Lake Ontario out of Fairhaven State Park 8/4 PM
I had the day off and the weather looked great to go fishing. I’m not a big weekend fisherman – I much prefer to guide on weekends, but my gym is closed on Sundays and I finished up what I wanted to do at home. The Lake Ontario forecast on weather.gov called for calm conditions this morning changing to west winds at 5 mph with waves less than a foot. Haha. More on that later.
I would not recommend fishing out of Fairhaven Park on summer weekends – this place gets mobbed. There were people everywhere; there was a line of cars waiting to get into the park and the boat trailer parking was nearly full – mostly from recreational pleasure boaters, but anglers too. If you have an Empire Pass, you can avoid the line at the booth and just drive up to the kiosk in the middle lane. I figured you could do that, but I wasn’t 100% sure. That cost me some time.
There was a small die-off of young alewives on Lake Ontario – at least around Fairhaven. It was probably due to the cold water upwelling of last week. The boat steward at the ramp said she was surprised at how many people were boating given the wind. What wind??? I found out eventually…
Targeting Kings on the jig was my goal today. It’s addictive. Today was a very tough day to try it. I had 1′ to maybe occasional 3′ waves when I ran out of the bay into the lake. There were some good 3′ to maybe 4′ swells, but those don’t bother me out on the lake. It’s kind of like the ocean – you ride them up and down but they don’t pose much danger. I worked various areas after getting a temperature reading. My hopes were that the winds would subside and I would see the predicted one-footers. (Kind of like the bit in “The Office” where Dwight follows the GPS into the lake! “It says to go straight here!”) Unfortunately things kept heading in the opposite direction. I should have stayed really close to the bay, but I did run a few miles east, which was also a dumb move given that the winds were west and north west. Running west would have been a better call, but when I was out here with Scott, we did most of our fishing east, and with Kurt we were out to the west, so I wanted to try the east again.
I didn’t have any hits in the 2 hours I fished today. I marked very little bait, but did mark fish that I’m pretty sure were Chinooks (aka Kings.) It’s hard using the electronics when the boat is rocking and rolling and it’s even harder moving around and scouting areas. Waves began getting higher and more intense, so I decided to head west and give things a shot over there, but as I got underway the wind intensity kept picking up and before I knew it I was out in 3′ and 4′ waves. It got really nasty out there very quickly. I gained some good experience running troughs today, which really soaked me to the skin. At least the water temperature was around 75 on top! But wow, what a nasty run!!! I tried to quarter my way back in, but running headways (at an angle) into 4′ to 5′ foot waves wasn’t a great idea. Troughs are also nasty and can swamp you. I zigged and zagged and finally made it back to the piers. It looked like “Haulover Inlet” out there (check YouTube out for more on that…) It was brutal! I was happy to be back in the bay and had aborted my Sunday fishing trip after 2 hours.
Lessons learned:
1.) I generally like NOAA forecasts. I should trust the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. Should! Any way you look at it, there’s world of difference between 1′ and 5′ seas. Someone in a smaller boat without much rough water experience could have easily capsized or gotten swamped out there today. Regarding the forecasts being off – I’ve seen this happen often on Cayuga Lake too, especially in August and September, where we have north winds forecast at 5 to 10 mph and we wind up with 15 to 25. It’s not an exact science – I understand, but it’s kind of pathetic when the windsurfing apps seem to nail the forecasts better than Uncle Sam. As I put my gear away in the parking lot, it was clear that the west/northwest winds were in the upper teens/low 20s. It was brutal.
2.) When it doubt (on Lake Ontario), stay close to your port and be suspicious when the weather isn’t doing what it’s supposed to. I usually say “when in doubt, go out” on the Finger Lakes, but the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain, and even Seneca Lake for that matter (and I guess Oneida) are different beasts all together. My saying is mostly based on forecasts calling for rain and inclement conditions like small chances of T-Storms.
3.) Pay attention to any dog that warns you that it’s going to be “ruff” out there!
OK, the last one’s just a joke…
Cayuga Lake: Algae is reportedly getting worse out there. I’ll be out there soon, so I’ll have a report. Friday and Saturday fishing was good out there.
My August schedule is booking up quickly. I’m starting to book a lot of doubles. I only care to do so many of those, so if you’re looking to get out in August or September (which still is wide-open) please book now. I will be closing off much of August shortly.