Lake Ontario out of Oswego Harbor 8/1
Gave the big lake a shot today for a little while from around 9:30 am till 3 pm. The drive has been a bit of a hassle with the construction along Rt. 104. I would’ve liked to have motivated earlier but that wasn’t going to happen.
Not much to report. A lot of trailers were at Wright’s Landing, so a lot of boats were out. As I launched a guy was coming in who had a good AM with a steelhead, mature King or two and some juvenile Kings. He told me he got them to the west around 500′ FOW.
Cold water i.e. the thermocline remains fairly shallow. I worked my way out and eventually wound up out deep. I had a few (what appeared to be good fish) investigate my lure for a little bit but never had a hit. Trollers appeared to really be having a great day – I had two boats go by me in fairly close proximity and both nailed fish and one got two. All the fish I saw caught were immature – they looked small from my vantage point (they were dragged across the surface on the way in) but they were fish nonetheless.
Bait was fairly common out deep but I didn’t see much in closer. Don’t be surprised if the vast quantity of Kings out there decimates the bait this year. I don’t believe Lake Ontario is “out of the woods” by any means in terms of baitfish. And the King fishing is concentrated. The pros are doing well – obviously having contacts out on the water makes a huge difference, because some areas have vast areas of nothingness. My biggest issue in trying to jig these fish has been finding them. If I find them, I feel I can get them to hit. At least sometimes 😉