Hello from Central Ohio

[dgfidler]

Just wanted to introduce myself.  I had never thought about fishing Lake Ontario until September when I started working a contract in Toronto.  I can see Lake O from my office window.  I've driven there a couple times when my flight had issues and now realize Lake O is close enough to trailer the boat there to fish.  I normally fish the western and central basins of Lake Erie for walleye and perch.  There's a period where the walleye fishing slows in mid July and often the perch fishing doesn't pick up until mid August.  I plan to fill that void with some salmon trolling out of Olcott, NY.  I might also trailer the boat up one week to Toronto and try this out a few evenings from the North Shore out of Bluffers which is close to where I work.

 

I fish with my 13 year old sons, and we fish from a very non-traditional platform.  I'm probably the only person in the world who uses this particular boat to fish from.  You're going to laugh.  I fish from a 23 foot Yamaha jet boat.  I have it rigged very well for trolling and can easily run 8 lines.  Starting at the front, I have a Motorguide 36v Trolling motor with autopilot.  On the bow rails, I have rail mount removable rod holders.  In front of the windshield, I have berts track that I can either install a couple more rod holders, or a pair of 3 ft planer masts.  On the gunwale, I have mounts for removable triple rod holders.  On the stern, I have another pair of berts track that accept a pair of downriggers or an 18" cannon track for even more rod holders.  The boat has two 160hp jet drives, so there is redundant power to limp in if an engine fails, and the jet drives are infinitely variable between idle and 3.2 mph, so I can supplement the trolling motor if we want to fish all day.  The only downside for fishing from this boat is the wraparound seating doesn't give the best access to the gunwale and transom.  It works for us for now.  I have plans to get a dedicated fishing boat, probably a 23-24 foot late model walkaround.

 

We have experience with running up to four lines per from the big boards early in the season and dipsy's later in the season.  Up to now, deep for us is 35 feet down.  To prepare for Lake O, I'm reading all three of Dan Keating's books, I've acquired a pair of manual downriggers, and a subtroll 900.  The downriggers and subtroll will be beneficial for fishing the Central Basin of Lake Erie also.  I plan to follow Keating's plan of building a temperature based strike zone and plan to use a mono high diver, wire low diver, copper off the big boards, and a pair of downriggers for an eight line group.  I anticipate the strike zone being 40-100 in late summer.  I'm going to finish reading the Keating books before I start asking a bunch of questions , but would be interested in knowing if I'm way off on the depths I think I'll need to be prepared to cover in the mid July to Mid August timeframe.  I am also having trouble determining which lengths of copper.  I think I'm going to use the smaller 32lb blood run super copper on 45 series reels and am planning to just use 300 feet on each side.  I figure I can run a little slower or faster to cover a variety of depths.  Hopefully, I'm on the right track.  Anyway, I look forward to some fishing on your lake later this year.

[Big Water]

Welcome to the site dg. Wow, that's some "non-traditional" fishing platform. Sounds like your more inclined toward fishing than having a recreational boat. Your attention to detail will serve you well but really rethink those manual down riggers. Most of all, enjoy the affliction that you'll develop for Lake Ontario. I'm an ex-Erie guy myself and never looked back.