[bulletbob]

The majority of the salmonids in any lake of size that contains a schooling suspended food source such as Alewives, or bottom dwelling Scuds, will not stray far from the bait for long in mid winter... If that means the bait is staying deeper than say 70-80 feet, thats where most of the trout will be... If they are keying on herring they will be roaming close to the moving schools.. some fish seem to like Scuds better, especially some lakers, and they will tend to stay close to bottom where the scuds are.

Here in NY state, the trout are down 150+ feet all winter.. Some do come up shallow or near the surface, but most follow the bait, which is deep this time of year...bob