Skip to main content

Near Shore Brown Trout will be aggressive & Hungry After a Long and Cold Winter




The April showers remind me of the next great fishery here in Oswego County that is about to kick off, the nearshore brown trout bite. As soon as the ice clears the ramps, brave souls launch their boats in search of the first open water trolling on Lake Ontario in over six months. They are typically greeted by aggressive, hungry brown trout searching for the warmest water around.

The water along the shoreline warms the quickest. Whenever the water along the shoreline is stained or cloudy, it warms more quickly under the sun’s bright rays. On a typical day chasing early trout, you find a mix of year classes. Most of your bigger fish will be “post spawn” fish. You will be able to tell by how skinny they are, along with being more colorful. While many that you catch are on the smaller side, they are the best eating!

A typical day trolling the shore will include running multiple lines of planer boards, in-line or fixed mast style, shallow down-riggers or even just flatlines. Traditionally we will be trolling 5 to 25 feet of water without baits running in the top 10 feet of the water column.

The best baits for this time of year are stick baits and spoons. When deploying your baits, remember you are fishing very shallow and the fish will be spooky, therefore set your baits 75- to 150-feet behind the boat.

Some of the best brands include Bay Rat, Smithwick, Rapala, Michigan Stinger, and Thundersticks. Natural colors are best when fishing clear or lightly stained water, for example black/silver, goby, brown trout Ayu, diehard, green glow alewife, and tuxedo.

But when the water is roiled up, you want to get out the brighter off the wall colors such as Firetiger, citric shad, GFR, anything with an orange belly, mongoose, or Goose-n-Tonic.

While this is the rule, don’t forget there are always exceptions, don’t be afraid to send out a lure that is totally different than the rest of the spread you might be pleasantly surprised!

Don’t forget about the Salmon River.

The steelhead migration back to Lake Ontario has been slowed down by recent cold weather as well. This is going to create a longer dropback season than normal.

So pack your bags and come experience some fantastic fishing in Oswego County!!!

Stay tight and keep up the chase!
Capt. Andy Bliss

For a list of charters and guides, and current fishing conditions go to www.visitoswegocounty.com/fishing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Salmon River Steelhead Forecast

Salmon River Steelhead Forecast As a temperature start to warm after    long cold winter the first signs of spring Are the reports of spawning Steelhead in the tributaries of Oswego County.    Steelhead which are a form of searun Rainbow Trout stocked in the Great Lakes. They spend most their adult life in the waters of Lake Ontario returning in the fall & winter months to spawn in rivers and creeks that flow into the Inland sea. Even though the steelhead enters the rivers in the fall and winter the majority of the spawn takes place from mid February through late April. Once hatched they spend the juvenile stage in the river returning to the lake when they reach 6-9 inches. Prespawn fish are very aggressively feeding to build up energy to go through the rigor spawning process. As well as post spawn fish trying to put back on body mass after wearing themselves out from the spawn.  With the large number of fish that enter the tributaries, the spawn is carried ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lake Ontario Brown Trout Forecast

Lake Ontario Brown Trout Forecast Now that life is starting to get back to normal , I hope the fishing on Lake Ontario will follow suit. As I write this, we are currently in our summer transition. The lake is starting to warm up and the fish are starting to slide out to find the water that they prefer.   With the events of the spring of 2020,   the fishing pressure on Lake Ontario was very minimal. This creates an exciting summer. I am anticipating larger than normal brown trout and great salmon numbers! With back to back years of incredible salmon fishing, a lack of pressure this spring and lots of food available, the summer brown trout fishing on the eastern end of Lake Ontario should be one for the record books. If you’re looking to get that wall hanger brown trout, 2020 should be your year! Once the lake has settled into its summer time condition, has a set up thermocline and the fish have settled into their summer homes, it’s time to start hunting the fo...
Post a Comment
Read more