Our Lake Ontario 2024 Review
Our Lake Ontario 2024 review will be reflected upon in this post. Starting in late May and finishing up through the first full week of September, we were blessed to fish every day that the weather permitted. Up until the month of August, very few days were lost due to the weather.
June Brown Trout Fishing
One of the most dissapointing trophy brown trout fishing seasons we ever experienced, occured in 2024! We managed to only fish a handful of days the entire month of June with limited success. West winds day after day, pushed in all of the warm water to our end of the Lake. In fact, water temperatures were 62 degrees from top down to well over 71 ft in depth. Add to it the gin clear water scattering the fish all over the lake and it was no wonder they were so hard to find and catch!
King Salmon Fishing Saves The Day
The beautiful thing about Lake Ontario is that on any given day, there will be many different species to fish for! Even though the Browns were scattered, king salmon were present and abundant in all three age classes. For the month of June, we found ourselves making a pass or two for browns and then if unuccessful,heading out to target kings! This was a winning strategy through out the month of June. Except for a few of our die hard brown trout clients, most of our anglers were more than happy to target Kings.
Multispecies Available Almost Daily
As previously mentioned, many different fish species were swimming around in our area. Our Lake Ontario fishing charter clients caught not only kings, but Steelhead, Atlantics, Lakers and even Browns in deeper water. Again, temperatures were way down in the water column due to major west winds pushing them there.We fished riggers with 180ft of cable out pulling 15lb sharks at times. Even at these depths, we still manged to catch the occassional brown trout, down well over 120 ft in the column.
July For Numbers
We often tell our clients,” if you want numbers, July is the month for Kings!” Alewives move offshore after their spawning cycles end and the fish do too, to feed on them! In 2024, bait seemed to be inhabiting water depths of less than 250 ft most days! Finding the bait along with the fish was relatively easy. There were lots of kings, steelhead, and even a brown trout or two in the mix. It was the good ole days all over again with limit catches and getting back to the dock early.
The Offshore Bite
If one had the time and willingness to burn the gas, the offshore bite was indeed phenominal. When calmer seas allowed, we made the 18 to 20 mile journey and were rewarded for it. In fact, our clients took several trophy sized steelhead out there along with some real nice sized adult kings. Be advised, however, that you are looking at, at least two hours of run time to get out there and back. This limits actual fishing time.Time spent to find the fish once you get out there,was also a concern. For that reason, we usually would venture out there on our longer duration trips and with larger groups.
August Disappointment
Our Lake Ontario 2024 review would not be complete without reference to August kings. When it comes to size , August kings are the ones we are after, because the longer they live, the bigger they get! The caveat being all the fish caught in June and July, are not there any more in August. The weather was horrible during the later part of the month. We lost sixteen days due to cancelations both from prohibitve weather with small craft advisories, and just bad fishing. The winds destroyed what was set up in early August, scattering the fish all over. The ofshore bite was still there, but impossible to get there with strong winds and waves limiting us.
End Of Season
Eventually, some kings came in to stage prior to running the Rivers to spawn. Not quite as good as the 2023 stagers and for a shorter duration.Our clients still managed to capture their fair share.The last half of August into September could best be described as a grind!!
If you have any questions , feel free to contact us at 413-346-7675 or via our contact form with any of the questions you may have . We will be happy to answer them. If you would like to book a trip please call 413-346-7675 or feel free to use our contact form as well!