Salmon Fishing, Oswego, New York

Our final stop on this extended summer trip was at Sunset RV Park and Cabins on the shore of Lake Ontario in Oswego, New York. The weather dictates whether or not we can fish. As you can see by the above picture, this was clearly not a fishing day.
We ended up with many good days to fish during our 2-week stay but the fishing was not great. The big king salmon were not plentiful due to lower numbers of fish stocked 4 years ago. Due to drought conditions the salmon could not reach the hatchery upriver to have their eggs collected. Now that we're home, however, John's read on the internet that the fish have arrived at the mouth of the river and the fishing is excellent!
This calm, cloudy day was quite unique. The steam from Nine Mile Point nuclear power plant was illuminated eerily as was the steam from the nearby plant. This is how calm we like the water to be for ideal fishing and boating conditions.

After salmon fishing some days we'd head in to the harbor and have a ball catching smallmouth bass. We caught them up to 15-16 inches. They are one of the most fun, hard-fighting fish to catch. They bit hard on Gulp leeches, an artificial bait.

Finally, a salmon - a coho salmon! This 28.75 inch long coho weighed 14 lbs. It jumped and jumped, flashed so silvery, and gave Jason a good, long, hard fight. We were pleased to see it was a coho (or silver) salmon as they are the best eating kind.

My turn to reel in the next one a day later! This is an 18 lb., 30.25 inch coho. It didn't jump but came in rather easily on our large downrigger rod.

A nice big, fat smallie.

Jason's turn again the next day. This king salmon weighed 22 lbs. and was 34 inches long. It will be delicious smoked.

On what turned out to be our last day I had an exhausting time reeling in this 17 lb. 29.75 inch coho. It took lots of line out and was an incredible amount of fun.

Catching big salmon is the ultimate fishing thrill for us. When the fish hits the lure the rod bends and thumps in the rod holder. John has to jump up, grab the rod with 2 hands, reel in the line a little bit to be sure the fish is hooked, then pass it off to me or Jason. Sometimes they take line off the reel so hard and fast it zings. When the fight is almost over (the rods have line counters) we let John know, we move up to the bow and he nets it off the stern (due to the long leaders). Pulling the net up and over the side is not easy when filled with a fish over 20 lbs. Somebody also has to reel in at least one other line so the fish won't get tangled and the boat has to be steered! That's not easy because the dipsy rods are out at least 300 feet and the dipsy makes it very hard to reel in. Oh, and the 13 lb. downrigger ball has to be reeled in if you want to check the line for weeds and again at the end of the morning. It's a lot of work but wow, is it a lot of fun!!!!!!!!