics are usually found suspended at about 65 feet over 100-150.

These are spoon-fed, downrigger driven, fish. A dipsey might be ok, too.

You could try for whitefish at night with your jig-put some spawn on it, if you can find any, and try in about 65 feet-110 feet of water, on the bottom. Or move shallower into the rocks, in about 25-30 feet of water for smallmouth bass action. There may also be some browns hanging around in about 30-60 feet of water in the rocks.

Torch Lake is a very tough lake to fish if you're not familiar with the lake. It takes some people years to get a handle on it, and even then, it's not much to scream about. Until you learn how to catch those Atlantics on a regular basis-you've never fished until you fish for Atlantics.

Skegemog should provide you with some decent bass, pike and panfish action, head right into those stumps, and try a weedless spoon or a spinnerbait for bass and pike, waxforms or crawlers, small ones, for gills and billions of undersized perch.