In keeping with my New Years resolution to fish more, my plan was to get out in the boat fish this past Sunday. With the success we had last outing I made plans to fish Lake Ontario again. Anytime I fish the big lake in the winter I ensure to drive around the ports to check out launching conditions. Those cold temps last weekend, the long weekend, really buggered up my launches. I was considering dropping the bow mount and casting Hamilton Harbour for Browns and Pike...but that plan was out due to an iced up ramp.
Here's the marina I launched at last time.
Rather than tour around the entire south shore, I just decided to launch out of Port D the next day ... at least I knew the launch would be free and good to go. However, it was approx 2pm and it was beautiful. Windy, but the sun was shining and the truck was showing 13 degrees!!! I knew the water was 'a warmin'.
Taking the scenic route home I came up to a concrete path down to the lake. Decided to stop and check it out. Soon as I was down the hill I recognized the spot, having seen it many times from the water. Although I didn't remember catching any browns trolling in front of it, I curiously checked out the water. The sun was high and I could clearly see the water depth quickly dropped off from shore. **** it.
Ran home and grabbed a spinning rod and reel, threw a cleo, spinner, and J11 into a small tackle box, put the gortex on, and headed to my newly found spot. Got back at 3:30 on the button.
Here's a shot of the beach looking East.
Had to take a photo, just to prove I actually fished from shore...been a looooong time, lol.
After a few dozen casts, with my interest already starting to wane, my cleo was smashed right at my feat...couldn't have been 5' from shore....I saw a quick flash, a boil on the surface, and off she was running...I was able to get the drag adjusted in time and enjoyed the battle.
No net of course, but just used the waves to beach the beauty girl.
Wasn't going to try and get a timer photo with my cell phone, and I don't do selfies, so I grabbed a quick release shot as she swam off.
I did not find another fish before evening fell. But I did enjoy a nice moon rising.
My old buddy George joined me on Sunday. We made it to the launch for approx 9:30am...found two trailers in the parking lot...George and I quickly launched and headed down to another Lake Ontario Brown Trout hot spot. We found the water temps were down from the 39 degrees it was on superbowl sunday to only 36 degree's. However the water colour was a perfect emerald green with nice brown mudlines. Perfect.
We setup a four rod spread consisting of two inline boards boards on the inside (closest to shore), one inline board on the outside, and one flat line down the chute. We trolled through perfect water without a single hit. The sun was shining. Everything was perfect. But I couldn't get anything to go. I tried all different stick baits, including the standards and the rarities. Here's a shot of the two inlines working the inside.
The morning winds died down and I killed the outboard, strictly running on the minnkota. Had the tunes kickin' and was starting to forget I was fishing when the "inside" board (closest to boat) dropped back....wasn't screaming by any means, but definitely was a fish. George was on it.
He was telling me it wasn't fighting, and at times thought he was snagged....I told him to just keep cranking that board in.
When the fish surfaced we found out why. Somehow the brown managed to get snagged mid way down the body, causing George to reel it in like a flat board, sideways. Oh well, cute little guy.
We kept on our way, spirits boosted a bit.
But after another hour at 'er, without another bite to show for it, I could see George was getting restless.
I told him to clear the spread, we were going in "Ninja mode". I can't give ya all the secrets to ninja mode, because it has many phases involved, all of which require years of practice (**bullshit**), but essentially its all about getting as quiet and controlled as you can get. After about 20 minutes of running in Ninja mode the chute rod gets smashed....George manages to get one of the flat lines out of the water, but the fish swims under the port side flat line. After some careful rod maneuvering, we get the mess untangled.
After a real solid effort by the bulldog (especially considering the water temps), George netted the beautifully obese bruin.
As you can see, the sky was starting to cloud...that means I'm done. If there's no sun there's no fish. (at least when the water temps are sub 40 degrees). We were happy. 2 for 2 in about 4.5 hours of fishing. We had to work for them, but you can't beat fishing in February!!!
(this upcoming weekend I'm going "corporate" ice fishing
)
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