Aaron Shirley

You chose a great guide and had a great trip! Very nice.

5 hours lol. The first price is inexpensive. When I guided I charged more 7 years ago and costs have gone up. Frank DiMarcantonio is probably the best smallmouth guide on Lake Erie. He has been guiding for probably over 20 years and a great guy. Paul Castellano is also a great guide and knows his stuff. He is also a great guy. You can't go wrong with either guide IMO. Whoever you choose to go with, I hope you have a great time and catch lots of big bronzebacks! Good fishing!

Very nice muskies

Is that your excuse these days Craig? Hehe Couldn't resist It doesn't make sense to me. Warmer water will add longer growing seasons here...

That Is a great fish to catch on light gear. Well done.

Some nice fish Lake Ontario is such a great fishery and so close for many that don't even fish it. Nothing like a nice king pulling drag or an acrobatic steelhead on lighter tackle Good shooting!

Mobile Hotspot isn't new, it has been out for a while now. It is a wifi signal generated by your mobile device rather than a cable or bluetooth tethering to use another device such as a laptop or tablet. It utilizes your phone's data package, so make sure you have enough data and password protect your mobile wifi hotspot, or others will use your cell data and run up your data plan. I have a Samsung and use the mobile hotspot to use my wife's ipad and my laptop etc when away. It will work with up to 8 devices used as a wifi mobile hotspot. It works great. Turn it off when not in use or it will drain your cell battery quickly.

Drop shotting is deadly for walleye with the minnow baits.

I've done well with Cross Tail shads, 4" Trigger X drop shot probe worm, minnows and slammers. I really like the Rapala Concept 7'2" drop shot rod. It is amazing to feel bites and the entire rod is just over 3oz. I use a Shift reel spooled up with 8lb castable Sufix fluorocarbon tied to a steelhead micro swivel. I then add 6lb fluoro as a leader or keep 8lb in later fall for big fish. I've been using size 1 Gammy drop shot hooks and wide gaps for drop shotting, although I recently got some of those VMC drop shot hooks with the built in swivel. This set-up has been pretty sweet to fish. I'll be using it real soon Have fun drop shotting!

The Rapala RType float reels are pretty nice for the money and have abec 7 bearings. I know guys that have had the Okuma pins and thought they were a good starter reel as well. Have fun on the bank this year!

Mike, this is by far and large the best report I have ever read from you. It was well written with lots of great photos and videos. Just the right amount to keep me glued to keep reading. What an amazing trip you guys had! Absolutely stellar boys. I do have to say though, you guys are Basterds. I was content to try brook trout on Nipigon until I read this report! LOL Now I HAVE to go to both Nipigon AND the Sutton! As you know Mike, I have not fished much brook trout before but have always wanted to. I will have to go to both places, as the Sutton is now added to my bucket list like many others here now lol.

I enjoy using roe. I have been using it for over 30 years and enjoy the process of roe and tying it up to go steelheading. It is a bit nostalgic for me. I also enjoy using artificials as well. Banning roe will do nothing to help the fishery. We have an incredible fishery on Lake Ontario currently that can easily attain selective harvest. I only keep a couple fish a year for roe, and I release almost every other trout I catch. I don't even need to collect roe this year. I don't think I am damaging the steelhead or brown fishery by keeping a couple fish lol. Yes, there are some roe hogs out there, but many just collect what they will use. I also enjoy fishing the salmon derby along with tens of thousands of other salmon anglers. Without the derby, there would be a lot less anglers going out for salmon and nothing put into the salmon resources on Lake Ontario. The salmon fishery is currently the best it has been since the hayday in the 1980's. It is a thriving fishery that many enjoy. Since the rule changes a few years ago, not a lot of salmon are killed in the GOSD now. I killed one salmon this year to weigh in. Most do.Like I said, the fishery is thriving, and the salmon derby helps the fishery, not damage it. Just because you have a different elitist attitude Paul, it doesn't make the rest of the world "dicks", as you called many OFNers here. I understand you have different ideas, but you are not helping your cause by calling a lot of other people names. You got kicked off Spoon Pullers for this very thing. Many people enjoy fishing with different methods and tactics that are responsible anglers despite what you think. The bad apples out there will always be bad apples. All the best, Aaron

I started to pre-fish for the KOTL the last day of the GOSD salmon derby. I headed out Friday after work to Port Dalhousie in brutal traffic, launched and made my way to the Niagara Bar. I fished toward Weller in various depths but only managed one missed fish and a decent one about 26lbs in an hour of fishing. I was a bit dissapointed as I marked good arches in 100-200 fow, but I couldn't get them to go. Before I knew it, the darkness was setting up quickly. At least I got one nice one. A new hot custom LJ Coyote flasher I did up called the wedding crasher had been good. I actually didn't have to change it for 2 weeks straight as you will see I decided to head back to PortD and fish for a bit off the pier head at night trolling glo Big Erns for a while. I figured I would stay until the bite slowed down and I would split after my 1st 30 minutes without a bite. Well, I didn't get to stop fishing until 2am lol. It was a great bite! Nothing big, but many from 18-22lbs to have fun with. 12 fow to 25 fow was best. Well, I didn't plan to pull an all-nighter, but at this point what the heck, it's the last day of the GOSD! I was already up, so I headed to timmies and got an XL with 2 shots of espresso in it (thanks again Mike for that one!). I headed out of Bronte by 4am and started in skinny water in the dark. Not a sniff. Headed out a bit deeper in the dark and still not a sniff. Crap, I was beggining to second guess my move to Bronte! Headed out even deeper to about 70 fow and it was starting to get a bit light out when they started to bite. Nothing huge but lots of fish up to 15lbs with some up to 20. Not what I was hoping for, but I worked the area a bit to find bigger kings. I didn't find any big kings out to 100 fow. I was feeling pretty tired at this point during late morning, so I decided to troll toward the pier head and go get an hour or two of sleep midday and then head back out. That thought changed quickly as I got a screamer in 40 fow. I boated a nice king and I wasn't feeling so tired anymore haha. I turned and worked the 40 fow I hooked up in and there was no looking back. The big staging kings were in thick and biting well. Sleep would have to wait. I have no idea why these fish didn't hit in the dark, but it was almost noon and I was into big kings like mad on my two new hot custom modified Coyote flashers. Double headers solo on big matures was fun. So was boating a couple really big fish. They would prove to be a couple pounds light to make the leader board, but nice to catch anyway. One was just under official tyee status, but the other one was an official tyee and my first tyee in the boat for 2012. I've caught a ton of kings this year to 28lbs, but the really big fish have not managed to come aboard my Lund until this day. The reel peel kept me awake, and I had a riot fishing solo. My other hot flasher was what I call gingerale snap. That one took my tyee and a bunch of other big ones off the diver. Diver was out 70 feet on a 3 setting with the gingerale snap and cut herring strip. The Walker rigger was down 33 feet with the wedding crasher back 20 feet with cut herring strip. This was a solid pattern that stayed. I fished until the very end of the derby. I didn't get a derby fish, but had a great year for numbers of nice fish and had fun. Can't wait till next year for the GOSD The following day my wife asked to take the kids for a boat ride. So we headed out of Bronte and set my same 2 lines to keep it simple. On my first pass we hooked a big fish in the high 20's with the wedding crasher off the rigger. My son reeled it in while I helped, but when I took the rod to net it, the fish came unpinned. I was devastated. We set back up again and within minutes the diver rod started screaming with the gingerale snap. My son reeled it in with my help and I managed to get it in the net this time. Not as big as the first one, but it was a great king for Brayden's first salmon! Brayden looked a little apprehensive to get too close to it lol The next chance I could pre-fish for the fall KOTL was this past Friday, and after such hot action for big kings, I had to fish Bronte again! I started off on my numbers in 40 fow and it was game on with the same 2 custom modified Coyote flashers. I did notice the size was down a bit though. I did get a 26, 25, 23, 22, and 20 for my 5 biggest, so it was still not bad, just not as good as it was. After talking to my other team mates that didn't fare as well on the south shore, our plans shaped up to make the long trek to Bronte for the KOTL. Day 1 KOTL: Blast off came early! We made the long trek to Bronte and set up on my marks and deployed my 2 hot flashers and can't remember what else, but I didn't care as long as I had my 2 hot rods out. We got a big fish early on the wedding crasher and meat about 27lbs. Things seemed great, except the sonar wasn't marking much like the day before. It went dead quick. Nothing moving and marking little. What te heck?!?! Nooooo, these fish can't know we are in a tourney! There were a handful of boats fishing Bronte from the KOTL, and I think we had similar results. With only 3 fish in the box late in the day (one good one and 2 small ones), we made a move to Port Dalhousie along with all the other boats. We got there and set lines and got a small fish shortly after. We then got our 5th small fish just as we were starting to pull lines! Thank god! We got to weigh in and realized the guys that didn't burn much gas and stayed at PortD did well. We made the decision to do the same after Bronte was a big dissapointment. We ended up with 76lbs for day 1. I learned after the tourney that the big matures at Bronte got blown many miles west with the big east wind Friday afternoon. Ah well, that's tourney fishing! Day 2 KOTL: Blast off came early again. We putted out and started in 50 fow and got into fish. Big flashers and meat worked best for us, but they were small fish. It slowed down so we headed a bit deeper to 70 fow and got some more bites, but it was tough and more small fish. Then it got real tough with massive floating weeds. We couldn't take the constant clearing of massive weeds anymore, so we picked up and moved to Weller and trolled toward PortD where the weeds were not as bad. We ended up getting a few more bites but again small teenagers. We ended the day with 87lbs for 5 fish. Slightly better than day 1, but everyone seemed to do much better on day 2. We learned the big matures were in skinny water at PortD, and we didn't fish skinny. It was a dissapointing tourney for us, but overall we had a fun season of tourney fishing. We are already looking forward to next year Congratulations to Vision Quest for the win and the rest of the top 7 teams! Well done.

I got out quite a bit in short stints for the derby, and it has been great fishing this year. I had the week off work, and although I imagined that I would be out every day hard core, that just isn't possible anymore with two young kids lol. I am a lucky guy though and still managed to get out almost every day, but just for a few hours in a morning or evening when fishing is best anyway. I haven't taken a contender for the derby, but I'll be out trying until the end when I can get out I fished from the Leslie Street Spit area to Bronte. There have been bigger overall average size fish further east, and unreal numbers west, but lots of smaller fish with the odd good one.I fished with a few people and had a blast. I fished several times solo as well and had a hard time with double headers, netting etc., but what's life without a little challenge lol. The Walker riggers have been consistently good, and dipsys have been mostly good. The riggers have been best for me by far, anywhere from 60' to 120' deep and sometimes a bit deeper on hot days with warm water temps. Cut herring strips with Coyote flashers have been very good and consistent, as has flashers and flies off dipsys. Big Erns have also been taking some fish for me. I've had good success anywhere from 186' out to 386' out on a 3 setting with 30lb wire. Whites and greens have been good as usual for me. Here are some quick photos from my phone for my week 1 GOSD adventures. Good fishing! Aaron

Cool report with some nice smallies. Ya don't see many smallie reports from Huron.

Cool report. Can't beat trips so close to home

Those are very nice fluoro leaders HD. I really like the fluoro leaders for many lures, but I still find them too heavy for jerkbaits. 20lb titanium is much lighter, especially with a small Stringease snap and no swivel. I tie direct to mainline with an albright knot as a swivel isn't needed for jerks. Way more bites than 60 or 80lb fluoro because the leader weighs almost nothing and it's so thin the fish don't see it. Also, there is much less terminal tackle for the fish to see. The longevity is also good but not quite as good as fluoro. Your leaders look very well made and I like the loops at the ends. They look perfect for most applications.

Edit. Double post from my phone? Anyone else have a Samsung droid and have this happen?

Thanks everyone. I can't wait for the derby to start Joeytier, that fish was under 30lbs but higb 20's. Yeah Mike I'll have my hands full like many fathers with a girl lol. I may have to take up hunting when my girl is a teenager and clean my gun at the table when boys come over lol

I've been out a bit for kings the past while, and doing tournaments with team Striker. It's been a lot of fun! I haven't had much time to get on the web these days to post reports with my heavy work schedule and two kids now. man how life changes quickly. I don't imagine it will get any better with my son now in sports lol. I should be able to boot up my laptop and post reports during the first week of the derby as I'll be off work. I also post a lot of live reports with photos and short videos to Facebook and Twitter while I'm out on the water fishing The fish this year are a great size and great numbers on the lake. This entire year should be good and the GOSD should see some big fish entered I've been out with friends fun fishing as well as tourney fishing. Herring strips with a variety of flashers and colours have been good as well as flasher/fly combos. Spoons have also done well earlier, but the flashers have been best the past few weeks. I will be out a lot when the GOSD starts, can't wait! I was out on Sunday for a few hours in the morning with a buddy Fred and we had tough fishing off the islands. We got a handful of fish but mostly small. Fred got one good one just before we quit which was nice to see. Here are a few pics. Enjoy.

I have been using 20lb or 30lb Titanium for years now for pike and I'll never look back. They are resistant to kinking unlike steel leaders, and quite thin and light. This allows for lures such as a Husky Jerk or topwaters etc and will not take any action away from the lures. Stringease makes incredible pre-made leaders, or you can get a leader spool of tieable Terminator titanium and make your own.

WiFi should be available in some areas of your travel. Another option is to take an unlocked phone and get a sim card with a data plan to have internet anywhere you have a good cell signal. It would need to be either an iphone or something like a Samsung with portable hotspot AP that utilizes a WiFi signal from your phone to connect to your ipad rather than a traditional bluetooth tether. You would need to set up a secure connection or anyone could connect to your phone and use your data. Relatively simple to set up. This would add some cost but also give you a cell phone to use for the month. Have fun on your travels!

I had a buddy Glen out to try for some kings Sunday. Glen is just starting to learn salmon and trout on Lake Ontario and he is totally hooked We launched at PC and headed out to 70' to start and then slowly made our way deeper to 180' without a bite! Ouch! We then went into total search mode and headed west toward Bronte while zig zagging various depths, changed a lot of baits and tried different depths in the water column. Sonar was mostly blank. Now I'm scratching my head with my temp probe not working. Glen is learning how NOT to catch salmon at this point I pulled up pullers on my new Samsung Note droid to see if I could find any clues. I have to say that I love the new droid! I don't miss the Blackberry one bit! The Note is awesome X10 Anyway, back to pullers, I saw a couple reports of fish in the top 50'. So we were fishing too deep without the aid of my temp probe. No idea why it isn't working. Always something! Thanks to the the reports on pullers we went searching better water. We then headed shallower and set lines in top 50'. Bingo, but still no kings. We would have to settle for a bow, some shakers, and a whack of cohos. Thank God for hos! Not sure what happened to the kings guys were drilling a week earlier, my guess is east. Although the kings eluded us, it was still a fun day out bangin' some hos with a buddy. Glen learned a few things as well, just not for kings lol. Our most productive depths were 65-85 fow down 30-49. A Coyote frog racer flasher and cut bait fired 5 times in the morning off the rigger 42-49' down before any other rod fired. That program shut down completely when the sun peeked out, and they only wanted spoons off the riggers the rest of the day. The divers and junk lines were quiet which was odd, but hey, I'm not one to argue with the fish We got them mostly on silver purple and variations of that with DW, NK and Shoehorn spoons all working well. This was the first time I ran the Shoehorn spoons and I am impressed. They have a unique action, and I'll be buying a bunch more real soon. Some photos from my new phone

Nice bow Roy. Good to see you guys getting Roy out Your photos and write-up are always a joy to view Joey! Didn't Spiel give you guys my number? I wouldn't have minded giving you some info. It was a tough bite, especially on the ON side. We didn't get one bite on the ON side, and we tried.

Great fish Court! Looks like you and Chuck splayed 'em. That one looks like it,s going to explode!