RC36

Thanks for the follow-up. Tight lines .

Hoping it last another 10 days, but the salmon will probably head towards the Toronto area tributaries, or maybe the Salmon river soon. Then it's wait until next year LOL

Are you out of Kingston, Ontario ?

That's a good road trip.

You're welcome . Hoping to get out again Friday or Saturday.

Very few fleas over the past week. Most flicked off, hands free. 50 lbs braid on the dispys probably helps a bit.

Apologies for the long report. We usually spend most of our trolling time on Canadian NW side of Ducks, close to the shipping channel from the St. Lawrence towards distant Toronto. But haven't been able to hook any salmon there yet this summer (still lots of lakers). Since we keep NY permits, time to try the other side of Ducks along the "Wall" trench line that runs about halfway between Ducks and Gallo Island. Saturday 3rd: 7am - 1pm... about 10 boats there all morning, most looked like charters. I was out solo, so was happy to go 3 for 6 (1 brown + 2 nice sized salmon). Always a little precarious ''solo'' netting and releasing unhappy salmon in a moving boat, but I always wear an inflatable vest with a remote for the autopilot, and both a remote engine kill switch and a satellite beacon in case I fall overboard. Pretty calm seas, saw lots of other boats catching fish. Good day for everyone. Note of caution: that trench line looks like a pretty reliable drop off from about 50-60 ft falling down to 100 ft. Running both Navionics and CMAP chips on side by side screens. They are just ''shxt", especially in this area. Donated a 15 lbs downrigger shark to the bottom when a 54ft hump appeared in 90ft on the chart. Fortunately, the weight's snubber broke, and no other damage. All this happened with a fish on ! Now that I have about 15- 20 hrs in that area this week, I have marked a lot of the humps and ledges. If you are new to that area, either stay further out in deeper water, or all gear at 50ft and above if you are close to the drop off, cause the bottom comes up fast. Thursday 7th: very wavy. The 3 of us bounced and rolled around from about 6am until noon. We intended to put out a bunch of lines, but settled on only 5 lines: 2 riggers + 2 divers, and a distant Chute planner with Leadcore, to avoid tangles and for our safely handling lines. We marked some fish and bait, but strangely we found the only Sheepshead at 60 ft over 100 fow. Only saw one other boat. That was it, and we bounced our way home. Sunday 10th: 3:30-7:30pm. My buddy and I saw lots of marks and bait all the while sweating to death, very calm, no breeze, hot sun. 4 salmon + 1 laker hitting 4 rigger rods and 2 dipsys. Only lost one fish, as something hit one of our flasher-fly- meat rigs cutting the line, after a brief yank. Well at least we got the flasher back. Good success with Carbon 14 spoons, black on glow. Two other boats out. Stunning sunset and a very fast run home on flat water. Mostly, we troll about 2.5 mph or 4-4.5 kph. While we tried all depths from up high, to 90ft., most hook ups were in the 50-70 ft range. Lots of aggressive followers on the graphs this week, which keeps everyone excited. Last year, we tried one day stacking 2 rods per downrigger, and far from beginner's luck, we just made tangles anytime we caught a fish. But this time, better organized, especially clearing lines and gear quickly, perfect. Interesting range of sizes and ages, best guess, 2 to 4 years olds. All released for next time.

We are super Bills fans and we have a winter place near Tampa, so Bucs too. Also, fished a couple of years in Gulf of Mexico. You would probably have a better experience going out in the Atlantic side. Good luck.

Friday 18th at Scotch Bonnet: Fished 9am to 1pm, slow... 1 salmon, with 6 lines (rigger, divers, boards). Back into Wellington for lunch for the 4 of us. Then 3 to 7pm: better results with 5 for 7 hook ups (total approx 85 lbs for the day) with largest being a 27 lbs salmon to the boat, all released. Next day, Saturday 19th: same set up and areas, 4 for 8 to the boat, largest being 20 lbs. (total 50 lbs) . 6am to 1:30pm. Fun 24 hours out at the Bonnet near Wellington. --------------- This past Saturday, slow going out to Duck Islands due to fog at 6:30am. Thick fog lasted over an hour. Thank goodness for radar. Finally got out there and we chased Lakers, and brought 5 to the boat in 3 hours. Unfortunately, slow ride home, because a sensor problem stopped one engine from restarting. So 3.5 hrs to limp back. But it was scenic !!

Finally getting a few Lakers each time out near Duck Islands. June was tough with dead bait (Alewife) floating everywhere for a while. Hopefully, a few salmon will pass by the west side soon heading for Wellington and Scotch Bonnet.

Fishing is exploring 😊!!!

Lots of big Lakers off the Duck Islands again this year. A couple of buddies and I, got our boat, long ride by water from Kingston, down to Wellington on July 20th, 2024 weekend. A couple of salmon, on Friday (one snapped off my rod holder, and overboard it all went), zero on Saturday (too wavy probably), and a great day on Sunday. We are still picking up a few lost straggler salmon about 10-20km west of Ducks, but if you are able, Wellington to Cobourg is the place to be.

Thanks for your interest. It was a funny moment, and a couple of friends as witnesses !! Lots of Lakers and Salmon so far this summer. Hope you are having good times as well.

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).

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. !!