Raystown Lake Trout

I wish that I could offer advice but am not qualified.  I was thinking that to really lean techniques that work I may have to book a charter with a guide.  If you paid, went, and caught fish you could take mental notes. . .then, assuming you have your own equiptment you may have more success.  I guess that the limitation to that is I do not like to pay to fish AND you would only learn a style from one captian or guide that worked on a particular day on a particular time of the year. 
 
I was told by somebody that the Raystown Bass club approached several, very famous fishing celeberties about shooting a show on Raystown.  Most of the smart pros asked the same questions.  What was the average and maximum depth, what species are commonly caught, what was the availabilty of bait or forage fish.  Once the questions were answered it appears that most of the pros realiezed that the odds were stacked against them.  A deep lake that is over run with paleagic bait is NOT a good bet for success. . .even for the "big boys".
 

Back to the lakers,  I have read that the lakers are solitary predators, that they will be spread out on the graph.  My understanding is that stripers are more like pack hunters.  This was pretty obvious to me, on first peek yesterday near the resort.  The stripers were in the same areas that there were limited clouds of baitfish.  On the way back to the launch, we found a cove inside of Shy Beaver that was litterly BLACK with schooling shad and the school was bigger than my 18+ foot boat.  Point is that you need equiptment to hunt these fish as they are deep right not.  If I am correct the lakers, being cold water fish, stay down most of the year where the stripers become much more active, top feeders.
 
Again, I know little but want to learn as well.  What I have just typed my prove how LITTLE I do know!! LOL  Raystown is a complex lake and I am but a rank amatuer fisherman.  As I talked to my fishing partner yesterday we almost both had do agree, after the lake us a pretty bad****whoopin'. . .we should get rid of all of the boats we have (he has MANY, I have 1) and stay on the fish we have the most success chasing.   I must say that I had to partially agree but when you fish, knowning that the odds are stacked against you, infrequently do you have fantastic success.
 
Let me know if you want to do a laker charter.  The more guys that go, up to the maximum, defrays the cost.  I have never looked at what it might run BUT considering fuel costs of mutiple lake trips etc. . .it may be cost effective in the long run to get a professional lesson!
 
Just my thoughts,
Brent

Brent, thanks for the words of thought. Large lakes certainly are harder to fish, at least in my experience. There are those magical days when you hit everything just right and catch a ton of fish some being very nice. A couple of my personal bests come from Raystown and I haven't seriously fished that lake since I left PA in 2003 after graduating from college. I don't have the world's greatest boat, but I do have a great fish finder and decent down riggers and know how to use them since my father and I do a lot of fishing on the Chesapeake Bay and rely on them heavily to tackle saltwater fish. I have read as much as I can about lake trout myself but there is only so much one can read generally. It does seem that the lake trout in Raystown hold up in the third of the lake closest to the dam. Also they tend to hug the bottom and the thermocline so I am assuming if you find where the thermocline meets the bottom, you're at least close to being on track. I just wish I could get some local knowledge on what specific colors and baits the trout like in Raystown and any other details a kind soul is willing to give up. A guide maybe a good idea in the long run, but I like you hate the idea of paying someone to teach me. I'd much rather just trade knowledge in a friendship or at least trade knowledge for knowledge. I doubt I could talk a Raystown guide into coming to VA for a guided fishing trip in return for a trip to VA for some excellent fishing. Maybe I should call a couple and find out??? HAHA

Gentlemen,
       Just a hint.  Since the lakers hold so deep ; color doesn't matter too much but size and action does.  Try a red/metallic silver spoon,  at about 40 feet around points or underwater elevations.  Fish it slow just fast enough to get the thing to flop.

drake,
     We used to make our own "depth charges"   Tie a brick to a nylon rope, wire a snap-type clothes pin to the brick, put the 15# test line in the clothes pin with about 8 - 10 feet trailing behind it and put the spoon on the end.  It ain't pretty but it works. you can also fasten the clothes pin slightly above the brick, that way if your brick gets stuck in some submerged trees and you loose it . .  no big loss.   But I did once pull up a pretty good sized part of a tree.

pig laker .....they are there