How early in the fall to lakers typically come into shallows?
right before freeze over? earlier?

Lake trout season closes 9/30/12. Not real sure if they move shallow before then.

Depends on water temps.

i,ve done well on seagull for lakers the first two weeks of sept. but as far as looking at a calender every year is different. me i would troll a crankbait something that gets down more then 10' i,ve had very good luck with the suspending models.

If I can get up there around the end of sept, they could be deep, they could be shallow or in transition. Correct?
I know there are a ton of variables but I am just curious about basic seasonal patterns/tendacies

quote john 800: "If I can get up there around the end of sept, they could be deep, they could be shallow or in transition. Correct?
I know there are a ton of variables but I am just curious about basic seasonal patterns/tendacies"

Well I will say that most years they will still be deep, there is some variables that change this but usually at best lakes arent even turned over yet so they are still in summer patterns. if you ever hit a year with a very early fall, and the lakes turn over early, you would hit the motherlode, but most years the Lake trout season closes before this happens at this latitude . That being said even in midsummer if you have a lure thats capable of getting 25 feet deep you can still catch lakers in the middle of the day in the middle of summer, just not in the numbers that you can expect to see in early spring and late fall if you could still fish for them .

quote Basspro69: "

quote john 800: "If I can get up there around the end of sept, they could be deep, they could be shallow or in transition. Correct?
I know there are a ton of variables but I am just curious about basic seasonal patterns/tendacies"

Well I will say that most years they will still be deep, there is some variables that change this but usually at best lakes arent even turned over yet so they are still in summer patterns. if you ever hit a year with a very early fall, and the lakes turn over early, you would hit the motherlode, but most years the Lake trout season closes before this happens at this latitude . That being said even in midsummer if you have a lure thats capable of getting 25 feet deep you can still catch lakers in the middle of the day in the middle of summer, just not in the numbers that you can expect to see in early spring and late fall if you could still fish for them ."

Thanks Basspro, after working way more OT than I wanted most of the summer and thinking there will be a break in sept I could go for some nice fishing around fall colors, if I actually catch a few fish They will have to drag me back kicking LOL

Your welcome, I hope you have a great trip. Just remember, the Brookies ,Rainbows and Browns are starting to get warmed up by then, and they also go very well with fall colors, and you can fish them until the end of October .