Another interesting finding is related to the nursery conditions needed for young Lake Trout. The nursery for lakers is below the adults living near the thermocline, usually at about the 60 to 80 foot mark. The young live at 100 to 180 feet deep, and for up to 2 years at this depth. Therefore the quality and quantity of the deep water is critical to this laker nursery. Some research suggests that hatchery reared lakers grow faster and often cannibalize on the slower growing natural lakers, but if you have a lake with nearly nonexistant laker populations, I think the choice is clear, use stocked fish.
Some angler say that suckers are bad for any Lake Trout lake.
Studies on this topic strongly show that lakers selectively feed on medium sized suckers 8 to 12 inches long. The fact is, Lake Trout really need sucker populations as a preferred food source. If there are some fish that seem to have a negative effect on Lake Trout populations, research over a 17 year study period would point a finger at rock bass and smallmouth bass as the two to watch out for. After their introduction into Lake Trout lakes, the yellow perch will nearly disappear, brown bullheads will go, and minnow populations will decline. The Lake Trout get older but not bigger, and the mature fish produce less eggs.