Ontario Shore Fishing Forum

Hi All,

New to OSF, my name is Sam, been fishing all my life but got a lot more serious in the past 3 years and invested in a few baitcasters and got more experience fishing with my friend on his bass boat.

Fast forward 3 years, and countless hours of youtube videos, I want to try get even more serious in 2018. I bought a 50% share of my friend's bass boat and will be looking to get as much action as possible this summer especially once Bass season opens soon!

I live in Toronto, so I frequent cooks bay, scugog and sturgeon lake the most. Also always out discovering different shore spots like the nearby bays and rivers.

Typically I'm laser focused on LMB, especially frogging on lily pads. But this year I'm really trying to get more into fishing for other species and other techniques.
Also, hope I can try to join a tournament or two for the first time.

Any suggestions for what might be a good tournament to join that's not too far from Toronto?

Cheers,
Sam

Welcome to the forum Sam. Here is the list of Ontario tournaments
The most obvious one is Great Ontario Salmon Derby. Salmon and steelhead are a lot of fun. Some events was organized trough this forum in the past.

Awesome thanks for the link @cutuzov!

I've actually never targetted Salmon or Trout and I'm really interested in trying this year. I missed the spring action, but maybe come autumn I can hopefully check out some shore spots like Old Mill and Rouge River.

Any tips on what kind of lure and line I should use? I was youtubing and saw a some being caught on small spinners.

Man you are opening the can of worms here My preferred method for both salmon and rainbows is drifting roe under the float. For salmon it is a bit heavier line with 12 pound test leader and egg loop knot. More often then not i am using roe on the skein, sometimes roe bags. Salmon does react on heavy rattling obnoxiously bright lures. Not to feed but to chase this nasty things away. Lures should not be used anywhere there is a chance to snag the fish.
Trout often follow the salmon run hoping to feed on salmon roe, then come for the fall or "fake run".This is the fish that requires different approach. Smaller roe bags( sometimes 2 or 3 eggs only)in different colors, worms, beads, small lures/spinners. You newer know what will they eat today.I use 8 pound test fluorocarbon leaders, smaller hooks, smaller floats. Center pin rod 12-13' is advisable but not compulsory. You can do well with spinning rod. This is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg. Feel free to ask the questions

I guess when you're in the rivers it's easier to float fish given it's shallow and you want to hit the spots like the boulders etc.?

I've typically not float fished and mainly focused on lure fishing, but I do want to try that float fishing with roe method you mentioned. I also saw a bunch of youtube videos talking about where to cast it into etc. I think come autumn I'll try at Old Mill, Rouge and Credit. For Roe, do you just use those artificial ones I see in tackle stores, those in a transparent jar (or are they real roe?). So even with a smaller 2 or 3 egg presentation, are you still putting it in those roe bags?

I am using natural roe. Stores do sell pre-tied natural roe bags in season. They are a bit pricey and frankly i did not have much luck with it. Artificial roe I did not try. I am collecting/curing roe myself, making my own bags. July-August is Great Ontario Salmon Derby. Someone mentioned ,that at the weight stations they are disposing of the roe after recording the results and gutting the fish. This is good chance to get some roe without killing the fish. Other way is to "milk" a hen that is losing eggs already. This produces the best/ less fragile bait roe. In the area you are planing to fish the water are usually not clear enough for the extra small presentations. Those are more for the upper portions of streams. Yes I usually tie 2-3 egg in a bag. For salmon I tie nickel to quoter size bags( if i am using skein it is up to the golf ball size sometimes), trout usually dime to nickel in various colors.