I want to take my boat up to Lake Tahoe this summer and troll for lake trout (or mackinaws) and I know you have to set your down riggers to 180' to 200' of water to get down to the schools.  However, I'm not sure what type of spoons or plugs to use.  Does anybody troll for lake trout and have any suggestions?

If you scroll back through this Trout and Salmon Fishing forum...you find some great posts about trolling for lake trout. Guys like turnip, ERABBIT, and Pegsguy can give you tips on this also.
                                                                 

I fish Lake Michigan for trout and salmon and the fishing is almost exclusively a trolling game. We mosy often use a "tinsel" or "Howie" type fly trolled behind a dodger or flasher and our most productive color for the lakers has been white. Speed seems to be important, the lakers like a lure a bit slower, say in the 1.4-1.8 mph range, where salmon want it a bit faster.Almost every lake trout we have taken in 10 years of fishing has come very close to the bottom, usually the bottom 25' or so. oft times we end up cleaning mud off the rigger ball. PM me if you would like any more info.

I don't know if it will help but you might want to look at the fish sniffer newspaper they have forum type thing like here and they have one about macks in Tahoe . take a look it might help . tight lines!

This link might help you out...

http://www.fishingclub.com/my-nafc/.../aft/35680

Here alot of folks use flatfish with a chunk of sucker on it. I have seen quite a few large macs caught on this rig.
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Thanks for the tips, guys. We're considering a 4th of July weekend trip to Tahoe and see how we do. I plan on running 2 lines off of each downrigger, about 15' to 20' spaced apart between the top and bottom lines. I have never trolled this deep before, 100' being the deepest, any tips? If I decide to troll plugs and spoons, what length of line should I have out behind the cables?

180 ft to 200 ft down ! You will have a lot of blow back and stacking lines will give you more. Which could give you a HUGE mess. The ligher the cannon ball and speed also increase blow back. On a light bite you may have to kick the speed up to hook up solid with them that deep. To help decrease blow back I would use at least a 12 # cannon ball they have 13 # to 15 # ers out there. You could also go to a braid line - mono for the working end at the release , I have three set up just like this for when I have to fish below 120 ft. If you run spoons on your rigger you could also put a "cheater" sliding or fixed on the line that would give to two spoons at differnt depths and some what less blow back and a LOT less chance for a tangle......................are you sure you will have to go that deep ???? I did not have a clue what was in this lake before today and did a little looking and it shows a good mix of cold water fish..............anyway if you have a temp. gage at the ball find the 49* water and start from there ( up) It is always better to be above them they will come up but if your below they will not see your lure.

Did you ever think about jigging for them ???

Posted By cyberfish on 24 Apr 2012 01:08 PM
I don't know if it will help but you might want to look at the fish sniffer newspaper they have forum type thing like here and they have one about macks in Tahoe . take a look it might help . tight lines!

Definitely a good thought there cyberfish

Fish Sniffer is by far the best for Calif waters  here's a link to their website...

http://www.fishsniffer.com/content/

And this one is pretty decent for the whole West Coast...

http://www.imhooked.com/cgi-bin/forumsyabb/YaBB.pl

Posted By ERABBIT on 29 Apr 2012 09:26 AM
180 ft to 200 ft down ! You will have a lot of blow back and stacking lines will give you more. Which could give you a HUGE mess. The ligher the cannon ball and speed also increase blow back. On a light bite you may have to kick the speed up to hook up solid with them that deep. To help decrease blow back I would use at least a 12 # cannon ball they have 13 # to 15 # ers out there. You could also go to a braid line - mono for the working end at the release , I have three set up just like this for when I have to fish below 120 ft. If you run spoons on your rigger you could also put a "cheater" sliding or fixed on the line that would give to two spoons at differnt depths and some what less blow back and a LOT less chance for a tangle......................are you sure you will have to go that deep ???? I did not have a clue what was in this lake before today and did a little looking and it shows a good mix of cold water fish..............anyway if you have a temp. gage at the ball find the 49* water and start from there ( up) It is always better to be above them they will come up but if your below they will not see your lure.

Did you ever think about jigging for them ???

I have a 10# ball on both downriggers, so that will help.  As for the depth, that's where they're at.  We went with a fishing guide on two different occasions on Lake Tahoe and I took some pretty good notes, but didn't get everything.  The one thing we learned was watching the bottom structure and depth on the fish finder.  We were crossing over peaks between 220' and 180' down and as soon as we spotted some schools are large fish on the finder, our guide was telling us to keep on the eye on lines and sure enough, one would usually pop off and we'd reel in a lake trout from that depth.  By the time they'd reach the surface, they would usually have already inflated.  Yep, the fish were that deep.  Certain times of the year, you can find them shallower, but we're just going with what we learned.  We tried jigging, but with a drifting boat on a lake as large as Tahoe, finding the bottom proved to be futile.  But, they Crippled Herring jigs supposedly work well and we have several on the boat.

live minnows covered in trophy trout gel about a foot and a 1/2 behind a big dogger you are right on about the depth but it does change with water temp good luck