Sodus Bay/Lake Ontario 8/5
Guided James and his friend Rob for a 6 hour gar trip on Sodus Bay. James had read a gar piece I’d sold to “In-Fisherman” magazine back in the early 2000s and put a gar trip on his fishing agenda. Rob hadn’t fished much in years and accompanied James. Both guys did a good job on the fishing today but the gar just didn’t cooperate. I think the strong winds of the past week scattered them – I don’t know. There’s a ton of bait in the bay as well – what appear to be shad and YOY (young of the year) alewives (I’m not sure – maybe they are one year olds.) The gar fishing in Sodus Bay is generally predictable and consistent from May through mid-September.
It took some searching but we found some gar. James had a couple follows but no hits. Rob had a halfway decent largemouth hit his rope-fly to no avail. I gave the guys a quick tour of Lake Ontario. The Chimney Bluffs are quite the sight to see – especially from the water. I had the guys do a few drops with some jigs and they had follows – likely from lakers or browns. I think we could’ve done well had we targeted salmonids on the day. BTW – The upwelling is still in full force with 43 degree water down 30′!
A storm cell came up and we had to run back into the bay. It cleared and we tried some more gar fishing. We saw them but they weren’t chasing or hitting. We saw a bald eagle overhead as we left. It was a fun day of fishing but obviously not catching.