Great Lakes Great Lakes Trolling Blog
Practical guides to using Great Lakes forecasts and measurements to plan time on the water.
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Great Lakes Salmon and Trout: How Each Species Relates to the Thermocline
See how Chinook, Coho, steelhead, lake trout, brown trout, and Atlantic salmon use the thermocline, and how to build a starting trolling spread.
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Great Lakes Upwelling and Downwelling: What They Mean for Salmon Fishing
Learn how wind-driven upwelling and downwelling move the Great Lakes thermocline and change where cold water, bait, and salmon are found.
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How Underwater Currents Affect Great Lakes Salmon Fishing
See how underwater currents shift temperature, bait, and lure speed, and how sonar and down-speed readings help interpret the change.
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Alewife and Rainbow Smelt: How Baitfish Control Great Lakes Salmon Depth
Understand how alewife and rainbow smelt move through the Great Lakes water column, and use baitfish depth to find salmon.
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Chinook Salmon Temperature and Depth: Why Kings Don't Always Follow the Temperature Chart
Learn why Chinook salmon cross their preferred temperatures and how to combine temperature, bait, sonar, and season when setting trolling depths.
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Steelhead, Coho and Chinook: Why They Stack at Different Depths
Compare how steelhead, Coho, and Chinook use different parts of the water column, then spread your lines across the most likely zones.
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Lake Trout and the Thermocline: Finding Summer Lakers
Use thermocline depth, temperature profiles, bait, and bottom structure to find summer lake trout without assuming they are always on bottom.
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Summer Brown Trout and the Nearshore Thermocline
Learn why summer brown trout can stay near shore while relating to the thermocline, and how to find suspended fish above bottom.
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Great Lakes Thermal Fronts: Why Temperature Boundaries Can Concentrate Salmon
Learn how Great Lakes thermal fronts differ from the vertical thermocline and why horizontal water boundaries can concentrate salmon and bait.
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Preferred Temperature vs Actual Fish Temperature: How to Read Great Lakes Temperature Charts
Use preferred temperatures as a starting point, then account for forage, season, oxygen, and the temperatures salmonids actually occupy.
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Lake Erie Thermocline and Hypoxia: When Colder Water Isn't Better
Learn how seasonal hypoxia in Lake Erie's central basin can make cold deep water unsuitable and compress fish and forage above it.
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Great Lakes Salmon Fishing: How to Find and Fish the Thermocline
Learn how the thermocline affects Great Lakes salmon fishing, how to find it with sonar or a NOAA forecast, and how to use it to set your trolling depths.
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Trolling the Great Lakes Without a Fish Hawk: Lake Erie & Lake Ontario
See how Great Lakes current forecasts can help anglers plan a trolling trip on Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, or Lake Superior without a Fish Hawk probe.