RC36

Our story: had a few hits early, with a couple of misses. Hooked up a meat, decent fight coming towards the boat, broke off about 100 ft out. Never made it to the boat and net still up in the holder. Pulled in remains of meat rig. Broke off just at attachment to herring. Lost holder, single hook, and triple. But still had 4 ft of line with all the sparkly flies. Break at the end of the line was a bit coiled at the end where it snapped. Few hours later, after several passes over the same long runs, hooked up, pulled in the Brown on another meat rig. Unhooked it quickly, got it back in the water. Put the rod aside after securing the hooks. My buddy is rinsing the net, notices a bit of a tangle, says “you have broken another meat rig, here is the triple hook” stuck in the net. Darn I think. I look over at the rigger rod, but the meat rig is totally intact. We had not lost or damaged, or had any extra gear out on deck all day. So where did extra triple hook come from ?? We still had leftover parts from morning break. We lined it up. The broken line had the same coil in the line. It was surely off a meat rig, cause it had the clear plastic sleeve in front of the hook. Still clean and shiny, so had not been it the water too long attached to the Brown. So we caught the same Brown twice. Incredible! (FYI put 11 hours on the water Sunday, July 23 trolling further west towards Point Petre. A bit on the wavy side, rolling around in 3-4 footers. Caught zero. That's fishing).

Bigger, mature Salmon may finally have arrived for their short migration trip past our area, (bit of a long ride out of Kingston): From east edge of Petre Point to west edge of Prince Edward Point (point closest to False Ducks). This won’t last more than a few weeks before they are gone. Saw 2 other boats trolling, hopefully they will write a report. (Side note: Been on the American side, off Stony Pt. a few times lately. As many as 25 boats all in same area. Remarkably courteous, and friendly, but no one had planner boards out as sometimes only 100-200 ft off each other, sometimes 3 wide crossing each other.) Yesterday, caught a few, missed a few, but lots of action, happy friends. Largest was 17 lbs, 38 inches. Location and pattern: 6:30 am to noon. Dipsy’s with spoons, and riggers meat on flasher flies. Green anything seemed best. In Shipping Channel or 1-2 kms on offshore side of it, in 120-150 FOW. Hitting 70-80 ft. down. Fishhawk probe was repeatedly showing deep current travelling 1 -1.5 kph heading westward (which is completely opposite of what you would expect for the Lake to drain towards St. Lawrence River), but there was big weather the day before, which may have pushed a lot of water into East Basin, and it had to drain back into centre of Lake Ontario). We were trying to keep probe at 4-4.5 kms/hr., and temps below 50-55F. (This was hard to do with Lake stirred up). So, boat speeds ranged from 3.5 – 5.5 kph., depending on direction. Hope to read reports of big salmon around Wellington or Scotch Bonnet, as a trip there would be fun, but would like it to be productive.

Only boat out at the Cdn. side of Ducks all day. Left at 6am, in the heavy fog, took much longer, even with radar, to slowly get out there. But Lakers started hitting soon and we were marking big fish and massive bait balls everywhere. Heavy fog never cleared. 5 lakers on riggers at 100ft, plus one on dipsy, all released. Even a crazy double where they crossed and had to retrieve 2 all tangled. Started at noon, to pull up riggers and put away everything. Last thing in was a dipsy, that then hit really hard and was giving big shakes, pulls, and runs.....made no sense for a deep laker ??? In closer to the boat, could see it was a nice salmon. Landed it, quick bonk on the head. Time for a photo, head home, and warm up the BBQ. Nice chinook, King: 17+ lbs, 34 inches. Super random fish. It should not be there until middle of July. Just lucky. !!

June 21, trolling NW, off the shore near Henderson Shores, picked up and released 3 small juvenile salmon (16, 21, 25"). Straight north of Oswego/Mexico. Was following drop off along the Wall and the Trench. Saw several other well equipped boats doing the same. Hoping to hear soon, about others getting success with much larger, migrating mature salmon.

We come out of Kingston, Ontario and frequently troll both sides of Duck Islands, the Wall, etc. Big Lakers have been steady every trip in 110-120 fow, except one skunked day. Salmon will start their closest pass by the Ducks soon. We have bigger boats, and as others have mentioned, be careful. In addition to lots of usual safety gear, +cell and VHF, consider adding the following, especially if you frequently fish solo as I do. On my inflatable life jacket: remote Bluetooth kill switch, autopilot remote, ACR ResQlink emergency satellite beacon. If I fall overboard, my wife will find the body, and know she can start dating right away. LOL ! Heading out at sun up !

I am out of the Kingston side of Lake Ontario, but frequently troll the American and Canadian sides of Duck Islands. My unscientific hypothesis, is by using large spoons (only size I use out there), you get bigger but fewer fish. This past Sunday, 4 big lakers, 34-37 inches, trolling solo, with only 2 lines out, but rarely catch small or medium salmon or trout (@2.3mph) Same for Walleyes, larger crankbaits. Good luck.

Sorry, for delay in adding a response. Agree with previous comment. I live in Kingston, typical trolling schedule: (out 1 -3 days per week) Lake Trout around west end of Kingston thru Jan- April, then in May they move to deeper waters, 80+ ft. Got a few on north side of Duck Island (shipping channel) on Sunday, May 14th. Some success around Big Bar Shoal on Saturday. Salmon don't ever come close to Kingston, but we still go far to get them starting in early July, peaking early August, then they are gone. Anywhere, from 5 to 20 kms of west side of Duck Island, usually over 100++ ft depth, but they are down 60ft, depending on thermocline. (have boated west to Wellington, but that is big trip. Trailering would be better. Scotch Bonnet Shoal.) Bigger boat is recommended out past the Ducks, or very calm day. Lots of Walleye around Melville Shoal in the summer, but they disappear around Labour Day, as they head into Bay of Quinte. I also have NY State fishing license, so visiting "The Wall" (South of Ducks) and Charity Shoal is cool. Careful around Charity, very good chartplotter and paying attention is important. Lots of several species around Charity. Pigeon Island is also fun, bit "hit and miss", but love the area. Good luck !