We fished for bass the other day and John caught this 17" beauty not far from camp. Oswego harbor is visible in the background.
It was so hot and calm, a weird moment before the breeze started up again. It looked like the boats were in the sky! Click on the pics above and below to enlarge them and see what we mean.
Camp as seen from the lake.
Good view of camp from the lake.
We had all our lines in the water around 9:15 AM yesterday, later than we'd planned due to windy conditions. It wasn't long before we had a hook-up - a salmon made a run, taking line out like crazy, making the drag virtually sing before it suddenly became unhooked. John went back for a pass over the same area and we hooked a nice brown trout which I pulled in all by myself with difficulty because the the dipsey didn't release. John then went back for another pass and we hooked this 25 lb. 4 oz., 40 inch king salmon! Our teamwork routine is working well - he takes the rod out of the rodholder, passes it off to me, reels in the other rod, then brings the fish in for me to net. This huge salmon took him all around the boat and avoided the net several times, making us very nervous. Finally, into the net it swam and John helped me get it in the boat. Seeing it in the net on the bottom of the boat was quite a thrill, let me tell you. In fact, this way of fishing is exhilarating. You troll quietly around, not even holding a rod, and when a salmon hits, the rod pounds down and the line screams out.
So, even though we were both physically tired after that salmon, we made another pass over the same area, and wouldn't you know it, like about 3 minutes later this 24 lb., 7 oz., 37.5 inch salmon hit! We were so exhausted by this time that we did something we've never done before - we quit fishing when the fish were biting! It was dead calm and very hot, too, so we took these pics and headed in. Our time on the water only amounted to 2.5 hours total! We took advantage of the fish-cleaning man in the marina and had him clean our 3 fish. He even puts them in zipper bags, well worth the $3.00 per fish plus tip. Our knife is way to short to filet these salmon. Wow, we had some onlookers, that's for sure. Many fishermen were jealous and asked us all about how and where we caught our fish. The average boat is coming in with 1 fish per long day (starting at dawn) on the water with maybe 4 fishermen.
We caught this 23 lb., 9 oz., 36 inch king salmon 10 minutes after all our lines were in the water at 7:10 AM!! A great deal of teamwork was involved in landing this monster. John removed the rod from the rodholder, held on while the fish took lots of line, then passed it to me to fight it, then I passed it back to him to maneuver it in for netting, then I netted it with no problem except that I couldn't lift it in the boat alone! About an hour later we caught a 20 inch steelhead then had no bites the rest of the morning. It became hot with almost no breeze and was quite a nice morning. Luckily the camp owners have a chest freezer for customers' fish and they were pleased to receive a fresh fish meal for themselves. Hmmmm, fresh fish for dinner.
Sunset over Lake Ontario as the seas calm.
Yesterday it was hot and humid, in the 80s, quite a bit warmer than usual for this region lately. I spent a delightful hour by and in the pool. It was very windy and impossible for boats to be on the water. We're trying to be patient, waiting for good weather so we can go salmon fishing. As you can see by these pics, it's still way too windy to go out today.
The rain and thunderstorms bringing cooler weather began around 9 PM and continued for hours. We woke up over and over again for hours as the heavy rain and thunderstorms continued. The camper was shaking, mostly because the awning was moving around like crazy even though it was anchored to the ground by the screenroom. Finally, just before 3 AM one of the stakes anchoring a corner of the screenroom pulled loose as we watched in horror. We quickly dressed and headed outside into the storm. The rain was abating but the wind was tremendous, maybe over 4o m.p.h. or more - coming from the north, directly off the lake into camp. I held down the loose side of the awning and John removed the screenroom and then lowered the awning. It wouldn't go up correctly on the first try, but we eventually got it up. By this time we were standing in water over our ankles! We shoved the floor mat under the camper and stuffed the screenroom panels and poles in the boat and covered them with wood so they wouldn't blow away.Finally, we headed inside, wet but glad to have averted an awning disaster. We were amazed that the weather radio had no info on the storm. It was almost 4:30 AM before we were calmed down enough to go back to bed. Today we aired out the screenroom and mat and put it all away, having learned the lesson that the other lakeside campers seemed to know already - it's too windy here for awnings and screenrooms, even under normal conditions. 
Sunset RV Park is a nice location. The owners, Bob and Janet, are great people. They even gave us 2 sites so we can get in and out easily with the boat. There are many cabins here as well as campsites. It's very busy on the weekends all summer. There's a racetrack nearby; it's salmon season now; there's a nice pool, playground, and outdoor area for kids; Rudy's, a fish fry place, and Bev's, an ice cream place, are right across the street on the lake; and SUNY Oswego is just down the road. We're not exactly roughing it - cable TV, fast wi-fi, and full hook-ups. Nice to watch the Olympics.
This is the first time we've ever been here in the summer. We've been here twice before in the spring. Last spring we had extremely good luck catching brown trout and we'll return next May, too. OK, so let's hope we can go fishing tomorrow!!!!!! 
On the last drift, on the last day, I caught this 17 inch smallie!
We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Martin's Marina Campground, wishing it wasn't coming to an end. There were plenty more places to fish and plenty more fish to catch. The seasonal campers were extremely friendly and they were all there for one purpose - to fish - so it was lots of fun for us. On our last evening we were invited to a big dinner at our neighbor's where we enjoyed fish, venison, sausage, fries, salads, ice cream, and plenty of fish stories.
The sun set and the moon rose.
The lake was eerily calm yesterday morning as there was not even the slightest breeze so we headed offshore (into Canadian waters) about 9 miles to troll for walleyes.
It was thrilling to hear the drag go out on the smaller rod and even more thrilling to pull in this 25 inch beauty. 
An hour later we caught another 25-incher on the larger rod using the same type of lure - a reefer runner with an orange upper body and a yellow belly. They (the fish and the lures) were about 20 feet down in 40 feet of water.
Later in the afternoon we came in near the cliffs to catch bass (12 in 30 minutes) and took this picture close to shore. We'll get quite a few tasty meals out of these big, beautiful fish.
Another beautiful sunset.
We are all settled in at Martin's Marina Campground on Mud Bay, in the Cape Vincent area of NY. Cape Vincent is the area or corner of land where the St. Lawrence River meets Lake Ontario. The river is 14 miles wide at its mouth! This place is just ideal for us. It's a small campground on a peninsula near the marina. Our boat's in the water and our camper is right on the water. Above is a view of our camper from Mud Bay.
Yesterday, when the weather was incredibly gorgeous, we fished off the cliffs above, about a 15 minute boat ride through the bays into the Lake. What a treat and surprise to catch 43 smallies in only a 4 hour outing! They were not big, only up to 14 inches, but it was wonderful to have such action. The artificial bait we've been using (Gulp black leeches) has worked so well. It was also good to catch only a few pesky gobes, too.
In the picture above you can see how extremely calm the Lake was, in fact, it was even calmer than this earlier in the morning. This pic shows how we're fishing in the Lake just off the peninsulas/points. We only fished for 4 hours because we had to go to the bait/tackle shop near the bridge to Canada and get our Canadian fishing licenses yesterday afternoon. The store goes over every morning and brings them back. Very convenient for us even though it was a 45 minute drive to the store from camp. The road took us through Cape Vincent and Clayton and all along the St. Lawerence River so it was interesting and scenic. We need the licenses because Canadian waters are only a few miles offshore here, and if weather conditions are perfect we'll head out to fish for walleyes. Today it's one thunderstorm after another. We walked 2.5 miles and got back to the camper 5 minutes before the first raindrops fell. 
Another beautiful sunset.
The view of Mud Bay from our camper. In the spring they catch a lot of big catfish and walleyes here.
The view of the lake from the point.
Nice spot to camp.
What happy campers!
Jim, Sheryl and Trenton came to camp with us this past Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Amazingly, the rain stopped a few hours before they arrived and began again a few hours after they left. Above is an extremely rare occurrence on Lake Ontario - it's calm.
Trenton steers the boat all by himself.
It was cool during the early part of our ride but it ended up being a hot day.
Trenton listens intently to what Daddy says. The screenhouse has been ideal this week.
You're so funny, Grampack!
Bubble blowing and steaks grilling.
We have a huge, excellent site at Rainbow Shores Campground (www.rainbowshorescampsite.com) on the shores of Lake Ontario. The weather's been so changeable. It changes from sunny to cloudy to windy to stormy all the time. It's quite cool when it's rainy, and it's oh so very nice when the sun's out!
We were able to fish Tuesday through Friday, for varying amounts of time. It was so much fun to catch this huge one. The seas were calm this day.
This one has more defined stripes, brighter coloring.
Good catch, John.
