RC36

well done!

that's a pretty fish !

Good luck. Hopefully, the wind and waves will have settled down by the time you get out there. Might be out Friday.

Good point about hitting bottom. Last 2 years have had Fishhawk probe. Always been deepest down on Port side to get most accurate, depth, temp, speed etc.., then set up all other lines with that info as guidance. Ex: usually Starboard rigger is 20 feet less cable down (probably 10-15 ft of depth). Two weeks, on buddy's boat, trolling at 115 ft, went over 85 ft hump. He lost 15 lbs. shark weight in an instant. Fortunately, only damage was a peeled apart clip at shark. Made me think about what would happen on my boat, if I hit the probe, Port side. So, now Starboard weight is deepest, and probe, Port side is higher. Always good to learn thru other people's experiences. 3 yrs ago, fortunately, going very slow for early Lakers in 80 FOW, hit 60 ft hump while a buddy had a "fish on". Went into Neutral, while 180ft of downrigger wire pulled out. Landed/released laker. Pulled up all other gear. Then slowly backed up, gently pushing green power button on rigger. Once close over hump, maybe passed it a bit, with gloves on, was able to pull shark weight free of the bottom. You could say we were 2 for 2 in that instant. LOL !

Bigger, mature Salmon may finally have arrived for their short migration trip past our area, (bit of a long ride out of Kingston): From east edge of Petre Point to west edge of Prince Edward Point (point closest to False Ducks). This won’t last more than a few weeks before they are gone. Saw 2 other boats trolling, hopefully they will write a report. (Side note: Been on the American side, off Stony Pt. a few times lately. As many as 25 boats all in same area. Remarkably courteous, and friendly, but no one had planner boards out as sometimes only 100-200 ft off each other, sometimes 3 wide crossing each other.) Yesterday, caught a few, missed a few, but lots of action, happy friends. Largest was 17 lbs, 38 inches. Location and pattern: 6:30 am to noon. Dipsy’s with spoons, and riggers meat on flasher flies. Green anything seemed best. In Shipping Channel or 1-2 kms on offshore side of it, in 120-150 FOW. Hitting 70-80 ft. down. Fishhawk probe was repeatedly showing deep current travelling 1 -1.5 kph heading westward (which is completely opposite of what you would expect for the Lake to drain towards St. Lawrence River), but there was big weather the day before, which may have pushed a lot of water into East Basin, and it had to drain back into centre of Lake Ontario). We were trying to keep probe at 4-4.5 kms/hr., and temps below 50-55F. (This was hard to do with Lake stirred up). So, boat speeds ranged from 3.5 – 5.5 kph., depending on direction. Hope to read reports of big salmon around Wellington or Scotch Bonnet, as a trip there would be fun, but would like it to be productive.

I have had it for a couple of years. Use it on braid mainly. Removes chunks up to the size of your finger nail, pretty well, usually smaller blobs is easier. A couple of times if I get impatient or force it, have broken/cut the braid. So best if all your gear is in the boat, not hanging out over the side, when stripping fleas.

Spectacular !!

Thanks for the report. Congrats. Good to see some big salmon are starting to enter the eastern end of Lake Ontario.

Thx for the info. You are either 4 ft tall with a baby fish LOL, or you caught a beautiful, long beast. Congrats. Nice photo.

All 3 were deeper than I expected. Going 2.4 mph surface GPS speed, and similar down on Fishhawk probe: One on Magnum dipsy 2.5 setting, 180 ft of braid, green spoon 4 ft leader back of Gibbs delta flasher (big fan, especially for lakers). The other two, off riggers, down 90ft, same set up as Dipsy's, 20 to 40ft back of Scotty clips off 15 lbs shark weights. At this speed and these 15 pounders, I am seeing about 13-20 foot of differential between Scotty rigger's wire out and actual (105ft of rigger's cable out, was showing 90 ft on probe. Blowback is very, very sensitive to speed changes). I was experimenting with different techniques and depth, so was surprised at catching these little guys.

June 21, trolling NW, off the shore near Henderson Shores, picked up and released 3 small juvenile salmon (16, 21, 25"). Straight north of Oswego/Mexico. Was following drop off along the Wall and the Trench. Saw several other well equipped boats doing the same. Hoping to hear soon, about others getting success with much larger, migrating mature salmon.