Where did they come from

[salmonboy41]

So over the past weekend we fished out of Olcott in tight for staging Kings and to my suppress there was actually a good school of kings there and I had the best fishing of the whole season for mature kings over the three day weekend. Then after reading some of the reports on here from around the lake it seems a lot of the ports have good schools of salmon in front of them. So with that being said where were these Kings all summer? Where they just scattered around the lake due to the cold winter or scattered due to high levels of bait?

[specialtee]

1. no one knows...

[KING ME]

We fished the Canadian fence line off rochester from mid July thru late august and the kings where out there the whole time mixed in (deeper) than the steelhead. Bait was always present and the water temp didn't fluctuate that much as the inside and mid waters did. Some days 60' down other days 100' but the kings stayed there in same few waypoints the entire time. Most days we never set a line or trolled shallower than 425 feet of water!

We burned a lot of fuel but that's where the fish where. Talked with a bunch of boats and always same report.... King here or there, one good day on them then three bad days. Not the case way offshore. Different world.

When in doubt or searching go north lol

[TyeeTanic]

Fishing definitely has been better on the north shore the past 2 weeks.

 

I think everything is just late.

[salmonboy41]

KING ME

I would agree the fishing was more constant in 400 plus feet as the normal depths of 100 to 250 where basically died but I know out of Olcott we never crushed the kings out there and I fished the Canadian line at least 20 times only would do a few kings. and the only consistent king bite that I could find was out of the oak and even that was only 4 to 6 kings a day.  I just find it amazing that in the past couple of years it seemed like there was kings everywhere you went but this year they where few and far between.

 

specialtee

I think you are SPOT ON!!! no one knows. It would be amazing to put a tracking device on a salmon and see where it goes throughout its life.

[Patriot]

Open waters. Its a big lake

[ontherise]

I read in national geographic that Lake Ontario salmon sometimes spend the summer on the moon.

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[GAMBLER]

The West end was light in the number of kings in the spring so they might have been offshore in the central to East end of the lake.  The rochester area had more kings around than normal in May.  Who knows. 

[Raaven]

We fished the Canadian fence line off rochester from mid July thru late august and the kings where out there the whole time mixed in (deeper) than the steelhead. Bait was always present and the water temp didn't fluctuate that much as the inside and mid waters did. Some days 60' down other days 100' but the kings stayed there in same few waypoints the entire time. Most days we never set a line or trolled shallower than 425 feet of water!

We burned a lot of fuel but that's where the fish where. Talked with a bunch of boats and always same report.... King here or there, one good day on them then three bad days. Not the case way offshore. Different world.

When in doubt or searching go north lol

Same here. We didn't have a huge king bite all summer, like other years. But every time we ran way offshore this summer we caught kings. Consistent. They were out there, and the bulk of the fishermen who said they "went offshore", were only half way to the fish and waypoints we were working. 7 miles out will get you 400 plus feet of water...but we were going 15 miles to start and trolling beyond that even. Profits are down, due to excessive fuel consumption, but clients rebooked. It's the same even RIGHT NOW. Fish in the pack of boats in the skinny water and get 5-9 bites on a good day, less every other...Run 16 miles NW and get 15-20 bites, catch the same 4-5  mature salmon as you do inside, plus  the same amount of 2 year olds, plus all the steelhead you want.....You just have to burn the gas. 

[KING ME]

raven - exactly my point<  26 days without seeing another boat in sight. !2 to 25 mile run out to waypoints and after the first 5 to 7 miles - no boats around. Averaged 20 to 25 fish on everytime out there except once and that day was 12. Honest fish on - tight lined- rod pumping - releases don't count. Our ratio was 2 to 1 average for every 2 steelhead a king would come to the net.

yes i think salmon catch numbers down this summer but i feel a number of factors are involved.

bait bait and more bait

bad winter

more pressure on fish - more people fishing, more knowledge (internet etc.)

Screwy inconsisent weather

list goes on

 Here is some food for thought....

Let's say that on any given day there is 50 "cacthable" kings in a 2 square mile area. a pack of 7 boats bungee corded to each other working that same 2 mile area averages out to 6 or 7 catch-able salmon per boat.

 now spread those same numbers out - 4 miles=100 catchable=12-14 per boat

my above point is that way to often pack fishing happens and people get lured into it or an area. Which leads often to less productive numbers.

[Gill-T]

I would add that as the lake cooled over the winter, the last batch of warm water persisted offshore north of Rochester the longest.  I PM'd Gambler over the winter to ask if there were any open launches free of ice because I was sure most of the Kings were going to end up there and I wanted to give-em a go.  Never could get out due to ice but if you go back and check the reports, the Rochester area had a better than usual King bite this spring.  I don't think it was a coincidence.  Add into the equation the Niagara plume was feeding the middle of the lake instead of the shoreline and you can see the fish never had to leave their winter pattern offshore.  I do think there is something amiss with the King numbers and this will be shown with the trib runs.  Canadian fish are usually running by now and their lake-take numbers are WAY down. Just an odd year that I am glad is over.  It was easy to put the boat away this year and start thinking about hunting.

[KING ME]

You are correct gill-t I followed and watched that warm water also. Also if you followed the Lake Ontario surface currents all summer long no matter which way the wind blew the currents always eddies and then broke dead north off rochester/sandy area then they would turn east/west middle lake.

[Fired Up]

   The rule of thumb is---If you can't fish naked with your girl--you are too far south!! 

[bear]

bigger kings spent most of their time this summer 400ft-600Ft 200-300 down or more.

[Tank]

I read in national geographic that Lake Ontario salmon sometimes spend the summer on the moon.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Ha Ha Ha Ha! This literally made me laugh out loud! Awesome!