Lake Ontario Fishing Reports 2013

9/23/2013 Lake Ontario Fishing Report Season Wrap Up

2013 was another awesome year of fishing on the Ace. The fishing was very consistent. We knew that we were going to catch fish nearly every time out with some really good ones caught in the mix. We didn’t quite match our numbers from the 2012 season so I would dare to say that this past season was more of a normal year and perhaps we had just got spoiled over the last couple of seasons. It’s nice to know that even when we have a slightly off season that we can still catch as many great fish as we did

9/3/2013 Lake Ontario Fishing Report

Sad times are on the horizon as the end of another Lake Ontario charter fishing season drawers near. Although this year was much busier than last year, the overall numbers of fish being caught was somewhat down average wise as compared to the previous season. On the bright side however, the numbers of exceptionally large fish was up considerably. Over the past four weeks we have been able to land eight fish over thirty pounds and at least one 30lb plus fish per week. In one week, we landed four of the behemoths. As I have been saying all along, the quality of fish is taking the place of numbers of fish.

The good news is that we have had bites on all of our trips and have brought fish in on all but one so far for the entire season. Ace Charter clients have performed most admirably. I have added a few more pics of some of our successful clients who have elected to have their pictures taken and posted on our website portraying their Lake Ontario fishing success over the past week or so.

We are planning on pulling the boat after September 8^th and winterizing her in preparation for winter storage. It is a sad event as it marks the end of the season. God how I wish we could fish the Lake year round and the weather was always pleasant. But, as they say, all good things must come to an end.

8/26/2013 Lake Ontario Fishing Report

The past several days have been very rewarding both for my clients as well as me. It has been such a pleasure to just be able to go out and fish without the pressures that are inherent in tournament fishing. Watching clients reel in fish after fish along with all the excitement and exhilaration exhibited by then reminds why I love to charter fish as much as I do. My only regret is that the end of the Lake fishing season is on the horizon. As of right now we are most likely going to end our season after Sept.8th

The kings are beginning to stage and there have been reports of fish in both the Oswego and Salmon rivers .That being said we have been catching salmon in 160 to less than a 100 ft. on any given day. Using a mix of both Atomic flies and meat has proven to be the most productive method in creating bites. What has been happening is an increasing amount of “slippage” that is, fishing striking and being on for a while only to escape. The fish are getting bigger and their dog teeth are starting grow in size making them more difficult to catch due to bite-offs.

The LOC Fall Derby is in full swing and there has been an increase in fishing pressure with many more boats plying the waters. This causes the fish to be a bit more finicky, but they are still catchable as the following pictures of my past weeks clients show. We have had seven fish over thirty pounds in the last three weeks indicating that the big guys are still there to be had.

We have a few openings during the first week of September that we are anxiously looking to fill. Give us a call at 413-346-7675 anytime or e-mail us with any inquiries.

8/13/2013 Lake Ontario Fishing Report

This year we participated in the second annual Atomik Invitational Fishing Tournament held out of the port of Oswego,NY and boy was it a rough one. We fished in some very heavy seas with some waves exceeding 6 feet or more after a delayed starting time in the morning. We did have the bites but failed to put six fish in the box and landed only five. Apparently it was a tough bite for most of the 52 boats that were in the event as we finished 13th place overall. We did receive a $500.00 gift certificate and two shark downrigger weights which were generously donated by Shark and Little Jon’s Bait and Tackle for our finish. Congratulations to Vinnie Perlione and crew for their first place finish.

We are now in full swing for the rest of the season fishing charters with our clients. This past week we were privileged to have on board active military personal on a few different days fishing with us. Ace Charters willingly offers discounts to active military, police and first responders as our way of saying thank you for all that they do to keep us safe. Of special note we were delighted to fish with Steve Marx and his two sons for a recent afternoon trip. They did quite well with some very large salmon being put into the cooler. Steve is 28 year active duty military.

Also of note we had the opportunity to fish with one of my very good friends Chucky Boyles and his son Ed. You see Ed is also active duty military and was home on leave for the week. It was a very good feeling to see him come safe as I had not seen him in quite some time. We had a blast landing six humongous kings with Eddie landing one that was over 33lbs. What a fitting reward for such a good kid and friend! We also got to munch on some very tasty venison cheese salami that Chucky knows I like. We still have a few dates left to fill if any one is interested. The kings will be staging very soon and the fishing should continue to be strong.

8/5/2013 Lake Ontario Fishing Tight Line Shootout Report

We just completed our second try at one of the Titeline tournaments held out of Bluffers Park Marina in Toronto, Canada and I’m glad to report that we finished a strong second out of a sixty boat field. In fact we missed finishing in the top spot by 4lbs. Our six fish weight totaled over 148lbs and the top box turned in by the team Screamer/Atomik weighed in at 152lbs. Congratulations to the Screamer boys.

We fished the Tournament under the name of East Coats Boys which was supposed to be captained by Lester Zimmerman. Lester came down with pneumonia and could not attend the event. We were able to get another member of the Ace Charters pro team to replace him. Our team for this event included Brad Wilson, Lynn Thompson Jr., and me all Ace pro team members as well as Greg Dale a member from team Trouble Shooter.

The fishing during Fridays practice was absolutely fantastic. We boated close to 30 fish with a few steelhead, rainbows, cohos, and of course a big batch of monster kings mixed in. The fish were very particular over the two days of fishing as to how they wanted it presented. They wanted it slow, especially the bigger kings. During practice on Friday the fish were biting flies, meat, and spoons. They didn’t seem to show any preference, but the speed was so important. We had to go slow to get bit no matter what we used for baits.

On game day we went back to the same area we had done well in during practice on Friday hoping that the fish were still there. Things were going to be a little different today though. You see, on game day we can only run a six rod program as dictated by the Titeline rules. Friday during practice we ran our usual spread of eight rods. We mixed it up with our baits with the initial spread set up. The fish immediately showed us that they had a preference for meat. Our cut bait rods were hot so we loaded up a couple more of our rods with meat. The fish were taking the mat good! The meat setups accounted for the majority of our bites. Atomik flies also took a couple of our keeper fish as well!

I would like to thank my team mates as well as Greg Dale for participating in this event and performing so well. Thanks guys!!! I would also like to mention my sponsors including Shark Downrigger weights, Big Jon Downriggers, Blitz fluorocarbon, Ande fishing line, and Mustad hooks.

We will be back at our charter schedule starting this Wednesday. We still have a few dates open. If anyone is interested please give us a call at 413-346-7675 or e-mail us to discuss open dates.

7/23/2013 Lake Ontario Fishing Report

The word for the past week or so concerning salmon fishing has been one of quality, not quantity. Our groups have been landing some enormous fish over the last several days of fishing when the weather allowed us to get out and fish. Our biggest fish to date landed on Monday morning topped the scales at over 33lbs. The evening before we had four king salmon that weighed 27,25,22 and 18lbs.What we are not getting in numbers has been more than made up for in size.

To start getting the numbers of fish that we are so accustomed to at this time of the year, we need to have some sustained west winds. The problem we have been experiencing is that wind directions will not remain favorably constant. We seem to have a preponderance of either south or east winds which are not conducive to good salmon fishing.

Check out some of the pics from our successful clients over the last several days. We also have some prime dates left to fill in August and September.

7/14/2013 Oswego Pro Am Fishing Report

This past weekend we participated in the Oswego Pro-Am to complete the last leg of the Lake Ontario Pro-Am series tournament. Going into this tournament we had our sites set on doing well enough to overcome a 50 point lead held in the Lake Wide Cup standings.

On day one our plan was to go out and do our best to box out with twelve fish. We did!!! After day one we found ourselves in fourth place and well ahead of the cup leading team of Yankee Troller. We were pumped as we had figured we had gained over half of the lead points back from Yankee.

Day two found us returning to the same waters we had fished on day one only to find that the fish had disappeared. We put our plan B” into effect and headed in to fish for brown trout. They proved hard to catch as we only managed to bring our box total to eight fish. On the way in we were wondering if it would be good enough to over take Yankee. It was not. They ended up with a 7 point lead to secure their lake wide victory. Congrats to Yankee Troller for holding on for the win. Now here’s the kick in the teeth. There were three teams that did not weigh in on day two. I know that one of the teams had been catching fish as we were near them and saw them catching. If two of those teams would have weighed in, we would have won the cup. Oh well, that’s fishing.

So the bitter sweet part is this. We ended up in seventh place and won a check for $1200.00 dollars, but lost the cup by a measly 7pts. which could have been easily made up if two out of three teams had weighed in.

7/1/2013 Lake Ontario Charter Fishing Report

Fishing this week was hit or miss and depended not only on the day but what time of day. As evidence we participated for our second year in the All Ladies Tournament for Breast Cancer this past Saturday. Fishing was tough and bites were hard to come by. Our team managed to boat two out of the five bites we had in six and a half hours of fishing. If we had landed all five we would have ended up on top of the leader board as the top team came in with five king salmon. Note that a limit of six fish could have been brought in. There were twenty boats in this year which is double over last year. This tournament is and will grow in popularity and is for a great cause.

We fished Sunday afternoon and managed to boat four kings and two nice lake trout. The fish have also been quite particular from day to day on what they want to eat. We have been running Atomik flies, meat and spoons on a daily basis and everyday it seems the fish favor one or the other. Number 41 green glow Atomik’s have been taking most of our fly bites.

Our schedule is starting to fill up for the rest of the summer and we anticipate spending more and more time on the water. As the surface temperatures continue to increase and if we can get some west winds, the fishing can only get better and better. We will be practicing for the upcoming Oswego Pro-Am as well as running charters in between. We are presently sitting in third place for he Lake Wide Cup and only about 50pts out of first which we hopefully can make up with a good showing in Oswego.

6/23/2013 Lake Ontario Charter Fishing Report

This past weekend the Lake Ontario fishing was tough at best. We practiced on Friday in preparation for the Attomik challenge which was to take place on Saturday. We experienced very few bites aboard the Hot Wires boat out of Oswego on which I was a guest. Members of the Ace Charters pro team fished out of Sodus Bay and did fair a little bit better. Based upon the information we were able to gather, we decided to make the run to Sodus in the dark on Saturday morning some 29 miles away from our home port of Oswego.

We arrived at our destination to find that the fish had moved. We then went into full search mode and decided to fish the area from top to bottom as the temperature had come up some ten feet from the day before. We did manage to boat several smaller fish including Lake trout and steelhead including a beautiful ten pound domestic rainbow. We also missed two king bites as the fish refused to stay stuck. It was almost noon time and at that point we had only four small keeper fish in the box. As luck and determination would have it our next two bites were adult kings and we were able to successfully land them. The biggest weighed almost 24lbs. and the other was pushing twenty.

We fished right till 1pm, the tournament quit time and headed back to Oswego which took about an hour. In an open communication tournament such as this, news travels fast. Initial reports indicated that a lot of boats were struggling to land six keeper fish. A lot of the boats that did have six fish had been fishing for brown trout up North. We figured that we were going to finish strong thanks to our two bigger kings and we did. When all the weigh ins were completed at the three o’clock deadline, we found ourselves in third place out of 62 boats and second place in the Calcutta.

The winner was the Sea Devil team who fished out of a 19 ft boat and fished very close to home. Congratulations to Big Fin Gene and Casey. I sure would have liked to exchange gasoline bills with those guys. Although all of the team members on our team that fished in this tournament are part of our pro team, we entered the tournament under the name of Fish Nutz. Two of our members are from that original team and plan to fish the other two legs of the Triple Crown that go with this tournament series. Ace Charters has previous charter obligations on the other two legs of this three port event and we may be fishing them as separate events with charter clients if they so wish.

Sunday’s charter out of Oswego was rather slow for this time of year. We managed five bites landing three fish and dropping two big guy salmon bites. We ran a mixture of Attomik flies and spoons with the flies taking the big fish bites. We have the next few days off and are planning to be back on the water fishing Thursday. This Saturday is the second year for the “All Ladies Fishing Tournament to Benefit Breast Cancer”. Our ladies team will be returning this year to fish this event. Known as “Team King” hailing from the state of Pennsylvania, they finished in third place last year. This year there will be additional boats as the tournament is for great cause and is growing in popularity.

As of right now, we have several prime dates still available in July, August and September with both morning and afternoons still available. Give us a call at 413-346-7675 anytime if you would like further information or have any questions.

6/17/2013 2013 Spring Fishing Report

Fellow charter captain and buddy, Chas from Bucaroo Charters, helped us to determine how we were going to fish the lake. The general consensus was that king salmon were few and far between. Due to this fact, we decided to fish for brown trout and steelhead. Our programs for both species landed us over thirty fish in practice. We did not catch any adult kings in the mix even though we had a few king applications out just in case we came across any.

After reviewing the results of other boats catches for the day, we decided that on the first day of the tournament we would stick to our plan of fishing for brown trout and steelhead. As Mother Nature often does, she threw us a curveball. The water temps had shot up three degrees and shut the brown trout bite off for us. Note though, that we did get one brown trout that tipped the scales at 14.5lbs. After talking with Yankee Troller we decided to head out and fish for steelhead and guess what happened!!! Our first Dipsy shot turned out to be an adult king salmon that weighed over 25lbs and would turn out to be the big fish for day one netting us a cool $500.00 in cash. We then hit a few steelheads that were big enough to keep. The bite was slow, but the fish we were getting were quality. We managed to get a few lesser king salmon and a few coho salmon to bring us to eleven fish out of an allowed dozen. Oh how we were wishing for that twelfth fish as we ran out of time. As it turned out we ended up in 7th place for the classic box and 4th place for the trophy box divisions with our catch for day one. We were in the hunt.

After reviewing day one results, our team decided to head out and fish for king salmon and steelhead with a top to bottom spread. The first bite was a good king over twenty pounds as was the second and third bites. We were into kings!!!!! The bite was so good that we ended up twenty bites and a dozen fish by 9:02AM. We were the first boat boxed out and in the pier head by 9:39AM.

As it turned out we ended up winning the Classic Division with our two day total and second place in the Trophy Division with our final totals. When it was all said and done, our Team netted over $6000.00 in cash and prizes. To say the guys on our team were ecstatic would be the understatement of the year!

At this point I would like to mention that our sponsors deserve a great amount of credit in making our successful performance possible. I especially want to thank Shark Downrigger Weights, Attomik Trolling Flies, Big Jon Downriggers, Ande Fishing line, and last but not least especially, Blitz Flourocarbon. Their support is greatly appreciated.