Food items commonly include zooplankton, insect larvae, small crustaceans, clams, snails, leeches, and various species of fish, including their own kind. Diet of the Lake Trout. The diet of lake trout varies with the age and size of the fish, locality, and food available. Dietary preferences vary based on the age of this fish. Some populations feed on plankton throughout their lives. In the Great Lakes region, alewives, smelt, sculpin and chubs make up a large portion of the lake trout diet (Wisconsin Sea Grant, 1999). Life History: Lake trout are fall season broadcast spawning fish on shoals or shallow reefs. Lake Trout Diet. Midges are important in the diet of lake trout <450 mm, particularly in September and October. What’s the best bait for Trout? Adults … Lake trout feed extensively on such other fish such as whitefish, grayling, sticklebacks, suckers, and sculpin in the far north, or cisco, smelt, and alewives elsewhere. Lake trout diet has changed since the introduction of alewife. Overall, we found that Lake Trout diets in 2016 consisted mostly (94% by wet weight) of Alewives and Round Goby Neogobius melanostomus. Younger fish feed primarily on smaller invertebrates, while adults hunt primarily for larger prey, like fish. Before the introduction of alewives, DEC found that forage fish for lake trout were primarily sculpins (Sanford 1984). Averaging across May through October, 61% of the Lake Trout diet consisted of Alewives. Arctic Lake Trout will go after suckers and sculpin. The native prey includes ciscoes and sculpin, but when available lake trout will take advantage of alewives, smelt, gobies or other fish and sometimes take crustaceans, terrestrial insects, plankton, even small birds and mammals. Plankton feeding lake trout grow more slowly, mature earlier and at a smaller size, die sooner and attain smaller maximum size than their piscivorous cohorts. As adults, lake trout are generally pisciverous, feeding on a wide variety of pelagic prey species. Overall, we found that Lake Trout diets in 2016 consisted mostly (94% by wet weight) of Alewives and Round Goby Neogobius melanostomus . Common Lake Trout foods are zooplankton, insect larvae, small crustaceans, clams, snails, leeches and juvenile fish including their own kind as well as prey fish. Common fish in their diet include whitefish, grayling, sticklebacks, smelt and suckers. DIET: Lake trout generally feed on a variety of organisms such as freshwater sponges, crustaceans, insects, fishes (with a preference for ciscoes or “lake herring”), and small animals. Seasonal … The juveniles hunt for plankton, insects, insect larvae, worms, and more. They do show homing behavior and …

A clear seasonal shift was apparent: the diet was dominated by Round Goby (67%) during May–June, whereas Alewives dominated the diet (76%) during July–October. Lake Trout diets has not been previously observed in northeastern Lake Michigan as Round Goby represented only 21% of the Lake Trout diet in spring of 2011.