Salmon Fishing
The salmon run of Lake Ontario is made up of primarily Chinook salmon. The salmon unfortunately carried with them a reputation that is undeserving. That came out of the past when snagging was legal. Times have changed and for the Chinook salmon and this has been for their benefit. Fortunately, many salmon fishermen have not experienced the salmon's troubled past. We now enjoy the salmon for the great fish they are.
There are two types of salmon that migrate from the lake, Chinook salmon and Coho salmon. The Chinook salmon is the bigger of the two, growing as big as 30 plus pounds. The coho salmon is the smaller of the two salmon getting as big as 20 to 22 pounds. The average is it about 10 to 12 pounds. These weights can vary depending on how good of a growing season the salmon have had feeding in the Lake.
The salmon runs usually start between late August and early September. There are several conditions that will influence when the runs will start. Once the water temperatures cool off and we get a few late summer or early fall rains, the salmon will start to run. September salmon are bright silver fresh from the lake and the salmon are at their best. As big and strong as they are going to get.
Fishing for early run salmon can be a little unpredictable. However there is not a lot of fishing pressure around. The salmon will move a little for the fly so we are able to swing flies for them. Now is the time when fishing with spey rods and sinking lines is to our advantage. It is my favorite time to be on the river.
October Salmon
October is salmon fishing time. By the first week of October the salmon run will be on. We can count on new salmon arriving just about every day. Most of these fish are still 2 to 3 weeks from spawning. At this stage of the salmon run, they will be in a run and hold mode as the salmon work their way up river.
We will concentrate our fishing in the mornings and evenings to take advantage of this behavior. October salmon are starting to turn dark but they are still just as strong as the salmon we played with in September. Now we need to slow the drifts down and keep the fly near the river bottom. However the salmon still like a swinging fly.
Spawning Time
The second week of October, we will start to see salmon pairing up on the gravel beds in the rivers riffs and runs. This is the start of the salmon spawn. Spawning salmon are now as aggressive as the salmon will get, at times a male salmon will just about bite any fly that is presented to him.
At first, the salmon are in good shape, but as more and more salmon join in on the gravel beds, we will start to see salmon that are breaking down. These are salmon that ran earlier in the season and have been spawning for a few days. Salmon deteriorate very quickly once they start to spawn.
Just because there is a lot of old ratty looking salmon grinding around the spawning beds, does not mean the salmon run is all over. My salmon fishing routine now is to fish the lower portions of the rivers and look for fresh salmon just starting their run. These salmon may not be as bright now, but they will bite a swinging fly and fight just as hard. Plus most of the fishing pressure is now up river where all the spawning activity is located. If we do not do well fishing the lower river, we will go up river and fish around the gravel beds.
By mid to late afternoon the fishing pressure is usually thinning out and the spawning activity is picking up. This is sight fishing so we can pick out the fresh looking salmon to fish for. We are still swinging a fly, but now it is in the face fishing. This type of salmon fishing will produce some of the most intense salmon action of the whole run.
With all of the spawning there is a huge amount of eggs being deposited into the river. We will often fish egg flies around the spawning salmon. There can be a steelhead or a giant Brown trout hiding out and eating loose eggs.
