We were on a family camping trip to Priest Lake and I was able to get out with my brother and my two boys for a few hours of fishing. On other trips we had targeted Smallmouth and done very well but we decided to see if we could get some lake trout this time. We launched out of Elkins Resort on the Northwest end of the lake. We didn't know the area so we just went out into the lake a couple hundred yards and started trolling south. On one downrigger we ran a Brad's wobbler in neon/Chartreuse color. On the second downrigger I ran a 7 inch Sep's dodger with a 3 foot leader to a Brad's mini cut plug. We put some Anise/Krill sent on both lures. For a third rod I put a red Storm crawdad and an ounce of weight 100 ft behind the boat . We started off trolling at about 1.0 - 1.3 mph. There was a lot of chop and we were bouncing all over the place but it was only about 5 minutes and the crawdad lure got hit. My brother reeled in an 18 inch lake trout. We were pretty surprised to catch a laker that quickly. That first fish came in forty feet of water. A short time later into our troll as we moved down the shore-line the depth took a drop from 40ft to 80ft and we marked a bunch of fish near this transition. A minute later the downrigger set up with the Brad's wobbler came out of the clip and we had a 4 pound Makinaw in the boat. As my brother and boys were busy with the fish, the other downrigger went off and I reeled in our third Makinaw in 15 minutes. It weighed out at 3.5 pounds. Over the next hour we lost two fish and got three more in the boat for a total of six lakers in a hour and a half. I am sure that there was some luck involved in our success but we can't complain with three nice fish to take home a piece.

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