Lake Ontario Salmon Fishing 9/9-9/10 2009

[JDL]

Headed up to two spots on Lake Ontario to do some salmon trolling. I haven't been up to the Lake since I was young, and while I caught plenty of steelhead, I only caught 1 king about 18". I was hoping to get some decent size kings as this is the time of the year where the fish get ready to run up the rivers to spawn. I left NJ at about 730pm and arrived at the marina at Oak Orchard at about 1am. We were set to leave dock at 6:30am, so I slept in the car for a couple of hours.

Day 1: Left dock at about 6:30am and began trolling j-plugs in shallow water. After about 20 minutes of trolling, we are hooked up to a nice king salmon of about 15lbs.



Set back up and soon had another 15lber in the boat. Continued trolling and soon had another fish on. This fish proceeded to almost dump the reel on its first run and it was the first time I have ever had to chase a fish down in freshwater. Finally got a nice 24-25lb king salmon in the boat.





Decided to call it a day and headed in at 9:30am. Here are a few more shots back at the marina.





Headed over to Pulaski, NY where I spent the night to get ready to fish the next day in Mexico Bay, NY.

Day 2:

Left dock at about 5:45am and headed out to the mouth of the salmon river to begin trolling. Set up the trolling spread and fished the next hour to hour and a half without any bites. All of a sudden, one of the downriggers pops and I quickly have a 14lb coho salmon in the boat.



Set the spread up again, and quickly caught 4 more king salmon from 18-22lbs within the next hour.





Couple of 20+lb king salmon



Days catch



We left a few lines out while we were cleaning the fish and hooked and landed one last coho about 6lbs.



Called it a day with 6 fish and headed back to dock at about 10am.

A great trip that I will probably do again next year.

[L8RBRA]

Fishing up there is no joke when done right. Good job!

[bolo]

WTG JDL.

[Frogfish101]

Nice kings! They're running bigger this year.

[jonboat]

Did you hire a charter, or know someone with a big boat?

You can tell from the color that those are mature kings getting ready to hit the rivers (decent size to them too). That's why J-plugs work so well - they're pretty much done feeding at that point, so you need a lure that will annoy them into hitting it.

Early fall Kings are a blast, and it's also a blast a little later when you fish for them in the Rivers. The Oak and Salmon River are probably the best two for river fishing, followed by the Oswego River and Sandy Creek.

Mexico Bay is a spring-time hotspot for brown trout in shallow water (10').

Glad you got into some nice kings after making the trip up from NJ. I know I like to fill my smoker with king fillets. The cohos are really good baked, broiled, or grilled.

[jonboat]

Did you hire a charter, or know someone with a big boat?

You can tell from the color that those are mature kings getting ready to hit the rivers (decent size to them too). That's why J-plugs work so well - they're pretty much done feeding at that point, so you need a lure that will annoy them into hitting it.

Early fall Kings are a blast, and it's also a blast a little later when you fish for them in the Rivers. The Oak and Salmon River are probably the best two for river fishing, followed by the Oswego River and Sandy Creek.

Mexico Bay is a spring-time hotspot for brown trout in shallow water (10').

Glad you got into some nice kings after making the trip up from NJ. I know I like to fill my smoker with king fillets. The cohos are really good baked, broiled, or grilled.

haha... I just noticed the date on the original post!!... Have you had a chance to give it another go since then?