Tight lines are key to success on Lake Ontario. Keeping them tight however, seems to be an insurmountable task for many. We will discuss the paridigm in this post.
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Keep The Rod Bent
The best way to up your chances of landing a Lake Ontario trout or salmon is to keep the line tight with a good bend in the rod. Any less than this and most times you can kiss your fish good bye. The reason for this has to do with the internal components of a fish”s mouth and how it attacks the bait.
The Way It Works
The inside of Lake Ontario trout and salmon mouths are similar to the top of your head. The inside of a fish’s mouth has a hard and bony structure with a thin layer of skin, just like a human’s head. When fish attack a bait when trolling at our common speeds, they literally inhale it deep into their mouths. When the point of the hook grabs, it’s not uncommon for it to prick the thin layer of the fish’s skin inside its mouth.
When The Hook Can Slip
So here’s the problem! The point of the hook that penetrates the skin cannot bury passed the barb into the bony structure of the fishes mouth. Over a short period of time, a hole will wear through around the hook barb that impaled the skin. As soon as any slack is given to the fish, the hook is then allowed to come free and exit the fish’s mouth.
A Second Chance
Even with tight lines being kept, the hook point can still rip out of the skin on top of the fish’s mouth. But, the caveat is this. If the line is kept tight along with a good bend in the rod, the hook upon exit, has a very good chance of hooking up again with the lips of the quarry.
Keep Em Tight
As stated before, tight lines are the key to success! Whether the hook is stuck to the skin on the inside of the fish’ mouth, or on its way out of it, a taught line increases the chance of landing that fish exponentially. Keep in mind that even if a fish gets hooked in the lips on the initial strike, over time with slashing and rolling, the fish can wear a hole around the burried barb of the hook. If any slack is allowed in the line, the hook can easily fall out. Ask yourself this , “How many times have the hooks fallen out when a netted fish is placed on the deck of the boat and the line is slackened”!
Here are a few related posts that you may be interested in. https://acecharters.com/blog/set-reel-drags-dynamically-on-lake-ontario/ https://acecharters.com/blog/when-to-set-the-hook-when-trolling/
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