John Kelley

Haha, from one walleye guy to the next, be careful what you wish for, because after a few successful trips to Lake Ontario, and 25+ pound kings, you will find yourself saying wall........what!!!LOL  Seriously though, you will become hooked on the fight for sure!!

Hi Tim, this is my second year fishing the big 'O', and what I found out quickly last year was you can't go wrong with black, green silver and white on this lake.  Glow colors in the morning and evenings on the flashers, and bright chrome and whites at high, bright sunny periods. Hold on, because these are the biggest kings in all of the Great Lakes!!

Have you guys tried any meat rigs with herring yet? 

Do you have a stater or an alternator on your main motor?  An alternator will also keep your starter battery fully charged while running it out on the lake, but a stater......not so much.  I would keep a spare if your main motor uses a stater, and stick with one battery for an alternator.  Hope that made sense.

Haha, good luck to you, but remember, Lake O is not all protected like a sound or a large harbor, and it can get very rough for a 16' canoe.  Just pay attention to the wind and weather advisories and you should be alright.  Welcome aboard!

Nice going Shawn, you guys caught some real quality fish, there for sure.  See you at the Oak this weekend, buddy!  Let's get a derby brown!!

Thanks guys, maybe I will see you up there this weekend Shawn!  Good luck to you as well.  

I picked up my new friend Paul Lange at the Captain's Cove docks at 5:00 a.m., and we motored out to the lake.  I suppose we were setup by 5:45 or 6:00 a.m.  Went straight out to 55 fow and set out two 10 color leadcore lines off the boards with spoons, two dipseys and sd fly combos, and two downriggers with spoons.  We didn't have to wait long before one of the dipseys fired on a laker.  We caught sporadically through the morning and ended up by noon with 5 fat lakers and two kings.  Paul had to pick his friend up at the Rochester airport in the afternoon, to fish with Captain Carl Bish the next day.  I went back out that evening to try for browns in the skinny water, but only played with another lake trout.  The next morning I started out trying for browns in the 10' water west of the breakwall, and popped a nice 14 pound 4 ounce fatty right off the bat, and boated and released about a 5 pounder soon after.  The rest of the morning was very slow for me, except for a small coho that came off the boards in 35' of water.  

Great job Rick!  See you next weekend @ Wilson.

Nicely done my friend, and on Sunday!  I will see you at Wilson next weekend.

Nice looking perch!!

Fantastic looking slob brown!!  Way to go!!

Nice job, guys!!  Way to look out for the rest of us!!

I would switch the mono to 30 lb. to help combat the spiny water fleas, and to hold up to the big kings, and upgrade my leadcore to at least 30 lb. as well.  You can go lighter with your leaders if you choose.  Get some wire diver rod setups for pulling divers as well, and possibly a copper rig too.

I also love the over-sized handles on my Convectors, and the Okumas seem to just crank in better and more comfortably when fighting big fish as well. I like them better than my Daiwa Sealine linecounters.  Much smoother in all applications.

Oh yeah, and to expand on what Sk8man was saying about the finicky thing, they often do come up to investigate and just leave, and that is very frustrating. A trick I like to do when they are doing this is pump the lure up a couple times hard, until you see the mark materialize on the screen below your lure. At this point I will just hold my arm in one place and make it shake or quiver. This imparts tiny, erratic movements to the lure that will often times make the neutral acting walleye bite your offering. As soon as you feel the slightest tap, set the hook hard. These bites are usually very soft, and you have to really be paying attention. When the fish are actively feeding, you will know, because they will slam your lure! See, there are some good walleye guys here that will help out.

Walleyes are always an early morning and dusk bite. I would use a couple of different style jigging lures until you get them dialed in. My favorites are Jigging raps in bright colors, tipped with minnow head on the treble hook. Salmo Darters are also good search lures for walleyes(No minnow heads on these). I always go back and forth between those style(swimming lures), and rattle jigging spoons(also tipped with a minnow head. On my tip-ups I use Glow color "Weasel" spoons with shiner minnows. I hook the treble through the shiner's dorsal fin and let the spoon be the weight. Set your tip-ups about 6" from the bottom. Look for sharp break-lines in depth, distinct weed edges, or an abrupt end of a point. I also like areas that have a very distinct bottom transition:from from gravel to large rocks, or muck to clay, for example. A good Vexilar, or similar three color flasher unit will be your best search tool for jigging up some 'eyes! Good luck

Excellent post, and it was my first year fishing Lake Ontario as well. Funny how we came to almost identical conclusions on everything, except white with green dots was apparently way more productive for me than for you!!LOL I really am not looking forward to having only one more summer left to fish the big lake, but I will take what I can get! I have fished lakes all across the US, and can safely say, with no hesitation, that Lake Ontario is by far and away my favorite Lake of all. Pretty bad coming from a guy who was brought up on Walleyes, but these big Ontario beasties have definitely made a convert out of me!! What an absolutely fantastic fishery you New Yorkers have!!

There are clipped Coho salmon out there (left pectoral). We have caught & delivered them to D.E.C. The problem is neither the D.E.C. or the Ontario ministry of natural resources said they NEVER have clipped any. I questioned both agencies at same time during state of lake meetings. Jana Lantry (FED stocking guru to me @ least) worked on the last coho we gave her at a Niagara co. Pro-Am. She did confirm a fin clip and not a mutation/hatchery tank deformity.

Jerry

Rebel Charters

Why would any agency clip a fish's pectoral fin??? It is a pretty crucial fin for stability in swimming. I can understand an adipose fin clip, but certainly not a purposeful pectoral fin clip.

Capt Carl,

Thanks for the continued reports. They really encourage and help us occasional fishermen. Good luck with the tranny. Hope it's a quick and inexpensive fix.

I concur!!

Thanks for the tip on Saturday Carl, it turned my day around for sure! Sure is wild being that far out on the lake!!

Nice job Carl!! Man, that is some serious action!! Great report once again, Captain. Thanks!

Congrats on the big Derby / Shootout Steelhead Shawn.

P.S. You made FISHINMAN happy by catching a laker in his honor!

Hahaha, he almost caught two, but we were giving him such a bad time about it, I think he cut the line right by the boat!!

We had a blast even though the lake was trying to drown us!!LOL If we could have just hooked some larger fish we would have been right up there. I was impressed by how many fish stayed buttoned in those waves. 18th place and big steelhead, not too shabby for our first tournament! Look out next year, Sandy crowd, we will be aiming for the money!!!LOL

Nicely done, sir!