Aaron Shirley

Nice largies!

That's a great musky. Congrats and many more to come

Very nice muskie porn WTG I also have owned Knipex for over 10 years for musky fishing

Oh yeah, I still can't believe that about banana boy lol

Wow, thanks everyone. It was a roller coaster week that ended with a bang. I'm just glad that I have an understanding wife and we got a lucky bite. I am also glad Mitch is an experienced angler and he fought the beast like a pro The Lowrance HDS is good, but it didn't show up like a Toyota LOL.

First off, I apologize for the week-long report. I have been fishing like a mad man with very little sleep and haven’t turned on my computer in over a week. I spent the last week of the salmon derby fishing solid in the mornings and evenings for kings for the Great Ontario Salmon Derby. I pretty much burned the candle at both ends staying up late fishing until dark and getting up at 3am every morning for the last week of the derby. I fished hard from Port Hope to the south shore east of Port Weller in search of big kings. I was on a major Quest to win the last week of the salmon derby with a week of holidays. I decided that I would spare no expense with a lack of sleep and fuel costs to travel anywhere from Port Hope to the South Shore that I thought I may get into big fish. I found awesome fishing the second last weekend of the derby at Port Hope taking out a buddy Justin, but unfortunately, nothing over 27 and a half pounds despite lots of big fish. It was a crazy morning, as we had a very hard time getting a 3rd rod down, and couldn’t get our fourth rod down until about 9am. It was chaos in the boat, the kind of chaos we all dream about. It was entertainment at its best with a good buddy. After the flurry when things slowed down, Justin takes a freakin’ banana out of his lunch box and starts eating it with a big grin. It was hard to get mad at him after spanking so many nice kings lol. We had our success fishing a rigger down 21’ and Dipsy out 86’ on a 3 setting with no ring over 40- to 60-feet of water. The best baits were big Luhr Jensen Coyote flashers and a new prototype real cut herring strip. After that awesome fishing, we had some very harsh winds that made a mess of the north shore with very high temps top to bottom. I have learned over the years that staging kings are outside of their preferred temp range and hit in much higher temps outside of river mouths; however, really high temps 70 F. and more shut them down. Accordingly, I had a very tough go the following 4 days fishing mostly solo all over the north shore. Bob Barnes who I filmed a salmon show with in July joined me one morning at Port hope, but we only managed one mature, despite me throwing in many tricks I’ve learned over the years. I averaged a fish per trip, and even got skunked on Wednesday at Bronte in my own backyard. I wasn’t happy that my week off was such lousy fishing, especially putting in so much effort. After regrouping on Thursday night and studying the weather and lake data closely all week, I decided to head to the south shore on Friday. It was a gamble, but I had a hunch from experience and reviewing lake data that I would find big kings between Four Mile and Port Weller. So Friday I set off like all the other days, but this time a good friend Mitchell Burke would join me. My hunch paid off in a very big way. The fishing was a bit slow at first, but then we found them. They cannot hide with the Lowrance HDS units We had about a 2 hour window on Friday that the fishing was hot. We got about a dozen fish all big kings. sonar looked like this a lot Mitchell hooked a big king that took a long time to fight. I knew it was a good fish, and we took our time and got it to the back of the boat and I netted the fish with my new long handled net. I needed that long handled net, as my hot wire Dipsy rod has a 12’ lead to the bait! It looked like a decent fish so I put the scale on it and it said 31.12 at first. I almost chucked it back in the drink, but it quickly bounced to 33-pounds. I thought this was great, we may be able to make the middle of the top ten and possibly get $1,000. and get into the Fish Off at Port Credit. Into the Lund’s big live well it went. We got the fish about 9am, but since the fishing was so good for big kings we kept fishing until it slowed down. We packed it in about 12:30pm and headed home to weigh in the fish at Bronte Outdoors near my house. When I put the fish on the scale, I was perplexed, as it read 35.96. It took me about 10 seconds to realize my freakin’ scale was WAY OFF and we just took the lead on the second last day of the derby!!! Well I let out a big wooooohoooo in the store a couple of times lol. Mitch came over with a big grin on his face now realizing the fish he reeled in could win us a car. I was in shock, as the fish didn’t look that big to me. Know I know it is because my scale has been almost 3-pounds light and all the bigger fish I caught this year were much larger than I thought! I let a few big fish go that only weighed up to 30.08 on my scale this year. I’ll have 2 new scales very soon! Mitchell Burke with his 35.96 king These are the type of teeth that have sheering off 40lb fluoro! I fished solo on the last day of the derby just east of Weller. It was a little slower fishing, but I picked away at them. They moved overnight a couple miles east closer toward the mouth of the Niagara River. I found them from close to the border to Four Mile in the same depths, and got a couple of fish guesstimated close to 30-pounds, a 28 and a few 20’s with the rest being under 20. I even got a double header solo and a silver fish about 20. Although I had a good trip with some big fish, I had nothing to weigh in. I didn’t take any photos of the fish since the Monday due to the warm bath water and fishing solo in the wind. It would have killed the fish for the sake of a photo. I fished until 4:30pm on the last day of the derby and had to leave because I was starving and badly dehydrated, even though I planned to fish until 7:30pm. Saw a lot of these, and got many of them to bite Action is good on the south shore right now, go get them! The best action on the south shore was between 100- to 160-feet of water. The rigger was good between 100- to 125-feet down with a big green glow Luhr Jensen Coyote flasher to the prototype herring cut bait. My Wonder Bread Dipsy was hot out 300’ on a 3 setting with ring with a big Wonder Bread Coyote flasher and prototype cut herring strip. I also did well on a Sushi Fly Zilla on the Dipsy out 365’ on a 3 setting with green Dipsy. I was content but on pins and needles until it was posted that night that Mitchell’s fish won week 7 of the salmon derby. A big sigh of relief and cold beverages followed. The details of the week 7 winner: Weighed in at Bronte Outdoors at about 2:30pm on Friday the second last day of the derby at 35.96. It was caught just east of Port Weller in about 140 FOW on the Wonder Bread Dipsy on a 3 setting with ring out 301-feet with a big Luhr Jensen Coyote flasher in Wonder Bread colour with a chrome blue scale bait head to the prototype cut bait. I tied my own cut bait heads with 40lb Maxima fluorocarbon (upgraded this year from 30lb), to a size 3/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook snelled as a spacer with a lead to a size 1/0 Gammy treble to be just past the tip of the cut bait tail. I’ve been fishing the salmon derby for many years, and it is nice to finally hit pay dirt with a good friend. I sacrificed a lot of sleep the past week and seeing my wife and 18-month-old boy in favour of pounding Lady O for the derby. My wife thought I had lost my mind, until Friday when we weighed in the big male. Now she will not have a problem with my addiction as much next year. I’m looking forward to taking my friend Mitchell out in the Fish Off at Port Credit in September. See some of you there! Aaron Shirley

Nice healthy fish with great markings WTG

Those are some great smallies! Spending the evening with your dad pounding bronze even better.

Looks like a great weekend, doesn't get any better!

Braid works well, but not in the summer due to bad fleas that prevent you from reeling in your line. 30lb Mason stainless stranded wire in 1000' spool is perfect as mentioned. Also, 30lb Flea Flicker can be good for a mono dipsy. I have also done well on mono Dipsy rods. Good fishing, the kings are huge this year! I second spoonpullers for more info on knots and specifics.

Good advice here. As stated, don't venture above back drift at ramp, watch out for whirlpools where the currents meet if you fish the back drift at the ramp and wear pfd's. Smallies are fun this time of year, 10' - 30' with tube jigs work well. Walleye can be tough, but if the moss isn't bad you can drift worm harnesses off breaks. Good fishing!

It has been a great year for Lake Ontario kings! Tons of bait and big fish. It's great to see such a rebound of bait and big kings again. It's been a while since we've had a year like this! This is the year to get out and enjoy the salmon fishing. Don't forget to buy a GOSD derby ticket!

Great muskie, and sounds like one heck of a day on Rice. Nice work on the release.

Looks a lot like a tiger, but as Ron pointed out, it can be difficult to tell by colouration alone. Hope it isn't a tiger for the sake of the lake, but it may be the future of the Kawarthas unfortunately.

Sounds like a fun couple of days on the big lake for smallies. I've been trying to get out there for smallies in October but the wind doesn't cooperate. Maybe this Oct lol. Sucks about the wind farm. I still get smallies in front of them in Buffalo though.

Great report. Love all the photos, you have a real eye for 'em. That's a nice musky Paul got too. I'm gonna have to make it one of these years, it looks like a lot of fun, and the musky really interests me

Good info, thanks!

Awesome stuff Marc! Congrats on a great film shoot with Cam and Big Jim. You must be thrilled for sure, Big Jim is a super guy. Cam is also a great guy. You will have to let us know when and where we can watch this show. Good fishing! Aaron

Great fish! Never seen that many lampreys on a musky before, glad you helped out the big girl.

Sounds like a great opener, and what a tank of a largie!

Awesome stuff! Love this post.

cool, what did you get the carp on? Get them in a stream?

Looks like a good day on Sparrow, congrats.

Way to go Louis. Sounds like you had a really fun day with a cool experience. Where can we watch the show in Canada? Aaron

Congrats on the great fishing, tourney and new boat!