Spring Brown trout fishing on Lake Ontario

It really took some work to get the boat the Lucky Dutchman II ready for launch this year. The weather in upstate New York has been miserable with snow and cold. I had planned on launching on the 15th of April but it took till the 19th to get it in the water and on the 20th I had my first charter fishing trip. Normally I like to launch and fish with my grandkids before I take customers fishing, so I can check everything out. This year because of the weather that was not possible and the only thing I needed that was not on the boat was a pair of needlenose pliers. Thankfully my angler Mark Murphy had a pair with him. We fished just East of the Oswego River Harbor in 10 to 20 feet of waqter and we ran smithwick and rappal stickbaits on the surface lines and Michigan stinger spoons set shallow on the downriggers at 4 and 6 feet down. We caught all the browns that we wanted to keep and then we played catch and realease for a while. This past saturday was equally as good and after catching and releasing browns most of the morning we decided to try and catch a King Salmon, so we left the shallow water and trolled in the 30 to 70 feet of water. We had one bite in the deeper water but that fish didn't stay on the hook very long. Altho I haven't caught a King Salmon yet this year, a couple of the other Captains from Oswego have and the biggest of those fish weighed in at 18 pounds. All in all the fishing this year is living up to the expectations and I expect the fishing to get better and better as the weather settles down and Lake Ontario warms up a little. Catch you later. Capt. Bill VanWormer http://www.luckydutchman.net

Up Comming fishing season

There are a few things that I try to keep track off so that I have a feel for what is happening with our fishery. one tried and true indicator is how many small jack salmon follow the mature salmon into the river during the fall run. The more small jacks that run in the fall the more mature salmon there will be next year and last fall there were a lot of small jacks returning to the hatchery so this years mature salmon should be plentiful. One of the most important things that I watch is how well are bait fish are doing. There are a couple of trawlers on the lake run by the Federal Fish and Wildlife and the State Department of Environmental Conservation and their job is to sample the bait fish and report on how well the bait are doing. At the present time there are at least two good year classes of alewives which are the primary bait fish in Lake Ontario. I have saved the best for last. The round goby is a small perch like fish that was introduced in to the lake by Ships from Europe. They are being preyed upon by Cormorants. With the abundance of gobies in the northeastern end of the lake the cormorants are not flying down to Mexico Bay to eat our small trout and salmon like they were. The result is more and bigger trout for us to catch.
Barbara and I are looking forward to seeing all of our old friends again this year and we are hoping to make some new friends as well.
If you wish to contact us give us a call at 1(800)368-4467 or e-mail at luckydutch @earthlink.net
Catch you later. Capt. Bill