Bangin' Hos on Sunday

[Aaron Shirley]

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[solopaddler]

Way to go bud!

I'll take ho's any day of the week, you can keep the kings.

[camillj]

I agree Solo ... we have never had a better fishery than the one I grew up with in the 80's where the Big Coho was the holy grail and kings were considered fat pigs worthy only of honorable mention

[Snidley]

You guys must be kidding. Coho's better than Kings, I don't think so. Spinning around in the line is NOT a fight, screaming off 100 yards of line then pulling all the way back to the boat, that's a fight. In the proper environment, ie the Pacific, the Kings even taste better. Thank goodness the crazies at the MNR are not favoring Cohos over Kings despite the foolish mistakes they are making with Lakers and Atlantics. One out of three is the best we can reasonably expect from the government after all.

[misfish]

Nice fish Aaron.

 

I agree Solo ... we have never had a better fishery than the one I grew up with in the 80's where the Big Coho was the holy grail and kings were considered fat pigs worthy only of honorable mention

 

I remember a great day,back when I was a small fella,and pop brought home a real nice fish (wrapped in a news paper). We were all excited as he was. I will date it,1976. Pop was so happy,along with my uncle and grandfather.They had been fishing that day out of PC. It was a Coho,and it was cleaned and cooked up for all to joy that night,by my grandmother.

 

Thanks for the post. Made my night.

[dave524]

You guys must be kidding. Coho's better than Kings, I don't think so. Spinning around in the line is NOT a fight,

 

 

There is some truth to that , back 30 years we targeted Cohoes out in what is referred to now as the blue zone, had a few Cohoes break off cause they had rolled themselves up in a dodger fly combo, then they would always have the nerve to jump a few times in the area with the dodger trailing behind just to add insult to you. They are at least in Lake Ontario a much better eating fish and I do prefer too when in the river on their spawning run.

[Gregoire]

Thanks for sharing, but this thread would have been more suspicious if it was subtitled "downtown from from Parliament to Jarvis"

Edited May 31, 2012 by fishgreg

[Joey]

Right on Aaron, great day on the water. Is that a bait ball on the finder?

[workwear]

wish i was on that boat!!!...wtg aaron

[Moosebunk]

Great stuff bud! Couple of the cohos have kind of a camo look to them like Glen's jacket.

 

One day I'll get an open water king, coho and atlantic... ONE DAY!!!

[Fish Farmer]

Be nice to see them rid the Kings and stock more Atlantic's, Rainbows,Cohoes. Better eating and canning. Most King's I saw was in the bush or dumpster. Their just Derby fish. Kings are like Cormorant vacuum's. The good old days when you fished with just a spoon or Fireplug. Not fighting wire,lead and flasher fly's, dragging a fish in behind a boat while still trolling. At least you got some fish Aaron, that makes for a good day for a new guy.

Edited June 1, 2012 by Fish Farmer

[Gregoire]

Be nice to see them rid the Kings and stock more Atlantic's, Rainbows,Cohoes. Better eating and canning. Most King's I saw was in the bush or dumpster. Their just Derby fish. Kings are like Cormorant vacuum's. The good old days when you fished with just a spoon or Fireplug. Not fighting wire,lead and flasher fly's, dragging a fish in behind a boat while still trolling. At least you got some fish Aaron, that makes for a good day for a new guy.

 

I understand your sentiment on this topic, and think that the MNR is headed in that direction, especially in terms of the Atlantics and to some degree the bows. I do disagree with you though. The deep water trolling industry, especially in Lake Ontario, is mainly a sport fishing industry. The derby puts a lot of boats in the water and a lot of money in people's pockets.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the MNR is stocking more Atlantics than it ever has. From talking to some charter and derby guys, it seems that they are the ones spearheading the King stocking program. I do not think that they will stock more of the other species, as it is the King fishing industry that keeps them in business and puts them on the water.