Pickering salmon report & pictures - July 14/15 2007

[Muskyfanatic]

This past weekend I had the pleasure of fishing with my Nephew Janik Corbeil, C.J. Tracy and Ryan Wheeler.

 

Despite the annoying winds and extremely cool July air temps we made it out on the lake twice. Water temps on the lake out of Pickering, and many other areas in Ontario, are absolutely frigid for this time of the year. We were getting surface temps of anywhere from 46F to 54F. When you consider that generally at this time of year the surface temps on the big pond are around the 70F plus mark it gives you an idea of how cold the lake is right now. Air temps on the lake on Saturday when we headed out at 5.30am were an unbeleivable 9F :shock:

 

Despite the adverse conditions we were able to boat some nice fish for the kids, it's a lot of fun watching the young guys fight these scrappy fish, and the looks on their faces when the Salmon and Trout were landed are priceless. One rule I have on my boat when kids are aboard is that they all get to fight a few fish before the adults have a go, it's important to keep them interested, the excitement of catching what they consider to be 'monster fish' works like a charm :wink:

 

Water temps:

 

Surface - 46F to to 54F

Down 40ft to 50ft - 39F to 45F

 

Depths and trolling speeds:

 

50ft to 80ft - Lines set down 20ft, 30ft, 40ft and 50ft (30 and 40ft being the most productive).

Trolling speeds - 2.4 mph to 2.9 mph

 

Hot baits and lures:

 

1. Herring Strips fished on Teaser Heads (Silver/Red and Purple/Black/Silver) 6ft behind Hot Spot Flashers (Green/Silver and Silver/Silver). A great tip when running in shallow depths is to run only 2 rods with long leads back from the ball (75ft to 100ft), I am a great beleiver that less is more in situations like this 8)

2. Flies fished behind Smart Fish Flashers.

3. Rapala Deep Taildancers (Silver/Purple and Blue/Red/Silver) fished on long leads behind Off Shore Planer boards. this techique can be deadly

4. 12lb Shark Cannonbals.

5. P-Line Flourocarbon Leaders (30lb test for the Herring strip rigs and crankbaits and 50lb test for the flies).

 

Due to the cool water temps all across the Canadian side of the lake we have noticed that the fish are somewhat scattered. With the temps where they are the fish can be just about anywhere they like. The secret to our success was simply covering water until we found actively feeding fish.

 

Below are pictures of some of the fish and fun we had on the weekend. I would like to say congrats to both CJ and Janik on 'single handedly fighting and landing their first Trout and salmon, they both did a great job and fished liked true Professionals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers, Shaun