Lots of wind

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

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

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

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

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

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

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