Capt. Bill's Blog

2010 a very challenging year

2011-01-19T22:31:00.003-05:00

Over the years I have always said that the most important factor influencing fishing is the weather and in the 2010 season the weather had a huge affect on the fishing in Lake Ontario. The weather started to influence our fishing in the winter of 2009 / 2010 which was extremely mild in upstate New York. Last winter there was less than normal snowfall and warmer than normal temperatures and ice out occurred in early March. Most years when we launch the boats and start fishing, the rivers and creeks flowing into the lake are full of runoff from the snow melting and the spring rains, but the spring of 2010 was an exception. With no runoff and little rain the usually fantastic early spring brown trout fishing was mediocre at best. The browns would move into the near shore water but because there was no runoff there was nothing to hold them in the shallow water, so they would move back out into the lake and we would have to hunt for them. This made every day in the early spring a challenge. Because the brown trout didn’t want to cooperate we had to figure something else out to do, so we reached into our bag of tricks and pulled out the old cowbells and went lake trout fishing. The lakers we caught weren’t as big as they used to be in the old days, but it was better than not catching.

June fishing was better than usual

In April and May the rainfall was way below average and this didn’t change until June, when it went from unusually dry to unusually wet which improved the fishing. From Oswego we were catching a mixed bag of fish, some browns, a few steelhead / rainbows, and a few salmon. During June we were fishing anywhere from ten feet of water for browns, out to a couple of hundred feet of water for salmon and steelhead and on the days we fished we were boxing from eight to ten fish.

Late Summer Early Fall

As the summer progressed the temperatures started to climb and the west winds started to blow. We had many days in late summer where we couldn’t fish because of the high waves. Not only did these winds cause big waves they also blew the warm surface waters to the east end of the Lake and this pushed the thermocline very deep. I remember some days after a blow where we would have 72 degrees on the surface and 120 feet down on a downrigger we would still have 72 degrees. The high winds and the warm temperatures again made it very challenging to catch fish, but by fishing 135 to 140 feet down we still managed to catch fish.

Fall Salmon Season

Usually in August we fish for salmon and we don’t target other species, but last year with all the warm water and with the constant west winds we had to change our strategy. Early in the month we fished for brown trout instead of king salmon. These browns were some of the biggest we caught all season weighing in anywhere from 5 pounds up to 10 or 12 pounds with the occasional fish in the teens. In September the browns being a fall spawner quit biting. Usually this isn’t a problem because we are fishing for salmon, but this year the unrelenting west wind kept the salmon offshore and very deep where we couldn’t find them. Not only was the wind against us but 3 years ago there was a drought in upstate New York. That year the water in the Salmon River got so low that the fish couldn’t make it up the river and the hatchery couldn’t collect all the salmon eggs they wanted. Because of the low water there was also no wild reproduction from the river. These factors all contributed to the tough salmon fishing in 2010. In October the weather made the river fishing challenging with heavy rains which put the river at flood stage. During this high water we had some guys from Virginia staying with us at the lodge and in 7 days those 6 guys landed 380 fish between them. They proved that if you don’t give up and if you adapt to the conditions you can have a good time in spite of poor conditions.
In the 23 years that I’ve been chartering I have seen some tough times but things have always turned around and I’m sure that the fishing will turn around again. In fact there were a number of signs that things are getting better. One sign was the large number of 1 year old salmon that we caught last spring and summer, another good sign was the large size of the adult salmon which indicates that there is plenty of bait fish. At the risk of sounding like a broken record the weather last year was not our friend, but as I am writing this report in late December Syracuse is going to set a record for the amount of snowfall and if the rest of the winter is normal, I will be a happy fisherman come next spring.

What a way to start a new season

2010-04-27T16:47:00.006-04:00

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

2010-02-21T11:15:00.006-05:00

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

2009 End of the year fishing report for lake Ontario

2009-12-07T16:24:00.000-05:00

The weather last year started off with our usual spring weather but quickly took a turn for the worst. Last year on the eastern end of Lake Ontario the weather was rainy and windy. Our spring brown trout fishing was good, but the bigger three year old browns were much harder to catch in 2009 than in previous years. I think that because of the slow summer salmon fishing in 2008 we fished more for brown trout than we did for the hard to find chinook salmon. Consequently we caught so many two year old browns in 2008 that there was a lack of three year old browns in 2009.

The summer salmon fishing in 09 was better than the year before and we spent most of the summer fishing and catching salmon instead of brown trout. When august arrived it brought east winds with it and these contrary winds caused the cold water to well up on the eastern end of Lake Ontario which scattered all of our fish. The first two weeks of August we worked very hard to catch any salmon. But after a couple of weeks the water temperature and the fishing improved and the rest of the month the salmon fishing was okay.

From the first of September until the middle of the month is usually some of the best salmon fishing of the season, but in 2009 it didn't happen that way. Instead of getting better the salmon fishing got worse in the Oswego area. The best concentration of salmon were in the Mexico Bay area and most of the charter boats in oswego moved to the Salmon and Little Salmon River for the balance of the 2009 charter fishing season. Why the numbers of salmon were so low in the Oswego area is unknown but this is the second year in a row that the fall salmon fishing was off. If the same thing happens again in 2010 I have made arrangements for a dock on the Little Salmon River so I can make the move to Mexico Bay sooner than I did this year.

I am quite optimistic about the fishing next season, I am so inclined because of the abundance and the size of the bait fish (alwives). Last season when I was cleaning my anglers catch I would routinely check the stomach contents to see what the fish were feeding on. Most of the time I would find very large mature alwives, and on occasion I also found small rainbow smelt. Finding big alwives in the stomachs of the salmon leads me to believe that the bait fish population in lake Ontario is doing very well and when the bait fish are doing well usually the trout and salmon are also doing well. Last year was the first time in a few years that we caught king salmon that weighed over thirty pounds. These facts make me believe that the 2010 Lake Ontario fishing season should be a good one.

I try to take as many pictures as I can during the course of my charter trips, but because I work alone somedays I don't take as many pictures as I would like to. Click here to see the 2009 Lucky Dutchman Fishing Pictures

Full Moon

2009-06-11T17:28:00.000-04:00

One other thing about this past weekend was that the moon was full and I don’t really like a full moon when I am fishing. It seems to me that I have more slow days a couple of days each side of the full moon than I do when the moon is not full.

I usually fillet the fish for my anglers and when I am cleaning fish I quite often check their stomach contents to see what they are feeding on and how much they are feeding. When I am doing this if the stomachs are empty someone usually says boy they must be hungry and I think that is totally opposite from what is really going on. Empty stomachs means to me that the fish are not feeding and the only reason we caught them was because we got our lures right in the fishes face. What I like to see when I am cleaning fish are stomachs stuffed right full, that tells me the bite is on and the fish are actively searching for food. Of all the fish I cleaned this weekend only one of them had anything in their stomachs and that was one almost totally digested bait fish. I feel extremely fortunate that we did as well as we did this past weekend with the full moon.

To check out the latest pictures go to my photo gallery at http://gallery.me.com/lucky_dutchman

Transition fishing

2009-06-11T17:04:00.000-04:00

Saturday and Sunday I fished with four anglers from Margaretville, NY who took advantage of my two day summer special. I fish with a lot of guys and gals from the Catskill Mountains and one thing they all have in common is their love of fishing and Kenny, Joe, Bill, and Pudgy all share in this trait. Saturday morning we ran out from Oswego Harbor to 180 feet of water where we started setting up. By the time I got all ten rods out we were in 300 feet of water and a board line with a blue/sliver/ orange belly smithwick went off with a nice 9 pound lake trout. A nice way to start our morning off. We never had a big flurry but we picked away all day long. Some of the fish we caught were rainbows under the 21 inch size limit and we released them as quickly as we could. We also had a couple of king salmon and one of those was over twenty pounds and we also had a couple of bigger rainbows that we kept. The fishing Sunday was pretty much the same as Saturday only we didn’t manage to find a big king to brag about and we caught more rainbows Sunday than we did Saturday. We had two decent days of fishing we didn’t set the fishing world on fire, but we had a great time. Good company and a few fish a winning combination.

More yellow perch

2009-06-11T17:00:00.000-04:00

When the perch fishing is as good as it was last week you just can’t stay away. So last Thursday the fifth of June Jimmy Dence, Bill Nye and I went to Henderson harbor to see if the fish were still there and still biting and yes the fish were still there and still biting. Maybe not as good as last week but still plenty good enough. On this trip the fish were a little shallower than before but still in the same general area. Our best fishing was in fifteen feet of water in front of Association Island and fathead minnows were our best bait. The only thing better than catching perch is eating them. Breaded and fried there is no better tasting fish in freshwater

Last week end in May

2009-06-03T10:15:00.000-04:00

Saturday May 30th Jon’s bait and tackle in Texas had a brown trout tournament so George Bemiss, John Angerosa and I decided to enter. We fished a couple of hours and we landed four fish three browns and a Landlocked salmon. My autopilot on the little motor had a breakdown and by nine o’clock the wind started to blow hard and it got considerably colder so we decided to pack it in. Sunday the 31st the wind was gusting up over 30 mph and the waves were between 5 to 8 feet high. This was the third Sunday this month that the wind blew hard hopefully the weather pattern will change sometime soon. To see more pictures from the last couple of weeks week check my photo gallery at http://gallery.me.com/lucky_dutchman

Yellow Perch fishing

2009-06-03T10:03:00.000-04:00

The last full week of the month I didn’t have any lake trips booked but I did have a perch trip booked for Friday the 29th. This trip was with James Harris, Jeff Casey, Ike Johnson, and Harrison Potts four fisherman from Philadelphia, PA . My friend Captain George Bemiss and I used our trailerable boats for this trip. We met the guys in Pulaski and they followed us up to Henderson harbor where we split up into the two boats. It took us a couple of hours and a couple of moves to find the fish but when we did the bite was on. We fished until 1 PM when the guys decided that they had enough fish to take home with them. When we have the time George and I like to fish for perch and it was a lot of fun to introduce great lakes perch fishing to these guys.

Family week end gat a way

2009-06-03T09:49:00.000-04:00

After struggling during the week my confidence levels were not very high when the week end rolled around. Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning I fished with Jack and Lori Clark and their grandson Ryan and Saturday afternoon Jack and Lori invited my grandson Dylan to come along with us. Saturday afternoon we decided to fish offshore for salmon and rainbows. We fished from 140 feet of water out to about 240 feet of water and I spread the lures from 40 feet down to as far as 120 feet down. The water temperatures were 48 degrees on the surface and 42 degrees 90 feet down. With the temperatures like these the fish were scattered all the way from the surface to over a 100+ feet down, so I scattered the lures as much as possible. On saturday afternoon we managed to break off a good salmon on a dipsey diver with a dodger and fly rig. We landed a nice salmon off a downrigger with a dodger / fly, dropped a good fish on a 10 color lead core rod with a spoon, and landed a couple of rainbows on spoons running off downriggers. Saturday’s trip was a very successful trip and we all had a great time. Sunday morning we decided to try for brown trout, so we setup west of the harbor on Ford shoals. Sunday we landed 4 nice chunky brown trout and we lost at least that many fish. The last hour or so on Sunday’s trip things slowed down, so we decided to make a pass in the deeper water and try for salmon or rainbows. On that pass we missed a good fish off a rigger and we landed a nice rainbow/steelhead around 7 pounds on 5 colors of lead core with a spoon. After the disappointing week I had it was nice to finish the week with a couple of good days.

Oswego County Tourism

2009-06-03T09:42:00.000-04:00

Thursday the 21st of May I took three young ladies from the Oswego County Tourism office fishing they were Jessica Trump, Jessica’s sister Alycia Trump, and Mary Ellen Barbeau. Jessica writes a blog for the county and I wanted to show these ladies a good time and to also provide Jessica with some material for her blog. It seems like anytime I take someone out fishing and I want to show off I am doomed. We got a later than normal start and as luck would have it about the time, we were setting up, the brown trout were shutting down. All three of the girls managed to catch a fish but two of the fish were under 21 inch rainbows that we released and one small brown that was legal. I am hoping that I will be able to get the girls out again so I can redeem myself. Check out Jessica’s blog at http://outdooradventuresinoswego.blogspot.com/

Oneida Lake walleye fishing

2009-06-03T09:32:00.000-04:00

Report for May 18 through 20th. On monday May 18th John Angerosa invited me to fish Oneida lake for walleyes with him. Monday morning the was a frost warning so we decided to leave the dock a little later than usual. I met John at Marion Manor at 6:30 and we launched his boat and started our first drift in 20+ feet of water in front of Oneida creek. We made 3 or 4 drifts and only fished till 9:30. We boated a dozen walleyes and kept six nice fat walleyes to eat and released the rest.

Our first lake trip for this week was on Wednesday the 20th I fished with Mike Hudock and Henry Mostek a couple of nice guys from Hellertown, PA. We started our day fishing for Brown trout and later in the day we switched over and fished the deeper water for salmon or rainbows. The best I could do for Mike and Henry were a couple of brown trout. Try as hard as we could, we could not find any salmon or rainbows in the deeper water.

Lots of wind

2009-05-17T19:44:00.000-04:00

Lake Ontario May Fishing Report

Monday May 17, 2009

Sunday May 17, 2009 and the wind is blowing hard again and there is a small craft advisory with waves 3 to 5 feet. Just like most of the country, the weather on Lake Ontario has been unsettled. Nice for one or two days and then cool and windy for the next few days. This unsettled weather has made the fishing a little difficult . When the winds are from the North or West they push the warm surface waters against the shore, but when the winds are from the South or East just the opposite happens and the warm water gets pushed away from the shore. When the warm water gets pushed away then the cold and clear water wells up along the shore line and replaces it. This up welling scatters the fish and slows the bite considerably. It seems like the wind wants to blow hard no matter which direction it is blowing and we seem to get another cold front every few days.

Enough Belly aching, sooner or later things will settle down, they always do and even though the weather has been less than perfect we still have been catching a few fish. We have been catching mostly brown trout but we are also catching a few salmon in the deeper water. When it is not windy the browns are in the shallow water along the shore line both East and West of Oswego Harbor and the Salmon are in the deeper water from eighty feet of water out to two hundred feet of water. Because we don’t have a thermocline yet, there is nothing to concentrate the fish in the water column. Early in the morning the salmon can be caught anywhere from thirty to fifty feet down and as the day brightens the sun seems to drive the salmon deeper and they are being caught anywhere from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet down. We have had a few good days of salmon fishing so far and those fish were anywhere from seven to twenty pounds. I expect that this spring’s salmon fishing will be good, but only time will tell for sure. To see pictures of the last couple of trips go to http://gallery.me.com/lucky_dutchman

Small boat fishing on lake Ontario

2009-05-14T14:05:00.000-04:00

Last week Bob Lockwood and his son Nick from Thomson, CT brought their own boat and stayed at our place Feeder Creek Lodge from the seventh of May through the ninth. It was their first time fishing here so I tried to explain to Bob what to use and where to go so he and his boy could catch a few browns. Bob is a good angler and all he needed was for me to point him in the right direction. I am not sure of the number of fish that they caught but I did see a couple of nice chunky browns that they were taking home with them. I am enclosing a copy of the email I received from them along with a couple of pictures that they sent.

"Hello Bill and Barb,

Once again I just wanted to say thank you for your hospitality and the information to get us on the fish. The information you provided on your web site and in person gave me the confidence to get out there and give it a good go without feeling clueless.

Barb - we also appreciated the lodging. Very clean and comfortable and had all the necessities of living at home.

Nick and I had a great time, caught great fish and built fantastic memories! We'll be back for sure!

I attached some pics from our trip. Love the smile on Nicks face.

See ya soon!

Bob Lockwood"

April fishing report for Lake Ontario

2009-05-06T09:09:00.000-04:00

Our 2009 Lake Ontario fishing season is off to a good start. My first trip was on the 17th of April with Mark Murphy and his crew. On their annual spring trip Mark and his guys always arrive at Feeder Creek Lodge a couple of days before their lake trip so that they can fish the Salmon river for steelhead. This year Mark brought his little boy, his brother Fran , and two other guys. The two days before we fished the wind blew from the East which blew most of the warm water away from the shore line and caused the fish to scatter. We managed to land a few small brown trout, released a couple of small fish and lost a couple. It wasn’t a great day fishing but considering the conditions we did all right. I forgot to bring my camera so I didn’t get any pictures of m

Marks trip to post.

My next trip was Sunday the 18th of April with Mike Torcivia, Fred and his little boy Fred Jr., and a couple of first timers. We fished in the same area East of Oswego where we had fished the day before, only on sunday the wind was steady from the west so the water had a little more color to it plus it was a couple of degrees warmer. Sunday’s trip wasn’t gangbusters like their last years trip, but we did do better than we did on Saturday. We picked away all day long with the fish being a little bigger than the day before. We had a fun trip. The weather was a little warmer with a little less wind and that alone made the trip much more enjoyable.

On our next trip Jim Ardagna took advantage of my Buy one get one half off special. He brought his nephew Leo and Leo’s friend Paige to fish a couple of days with me. Jim and Leo have fished with me in the past but Paige was a first timer and was a lot of fun to fish with. We started our trip on Monday morning April 27th. As we were leaving the harbor in Oswego, I spotted some fish rolling and chasing bait in the mouth of the harbor, so we decided to see if we could get these fish to bite. Long story short, we fished within a mile or two of the harbor for the next two days. On the first day of fishing Jim caught the first king salmon of the year a nice 10lb 10oz fish and on both days we caught a nice rainbow/steelhead along with a bunch of browns. All in all we had two good fun filled days of fishing.

I did remember to bring my camera on the second day of fishing and when I forgot to bring mine Paige had her camera so I got the pictures that she took. I am including some those pictures in this post and I have posted more pictures on a site that I have from Apple. To see more pictures of April fishing click on the Title.

The round goby brown trout connection

2008-03-15T18:46:00.000-04:00

Because of the exceptionally good spring brown trout fishing in 2007, I fully expect the 2008 spring fishing to be as good or maybe even better. last year the 2 year old age class of browns were very abundant and big for their age. This year those now 3 year old fish will make up a big portion of the catch and these fish should weigh between 8 to 14 pounds. I am not sure why the brown trout are doing so well, but I just read an article in In-Fisherman magazine by Marc Wisniewski entitled "The Brown Trout Goby Connection" and I think that the he may be on to something.

In this article the author explored the connection between great lakes brown trout and the round goby a small bait fish that was introduced into the great lakes by Ocean going freighters. When the gobys were first discovered it was all glom and doom but now it looks like the brown trout in the Great lakes are using this little invaders to their advantage. In the magazine article Marc Wisniewski reports on how he is catching brown trout using tactics that would be better suited to smallmouth bass fishing. All of his observations and much of his conclusions we based upon personal observations he made using an aqua-view underwater camera. These findings may explain why our brown trout fishing in the Eastern basin of Lake Ontario has been getting better every year with more and bigger fish being caught.

If you have an opinion on weather brown trout are eating gobys or not I would like to here it. Post a comment or drop me an email. Thanks Capt. Bill VanWormer

Florida fishing

2008-02-19T14:08:00.000-05:00

Barbara and I are currently in florida waiting for the weather to break so we can return to upstate New york and get back to fishing.
We spent a week in Cortez Florida and while we were there we went to the Star fish company for lunch. When you go there for lunch you can't be in a hurry because lunch usually takes at least an hour. While we were waiting we were sharing a picnic table with another couple and as usual the conversation got around to fishing. Even though the Cortez fishing festival was scheduled for this week end and Stu had company coming, he offered to take me fishing on Sunday. The fishing was great but the catching was slow. The company was outstanding and I did manage to catch my first bluefish so I had a great time. Stu has a blog at cortezfishing.blogspot.com and if you are going to be anywhere on the Florida gulf coast check out his site for news and information as I found him to be very knowledgeable.

Spring is coming and so is the brown trout fishing

2008-02-14T17:19:00.000-05:00

My wife Barbara and I are currently in Florida enjoying the warmth and sunshine, and at home in upstate New York it is 7 degrees today and snowing and blowing. It sure is nice not to have to deal with the winter weather and I know it is selfish, but I am glad that they are getting a decent amount of snow up home. When we have a winter with lots of snow and cold the next spring we have a great spring brown trout season. When the snow melts and there is a lot of run off entering into the lake, it carries with it lots of nutrients into the lake which attract a great deal of bait fish. The bait fish in turn attracts predators which means good brown trout fishing closer to shore. If there isn’t a good amount of snow fall and if a mild winter happens to coincide with an early spring then there is nothing to keep the browns close to shore. They will spread far and wide in the lake making it a lot harder to find them. But It doesn't look like there is going to be a early spring this year there has been plenty of snow and winter is still holding on.

Spring Brown trout fishing on Lake Ontario

2007-05-01T10:25:00.000-04:00

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

2007-03-05T13:36:00.000-05:00

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