Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Beauty and the Beast, Great Lakes Kayak Salmon Fishing, Sept. 5, 2011

With Labour Day weekend looming I was looking forward to getting out in my kayak. By the time the weekend arrives it will have been over two weeks since my last outing, which is just too long for a guy like me to go. How am I suppose to maintain my sanity!  Things like job interviews and back to school shopping for the kids can really get in the way of R&R :)

I was closely watching the weather forecasts for the entire week prior to the weekend. I'd already missed out on some Great Lakes Chinook salmon opportunities due to a combination of vacation, a seemingly early start to the season, and life in general.  I'm suspecting a summer of prevailing north and north easterly winds was responsible for the early start but to be honest I'm not sure. I bet this equated to a few missed opportunities for near shore Chinook over the past summer.

Although I was expecting my usual arduous salmon outing, involving lot's and lot's of exercise and very little fish, I was really looking forward to it. We really only get two or three weeks out of a year to catch Chinook near shore, the largest of the salmonoid family. This is the only time of year I can pretend I'm out on an ocean coastline catching sea monsters! I hadn't targetted salmon in nearly two years, and this was going to be my first time out in the big water with the new Outback. Over the past four years I'd made approximately ten outings of three to four hours in length in attempt to get into some big hard fighting salmon and only managed one fish, and to be honest, she was a wimp, I think she gave me one head shake then gave up, women!


As the weekend approached the weather was shaping up for a Monday morning outing. Over the week I'd also had some interest from a fellow local forum member to come out and join in the fun. I'm always happy to have some company on the big water. It's definitely safer, not only can we spot for each other, we have added visibility. If you aren't familiar with Great Lake's chop, well it certainly is something, it can get pretty nasty in a hurry and unexpectedly, and a low kayak can basically become invisible behind those choppy waves.

I checked the weather before going to bed on Sunday night, and I saw high northerly winds forecasted for the entire night and a little higher than what was previously forecasted for the entire coming day. Since we are on the north shore this isn't necessarily a bad thing, we could always stay close to shore, but you have to wonder what other weather might come along with the winds. This also tends to draw the cooler water closer to shore, and the salmon could follow it in. After many previously discouraging outings (although it's still great to be out in the yak, beats work of course) I was debating cancelling and just hitting up a local spot for the usual Kawarthas fare, ie. bass, walleye and musky, but decided I'd sleep on it and check back in the morning.

When I awoke at 5:00 AM I was pleased to find that the winds had remained light and more westerly than northerly. The temps had stayed up although the cool strong northerly winds would hit us likely before we were done. I eagerly loaded up the SUV, and headed out, making the ritual pit stop around the corner at the Tim Horton donuts for coffee and a breakfast sandwich before hitting the highway.

The entire drive I was reflecting on past outings and wondering what was to come; crowds, chaos, loads of fish or no action at all? The anticipation was driving me nuts and I had to do my best to not wander too far over the speed limit, all the time telling myself, "why get so excited, you're not going to catch anything anyways!", yes I'm the eternal pessimist.

As I pulled in there were cars everywhere, the people had come in droves to fish for the mighty Chinook. Interestingly enough, I knew we would likely be the only kayaks, which did in-fact turn out to be the case. My fishing partner, Adam, was already half rigged when I arrived. I'd never met Adam before so after a quick intro. I quickly got the kayak unloaded and rigged, and made what turned out to be a solid decision, and that was whether or not to wear my splash top, thankfully I decided I would, otherwise I'd been in just a t-shirt and PFD.

We hit the beach and I immediately headed for the calmest looking corner behind the break-wall....  sure it was nice and calm, but it was also filled with sloppy green weed, ...oh well, no time for messing around, let's just get on the water.  I was pleased at this point to discover that my first gen. Hobie Trax cart fit in the front hatch of my Outback, barely, very barely!

We were both new to this location, so without a plan we basically just headed for a stroll. We were greeted with westerly swells of 2-3 feet but otherwise calm water. There was obvious fish activity with fish surfacing and jumping every couple of minutes. In the shallow water we weren't marking anything, despite this we through out our baits and we probably trolled a good 1+ kilometers including passing across the section in front of the river mouth before deciding it was time to start heading out to deeper waters.


We started marking sizeable schools of fish at about the 30 feet of water (FOW) and were still seeing some surface activity. At this point I switched up to some deep running crankbaits. I started out just fishing one line with a bait that was capable of running as deep as 30 feet (in the open water of Lake Ontario, you are allowed two lines per person when fishing from a boat). We continued out to around 45 FOW before arcing around and heading back in on a path inline with the river mouth.

I didn't have time to fully rig my kayak. The stock rod holders on the Hobies are not sufficient for trolling as is. An aftermarket rod holder put the rod more near parallel to the water. With the tip close to the water this helps get the bait down and it's easier to keep an eye on it. I was kind of happy being able to pedal along with my rod in hand, which is primarily what I did.

As we hit around 35 FOW I felt a sharp tug. My mind was racing trying to process what had just happened, I was in disbelief, could I have already hooked up, is this really happening, I felt like we'd just got here, how could this be?  ...is it still there? That's when it hit me and I yelled out 'fish-on'.


It was a decent fish, I had not felt a pull like this from a kayak in a while, only once before and I lost that fish before I even saw it (j-bay 2008). I had nearly half my 150 yards out while trolling in an attempt to get my deep diver as deep as possible, and this fish immediately started peeling more line out. I quickly got on the pedals and chased the fish down, however it was keeping it's distance and staying deep. After what seemed like a minute or two I noticed the fish starting to come closer to surface, that's when I realized that this fish was much further away than I thought and I hadn't gained anything. I continued with the pursuit, this time I got a little ahead of myelf, suddenly I find myself with slack line on a head-on collision with the fish as it turned and started swimming back at me, it passed just under the boat and nearly tangled in my fins.

She continued to fight hard and did a couple more small runs before I was able to get her in the boat. It was a great fight, I was giddy like an eight year old the entire time, and I'm sure I made lot's of sounds accordingly. My rod arm was burning, it felt great, I had almost a deep sense of relief, it was great to finally boat another Chinook, and a fighter at that. She was not a pretty fish except in a beastly kind of way. This fish was ready to spawn, a full three year old adult, she was very dark and she had eggs in her belly. I grabbed some quick measurements, and released her. To my surprise she revived in under 30 seconds and swam off steadily. With any luck she'll spawn soon, and bring many more mighty Chinook to the lake.

This fish was my new personal best from the kayak at 38.5" and over 20 lbs.


The battle, landing and measuring the fish, combined with the growing norrherly winds had pushed us out to over 50 FOW. We got set up for another run back in towards the river mouth and started the troll, as we approached 30 FOW I heard some commotion and turned to see Adam in a state of panic grabbing for his rod as it doubled over, meanwhile trying to get his second line in. Adam had hooked up! First time on Lake Ontario salmon fishing and he was on the fish!


 This was turning out to be an awesome outing. His fish immediately came to the surface and spazzed right out thrashing around. It was a smaller silver beauty. For such a pristine fish the fight didn't last long, but I'm sure it was long enough to give Adam a taste as I could tell by the words coming from his mouth from that point forward that he was hooked. The reason the fight didn't last was during the process of the fish having a fit, it had managed to wrap it's mouth and gills shut with line. After a good ten minutes we weren't able to revive the fish, so this fish was going home, and I'm sure it would make a fine meal.

What a beaut, 29 inches and 11.5 pounds.


We headed in for nature break and a little rest. On the way back in I did manage another solid hit, except no hook-up this time. After a short break of 15 minutes or so we decided to head back out and try for another. It was at this point that we realized the wind had really picked up from the north. Most of the crowds had left the piers and only the die-hards remained. As we headed out for deeper water, we initially thought that it had calmed down. On the way out we could sense that the chop was getting bigger, but with the wind behind us the outbound troll was almost effortless, it wasn't in-fact until we turned back in that we realized we had to contend with 1.5 foot chop. The Outbacks handled this chop with ease, they did not get tossed or upset at all, and at trolling speeds the hull generated little splash. I didn't feel remotely concerned about tipping or any other dire consequences, it was hardly any different than calm water, just a little more effort required to make headway and a little splash. In my old Quest I'm sure I would have had to have been on my toes, watching carefully and working the waves in an effort to keep the boat steady. Adam was not phased at all and went ahead and accessed his front hatch in order to pull out his splash jacket. (no he isn't taking a dump through the Mirage hole :) ).


Once we got back into shallower waters this is where we stayed for a couple of shorter laps before calling it a day.

What a great outing, it's amazing how much fishing fun can be had just landing one of these fantastic fish, heck if I could get one on each salmon outing I'd be one extremely happy camper. We had a great time out there, what a success, I'm sure we'll be out again in the not too distant future, and maybe after seeing these pictures some of our other fishing colleagues will come out in the big lake and try for a King.

YakDreams

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