Lake Ontario Fishing Report

How far would YOU drive to catch walleyes over 28 inches long, chunky as all get out, and with little or no other anglers fishing around you? Tracy Hayward and I made the drive to Kingston, ON, this past week to fish with our Canadian friend, Jim Lyon. For several years, Jim has asked us to come up for the beginning of the fall bite on Lake Ontario. We arrived on Monday, August 28th, and were on the water about 4:30pm. Jim has his Ranger 620 powered by Evinrude E-tecs set up purposely for night fishing with built in lights and a light mounted on his Talon. Tracy caught a giant carp (in the mouth) right away–Jim thought we might have had a musky on! We had three bites and boated two beautiful walleyes! Tuesday found us fishing with friend Bob MacMillen from Kingston–Tracy went with Bob and I stayed with Jim. We fished during the day and pulled four big walleyes, the biggest a 30.25 incher weighing 10.2 pounds in Bob’s boat. Jim measures his fish but doesn’t like to take the time to weigh them. On Wednesday, we went back for the late afternoon and evening–we had nine bites and boated eight beauties! Jim’s setup was Shimano Tekota 300 LC spooled with 30 pound Power Pro and a two to four foot wire leader on seven foot GX2 Ugly Sticks. “I haven’t used mono for over ten years and feel this set up works to my advantage with these big walleyes,” Jim commented. Our “hot” baits were jointed Rapala Husky Jerks and number 11 Berkley Flicker Minnows in purple. Jim pulled them anywhere from 150 to 175 feet behind Off Shore Planer Boards or long lining. Before fishing Wednesday, Tracy and I went on tour of Fort Henry. We had a young Queens University student who walked us through the Fort and said we were her last group for the season as she headed back to school for her senior year. We would recommend this place to visit when you go to Kingston! Thursday was a free day so Jim could catch up at work. Tracy and I went back downtown and shopped the local Farmers’ Market–we each found a nice unique gift for our ladies, Sue and Linda, for our anniversaries. We next went on our Island Queen Kingston 1000 Islands luncheon tour traveling up the St. Lawrence River and back over a lazy three hours. This is a way for you to experience the wonders of the islands and see the numerous homes built on the islands and along the mainland shore line. Then, we went to play golf with Jim at his club, The Landings. I drove the cart while Tracy joined Jim, Neal, and Steve for nine holes. It was windy and cool but we survived it to have a great steak back at the Club. Back to fishing–Friday morning was our last go with Jim. Although not as cool as Little Bay de Noc in November, it was a nippy 42 degrees when we headed out. We had three bites and landed two nice fish including one just under thirty inches! We came off the water early afternoon, ran to Belleville for Jim’s work, then had a final meal together back downtown. Saturday morning found us sharing one last breakfast at the Travel Lodge before hitting the road home. While we were on the road Saturday, Bob and his wife caught another ten pound plus walleye, a six pound smallie, and a fifty inch musky late in the day! A couple tips for your travel to Kingston: if you’re going through Toronto, please take the 407 toll road to save time but plan on a wait getting back to the US when you come to the border. Tracy and I also broke our trip up to two days driving to make our trip less stressful. My Cadillac XTS went just over 2000 miles and averaged 27mpg with the “hard” driving we experienced on both sides of the border. Tracy and I had a great time with Jim and Bob catching some of the biggest walleyes we’ve ever caught with very little fishing pressure! You might want to check out Jim’s Utube videos under Jim Lyon fishing for more information on how he catches these big walleyes. And, YES….we are going back! Hope you enjoy this report and the pics we took! Thank you for taking the time to read our report. Spike

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