Lake Ontario winter Lakers.
Posted on March 3rd, 2022While most anglers are catching their fish through the ice others are braving cold temps and floating ice-chunks to catch winter Lake Trout in Lake Ontario from a boat. Our good friend Darryl Penhale has been chasing them all winter long and having excellent success.
He has been targeting primarily the Lake Trout that are feeding at the mouth of the Niagara River and especially on the famous Niagara Bar that rises up from 70′ depths all the way to 14′. The key spot to catching Lakers there all winter long is to fish the structure that rises up from deeper water. This sounds simple, but with strong Niagara River currents and often winds on the open lake, the drifts are short.
Live minnows fishes on a 3-way rig work well drifted or slowly pulled along the bottom with an electric trolling motor. Drifting and jigging bucktail jigs and paddle-tail soft-plastic minnows on 3/8 & 1/2 oz jigs also works well. Some anglers also troll with cranbaits and spoons, but drifting and jigging works best.
If you’re looking for an excuse to launch your boat early, check out the conditions at the Queenston, ON boat launch and try your luck at catching some trophy winter Lake Trout from a boat.
Make sure to check the fishing videos on our Italo Labignan YouTube channel and if you have any questions just email them to me at Ask Italo throughout our www.canadian-sportfishing.com website.
