Tom has become a FINtastic Sportfishing fan and had introduced his friend Mac to come fish with Tom on his second of four fishing trips this season. Tom works with me at the City of Hamilton and we find ourselves talking it up over lunch about the current fishing trips we have been on. Tom’s conversations usually end with, “so lets go fishing!”.
Mac shows up at the Dock at 5:00 pm, but Tom is caught up in traffic on the QEW that kept him from getting dockside until 5:20 pm. It gave Mark Penner and I a chance to meet Mac and go over the safety gear and pre-departure checklist. Tom had already been through the list a bunch of times, and his late arrival will mean him stepping on board and away we go.
We motor out on the lake where there was no wind, but it still had a slight roll on the lake from the wind event the day prior. I hadn’t been on the water for a number of days and due to the winds we were unsure what might result. In the past I have found the day after a windy day the fish are at times spread out and not congregated in one area. The tactic for us today is to make a steady pick of fish while we continuously move around. This also meant that we needed to space out our presentations to fish different depths and different distances from the boat. 2 long line Leadcores, some short lead shallow mid depth and deep downriggers and divers set at various lead lengths to cover all depths and distances from the boat. We set up in 110 FOW straight out from the marina. The picture was great with bait in the area and a few marks mixed in. We needed to work those fish and cover water keeping a close eye on what water had bait fish and avoid staying in waters without.
The first five fish that bit came on a variety of different presentations, and they were biting short and not staying hooked up for very long. We lost 5 in a row and both Tom and Mac were feeling a little gun shy to take on the next fish, but Mac took the rod again and this time the fish came to the boat. It was his first Rainbow Trout on Lake Ontario taken by trolling. They both were smiling and giving high fives, obviously feeling good that we “broke the ice” and through the “skunk” from the boat.
Our luck improved as we strengthened our presentation to replicate patterns that showed the most fish activity. Throughout the trip both Mac and Tom boated numerous Rainbow Trout. They were joking around talking smack like they were on a fishing show. They were excited at every jump or pull of the drag that went on throughout the night. Mac also boated his first lake trout right at the end of the evening. The count improved with more fish in the boat then lost and Mac and Tom talked about setting up an August “Blue Zone” trip with Mac. Tom said as a close-out, “Stay tuned, because we are going fishing”
Shane Thombs
www.FINtasticSportfishing.com
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