This will be my 9th year fishing the Bar as some of the early reports on Lake Ontario with the cold March and April had us hoping the bite would improve at the last minute with temps. in the 70's for the prior week. The early reports had been a tough bite on the entire lake. The other unknown was how the new boat would perform with the new Simrad AP 2403 autopilot for hydraulic steering and trolling with the new 150 hp 4 stroke Mercury with the troll control smart gauge (rpm).
5/5/13 Sunday
We arrived 3 pm Sunday and quickly set-up the canvas on the boat and headed out by 4:30 pm for a quick shake down to acclimate ourselves to the new boat to be ready to go out in the dark Monday morning we would have a seamless set-up at first light. Everything went smooth as we went thru the motions to simulate our next 5 days of repeatability with our set-up. No bites but calm seas and we were ready after a 2 hour shake down.
Weather forecast was high about 70 and low about 50 degrees every day Monday - Friday with waves 1 foot. Couldn't ask for a better forecast for the first week of May. We were excited!
5/6/13 Monday
Monday arrived and we set the alarm clock for 4 am. and were on the water by 4:45 am each and every day. Motored about 8 miles to the East of the Niagara Bar closer to the port of Wilson 10-12 miles to the East of our launch point. Began in 120 feet of water off the drop-off and began marking lots of fish and bait from 40 feet down to the bottom. We ran our successful spoon program and one flasher fly from a year ago as the first two hours was quiet for everyone. Then our first rod went off with our first salmon of 2013 around 7:30 am. The new boat was christened! Had a decent day finishing 5 for 8 on Kings as we pulled them at 12:30 pm. The spoons did well! As it was a total rigger bite with no bites on the dipsies. We had several majors today between 19 and 21 lbs.
5/7/13 Tuesday
Another nice flat ride 8 miles to the fishing grounds as we got there with anticipation at 5:40 am as we finished setting up quickly. Today was a different story. We had the dropsies. Had one nice fish break off on a dipsy at the leader. Today the fish were much more spooky and wanted the dipsies. The spoon bite was dead so we went to our mirage Atomic flies with a 8" mtn. dew pro-troll as our weapon of choice. Fished 9 hours today and finished 2 for 6 on Kings. Another incredible day to fish on the pond. We stayed out a little longer it was so nice as we pulled them around 3 pm.
5/8/13 Wednesday
Back to the same waypoints and another flat 8 mile ride to the fishing grounds. Today we went 3 for 3 on Kings and quit around 12:30 pm similar to Monday. Less bait today and fish but they were enough to keep us on the game. Again the Mirage Atomic fly and mtn. dew pro-troll was our game saver.
5/9/13 Thursday
Finally a wind shift from the north east direction. Nice calm conditions again today for the 4th day in a row. This turned out to be the slowest day of the week with many boats just boating one King today including ourselves. We fished until 12:30 pm again. We tried everything today for tackle and depths. The fish were just stuck on the bottom and fussy.
5/10/12 final day Friday.
Again a 5th calm morning as we ran out to the same waypoints we have fished all week. This turned into our best day as we had 5 Kings in the boat before 8 am. The flasher / Mirage fly was on fire early. We picked up one more king around 11:30 am as we finished today at 5 pm. We were 6 for 9 on kings. The dipsies were the ticket again!
Week summary:
34 hours with the lines down and we landed 17 Kings and had 27 bites. 90 miles total of running to our waypoint on plane where we fished a 2 mile radius all week. This was our 4th year in a row as we never missing a single day of fishing for wind or weather all 5 days Monday - Friday. It changes every year but the flasher / fly bite returned after being absent for us for 4 years as our spoon bite ruled the past 4 years. The fish were feeding heavy early and with full stomachs they would go to the bottom and rest all week. They also were rigger shy and we had as many as 4 dipsies in the water to compensate for the spooky Kings as the riggers sent them scattering. We had a lot of help on the water with 9 other boats during the week. Mike P / Lazy C's / Yank n Crank / Instigator / Hey Jude / Outfitter / Blue Moon / Music Maker / Brian Turman. Outfitter and Hey Jude the PA boats landed a 26 lb king each on Sunday on our ride out and were sitting high in the standings with the 10 day derby ending today at 1 pm. Good luck guys! It was the best weather we ever had at the Bar for the week. Can't wait until next year! All Kings this year with no other species. The new boat was outstanding! We ran the new Simrad autopilot almost the entire week. We had to troll slow 2.0 mph on the Fishhawk X-4 probe to entice these fish to strike and it was a game saver with the currents we deal with out at the Bar. The boat / motor / Simrad Autopilot was flawless all week. No need for a black box!
