Great Lakes Salmon Fishing - The Hull Truth

Dwain · 03-03-2007, 09:45 AM

This will be my second season of boating and want to attempt salmon fishing on Lake Erie, Lake Ontario or Lake Huron. Did quite a bit walleye and rainbow fishing last year with great results? Now for the salmon fishing. Just wondering about lures, plugs, flashers etc. What setup works best for you? I have downriggers on the boat.

auguste · 03-03-2007, 09:51 AM

Northern Kings (on Lake Ontario) work like a charm.

Forget all the fancy colours, go with the silver hammered finish and the stripe of coloured tape . . . blue green and purple were the best colours

My limited experience (2 trips) was that the smaller (4" I think) Northern King worked best

Try dodgers and flashers to see what works best . . . they should not spin too fast nor should the circle exceed 24" in radius as the fish lose interest (we used an underwater strike vision camera to confirm that) If you use the metal ones (better than plastic) you can bend them to acheive the desired spin . . . just lower the cannon ball three or four feet and watch the action

GOOD LUCK

My Turn · 03-03-2007, 10:18 AM

Here is some advice:

1) Forget about Salmon on Erie, they for the most part don't exist. Steelhead is good on Erie but they run significantly smaller than the do on Ontario.

2) Lake ontario west end from Wilson west to Port Dailhouse (Canada) starting in late march early april and going all year into Spetember is great for Salmon. Plenty of transient slippage available in Wilson and Olcott.

3) To really learn the state of the art of Salmon fishing on Lake Ontario you could do 2 things that would get you years of knowledge in short order. A) Take a charter or 2 abord 1 of the better boats and B) join LOTSA (www.lotsa.org) which has a private message board exchanging information about fishin on Lake Ontario.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in info relative to Salmon fishing. Again, join LOTSA and you will have access to a grerat deal of very good info.

SEADUCKTION · 03-03-2007, 11:49 AM

Dwain,
There is alot of information on salmon fishing the Great Lakes on the internet. Depending on which lake you decide to fish there are a number of sites to go through. One of the most informational for reports and how tos is the Great Lakes Angler site. www.glangler.com,
This is a site I would put in my favorites if you are going to get serious about salmon and trout. As stated before, if you want to have your best chance of hooking a king on Lake Ontario then I would say the month of May is your best bet off the ports in Niagara county. Not to say that is is better fishing in the US waters, but you will not have to worry about getting your Canadian license, if that is a problem. If you decide to fish Lake O more, let me know and I will point in the direction of some other sites, along with the LOTSA site. Good :uck.
Rich

SEADUCKTION · 03-03-2007, 11:50 AM

Dwain,
There is alot of information on salmon fishing the Great Lakes on the internet. Depending on which lake you decide to fish there are a number of sites to go through. One of the most informational for reports and how tos is the Great Lakes Angler site. www.glangler.com,
This is a site I would put in my favorites if you are going to get serious about salmon and trout. As stated before, if you want to have your best chance of hooking a king on Lake Ontario then I would say the month of May is your best bet off the ports in Niagara county. Not to say that is is better fishing in the US waters, but you will not have to worry about getting your Canadian license, if that is a problem. If you decide to fish Lake O more, let me know and I will point in the direction of some other sites, along with the LOTSA site. Good Luck.
Rich

Dwain · 03-03-2007, 12:06 PM

Looked at both sites stated in the above links. Great links guys, added them to my favourites. Thanks

offshorebri · 03-03-2007, 03:04 PM

A friend of mine runs a charter business out of Port Ontario... I have been going out on the lake for 20 years now. For the last few years we troll 4-6 rods depending on the conditions but only 1 bait..............cutbait....... Very easy to use and you can get it from most tackle shops near the lake. We vary the dodger/slashers from day to day but never stop using cutbait.....It comes in a small box like package and stinks like hell. Pick up a box of tooth picks and a few "glow" head units and you will have a ball.........................A good tackle shop will set you up and know just what you will need.............

Eye8atoad · 03-03-2007, 08:55 PM

Don't fish Lake Huron either. There is a bait problem and the fish have all but disappeared. Lake Michigan is phenomenal and Lake Ontario (though I never fished it) may be the best. Here is another link to try.
http://www.michigansportsman.com/

My Turn · 03-03-2007, 09:55 PM

Quote:

offshorebri - 3/3/2007 2:04 PM

A friend of mine runs a charter business out of Port Ontario... I have been going out on the lake for 20 years now. For the last few years we troll 4-6 rods depending on the conditions but only 1 bait..............cutbait....... Very easy to use.............

Many guys on the west end here have pretty much replaced cut bait with flies and rotating attractors like the spin doctor. Catching is as good or better without the expense and mess of cut bait. Although some times those big blackjaws do prefer the meat.