Jigging for Big King Salmon on Lake Ontario

[@Ninj_SRG]

Coming from a saltwater background I always wondered why salmon fishing on a boat is pretty much limited to trolling (BORING) until their spawning season comes around. Good job breaking the mold, that’s what separates a good fisherman to a great one. I just subscribed

[@danthefisher]

Man its such a cool way to target kings. Totally underrated

[@chasernichols273]

Love seeing someone else in a small boat! I fish the lake outta Kingston area in a 14ft tinner as well

[@danthefisher]

Right on man yeah its fun fishing outta the little boats!

[@NorthOntarioDave]

Now THIS is how you make Lake Ontario salmon fishing interesting. Sweet bud!

[@danthefisher]

Thanks man its a hell of a way to tsrget em!

[@iratherbfishin]

great video capturing you fishing adventure. Cheers. I fish Lake Ontario all the time and I capture some great footage of my catches

[@JMFishing]

No spot lock in a small aluminum boat on Lake Ontario. Super impressive man, Looks like a lot of fun!

[@FoxFishing4K]

Love that you tried to fly fish them! I have never tried that before. Looks grindy but makes that bite so much more enjoyable!! We are going to try a few new tactics never done before this year. They will be grind as well. Love the challenge though!

[@NorthweSteelheadJunkies]

Verticle jigging in the rivers Ave the ocean on the West Coast has been a very effective technique since the 70's.

[@ScottColquitt-j3l]

Beautiful Kings...beautiful water...excellent respectful release...You got it going on!

[@fishnreidsflyfishing2055]

Sick vid. I'm going to do this with the kayak this year

[@wieslebomb]

Always on the green!!

[@MudSharkZ]

Awesome work man. RESPECT!!!

[@paulnicholson7679]

Might try try this in a kayak...awesome alternate to trolling. Im not super keen to troll solo but this I could manage!

[@AlexDFishing]

What a video and amazing series🔥 way to get the boys buzzin!

[@wadewinch4372]

Love your vids. I jig as well state side limited success but I love rod in hand

[@danthefisher]

Heck yeah Wade! Its a super rewarding tactic when it comes together!

[@JohnPhillips-qw4db]

I added a Drift Sock to my set up. Game changer for jigging. Catch rates went up exponentially. The bigger the better. Slow drift = more fish.

[@JohnPhillips-qw4db]

Also…aggressively chase every mark. 1-2’ short pops right as the jig comes to rest seems to work best for me. I run braid to 8-10’ fluorocarbon leader then a swivel with a 6”-12” 30lb leader to prevent jig fowling. The jigs in this video look perfect. I like 3/4 - 2oz depending on the wind. P-line, Gibbs, and Binks all make excellent jigs. I do think glow helps early am and late. Again…the drift sock part of my earlier comment cannot be over emphasized. I caught 6 out of a Canoe in 6 hours. This was in a main lake in the early summer. Not when they are stacked for the spawn. Good luck guys and gals!

[@jperiksen]

Where did you launch out of? what end of the lake is this?

[@samuelbender8681]

I love swinging for Kings in the fall in the rivers. Totally different beast though.

[@MrSurfangler]

It would be nice to see someone target them with actual slow-pitch micro jigging gear.(Jigs

[@6ix_fishing]

Such a good idea to do this series. Much needed!!

[@stevenjensen2649]

Is your boat Smokey Craft 14ft ? How many horsepower is your Mercury outboard tiller? Small Boat always is COOL!

[@danthefisher]

Hey its a crestliner 16 ft and 20hp on the back

[@andrewunruh212]

What’s the jig platinum herring

[@loftymcdowell5789]

Dan your awesome. Well done

[@loftymcdowell5789]

North / southbshore?

[@jbell301]

Absolute banger bro

[@danthefisher]

Thanks J

[@mtreese9412]

@danthefisher -- does this work in the summer or only just before the run? How critical is it that you are marking fish? One last one, are you focused on some kind of structure?

[@danthefisher]

Never tried it but im sure it would!

[@sonnyc3826]

My GOd id love to do this..ive lived on Lake Ontario my whole life literally 10 minutes away and have never i dont think even been on a boa tout there id love ot go out there and fish for some salmon or anything really. tehres big fish in there the problem is just ifnding them and its so commerically fished youd really need to find a spot its also ehavilt polluted so you cant eat anything out of there..also not good for smaller boats as the water is rough at times waves get big easily swamp a smaller boat...this is something i should do..but agina i need a boat of my own or soemthing to try this and some new gear for salmon fishing.

[@misfittolly]

Jigging in areas with gobies does make sense. Slower baitfish, easy for big salmon to gorge on. Hmm, got me thinking now.

[@danthefisher]

You may be on to something!

[@EdwardTowers-z1c]

Great video man, not a lot of people willing to do something different from the norm. Moved to New York last year and had been wondering about doing this. Was this essentially a prespawn staging window? Late August?

[@danthefisher]

Yeah pre spawn once they stsrt packing up infront of river mouths

[@MrSurfangler]

Could you please elaborate a bit on your friend's tackle and flys?

[@danthefisher]

Hey it was a 9 wt rod and floating line setup with a saltwater streamer that he used for tunas and albies. Greenish back with white belly. Baitfish pattern

[@themodernhuntsmen]

Try the mouth of the river this run buddy. Get those 40s as they run to the falls.

[@smerchly]

Back in the 80/90's guys were jigging with a lure called the crippled herring (I have some) and catching big lake trout at the outflow of the Niagara River.

[@defmud80]

Im curious about trying slow pitch jigging with appropriate rods and jigs. I use them in the salt for everything from rockfish and bass to yellowtail and tuna.

[@danthefisher]

100 percent a thing for salmon. I found some rods that play the part quite nicely in the 8 to 9ft range. Inly thing i cant find is that looong but end for steady jigging all day

[@defmud80]

@@danthefisher So I build slow pitch rods and they are usually in the 6-7' range and super parabolic carbon fiber blanks. I commonly use large baitcasters like a lexa 400 and 300 and I can jig from inshore to 600ft all day.

[@danthefisher]

@@defmud80 yeah man i just picked up a lexa 300 for jigging this year and it honestly out performed the tranx 300.. love that reel! The longer rods really help for bigger strokes and longer flutter times. I had them go vertical for jigs this year which was really neat. Unfortunately i didnt get it on camera but i got a bunch of other solid eats on the panoptix. Pretty incredible the movements these fish make

[@Northernredneck125]

Is this something you can only do in the spring and fall or is it a summer thing to?

[@danthefisher]

Your best off trying this in the fall. Summer they are too spread out

[@davidc.9933]

what week was it? where on ontario?

[@danthefisher]

Last week of august north shore of lake ontario

[@Highway-uk7md]

I am going to Ludington MI to try to jig me a king or 2 . This looks fun as hell.

[@danthefisher]

Its a riot hopefully you get em!

[@jacobvogel7963]

Never jigged kings that looks insanely fun

[@pokemaster1234567899]

YES

[@jaybaren4965]

What size/weight worked the best?

[@danthefisher]

1 to 2 oz jigs were the ticket

[@paulbowkunowicz6960]

how heavy of a jig were you using

[@danthefisher]

2 oz jig

[@paulbowkunowicz6960]

yeah I figured it would be pretty heavy...thanks brother @@danthefisher

[@ScottColquitt-j3l]

So those kings were in 73 degree surface temp water? Wow...is the depth you were catching them in cooler?

[@danthefisher]

Yeah the thermocline was squished in the bottom 10 feet of water so they didnt have alot of comfort room

[@davidbarclay4968]

Such a great job jigging those Salmon. Question though. The lamprey are invasive and super bad for our fishery. Why in the world would you throw them back? Especially since there is a kill order on any you catch. Every single one thrown back is another spawner that will reproduce making the situation worse. Kill them Lamprey.

[@danthefisher]

Sometimes they slither away before we can get em, other times i just forget to kill em 😂

[@JordenMorin]

Grape zero sugar monsters my jam !

[@danthefisher]

All day long! Hahaha

[@cameronjohnson2815]

What is the correct spelling of the jigs you are using?

[@danthefisher]

Mac fish 1-2 oz Glow anchovy 1-2oz Best colors: Greens whites glows blue whites etc

[@loftymcdowell5789]

The BEND

[@kentuuri8272]

Great video Dan next time kill the lamprey☠️

[@danthefisher]

Usually i kill em but i was overwhelmed by how many there were haha every fish had the damn things

[@keiranrooker7981]

Doing this yesterday for spring salmon lost one and ended up trolling and got a coho and lost 2 big kings

[@danthefisher]

Awesome!

[@thefishfin-atic7106]

Good video, I'd like to see you kill the lamprey before throwing it overboard - quick slice under the throat should do it.

[@danthefisher]

Il work on that

[@matthewlabombard9903]

Lamprey go back headless

[@danthefisher]

Agreed. Didnt have a knife. Probly shoulda tossed em in the bilge

[@ReefMimic]

Nice 👍🏻

[@bobjob-Nba]

Why didn’t you kill the sea lampreys they are extremely invasive in Ontario

[@danthefisher]

I wasnt equipped to kill and most of them slithered away in the net

[@bobjob-Nba]

@@danthefisher ok

[@surfingfireman]

Jigging for Kings I could get on board with. Trolling.... No thanks!

[@markmorgan5031]

..why wouldn't u pull the fish in with the lamprey on it to kill it and then release the salmon. Man the jab really knocked the common sense out of people

[@danthefisher]

I just got my 7th jab and i feel great. Go Trudeau go!