St Lawrence Fishing

To Catch a King!
By: Tyler Dunn

October is the month where more people are suited up in blaze orange hunting attire rather than floatation jackets and fishing rods. Grouse hunting is a few weeks into the season and moose hunting preparations are well under way for many Canadians. By the beginning of October, rivers that are flowing into the Great Lakes will be receiving a run of chinook salmon. For many anglers this is the only time of year when big fish are easily accessible. There is no need for big boats with 200 horsepower engines. Instead, a small aluminum or a pair of waders can give you the means of hooking up with a giant salmon.

Trolling

Chinook salmon begin staging at the mouths of Great Lake tributaries beginning in early august. They will then make their annual return up the rivers to spawn where each was previously born. King salmon will wait for the exact temperature and weather conditions to begin the process of running the river to actually spawn. Trolling with downriggers is the easiest and most effective method for consistently catching staging pre spawn fish. Wobbling plugs such as Lure Jenson’s J Plug is a highly productive bait throughout the season. Other wide wobbling plugs such as Lymans, Kwikfish, Flatfish, and Atomic baits are all very common throughout most Ontario waters. Flutter spoons are another very effective lure when trolled. Many companies offer a wide variety of spoons but I highly recommend Michigan Stingers, Northern King, Silver Streak and Northport Nailer’s. 8 to 9 foot medium-heavy rods are ideal for fighting kings off downriggers. Spool your reels with 17 pound monofilament with a 4 – 6 foot fluorocarbon leader to the bait. Respect the power of chinooks and turn down the drag on your reel. Set it so you can pull line from your reel quite easily by hand. When you are hooked up with a fish just keep the line tight and let all the heavy equipment do the work for you.

Casting

Every shore bound fisherman has the fall salmon run marked on their calendar. This is their time to shine and get their fill of big fish. Three-way bouncing spawn is time consuming, often frustrating but is a great method for catching king salmon in rivers. Match the weight of your sinker with depth and current. I use the 1 ounce for 10 feet ratio unless the current is unusually fast or slow. 8-10 foot rods are most common with reels spooled up with 8 pound line. I use an 8 pound fluorocarbon leader to my hook and 6 pound leader to my sinker off the 3-way swivel. Many shore salmon anglers have the most confidence chucking spoons for Kings. Little Cleo’s are arguably the most common spoon used throughout Great Lakes for shore casting. Casting crank baits from shore, piers and even boats is often overlooked by salmon anglers. Husky jerks, X-raps and Jointed Rapala’s all produce big when nothing else seems to work. Adding glow tape and paint to spoons or crank baits will entice more strikes, especially at night. For that reason always have a flashlight to charge the glow patterns.

Other Species Present

Chinook salmon are not the only species present in the tributaries of the Great Lakes during the autumn months. Coho and pink Salmon are the other salmon species navigating the rivers looking for ideal spawning grounds. Pink Salmon spawn first of the 3 species followed by the chinooks then coho’s. Rainbow (steelhead) and brown trout also roam the river munching on any salmon roe that drifts by them. When I am targeting trout in salmon waters I begin by fishing the back ends of pools and the ends of long drifts. These trout are basically holding and waiting for salmon eggs to roll right by them. Also spawn sacks tied with pink, chinook or coho roe all catch salmon and trout.