Lake Ontario Brown Trout Fishing Tips

Brown trout fishing on Lake Ontario has changed drastically since zebra mussels were introduced back in the mid90’s and water clarity changed from visibility of 2-5 feet in past years to up to 36 feet today. 

Anglers have learned to cope with these conditions by fishing in low light when browns are most active in clear water, searching out colored water in the sun, using light line/leaders and rods/reels to match, and fine tuning lure selection and presentation.

Since I first fished Lake Ontario for browns in 1978, I’ve watched and brown trout  behavior closely and recorded everything I’ve seen, looking for consistent patterns that help put browns in the boat on every trip.   One year, I had the opportunity to see my customers boat 1004 browns from early April to Sept. 4, 524 of them boated by May 27.  With this much experience you would think catching spring browns would be simple, except that conditions vary from day to day.  Light  conditions, water color, surface conditions, currents, weather swings, wind direction changes, and water temperature fluctuations create complexities that only Mr. Brown Trout understands. 

Early spring fishing in the clear shallows is probably the most challenging of all brown trout fishing.  Morning after morning in April, May, and early June I leave Oswego Harbor and put planer boards, riggers, and other gear in the water searching for browns.   Here’s something I’ve learned about spring brown trout that might help you.

 Once alewives move inshore, this year a mother lode of yearling alewives, browns are very surface oriented.  At dawn, you cannot fish too close to the surface.  The shallower a stickbait or spoon runs, the more effective it is early.  This is especially true if it is flat and glassy.  Avoid deep running stickbaits.  Tune stickbaits like Rapalas, so they run shallow.  Don’t put any weight on planer board lines at dawn.  I run flutterspoons, especially the Flutterdevle with no weight at all.   Riggers are run as close to the surface as possible, sometimes with the releases right out of the water!  I also catch browns early on flat lines…, that’s right, flat lines, right off the back of the boat, especially in flat water. 

As the light intensity increases, add some weight to planer board lines, switch to deeper diving stickbaits, and drop riggers deeper. 

Silver/blue and silver/black are my favorite early AM colors.

Check out this selection of favorite Fish Doctor Flutterdevles.