Offshore IV

I have run and caught them in other lakes with a flasher spoon combo but I don’t use that for Lake O. I run 30lb big game with a barrel swivel to 30lb flouro tipped with a snap directly to the spoon. Most guys prob don’t run this heavy but can’t be too careful. 

I hope you have rain gear. Personally for me this time of year is tough (though I’m on the salmon river end of the lake, which is the opposite end) They could be in shallow, and they could be out deeper. They also could bite any setup- meat, flies, spoons but spoons should be your primary run, with one meat rig and one flasher fly combo. If you can run six rods, I’d run your meat on a rigger deep, your fly combo on a diver halfway down to bottom and the rest spoons. 

But it will change day to day. Watch your fish finder to locate em. If you want to target lakers, know that most electronics will not mark them since they’re so close to bottom. 

Be be safe and good luck!

29 minutes ago, Major Haul said:

Fished sunday eve for 3 hrs. 2 boats, 1 lake trout. Will take some time to figure this out after the weekends weather

Not to mention the last two weeks of 25mph winds and constant 10’ waves haha

What do you think the kings will do, if anything at all, with the warmup this week?

Dang she did well! Fish has awesome coloring 

Nice that guy is a beaut! We attempted around 3:30 but the lake was too choppy so I just went home 🥺

20 minutes ago, Justy-Joe Sportfishing said:

LOL too funny guys. Well said. I swear half the fun is just not having a bunch of stuff going on to worry about. I do that all summer manage big spreads while entertaining. It's fun sometimes to just head out with just enough and see what you can get. That's what we've been doing anyway. And this time of year you can get away with it while everything is happening relatively shallow I guess. 

I’ll be honest, the first time I salmon fished with my boat was only a few years ago. I had mentioned to my buddy I didn’t want to go out more than a mile. Well after trolling for hours (not sure why my stupid self didn’t do some math) I was like 9 miles offshore haha now I carry a trolling motor as backup, although my merc only has 345 hours on it. That was only with two riggers. The following year I got two boards and two dipseys. Then I just finally got a pair of wire dipseys last week lol now I can run 10 rod spreads 

18 minutes ago, Fat Trout said:

The  problem with having a big boat mindset in a small boat is you will push it more and more.  I ran in boats up to 25' then stepped back for a few years and didn't troll.  Then I missed the lake and I got a 13'er  with a 9.9 thinking I was "just going for bass".   I did, then I slid out further for browns, then I ended up as far as 7 miles out with a rigger half ass strapped to this thing trolling for kings on flat calm days.  Got fish too, what a sleigh ride.   That's when I needed a self intervention and got a bigger boat....then yet a bigger one....lol

I’ve been trying like crazy to justify a bigger boat. My offshore is 19’ with very high sides as it was the smallest aluminum built specifically for the ocean. I rebuilt the thing, transom, floors, new outboard etc. and it serves me very well. 

12 minutes ago, Justy-Joe Sportfishing said:

Thanks a lot man! No I got a laugh out of team red LOL. I can assure you safety is priority for me and I am a tenacious SOB but I am smarter than to push my limits too far. I have a ton of respect for you guys and no not at all. I welcome anyone who wants to fish by me is more than welcome anytime. I saw Dirty Goose go by me also...he must have been laughing his but off also watching us out there. I think I'm gonna bite the bullet and drag the big boat out next time. I realized the fish seem to be sliding deeper now and I miss my riggers. Interesting day...I was torn between fishing the obvious mud line and fishing the dirty water as it was 8 degrees warmer!? The fish we caught were all deeper, colder water. The dirty was was really baddd but we did hit the king in there so that left me wondering if the fish were there but my spread was not conducive to the conditions. I also noticed most of the boats were on the mud line so that was the obvious way to go but many guys said the bite was slow. Thoughts on this?? We did find more fish west off the mud line over 40ft. They were all on 4 colors lead which puzzled me bc I though the browns would be in the warmer water right now but maybe it's a bait thing?

Dude yesterday was the first time I went out and got nothing. The water wasn’t as clear yesterday as it was two weeks ago. But the water temp was far better in front of Mexico point. I think it was 53* there va 44* toward the plant. 40’ is the only depth I really marked even a couple fish, they were down around 35 or so. I think I woulda been better off sticking to the river mouth. I’m still learning and trying to adapt. I don’t think your boat was in danger in any way, more that it didn’t look very enjoyable haha especially if your first mate isn’t sure how to run the motor or rods. 

1 minute ago, Justy-Joe Sportfishing said:

That would be me and I'm currently lmao. In my defense I was not going to travel far and had all appropriate safety gear. We ended up heading into fish shorelines but I had no confidence in the water clarity I had in there. Luckily the wind layed down just as we were going to pack it in. Fyi I drive 3.5 hours to fish that lake and my 21steiger is camped out in LG. So hope you dont judge me for being in that boat. But it's convenient and catches fish. I always bring an emergency motor and am a guide on LG...So not really the clown you may think I am. We did get tangled fighting a king...my gf first ever so actually I pulled all lines to fight that fish solely which was intentional. Us poor guys boated 6 smaller browns and one nice brown just shy of 10#. Ended up being a great day. Although I agree it was a bit risky at one point I was out there on a west 5 to 8 forecast. Hope you guys can respect that I enjoy all you share and have learned a lot from this site! 

Lol no **** haha let me rephrase *i likely wouldn’t have been out there in a boat smaller than mine. Haha apologies if we got too close, we kinda got pinched between you guys and another boat. Hey if it works it works, you did far better than me. Must be your truck was the last one in the lot? Mine was second to last. Got real choppy at the end of the night.

meant no disrespect, you guys did awesome!!! I’ll see team red again soon

6 hours ago, Hachimo said:

Sucks to have a bad catching day.  But they certainly make them days u load the boat up that much better.

Come to think of it. I didnt mark a whole lot of fish yesterday. Blank screens and rods would fire. Then occasionally I would have a mark come up and chase the ball,drop to neutral quick back in gear and rod would fire.  
I’m sure ur next trip will make up for it. Still nice  to get out whenever ya can. 

Perhaps I was going too fast. I know the saying but my experience this year has been west winds the fish bite the least, east winds the best lol I woulda changed lures more often but it was just me my gf and her 8 yo son so that combined with the rollers restricted me a bit. 

50 minutes ago, Low Baller said:

Moral of the story. ....never bet against the kids. They always win lol.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Lake Ontario United mobile app
 

Ain’t that the truth. Thought about you today because “team red” as the gf dubbed them, was out in a boat similar to yours. 16’ red Lund that was not even close to adaquate for the conditions. They got turned around and tangled I’m pretty sure. Poor guys. If they’re on this forum they’ll know it’s them I’m talking about. 

Well I report the good and the bad. Went out around 4 today lake flat. Started between the point and catfish creek got my 6 rods in the water and then the wind picked up. 3’ rollers in my boat kinda sucks. Trolled all the way to the bouys by the plant and not even a mark. Went from 10-60’. It’s like they disappeared. Oh well. I’ve had such good luck this year I cannot complain, plus it was a beautiful night. Lost $10 on a bet that we’d catch one fish to an 8 year old tho hahahha

2 minutes ago, Hachimo said:

I had steelhead, river fishing diehards with me With little lake experience and they were getting sick with the chop. And around 11ish it seemed the switch was flipped and flat calm. 

😡😡😡 so upset at myself! I have to take my gf and her 8 year old son at some point. Maybe tomorrow it’ll be flat but it doesn’t look good. 

Wow very nice! Dang I took the bike down to Mexico point right at 11 and there were white caps so I didn’t even consider bringing my boat but now I’m upset at myself since you said it laid down!

Lol. Someone’s not relaying to the rest of us wth is going on at Wright’s...

4 minutes ago, mrclean said:

wrights landing and the city of Oswego is closed to any boat traffic right now. the lot is all torn up and no launches are usable. Your wasting your time going to Oswego.

Are they making repairs or what’s going on there?

Just now, Fishmaster 196 said:

They dont need a license and they count as far as rods and limit go as long as you can justify that they can reel in their fish on their own.

Sent from my LM-G820 using Lake Ontario United mobile app
 

Perfect, thank you sir. 

Regulation questions- I’m likely going to have myself (licensed), another adult (also licensed) and two kiddos aged 8 and 10 out Saturday.  

Do the kids need a license? The reg states I believe that they don’t, however can I legally fish 9 rods in this scenario? Or only 6? 

Thanks, the reg gets cloudy to me on this one

I’ve wondered about this a lot. Typically I keep anything poorly hooked (that’s legal) and fish I think I can get a nice fillet off of. Basically anything over 21”. I’ve released a lot, but mainly Browns. I’ve never released a laker on my boat as I’ve only caught two (9lb and 12lb). I wish em luck and typically will not put my hands on my releasable fish. 

Welcome, beautiful fish and that boat is awesome. Nice work, please keep posting reports!

12 hours ago, Hachimo said:

I never thought of it that way.  Definitely makes me think thou. On the handfull of calm days I throw my big boards out durrin summer with 450 on outside 350 inside and outside went off and got him to the shoot without a mess. Maybe I should switch them around.  

I’ve researched this quite a bit because it made no sense to me. If you run a 450 and a 350, the first 350’ of the 450 is running deeper than the lure on your 350 which is why you run your 350 on the outside. My guess in your situation is your fish rose to the surface quickly or your lines were far enough apart. Perhaps the two lines are similar enough too. A 100 is far more shallow than the 300.

17 minutes ago, reeltrout said:

I just bought 2  500s, my thought was I would let out however much I want then clip it to my release. Or won't it work to clip copper on the release? I have never used copper so it's a new experience for me. I once clipped leadcore on an inline board and it kinked an broke of. I thought maybe copper wouldn't kink so easy? 

I’ve read it will break and clipping copper is not a good idea. Search on google “for the love of copper Ontario” and one of the members posted everything you’d ever want to know about copper. 

20 minutes ago, Hachimo said:

1 hour ago, Offshore IV said:

From outside, in- id run the 100 on inline board, 300 on an inline board, dipsey then rigger per side. My boat is 19’ and can accomadate such a setup. 

 

I’m probably wrong, but I thought when runnin a spread with junk lines like this you want your longest line on your outside board. This way if your outside line hits and you bring him to the shoot theres less of a chance of a tangle on inside boards

If it were just mono, you’d be right. Since it’s copper, the 100 will stay shallower than the 300, so if a fish hit the 100 I should be able to bring him over the 300 without issue. 

3 minutes ago, Hachimo said:

Nice work. Yea I dont believe what I hear or read when it comes to the weather up there. Anytime I’m goin out I stop at the Launch and look at the lake, Then proceed to the boat. That dictates if I go out fishing or just sit on the dock and shine some spoons. Lol

I thought the purpose of shutting the one lane down was to encourage people to launch one at a time. It was kinda hectic there last weekend when I was passing trou. 

You’re right about the launch but I don’t think people are getting that hint. Haha I can’t imagine what a nice overcast 65* calm day would mean for people launching their boat early in the morning. There’ll be about a trillion people trying to fish. It’s just a dumb idea no matter how you look at it imo

4 minutes ago, shawn393 said:

You can run 8 rods with no problem on your 19' boat. Personally I would add some lead core to the mix. I would go with the 2- 300's  or a 300 and a 350 and then 5  and 10 colors of core. Run the cores on the outside of the copper. You have to be careful  when the currents get crazy though and downsize your spread

Yea I’ve ran 9 before for Browns on my boat so I’m sure that won’t be an issue. I can’t run a 350 on my walleye boards I don’t think so I’m limited to 300 unless I get new boards which I don’t want/need to. I’ll give some more thought to the core.  The ten gets you to what 40’? So the two color must be like 8’?