Char_Master

Awesome, thanks!

Anyone know if Dunkirk (or Barcelona) still have the docks in at their boat launches?

Thanks! I'll post a report after this weekend as long as the Lake is nice enough to let us get out one last time.

Thank you for the info! Any particular presentations that produce well this time of year? I'm a bit concerned with snagging balls with how rocky it is in shallow but hopefully it'll be fine as long as I stay a few feet off bottom.

At this point in the year I'm probably pushing my luck looking for reports, but I'll ask anyway. Anyone been fishing out of Dunkirk for Salmonids lately? Looks like the water temps are creeping down into the upper 50's and I've read a few things that claim the Lakers are pretty active in 10-40 FOW November-December once the water drops below 58°. I'll have a three day window this coming weekend to get on the water one more day this season before winterizing my boat. Assuming there aren't 18' waves like they're calling for today (or even 4' for that matter), does anyone have experience with Fall Lakers on Erie? If not, I'm considering some Steelhead/Brown fishing around the harbor as a backup fishery. Thanks in advance!

Glad to hear! Oddly enough, when I cut open the stomach of that 12 pounder, there was a large Alewife in it, but of the two Salmon I kept, neither had any Alewives in them. One had an empty stomach and the other had two mainly digested fish that looked like either Smelt or Ciscos/Herring.

Thanks! If we had more time I'd have gone out further and tried to find bait, but even taking rods out at 9:00 I didn't get home until almost 7:00 last night.

Absolutely, such a cool experience to catch fish in over 500 feet when I rarely if ever break 140 on Erie haha. Awesome to have so many options around here. Erie has Lake Trout, Steelhead, Walleye, Drum, Smallies and White Bass while Ontario has Chinooks, Cohos, Steelhead, Browns, Lakers, and even Atlantics. Plus all the inland species available in the area.

Olcott 8/11 - 8/13 Made our annual trip to Lake Ontario the past three days and although we didn't have nearly the success that most others going out of Olcott were having, we still did better than our five day trip last July/August. 13/18 fish total landing 7 Steelhead (22-29" up to 12.0#) and 8 Chinooks (15-25" up to 7.5#). Friday evening- Fished from 3:30-8:30 PM. 3/5 Chinooks (18-22") and 1/2 Steelhead (27"). Started deep and worked the 28-30 lines in 450-510 FOW. Couldn't find fish for an hour then lost a nice Steelhead and what would've been the best Chinook of the trip (~30") about 50 yards from the boat. Silver/blue and silver/green stingers 40' and 100' down got those two fish. Headed in shallow after that, started in 100 FOW east and eventually worked into 40 FOW just off the harbor. Finally found some hungry Chinooks and took 3 little shakers (18-22") plus a feisty 27" Steelhead that swam through the outdrive and various cords around it, making us stop the boat with two other lines in (somehow didn't lose any gear, miraculously landed that Steelhead too). Everything we landed in shallow was on the same Flasher/spoon rig down mid-depth on the right rigger. Saturday morning- Fished 5:30-10:00 AM. 4/4 Steelhead (22-29") and 1/2 Chinooks (18"). Once again started deep, set up at the 27 line and trolled north. Covered 420-505 FOW. First fish ate just before 6:00 and hit a watermelon moonshine 250' back on a 3.5 wire diver. Nice 28" screamer Steelhead to start the day. Little 18" Chinook not long after that on a Flasher/spoon down 100' on a rigger. Took a nice pair of 24" and 22" Steelhead between 7:00-8:00, again on a melon spoon 250' back on a wire diver, then the offshore bite shut down for us. Tried inshore hoping to find anything willing to eat, covered 80-150 FOW with no action for about two hours before we finally got the best fish of this trip at 10:00. Ate a Flasher/spoon 50' down in 100 FOW and tore off 80' off line in a minute. Thought I had a nice Chinook on until the fish started breaking water and I saw the square tail & blue back, monster chromer on! Thankfully this one didn't run under the prop like last night, but he took a good two minutes to land after boatside since it wanted no part of our net. Super fat 29" and 12 pounds, my heaviest Steelie to date. Wasn't able to revive this fish like I was for the other Steelhead, so we headed in after that fish to fillet him and wait a few hours for the late afternoon bite. Saturday afternoon/early evening- Fished 2:00-6:00 PM. Got a tip about fish being further east so we started in 300-350 FOW off the power plant. Quickly scored a pair of smaller Chinooks (15" and 21") one off the rigger and the other off a wire diver, then nothing. Ran around trying various spots offshore with no luck so we once again came in shallow and worked 100 FOW down to 40 FOW. Finally picked up a decent Chinook, 25" and 7.5#. Only fish of the trip that ate a Flasher/fly rig (two-face with stud) about 70' down over 90 FOW. Hit a decent 22" Steelhead on a Flasher/spoon after that before we called it a night and headed in. Sunday morning- Fished 5:30-9:00 AM. Not sure if it was just us or if everyone was having trouble, but we couldn't find a single hungry fish between 50-400 FOW east of the harbor in the short time we fished. Tons of bait in shallow but no predators looking to eat, apparently. Nothing out deep either, and marked little to no bait. Saw many boats offshore but we didn't want to burn the extra gas as we had to leave early to head home regardless. Wasn't a fan of getting skunked Sunday, but we had a great time Friday and Saturday! As someone who fishes Lake Erie for Steelhead all Summer and Fall, I'm still amazed by the impressive quality of Lake O's chromer fishery. The fish up there average way larger and are all extremely tall-bodied compared to Erie's slender torpedo-shaped fish. Chinooks aren't a species I fish for very often (though they are delicious!), but the aggressive fights of those huge Steelhead is what keeps me coming back to Lake Ontario.

Glad I tried this rig, it was our number one producer this weekend. Caught 13/18 fish Friday night and Saturday morning/afternoon and the vast majority were on a 4" Moonshine Flounder Pounder about five feet behind an 8" Dragon Slayer Spin Doctor. Same SD with a Mixed Veggies Stinger took our biggest fish of the weekend, a 12 pound Steelhead. Glad to add another weapon to my arsenal!

Nice job out there, Decoy Hound! Think I saw your boat offshore yesterday morning, we were in the same general depth.

Thanks for the feedback! Heading offshore in a couple hours so I'll post here if I do any good with flasher spoon rigs.

Flasher-spoons? Wondering if any of you guys ever run the standard 3-6" spoons behind a flasher? I know flasher-flies and flasher-meat are the most popular combos, and I've even heard of some people using dodger-spoon rigs, but never much mention of flasher-spoons. I'll be fishing out of Olcott for the next 2.5 days and from what I've heard so far, it's almost entirely a spoon bite offshore. That said, I'm a firm believer in always having at least one flasher in the spread whenever trolling for any of the silver species, more often than not I think it simply attracts them in to the spread so they see the spoons on other lines and go after them instead, as my catch rate is usually higher when pulling a flasher-fly while the flasher itself is rarely touched. To me, if the fish are eating primarily spoons at the time, it makes sense to run a flasher off one of my riggers to attract the Salmon & Trout to the spread and pair it with a spoon four feet or so behind that (so its action is independent of the flasher). Thoughts?

Seriously!? Wow, I would have never thought. Thanks for letting me know, I would've wasted a whole weekend trying to find Lakers out there! Heck, hopefully it's still cold off Barcelona. I'm tempted just to stay at my home port and head east to fish deep off North East, PA.

Thanks!

Do you mean it's come closer to shore at Dunkirk? Unless the lake flipped the Laker fishing should be fine, it should still be 39° under the thermocline out deep.

Hoping to fish out of Dunkirk one final time this Summer before the lake turns over in September. Thinking the same program I ran last time should produce fish. But, for those of you who fish here often, any recommendations for nice marinas that offer transient slips with power? I'd like to fish both days this coming weekend and it'd be easiest if I could just stay on the boat right on the water overnight. Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the additional info, all! And those are some great pictures, fisherman21. I may be heading to lake O this weekend so I'm going to see how much my 6'8" can do up there for Browns and Steelhead. When I do go to buy a new rod though, I'm likely going for the 9' spinning rod. I've talked to a couple guys who use long rods for jigging Lakers on Ontario with success and I think it'll be more versatile than a 7' casting rod.

Thanks for the input guys! I've got it narrowed down to 2 rods at this point with the following specs. 1) 9'0" medium power, fast action, 3/8-3/4 ounce lures (spinning rod) or 2) 7'1" medium-heavy power, fast action, 1/2-2 ounce lures (casting rod) The second one seems like a perfect jigging rod (listed as a multi-purpose Walleye rod) but I'm leaning towards the first as it's a Steelhead & Salmon float/drift style rod and I could use it for not only jigging but also casting and float fishing. I know long rods generally aren't geared towards jigging but with a fast action, does it really matter? Either way, I think they'll both get the job done.

Jigging rods Does anyone here do any amount of jigging out on the big ponds for Trout, Salmon, Walleye, etc? I just started getting into open water jigging this year on Erie for Walleye, Drum, and White Bass and I'd like to give it a try for Lakers, Browns, and Steelhead as well on Erie and Ontario. The setup I've been using is a 6'8" medium power, extra fast action rod with a 1/8-3/8oz rating and while it's the perfect rod for smaller Drum and Walleye fishing lures up to 3/4oz, I'm doubtful it'll have the necessary power to turn a large Lake Trout, slow down a feisty Steelhead, or have the backbone to set the hook with a 2 ounce jig on the bottom in deep water. I'm thinking something in the 7'4"-9'0" range with a medium or medium heavy power and fast action would be more ideal for Trout and the rare Salmon. I'll be using jigs and lures from 1/2 to 2 ounces depending on the depth of water and drift speed. I'm willing to spend anywhere from $80-280 for a quality rod. So, do you guys have any recommendations for (preferably spinning) rods that suit the bill? Thanks for the help!

Thank you!

Thanks! Actually not a single fish puked up an earlier meal. In Erie though, 99% of their summer diet is going to consist of Rainbow Smelt and Round Gobies. In the spring and fall they usually key in more on Emerald Shiners instead of Smelt but there's very few Emeralds in the lake this year overall.