Big Ontario Smallmouth and more Salmon

[thmyorke1]

Had a trip to the Lake Ontario with Nick. It was a targeting late-fall pattern smallmouth. It was finesse bottom bouncing and there was a realization that the bite was very slow with the temps dropping drastically that week.

Fortunately, early on, I got a bite and it was a tank of a SMB. Came to 7 Lbs according to the guide's scale. Wish we measured the length and girth although it was by far the meatiest bass Ive ever caught. Built like the big Hybrid out of Hopatcong.

For the rest of the day in the windy cold nothing else but maybe a bite or two i missed, Nick got a few other landed but only modest sizes.

The rainfall earlier filled up the tributaries so the salmon fishing was good. No steelhead despite a lot of fresh salmon, but I got my first Co-ho at least.



I escaped back to NJ before the 3 feet of snow hit upstate

[Chrisper4694]

Originally Posted by thmyorke1

Had a trip to the Lake Ontario with Nick. It was a targeting late-fall pattern smallmouth. It was finesse bottom bouncing and there was a realization that the bite was very slow with the temps dropping drastically that week.

Fortunately, early on, I got a bite and it was a tank of a SMB. Came to 7 Lbs according to the guide's scale. Wish we measured the length and girth although it was by far the meatiest bass Ive ever caught. Built like the big Hybrid out of Hopatcong.

For the rest of the day in the windy cold nothing else but maybe a bite or two i missed, Nick got a few other landed but only modest sizes.

The rainfall earlier filled up the tributaries so the salmon fishing was good. No steelhead despite a lot of fresh salmon, but I got my first Co-ho at least.



I escaped back to NJ before the 3 feet of snow hit upstate

how do you not get seasick on lake ontario??? I can clearly see from the picture it was rougher than the ocean was the day you puked for 10 hours straight haha

[Gerry Zagorski]

Woah.... That's the biggest Smallie I've ever seen must have been a great fight!

What did it eat?

[NJSquatch]

Awesome Smallie Luke!

[Lard Almighty]

That is a serious smallie! Nice catch!

[bulletbob]

Nice Bronzeback..
SMB fishing up here has changed drastically.. The Great Lakes, Cayuga,St Larry River, are all full of gobies... The bass gorge on them relentlessly, and get huge these days. On the flip side, the bass both LMB and SMB, are greatly reduced numbers wise simply because the Gobies are relentless nest raiders, and carpet the bottom .. There are huge swarms of them, and they eat the bass eggs.. I haven't caught a sunfish out of Cayuga in years, and rock bass have virtually disappeared as well.. The breeding fish that remain in the lakes simply can't protect the nests, and reproduction is way down.. The few fish that do survive get REAL big, but the biomass is out of balance these days...6 and 7 pound SMB are out there these days, maybe even bigger, but bass fishing in general is a shadow of what it was as far as numbers of fish ...Thats a really nice SMB, a 7 pounder is a great one anywhere, I have been here 31 years, and my best out of thousands caught is not even 4 pounds.

[DanH]

Originally Posted by bulletbob

Nice Bronzeback..
SMB fishing up here has changed drastically.. The Great Lakes, Cayuga,St Larry River, are all full of gobies... The bass gorge on them relentlessly, and get huge these days. On the flip side, the bass both LMB and SMB, are greatly reduced numbers wise simply because the Gobies are relentless nest raiders, and carpet the bottom .. There are huge swarms of them, and they eat the bass eggs.. I haven't caught a sunfish out of Cayuga in years, and rock bass have virtually disappeared as well.. The breeding fish that remain in the lakes simply can't protect the nests, and reproduction is way down.. The few fish that do survive get REAL big, but the biomass is out of balance these days...6 and 7 pound SMB are out there these days, maybe even bigger, but bass fishing in general is a shadow of what it was as far as numbers of fish ...Thats a really nice SMB, a 7 pounder is a great one anywhere, I have been here 31 years, and my best out of thousands caught is not even 4 pounds.

Very interesting thanks for that info !

[DanH]

WOW ! That's a beast of a smallmouth ! The NJ record is only a few ounces bigger ! WTG !

[FASTEDDIE29]

Atta boy Luke! Can’t stop, won’t stop! Beautiful Bronze! Whoooooooo!