Lake Ontario can be both a cornucopia of large fish and a moody inhospitable place, but when the stars line up, hang on.  This summer has been one of the best in recent memory in terms of sheer numbers of Salmon and Trout caught and their overall size.  Charter captains were reporting record-breaking catches spurring on a virtual stampede of fishers eager to get out on the water to try their hand.  My turn came up the last week of August.

I first met charter captain Jean Robitaille at a fishing show in Toronto when he visited my Blind Fishing Boat booth.  Jean operates out of the Darlington Marina at the mouth of Bowmanville Creek near Oshawa, and runs an 17.5′ Crestline equipped with an 115hp Evinrude and 8hp kicker.  Clients hear of Jean’s service through word-of-mouth as he prefers fishing with those who know there way around a boat.  The Crestliner offers a dry ride, but Lake Ontario is big so guests need to be open to a bit of “rock&roll”.

Jean and his wife Deb also operate an informal “bed & breakfast” like service from their home for their friends/guests.  There attention to detail, warm hospitality and Jean’s prowess around the BBQ all added up to a fantastic stay.

Weather for day one was looking not good with winds out of the north-west gusting from 15 to 18 knots.  It didn’t deter Jean and I from trying a little trolling along the north shore in water 40-60 feet, but we marked little and came home with even less.  Anyone else who tried venturing on to the lake quickly turned back, and even though we stayed close in on the leeward shore we still experienced a strong sample of what Lake Ontario is capable of dishing out.

The next morning was much calmer and by 6:30 we had motored out on to the lake 17km and had our first line in the water.  Jean runs two downriggers with 10lb cannon balls he’s designed himself that are akin to dinner plates on edge with large aluminum tail fins. Down 100 feet and trolling at 4km/h, the downrigger lines ran almost vertical.

Jean doesn’t believe in stacking lines, preferring instead to add sliders to the main lines using 6′ of 10lb fluoro with snaps at each end.  These sliders snap to the main line and drop down half way between the rod and cannon ball as they descend the upper slope of the bellied-out line.

Dipsy set-ups are also utilized on Scotty holders positioned four feet up from the rear corners of the gunnels.  Each set-up is equipped with a medium to large sized dipsy, a flasher, dodger or spin doctor, and finished with 3-6 feet of fluoro leader with either a fly or spoon.  With the total set-up in place, Jean had managed to deploy six lures on four rods.

This year green, white & chrome was the magic colour combination, where as last year blue and chrome was the ticket.  Fish have also been feeding actively in 60 to 70-degree water.  Somewhat higher than normal but likely due to the overall warmer average water temperature of the lake.

We didn’t have to wait long for the action to begin with this small 4lb Rainbow Trout coming aboard by 7:00 a.m.  Plying waters with an average depth of 300 feet, we had two more hits before deciding to pull up and move about 4km to another area where a charter buddy of Jean’s was reporting excellent success.  Now, in hind sight pulling up and leaving fish to find fish may not have been the best idea, as by the time we had re-deployed the lines that same charter captain was now reporting the bite had dropped off.

With my train departing Oshawa at 12:38 p.m. we had until 10:45 before we had to pull the lines.  The next four strikes came fast and furious, with the eighth and final strike of the morning boating a second Rainbow which tipped the scales at just over 7lbs.  That was it, we were out of time.

Interestingly enough, every fish we hooked and were able to ID that morning was a Rainbow Trout.  Salmon just didn’t seem to be feeding, a fact other charter captains were also reporting over the VHF.

The week prior most Charter boats had stopped fishing the “blue zone”, (middle of Lake Ontario), as the fish and bait-balls seemed to have dispersed.  Just like that, an open-water season that may go down on record as being one of the best in years had come to an end.  In fact, the day prior to my arrival a 34lb Chinook had been taken from the Bowmanville Creek.  No doubt, the Rainbows and Browns won’t be far behind.  The season for pursuing Lake Ontario fish isn’t over, it’s just changed venues.

Fishing with Jean was a real treat.  His competitive nature was honed fishing Northern Pike tournaments in the Sturgeon Falls area, where Jean had lived until 2008.  A weekly fishing show Jean hosted for a local Sturgeon Falls radio station testifies to his love of all things fish.  You got to admire a guy that cares as much about fishing as he does.