Really big lake trout, divining meaning on Lake Michigan: Fish of the Week

Bruce Noworul made the right observations and asked the right questions about winter fishing for lake trout in southern Lake Michigan.

“Been fishing 95th for 30 years and the last few have been amazing for lake trout,” he emailed. “I don’t know if I have become a better fisherman, the fish have always been there, or they have migrated more towards the south end of the lake in the winter.”

My guess is that it’s a combination of more lakers in our end of Lake Michigan and anglers getting better at targeting them in winter.

“Lake trout are in shallow on the south end, so many boats out there [Jan. 5] you would think it was April,” he emailed. “We caught a bunch. This was our biggest.”

FOTW, the celebration of big fish and their stories around Chicago outdoors, runs Wednesdays on the Sun-Times’ outdoors page. Submit nominations on Facebook (Dale Bowman), on Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or email (straycasts@sbcglobal.net).