from Bluewater Nautical
Salmon Fishing - The lures and a few tips on colors
by: Captain John C. Allen
The night time coolness is beginning to move and the sky has that eerie glow just before the sun rises. You are clutching a hot cup of coffee and can't remember the last time it tasted this good.
Twin engines are growling and you are heading out through the breaker wall to the big water. You can't wait to get set up and hear that line rip off the reel with someone yelling "Fish On".
Life does not get any better than this, you think to yourself.
This would be the typical scenario for the start of a Salmon Fishing trip on Lake Ontario....
If you have never tied into a "Silver Freight Train" and felt the excitement and had the aching arms, you are in for an experience. It's hard to top the thrill of watching the rod "pop", grabbing the pole, setting the hook and get ready for the battle of your life !
The average Chinook (King) Salmon is between 18-22, but landing a 40 + pounder is not uncommon. The NY State Record (Caught in 1991) is 47 lbs. 13 oz.
Now Coho (Silver) Salmon don't get quite as big as the Chinook, but they are incredible fighters and in a class all by themselves, from 100 ft. down they like to rocket to the surface and go airborne. This year the average has been between 12-14 pounds for these guys. The world record was set August 13th, 1998 from Lake Ontario of 33.7 pounds.
If Brown Trout are what you are looking for then how about 8-10 lb's being average with frequent 20 pounders. The only way to describe them is Fat and Feisty with an attitude.
Then there's the Steelhead, "Good Eatin'" doesn't begin to describe these tail walking acrobats. They can out fight an Atlantic Salmon, with the State record being 26 lbs. 15 ozs.(Salmon River). The average would be in the 8 to 10 lb. range.
Lake Trout (Togue) State Record is 39 lbs. 8 ozs.(monster trout). The average is about 8-10 lbs. These guys like the cold temperatures and are usually found down deep near the bottom.
Blue and Green are the lure colors that you would want to consider using first thing in the morning or on overcast days. Red is a noon time to sunset color choice. Fish, especially Salmon and Trout, cannot see the color red until at least mid morning. It would appear black or a shadow to them so if you are determined to run the color red early you may as well drag something black. Fish can see short light waves first (same as us)but being underwater it would depend on how deep they are to determine how well they will see what color when. The fact remains, however that blues and greens will be the first color recognized or seen and red will be one of the last as the penetration of sunlight increases. The bottom line is that I've found blues and greens to work best in the morning over other colors. Once the sun is above the mid morning position it is time to put down a spread with variety to see what works best, then narrow down your offerings to what ever is producing. Keeping all this in mind has worked extremely well for us over the years.
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About The Author
Captain John C. Allen is the owner and operator of Raindance Charters, a Salmon and Trout fishing charter located in Fair Haven, N.Y. on Lake Ontario.
Capt. Allen also runs a Nautical Video Store which can be found at: http://www.marinevideos.com
To see some of the flutter spoons that Raindance Charters uses (Raindance manufactures them) see: http://www.raindancelures.com
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