Seneca Lake Trout Facts

Lake Trout are typically taken by trolling with spoons or minnow-like plugs attached to wire-line rigs or downriggers. They can also be taken by bottom fishing with whole or cut fish. When they are really biting, Captain Joe loves to use jigs. Jigging for Lake Trout is the most challenging and exciting method for catching these beautiful creatures.

Lake trout require, cold, clear, well oxygenated water, so they are found almost exclusively in oligotropic lakes. In summer they often move to depths of 50 to 100 feet, but in spring and fall you can find them at depths of 20 feet or less. They prefer water from 40 to 52 degree F.

In most waters such as Seneca and Cayuga lakes, lake trout rely heavily on small fish like ciscoes, alewives, smelt, or sculpins. But in some lakes, they feed almost exclusively on plankton, insects, or crustaceans. Here in Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, they love dining on our abundant population of alewives, also referred to as "sawbellies".

Age & Growth

Lake trout are slow-growing and long-lived, sometimes reaching an age of 40 years. In the far North, it may take 15 years for a laker to reach 2 pounds.

World Record

1991 – 66 pounds, 8 ounces, caught in Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories. A 102- pound lake trout was taken in a gillnet in Lake Athabasca, Saskatchewan, in 1961

Seneca and Cayuga Lakes

Seneca and Cayuga Lakes in the Upstate New York Finger Lakes Region are world renown for their lake trout fishery. There is no better tasting fish than a freshly caught lake trout! Enjoy it all with one of the best fishing charters in the Finger Lakes.