Tips for fishing Lake Ontario

[Yukoner]

I am fairly new to ontario - moved here from the Yukon not too long ago. I want to get out on Lake Ontario for some fishing and I was just looking for some tips. What are the best times of year, What sort of setups work best etc. Any help would be appreciated.

I live in Ajax, so I will likely be launching out of the Whitby harbour.

[TyeeTanic]

The predominant amount of members on this site are from the USA. Spoonpullers.com is a Canadian based website - you might get a better response then.

June, July are good months in depths of 120 - 160 feet - generally speaking.

August - the fish start to stage around rivers like the Ganaraska, Humber, Credit and Bronte. You will find them in shallow water then 80 - 120 feet.

September - the are really in tight and waiting for some rain to cool down the rivers with fresh water - you will find them in about 40 ft of water and less.

Water temperature and trolling speed are two important variables - you should know wher 45F to 55F water zone is and fish in that depth. You should troll at around 2.5 - 3.0 mph (lure speed, not boat speed - as underwater currents can add or take away lure speed).

What you need is a good set of fishing rods - not sure if you are running riggers, if not you will need dipsy's.

Early in the season spoons work well. Mid to late seasons I find flies work well with agitators like flashers or spin doctors.

Later in the season I also find MC Rockets and meat on large flashers work well.

Some basics - you will need an 8 foot or longer heavy action rod. You will need a reel that can hold around 1000 feet of line. Steel line is good as you can get deeper in the water with it - but then you will need a special rod for this. Braid is good, but fleas in the lake around July make it impossible to use - so we normally switch to mono line or flea flicker. You will need large trolling reels for mono line. We generally put on 30# test line. Use long 10' florocarbon leaders 30# or 40# test.

There's a specific way to fish here. Best thing is to spend some time reading through the MANY topics discussed on this site - and go to a knowledgeable tackle store to get you set up with the right stuff. Don't waste your money going cheap - you will end up buying the right stuff anyhow - so zero in on what is good and get it, or save for it.

Cheers!

[Yukoner]

Thanks for the info!!

I'll get out there and give it a whirl.