GAMBLER

You do to have to tell me about fishing lakers. I put more hours in lake trout fishing than 99% of the fishermen on Lake Ontario. I enjoy catching any species from carp on the fly to pike in a tip up. It is cool to have Atlantics as another species to catch but I hope I never see the day when they are the main species.

King Davy, How do you explain the legislation the Canadian government is drawing up getting rid of the stocking of non-native species? You say there is no plans of changing to Atlantics and lakers but the writing is on the wall on the other side of the pond. Do some digging and you will find the legislation. It's hard to sit hear and say there is no agenda when everyone on this site has no idea what the agenda is in government no matter how much involvement we have with the dec or mnr.

King Davy and dnrroch, take your Atlantic salmon agenda somewhere else. No one here wants to hear two internet trolls jump on a topic and bash kings and trolling for kings.

It is an open forum, but it is pretty interesting how you only contribute to threads that you can inject your approval of Atlantics and no other useful input to the forum.

Last time I checked, the salmon were the most sought after fish in the lake. The kings, coho, steelhead, browns and lakers come before Atlantics in 99% of Lake Ontario anglers minds. Other than a couple pipe dreamers, I have never heard someone show up at the dock wanting to go out and target Atlantics.

The mnr is stocking Atlantics for one reason..... Private money. Do some research. One of the Canadian hatcheries does not raise kings anymore to raise Atlantics. They also dropped there coho program. Every year I catch more coho than Atlantics and a lot less coho are stocked.

Kings may spawn and die but they are thriving in Lake Ontario. Atlantics on the other hand have a very poor survival rate. The Canadian mnr is stocking 600,000 per year with less than 50 returns. The Atlantic salmon project is and has been a waste of time. Until they find a strain that will survive, they should not waste money and valuable hatchery space on a couple decade science project that has failed time and time again. How would the fishery survive on return rates and catchy rates like the Atlantic salmon gives us? Your pipe dream will become a nightmare for Lake Ontario if it ever happens.

What is temp down out there?

Coppers will excel when the fish are in a less aggressive mood. Divers excel on active fish. If you are trying to run divers on boards, you will have to pull your regular divers to redeploy it after a fish. If done correctly, you can rig coppers over divers without pulling them in.

90% of the Atlantics I have caught over the 29 years I have been fishing Lake Ontario fought worse than a 5 lb laker in 75 degree water. You can have every one of them.

Nice job Chris!

It is funny how my discussion with a select few this spring about trout being as important as salmon really came to light this summer. A couple that made it sound like I was off my rocker were fishing browns and lakers to keep charters alive. This is the reason ALL species of Lake Ontario should get the same respect! With one piece of the puzzle missing, the others hold the fishery together.