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Lake Ontario report....

3K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  Quentin 
#1 ·
My friend Bert and I have returned from three full days of fishing the backwaters of Lake Ontario for pike. It was a great trip, one that lived up to our expectations.

The weather was the big wildcard for the weekend...one day we were in shorts, the next day we were in warm jackets and got poured on. But the fishing was steady, with many, many pike caught in the 22-26 inch range and several over 30 inches. We also ran across a few clusters of pre-spawn smallies who had no reservations about whacking our pike flies....oh, and Bert landed a four pound largemouth that hit in about 6 inches of water.

The best flies were those that combined both movement and flash; if it had one without the other, it just wouldn't get attention. Another thing worth noting is that on the first two days when the weather was fairly warm and stable, we caught more of the medium sized fish and fewer of the big girls. However, on the third day when the cold front moved in, we caught nothing but fish over 30 inches.

Here's a few pictures....

Me with one of many nice pike on one of the warm days...


Here's Bert with one of many pike as the cold front started to come through...


And finally, here's the biggest fish of the trip, caught by yours truly as the storm with the cold front finally arrived in force...


All in all, I think that I could go again. :D
 
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#6 ·
Mark,

Do you mind posting a photo of the go to fly that you were using?

I have heard of some pike action here in NH and I was hoping that you could give me a visual in terms of flies to try.

I need confidence to shoot for the fish of 1000 casts.

Great photos!

Thanks,

Mike
 
#7 ·
doogue-

For what it's worth, the best fly of the trip was without doubt a white Page Rogers big-eye baitfish, size 2/0 and 4 to 5 inches long and with plenty of flash. Being a Northeastern saltwater fisherman, I'm gonna assume that you're familiar with the pattern. If not, I can point you in the direction of an image (alas, my remaining patterns are chewed up almost beyond recognition). I've often brought salt water boxes with me when pike fishing because of the crossover appeal, and very often they have been the answer.

A few other flies that worked fairly well were Adrian's daredevle flatwing, and Frenchcreek's Yakka-Pikka fly, both of which are in the archives. Unfortunately, the featherbrains that I tied didn't do welll at all. I think this is because they have the flash on the inside. I'll tie some up with more flash on the outside for further evaluation in Alberta next month.

Also, muskie are the fish of 1000 casts....pike can be had much more easily. If you can throw 50 or 60 feet of line and consistently hit structure with that distance, you can get them. Look for structure with close access to deeper water; if you find structure in shallow water, or deeper water without structure, your chances aren't as good as having the two together.

Let me know if you need more info regarding the flies.
 
#11 ·
After the lengthy discussion we had here a while back about pike leaders, I decided to try heavy fluorocarbon (50 lb test). All fish hit the flies using this shock tippet, including both species of bass. The water was quite clear in some spots and we didn't want to deter any leader-shy fish by using wire.

An interesting observation was that the smaller pike did more damage to the leaders than the larger fish. We had to retie after every one or two small pike, but hardly ever after a fish of greather than 30 inches.
 
#12 ·
Great report! Sounds like you guys had an awesome trip.

Interesting info about the line damage too. Guess I should pick up some 50lb fluoro for all those sub 30" fish in the Housy :hehe: .

Q
 
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