How deep does a lake need to be to support Lake Trout?

[Kravchenko]

I know Lake Trout need deep, cool and relatively clear lakes to survive, but how deep does it need to get? I have been searching for a lake pretty close to Winnipeg to take the kids for Lake Trout this year and I have settled on West Hawk as being the most convenient and easiest to manage taking 3 little kids to. However, my search has left me with some questions.

For example, Davidson Lake in Nopiming has some lakers in it, but it has a fairly small area where it seems to get around 72 feet deep from what I can tell. Falcon Lake might not be as clear, but it has a waaaaaay larger area of deep water and it gets deeper than Davidson and it has a tonne of forage fish. What factors kept Trout out of Falcon (where if I am not mistaken, an attempt was made to stock them a long time ago) but allowed them to grow a spawning population in Davidson?

[Derek]

Great question!

Short Answer: Sometimes a fish species persists where you would not expect them to be - sometimes a fish species is not present where you think they should be! There are many factual and theoretical ways to explain the current fish assemblage in a given waterbody.

Long Answer: …best answered in a phone conversation! Please call 204-345-1450 between 8:30 and 4:30 or contact me through DM and we can arrange a phone call when it suits you.

Derek

[GordF]

I’m thinking over 100 ft.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Crimson Night]

Laurie Lake has a decent population of lakers. It's pretty deep though it's not huge. I met with some of the fishery management people on the shore there once and they said they were stocked there and the population became self sustaining.

Sent from my VOG-L04 using Tapatalk

[danger]

Originally Posted by GordF

I’m thinking over 100 ft.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mid Lake has Lakers no? Can't imagine it's close to 100 ft

[GordF]

Originally Posted by danger

Mid Lake has Lakers no? Can't imagine it's close to 100 ft

Stocked perhaps I can’t see natural ones in a non oligotrophic lake.
Then again I ain’t no biologist


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[danger]

Originally Posted by GordF

Stocked perhaps I can’t see natural ones in a non oligotrophic lake.
Then again I ain’t no biologist


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Splake was stocked years ago and people think Lakers got mixed in as there is a very healthy population of new smaller fish

[kwfishman]

I guess I would add what do you mean by "support". I've fished Laurie Lake on the Laurie river (there's two "Laurie" Lakes I think) and it "supports" lakers. Only a couple small holes in the 50 to 60 foot range, most of it's under 20 feet. But they don't spawn there. They make a one way trip over feeder falls from deeper lakes as small fish/fry and are able to survive. But they don't spawn there.