August 20th, 2019

Hard to believe we are in Mid-August already, the summers fly by so quickly! We are so grateful that the phone has been ringing nonstop, folks looking for trips on Champlain while here on vacation, folks looking to taste the more scenic lakes of central Vermont, as well as folks booking trips for this fall on the Salmon River of NY as well as Bass & Pike trips here on Champlain! The Trophy Lake Trout fishing on Champlain ha been nothing short of breath taking the last few weeks, with great numbers and the largest ones of the season coming to the net!

We have also gotten in a few Bass Trips in the Central lakes region with slow finess tactics being key to getting onto deep water bass that are seeking out cooler waters out of the summer heat!

We have moved the 28ft Charter boat out to Ontario at the port of Oswego on the East end of the Lake. We are docked at the International Marina at Wrights Landing, Dock D-10. Every year folks ask why do we choose to be on Lake Ontario during this time of year. Well here it goes!

Its all about the life cycle of the King Salmon!! The King (Chinook Salmon) has a 3 -4 year life cycle once they hatch as an egg, weather it be in the stream bed of the tributaries to Lake Ontario or reared at the NY DEC State Fish Hatchery at the head waters of the Salmon River in Altmar NY ( this ill play a key role in just a bit!) These Salmon enter Lake Ontario as smolts once they leave the Salmon River and return naturally or they may be reared in net pens at many docks up and down the NY shore line once removed from the Hatchery. There is a large Net Pen project kept at the East side Marina on the Oswego River each spring, where this smolts will live up to six weeks, giving them a chance to imprint on that River water that will call them back once they are Adults ready to reproduce as adults. After six weeks they are pulled out in to Lake Ontario by barge to be released away from predators such as Cormorants, giving them a fighting chance to grow and become the next trophy for some one to take home!

Once out in the Lake they encounter the wonderful biomass of food they Lake Ontario is known for! The Alewife is the primary bait fish tat they will feed on, but Smelt, Gizard Shad, Round Gobies and many other bait fish are there for the table fare that will allow them to become the 20 - 30 lb trophy's that make Lake Ontario the World Class fishery is known for! The Alewife is the major player in allowing all of the game fish of the lake to grow the trophy size we all love, but the Kings voracious appetite keeps the gorging on the hundreds of thousands of the high protein fish that inhabit the Lake, as they are the key role as to our World Class Fishery staying alive!

Now that these fish have reached ages three or four years old they are of prime size to make the gauntlet run up the tributaries to fulfill their role in life set forth by mother nature to reproduce! Each year there noses lead them to the water where they were born to return and accomplish the same task that there parents did. This is all where the answer lies in why we fish the East End of the Lake during this time of year! The greatest number of Salmon in the Lake return to this end to not only smell out the water of the Oswego River ( the second largest tributary to Lake Ontario , the mighty Niagara is bigger) but also just to our east is the Salmon River, which ALL of the Hatchery raised Salmon for this lake are born in, obviously the biggest draw ono the US side of the Lake!!