GAMBLER

You’re a little high. 6 people, 4 hrs is 900 ish for most reputable captains. 4 people is around 600ish. Go to Florida and they get $1000 +.

After expenses, time, gear, a big enough boat, maintenance, ect. captains do not make a lot of money. It's hard work and not a ton of monetary reward. I don't know of a charter captain that charges $1,000 for a 4 hour trip on Lake Ontario for 1-4 people. Price out a 27' or bigger boat, calculate the payment, get an insurance quote, figure out the cost of ALL of the gear, price out fuel for 120 trips a year, calculate paying slip and storage fees, calculate your time, paying a mate, paying for healthcare, retirement, and calculate maintenance costs, Tell me if you would be happy with the wage you are making. I have sat down and looked at these figures as a part time job. I chose to build tackle instead of chartering. It is not worth it unless you charge what these guys are charging and do a lot of trips a year. I give the fulltime captains and serious parttime captains a lot of credit. There are easier ways to make money, yet they choose to continue to charter. They constantly have to compete with hack captains that under cut their prices and give clients a crappy time on the water. It's easy to sit and judge when we are weekend warriors that run smaller boats with kickers or small outboards, but in reality, it shows that we don't have a clue what it costs to run a SUCCESSFUL and PROFITABLE charter business.

The fishing overall now blows away 30 years ago as far as numbers are concerned. As for salmon size, the fish now are nothing like 30 years ago. The East end lakers filled the board because a couple of guys targeted them. A couple of us did that in the 2012 Fall LOC and Dave took the Lake Trout division out of the LOC.

RIP Carl.

I'm talking proportionally. The rigger to junk line hit ratio was higher in favor of the riggers than normal for sure.

I switched to braid last season and will never turn back. I got a lot more rigger hits than the past using wire. Fleas were not an issue. My retro ease on the cable took 99% of them off the line before they got to the boom end,

Thank god there aren't any photos or videos!

With alewife die offs, it's easy pickings for the fish. Why would they eat your offerings when there are easy meals swirling in circles and easier to catch.

Lakers are the worst out of the salmonoids on Lake Ontario due to their age. Most kings live less than 4 years. Lakers can live a long time. The 34.06lb laker we caught in 2012 was 27 years old. Lots of years absorbing chemicals than any other trout and salmon species we catch in Lake Ontario.

I find King, brown and steelhead fishing are slower in the afternoon. When I fish afternoons, I usually start off fishing lakers until the sun starts to get lower on the horizon. The way I target lakers, mid day is the easiest time of the day to target them.

Yes but to get it full, you may have to start off lower in price to get clientele. A marina with 10 boats at $1500 each is a lot less than 20 boats at $1000 each.

I was one of the test group last time they did this research. ALL of my levels for contaminants were well below average. Proper filet methods and keeping smaller to medium sized fish for consumption are ways to lessen the contamination levels in Lake Ontario fish. When they did the study, I grilled the lady heading the project. She was more than willing to answer every question I asked her. They grind the entire fish or testing for contaminants. They do this because some people use the entire fish for consumption. I filet trout and salmon, trim the fat and take the skin off. I grill mine in a grill basket so fats and oils drip out of the filet into the bottom of my grill and not stay in the filet.

The reports I have seen on Facebook says they have. Even a 24 and change king caught by Matt Yablonski.