Aaron Shirley

Dave, the Grimsby area is a good area for early spring browns, but a feasible launch ramp for a big boat is another story until the ice melts away. There are big browns from Grimsby to Port Dalhousie. Probably some of the biggest browns in the lake like that area for some reason. Thanks again for the comments everyone. Sometimes you "hero" and other times "zero"! My buddy Dean and I spent 2 hours chipping ice away at Port Credit launch yesterday, then broke ice all the way to the lake to troll the shoreline in and around the PC area. It sucked! Not one bite. No signs of life. Water was gin clear except for a slight stain right at the mouth. It was really windy and freezing cold. My inline boards froze up so bad they started to fall over with the weight of the ice! We even tried some drifting roe and casting spinners, spoons and plugs from the hwy 2 bridge down to the lake for a bit. Nadda. It was dead. I think the fish that guys were catching ice fishing there not long ago have moved up. Sometimes ya take a bullet while experimenting, but ya never know until you try. That is how you discover new bites. I will head back to the south shore or fish Niagara with my boat next time. I don't think there are many browns around Port Credit. I couldn't launch in the west end, as the only ramp that was free of ice was Fisherman's Pier and the gate is locked Burlington Beach/Lift Bridge is where I really wanted to try for browns. That area is a major historical spot for early brown trout, but it hasn't been good in many years. I just wanted to try it out. None of the other ramps close to it are even remotely ready to launch a boat. I wish Fisherman's Pier opened earlier.

For those of you that are not aware, I joined the FMZ20 council late last year as a volunteer. As a council member, I would like to hear feedback on Lake Ontario fisheries, negative or positive, any ideas you have etc. Feedback on stocking or regulations etc. Feel free to send me a PM anytime regarding anything you would like regarding Lake Ontario. All the best, Aaron

Thanks everyone. I plan on getting out again real soon Dave, I give the shore casters room and swing out deeper when I encounter them lol

This will be a good meeting to attend if you fish Lake Ontario or are interested in fishing Lake Ontario.

I had an opportunity to get out trolling for winter/early spring brown trout on Lake Ontario a couple of times recently. I had a great time and caught some nice fish. There is something special about trolling Lake Ontario in March with ice-covered piers and shoreline while most anglers aren't even thinking about their boats yet. Very few brave souls engage the icy elements and tricky launch ramps with salt and ice chisels to get out early in the year for trophy brown trout. Most of the time, I don't see anyone all day. The launch ramp is the most difficult part of the equation most times. Some ramps are simply not available or frozen up, requiring extensive chiseling and salt to launch. A four wheel drive truck is helpful, especially at the end of the day on an icy ramp. With the right conditions, a cold day in March can warm you up in a hurry when you tangle with a trophy sized brown trout! The shoreline from 5- to 15-feet of water seems best with in-line planer boards and shallow floating stick baits. The Storm Thunderstick has been my go-to lures of choice most days. I typically start with 60-feet of line out, attach an inline planer board, then let out another 160-feet or more. I then add another board inside approximately 75-100-feet out from the boat. I try various lures until I get bites on any given day. I find speeds of under 2mph is best in the cold water. Brown trout are available in shallow sandy areas on Lake Ontario in good numbers early in the year. If you can find stained green water on a beach or creek mouth, brown trout may be present. Brown trout are located all over Lake Ontario, but few anglers take advantage of them in March. April can see a bit of pressure for spring browns. The early spring can be a good time to catch big brown trout, and having little wind is a big factor when venturing out in the cold elements. I keep a close eye on weather and head in quickly with unstable conditions. Even then, I got screwed the other day. All weather reports said NO WIND all day. Well, it picked up bigtime and I had to pound back in big waves in icy cold conditions over 25k's!!! Not the most fun part of my trip, but it was worth it with the quality of browns I got. I spent well over an hour chiseling out a boat ramp this morning. Still about 2" of ice in the harbour, but I should be able to chisel that out when I launch the boat to get to open water. Maybe another hour worth of chiseling ice from the boat to get out. Hopefully I get to take advantage of my hard work this week, my arms are still jello! There are not many boat ramps free of ice yet, so you may need to take a drive with a chisel and shovel. I checked out 4 boat ramps today before I went to work on one. The only one of four that was even close to being ready. Good fishing! Aaron

Thanks for all the nice coments everyone. Hopefully the conditions stay good!

Bass fighter, we employ a Three-way rig to bottom bounce with the bottom current. Boat control with Minn Kota is important to keep a slightly vertical presentation. I use 10lb main line on a spinning reel to a small black Three-way swivel. A dropper line same # approximately 10" to a pencil weight or slinky weight. I prefer slinky between just under 1/2 ounce to 3/4oz. I then tie a 4- to 8lb fluorocarbon leader (4- to 9 feet long) on to a black gammy octopus hook size 8 or 6. I then add either roe, skein, yarn, corky, TriggerX single egg, emerald shiner, TriggerX minnow 3" in white or something similar. I also use Kwikfish, Hotshots, streamer flies, and have caught them on crankbaits. Pink worms between 3" and 8" are also good, as is orange worms. Casting hair jigs, spoons, spinners can work well, as can floating various baits as mentioned earlier. Jigs under Floats can also work well. Good fishing! Aaron

This past weekend had perfect for conditions on the Niagara River to drift for steelhead and brown trout. I met friends Christine and Ben on the way to Queenston, and were launched as the sun was rising. I was very happy to see the river clearing with several feet of visibility. I knew this meant the fishing would be great. The weather was excellent with no wind and slightly below freezing. We traveled down river to where there were no other boats and began to drift full of anticipation. It wasn't long into our first drift when Christine hooks a big fish. It pulled drag and put quite a bend into her 9'6" RSC rod as it dogged down deep. After an intense battle of tug-of-war with rod and reel, Christine put her first brown trout ever into the boat. It was a beast at almost 11 and a half pounds. What a first brown trout to catch! Well done Christine! On our very next drift, Christine boated a beautiful Niagara steelhead. Ben and I hooked up a few times, but Christine dominated the boat in the morning hooking fish after fish while Ben and I played net attendant for her. While drifting, Christine hooked a really big fish that we knew was a steelhead instantly. A very intense battle ensued. It violently erupted on the surface of the water thrashing its head and tail-walking across the surface of the water. This had all of us gasp and giggle with excitement as Christine perfectly fought and landed the most beautiful fish of the day. Christine was in her glory and had a smile and excitement that was contagious. I was happy to see her first experience on the Niagara so amazing. The girl got two personal best trout within an hour as she absolutely rocked the boat out-fishing the two experienced guys. Christine was hot! We eventually moved up river after the drift we were fishing became busy and found another drift all to ourselves. It wasn't long before we hooked up and I got a Niagara Grand Slam! A brown trout, steelhead and lake trout. Ben hooked a couple feisty steelhead that took him to task and got the better of him. Some Niagara chromers can leave many anglers with a broken line and heart with their powerful ability to take line faster than a NASCAR race car speeding down the track. We ended our day with many hook-ups, laughs, big trout and great boat camaraderie. We couldn't have had a better day on the majestic Niagara River. Good fishing! Aaron

Yep, muddy water on the Niagara for sure. Wiser! hahaha. Too funny. Sadly, almost true. I always count on November and December being shot most days now. Whatever happened to the glory days with cleaner water and less wind??? Hope we get a cold winter to freeze up the eastern basin on Erie this year...

Thanks for the heads up Roy! I forgot about the time change. Good idea with the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors as well. I have lots of batteries around with young kids lol. Time to change the batteries, furnace filter etc.

Hey Bunk, I have a breathable pair of Rapala waders and love them. One of the best waders i have owned, no bull. I have been using them this year and they are great waders. They are only around $180. I am curious to see how long they last before leaking. So far they seem to be built well. I have never paid more than a couple hundred bucks for waders that don't last longer than a few years. I do too many different types of fishing to blow $500. on just waders. I'm sure the Simms are great, and I know lots of guys that use them and love them. I have tried many different types of waders, and they all do the same thing. Best thing is to get comfortable waders for you that work well and perform for the price point that you wish. I have used cheap breathables for $100. and will not get those again, despite lasting a few years. They were not comfortable lol. Here is a link to the Rapala waders if you are interested: X-Protect Ecowear

After rolling around some lakes to try for smallies on Friday, I decided to try a new small lake I have never fished before. I wanted a break from the usual Lake Erie trips. I wanted a northern experience with fall colours and solitude. Lake Erie may be relatively easy fishing for big smallies this time of year, but the boat traffic can be high, the wind can be rough and the landscape becomes quite small in the far distance. I really wanted a new challenge as well with something I enjoy immensely: exploration on new waters. Mike's 40-year-old family cottage fit the bill perfectly. It lies in the Burke's Falls area and is a small shallow lake. I didn't mark an area over 25-feet deep, even in the middle. He informed me of nice size smallies on the lake, but he has never fished it before other than his dock. I cannot comprehend that LOL. Mike is an avid salmon and trout angler, and doesn't fish for bass much. With the boat in tow, I picked Mike up along the way and drove over 3 hours north. We were greeted by a launch that is a shallow sandy beach. Crap, I forgot to take my leg waders. Ah well, we made do and Mike got his feet wet early on a cold morning. Luckily it turned out beautiful and sunny. We were greeted by a beautiful northern lake with fall colours on the trees and a mist coming off the water. It was picture perfect. Now to find the smallies! Since this is a small lake, there are no charts for it. I switched out my stainless prop quickly in favour of my aluminum before the trip. I would just have to wing it the old fashioned way and search areas above water that looked fishy. This wasn't hard on such a small lake. I cast spinnerbaits and XRaps while I went into search mode exploring. Mike cast a crankbait. We started off very slowly, and I didn't see a fish, bait or crayfish in the shallows. It appeared dead. We also searched a bit in deeper water, although my screen was fairly blank. After a couple hours without even seeing a fish, I was beginning to draw a blank! I thought to myself "this is s small lake. There aren't many places to hide as a smallie. Break it down section by section, and I will find them". After a couple more spots unsuccessfully, we tried a rocky main lake reef off an island. A few casts in with my XRap and wham. I got hit by a nice smallie. It wasn't a tank, but I was happy to get the monkey off my back! I then hit another smallie as it dogged, jumped and pulled drag. It was music to my ears. I had another big smallie follow behind my fish as it went berserk and I told Mike to throw in a tube jig or soft plastic. Unfortunately, he didn't have one ready. After a short battle, Mike slipped the net under a big northern smallie. It was an incredible fish and it brought a big smile to my face. I then hit another nice one around 3-pounds on a tube jig. It wasn't the big one that followed my bass. Never did see it again despite further efforts. It went cold and we tried other similar looking spots without much luck other than some small ones on an XRap. I also lost a couple. We then tried the only spot Mike had some success on: off his dock LOL. No luck there or the small shallow rocky reef surrounded by deeper water 70-feet off his dock. I did hit a couple small ones just down the shoreline that leads to deeper water. We then checked out a nice shallow rocky reef out from a point also surrounded by deeper water. It was the nicest spot I had seen on the lake and I got excited. I told Mike we would hit some big smallies there. Our first cast each and we both hook a nice smallie. Our first double header! Mine hit an XRap and Mike's hit a Sail Store $2 bargain bin crankbait LOL. I quickly released a nice 3-pound smallie and grabbed the net. His fish pulled drag and dogged like my big one. Yes! I slipped the net under another big northern bronzeback. Mike was ecstatic. Unfortunately, that would be his only fish on Friday, but it was a great one. We then tried around the edge of the reef and I tagged another big smallie with another bigger one close behind the hard-fighting bronzer. I yelled at Mike to throw in a tube jig, but again, unfortunately he didn't have one ready since he lost it due to a snag. After another small fish it went cold so we moved back to the other big fish reef again. Despite all our efforts, we didn't see a fish. We tried deeper off the edges with tubes, drop shots to no avail. We tried these presentations on other reefs as well to no avail. Strange, the drop shot was so ineffective with TriggerX and Jackall baits. Well, can't argue with the fish. We then hit another isolated reef but only managed a few more small bass. Other spots that looked sexy didn't produce a thing along shoreline. I would really like to know where the bulk of the smallies are on this lake if anywhere. I didn't see any crayfish, minnows or bass anywhere on the lake in shallow. I also didn't mark many hooks at all, even in the basin or deeper water off structure. It is possible it is a very small population of smallies. They are all skinny and looked under nourished, especially for this time of year when they put the feed bag on. One of my fish was 21" long and still under 5-pounds. Later afternoon had come and I was very tired from staying up all night working and heading directly to go fishing in the morning with such a far drive. We had called it quits quite happy with the day. It was a gorgeous day outside at 22 Celsius and sunny, and we had caught some big smallies. We didn't see another fishing boat all day while fishing in serenity. We saw loons from a distance when they gave themselves away with the pleasing noises they made on a dead quiet lake. It was just what the doctor ordered for me. Mike learned a lot about smallmouth bass fishing as well. We found all the big smallies shallow off the edge on rocky reefs and the only presentation that worked was a moderately jerked XRap and a tube jig worked down the drop of the reefs. Oh, and a Sail Store $2 bargain bin crankbait LOL Here are some photos. We didn't take pics of all fish, and they aren't in order. Some nice shots of great northern smallies though Good fishing! Aaron

Wow! Great fish Bunk!

Looks like a great trip up north!

Old Iron maker, I can't hide anywhere eh? LOL Hopefully you can get out there and take advantage of the good fishing soon.

Thanks guys. I hope to get out a bit for smallies and muskies the next little while. Steve, I saw your FB posts with all the smallies while I was still salmon fishing. It was give the smallie itch!

Looks like another great trip Mike! WTG

I had the pleasure of taking my friend Mitch out for some Lake Erie smallmouth. The weather was amazing and the wind cooperated! The day was already a success in my books; however, we were after some of that famous Lake Erie bronze to top off our incredible day. We would head out to a location that I used to frequent many years ago. over 20 years ago actually! I didn't know what to expect, but I wanted to fish different water than I have the past 20 years in the eastern basin. We headed out from Austin's ramp east of Port Dover and made our way out to some off shore reefs. After a short while I hooked up a small fish on a drop shot. Then Mitch ties into an absolute tank that played possum.. until it got close to the boat and jumped a foot from the boat and shook the hook out of the Rapala DT16! We just looked at each other in shock. After we picked our jaws up off the boat floor, we pressed on and cast our butts off. We didn't hook another fish on Tecumseh reef, and we marked very little as well. The big one that got away strikes again! It will be just another fish tale to be told rather than a grab and grin photo. We tried several reefs and breaks over a few hours only to come up short. It was a frustrating day with little action. We tried shallow on the top of reefs to deep off the last break of the reefs to no avail. I decided to pull a move in the last couple of hours of fishing that was a bit drastic, but could be fruitful. It paid off in spades a second week in a row! I moved into 4 feet of water on the shoreline and stumbled onto a honey hole loaded with smallies! They were stacked thick along a small rocky drop off that went from 4-feet to 10-feet. Our first pass only resulted in a few fish between 2-3 pounds casting a Rapala Crankin' Rap. Our next pass would be different. Much different! I tossed in a drop shot with a TriggerX Probe worm and it was cast after cast with smallies fighting over the worm! It wasn't long before Mitch dropped his crankbait rod in favour of the drop shot. Insane action that lasted for about an hour before we had to work for them a bit. Then it was a fish every 5 minutes LOL. That action lasted until we left, and we were ecstatic considering how the first few hours had been. I wish we had more time to explore more shoreline that was similar, but our time had run out. We were very happy and all smiles hooking about 40 smallies in such a short time frame. The surface water temp was 66 F. The depth we saw and caught fish ranged from 4-feet to 15-feet, but most fish were in 8-10 feet just as it dropped. The magic presentation was a drop shot rig with a zero twist VMC drop shot hook and a TriggerX Probe worm in baby bass and muck colours. The biggest fish hit a Rapala DT16, and we also had some success on a Rapala Crankin' Rap. The bass fishing is heating up as the nights cool off. Get out and enjoy it while you can! I got a taste for bronze and I need more! Good fishing! Aaron

I use an Albright or triple surgeon's knot. Both easy to tie and very strong. I like the ease and quickness of the triple surgeon's knot, but tie an Albright when the diameter of lines are vastly different or tying a spool of line to backing. Good fishing! Aaron

Terrific report Mike! Great story and photos. Those are memories you will both cherish for life. Brendan is becoming quite the angler already I'm sure dad is proud as heck!

Awesome! WTG. Greg is a great guy and one heck of a salmon fisherman. He spends a lot of time out there. That is the guy to get out with. Congrats on the big heavy!

Thanks guys. It is really fun floatin' cats! Freshtrax, I thought hard about breaking out the pin, but with 4 in the boat it may have been cumbersome. I used a bait caster and 10'6" rod, and that seemed to push the envelope a bit lol

What a great trip with your daughter Bunk! Excellent photography as usual.

Way to go Tony! Really happy for ya!

Italo and I joined Jason and Tyler for a film shoot on an Erie tributary for channel cats on Friday. This would not be a typical shoot with 4 of us in the boat all float fishing. I worked all night on midnights and got out at 8am. I headed home, made coffee, took a quick shower, grabbed my gear and left to meet the guys. We got a late start at about 11am, but we were hopeful we would tag some midday cats. I rigged up a 10.6" medium heavy steelhead rod with a baitcaster and 20lb braid and 16 gram slip float. Inline weight, bead, swivel to about 16" 20lb fluoro lead to a 5/0 octopus hook. Pretty simple and really cool way to fish cats! I started off fishing shrimp, while Italo tried shad and the local boys had a cooler of vacuum sealed sucker chunks. I fished shrimp for hours without a fish, while the guys got some on sucker. I switched up and finally got a couple. We moved around from spot to spot trying the deeper areas with undercut banks and timber. It seemed the cats were not grouped up and spread out over the river. It was pretty cool to see a float drop and tag a feisty channel cat. The guys told us that many central Erie tribs have channel cats that are available from boat and shore. Typical rigs on bottom can work, but float fishing is the preferred way to target them. Unlike the Grand River, the channel cats come in much later and the fishing is good in May and June, and sometimes into July. This year, June and July has been good. Channel cats are common 4- to 8-pounds with several over 10lbs and up to 20lbs! It was a bit slower than when the guys fished a week earlier. They believe the cats are starting to migrate back out to the lake now after spawning. We got cats up to about 13lbs. Italo had the hot hand getting 4 cats, while the rest of us got a couple each and missed a couple bites. Here are some photos of cats that we got into. I'll definitely be floatin' cats again! Good fishing! Aaron