4 Days of Lake O Salmon & KOTL with Striker

[Aaron Shirley]

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.

[solopaddler]

So that's what you've been up to, figured as much.

Good to see you got the young lad out, and I'm glad that I helped in even a very small way with your coffee choice LOL!

[misfish]

WOW Another great read.

 

Those fish look like they should be half way up the Credit or Bronte rivers.

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to share.

[BillM]

Look at all those roe wagons! Good job Aaron!

[asdve23rveavwa]

Congrats to your son on the first King, Aaron!!!! Great post!

 

Like Brian, said, wild how quickly they are changing!

[jimmy v]

Congratulations on your boys` first king,that`s awesome.Had 6 or 7 buddies fishing the KOTL and all said Saturday was a tough bite in a lot of places,but Sunday things were better.The kings are still around Port D , I was out yesterday between storms and did pretty good,also got into a bunch of coho that moved in tight.

[I'mHooked]

Great read Aaron. No wonder your son was apprehensive about getting close to the king...it was as big as him!

 

Too bad about not placing. Still looked like some good times on the water though.

Thanks for sharing.

[TDunn]

Hardcore! Love it!