Archive : Lake Ontario

Our calendar displays Fall giving way to the Winter Solstice on December 21.  Local anglers know that in reality, Winter roared in like a lion this past week.  Many counties along Lake Ontario received anywhere from 25″ to 40″ of snow in a few day span.  This morning, the temperature...

Over the past week I’ve enjoyed stellar tributary fishing for spawning browns and greedy steelhead.  It has been sight fishing, targeting fish in water less than 4′.  I’m using my 7 weight JP Ross Switch Rod, matched w/ a lime green RIO WF Steelhead Line.  I fish a basic 10′...

Each Fall there is a tipping point when our tributary fish key in on eggs.  That time is now!  Salmon have been spawning the past month and with their size and numbers, they deposit millions of eggs.  Browns recently invaded gravel zones and they are starting to drop eggs.  Stretches of water with...

Water levels have remained unusually low this Fall.  This is especially evident in smaller tributaries of Lake Ontario.  Despite this, chinook, coho and atlantic salmon all made their way upward.  Several friends managed to catch their first atlantic salmon – hooray!  It’s great to see...

Now that our leaves are turning, angler’s thoughts turn to chasing salmon.  As the calendar rolls into mid-October, it is prime time to target salmon, staging brown trout and greedy steelhead.  That is, on tributaries with a decent flow of water. Like most anglers, I was thrilled with the constant...

Our tally after a day of fishing the Salmon River was four chubs.  Three anglers landed a total of four chubs!  Readers of this blog know that candidly I post the good, as well as the lousy.  I’d like to provide a glowing report after our one day trip to the Salmon River.  But, we didn’t...

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Suckers are a common sight in our creeks and rivers these days.  Their spawn activity deposits plenty of edible eggs.  Smallmouth bass, walleye, carp, brown trout from the lake, resident brown trout and steelhead all capitalize on this seasonal feast.  Northern pike also follow the suckers, looking...

Lake Ontario and Finger Lake Tributaries now have active spawning steelhead.  Increased water temperatures (over 40 degrees), snowmelt, rainfall, greater daylight and the general approach of Spring coincide with steelhead on redds.  These aggressive fish vigorously chase each other, drive away lesser...

The combination of increased sunlight, warmer temperatures and melting snow pushed water into our Lake Ontario Tributaries.  If you haven’t yet heard, steelhead fishing improved the past two weeks.  We could still use a soaking dose of rain, but fish are being caught in Eighteen Mile, Oak Orchard,...