What a way to start a new season

Our first group of fisherman arrived at Feeder Creek Lodge on the 15th of April and they fished for steelhead on the Salmon river Thursday and Friday. These guys were also my first charter trip of the year. On Friday a cold front blew through and saturday morning the wind was still blowing from the W/NW around 25 miles per hour. With the wind blowing so hard we couldn't fish outside of the protection of the harbor so we were forced to fish on inside. We made a few passes but the cold front the night before had slowed the fishing down. We managed to boat one brown and had a couple of others on but not for long. About ten in the morning my crew and I noticed a couple of people walking on the outer break wall toward the light house and big waves breaking over the wall every few minutes. We were astonished that anybody would try to walk on that wall in that kind of weather so I called the coast guard on the radio and gave them a heads up on what was going on. A few minutes later a wave took both people off the wall and into the water. I called the coast guard again and let them know what had happened then I tried to get to the people to get them out of the forty nine degree water. Luckily they managed to get back on the wall and a few minutes later the coast guard got there. While we were trying to render aid everything we were fishing with got tangled up and one of my planner boards was cut off and was drifting around the Harbor. It took quite a few minutes to retrieve my planner board so after we did that we decided to call it a day.
The next day Sunday wasn't much better weather wise than it was the day before, but the cold front had passed and the wind was a little less than Saturday. I had just two anglers Art and Joe. Art is a long time customer he has stayed at the lodge and fished with me numerous times. Last year he had some serious health issues so this was his first time fishing with me in a long time. We waited for it to warm up a little so we didn't leave the dock till seven AM. Like the day before we didn't want to leave the harbor because it was so rough on the lake. We decided to at least try to fish in the harbor and see if we could catch a few fish. We ran six rods, four rods on planner boards with smithwick plugs and two downriggers set shallow with Michigan stinger spoons. Long story short we boated around fifteen fish and we kept a limit for Art and Joe and released the rest. The fish we released were nice chunky healthy fish and I hope that they survived the handling and they live to fight another day. On the east side of the harbor we were catching mostly browns and on the west side we caught mostly rainbow / steelheads.
Altho we didn't catch a lot of fish on Saturday it was a good thing for those people that we had decided to at least try and fish.

Over the Hump

Sunday February 21 2010 Barbara and I have been in Florida since late November and it has been nice to be able to spend time with my daughters and my grandchildren and is always nice to be out of the snow and cold of upstate New York in the winter. It has been about ten degrees below normal in Florida so far this winter and this cold weather has taken a toll on the snook and tarpon. It got so bad that Florida has closed the fishing for snook and tarpon until April, many snook and tarpon died in the first cold snap that we had. I try to fish as much as possible when I am here but this winter the cold north winds took a lot of the fun out of it.
I have my fingers crossed that the weather will settle down and spring will arrive on schedule. If there are no surprises by this time in April I should have the boat (lucky Dutchman II) in the water and be fishing for brown trout. I am always excited about the new season. There are many factors that effect the fishing on Lake Ontario it could be the weather, stocking survival and how much bait is available, so some years are better than others . But even on our slow years we still have the best freshwater fishing anywhere. Where else can you go and catch trout that range anywhere from three pounds to over twenty and to catch chinook salmon like we catch. You either have to come to the Great lakes or you have to spend thousands of dollars and fish in the Pacific Northwest. Far too often Lake Ontario fishing gets taken for granted. It is one of the few places to fish that is close enough and affordable enough that the average fisherman can enjoy it.
If you would like to experience the fishing on lake Ontario this year you can contact me and we can set up a charter trip with lodging for you. If you have a boat of your own you can bring it to lake Ontario and experience the spring near shore fishing. Either way if I can be of assistance contact me. I am always glad to help out. Captain Bill