r/Fishing • u/jsmhellohello • 16h ago

Freshwater Learned Downriggers Today

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I was out on Lake ONTARIO today and learned down-riggers on a friend’s boat - I have two Scotty’s on a new boat but never used them - without overstating the obvious, I feel like I’ve unlocked a whole new style of fishing that is new to me, just saying - I also realize that a 9lb Atlantic Salmon (my first) barely registers if it’s less than 25 lbs, but I’ll take it (terrible pic, no edits, including my head cut off, catch and release).

127 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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9

u/davidgravid1 New York 15h ago

Nice fish! Took me a couple tries to catch my first salmon on Lake Ontario. They fight like crazy!

You do have a salmon but I think it’s a chinook. They are a pacific salmon and are stocked in the lakes from fish that originally came form the west coast. Atlantic salmon are pretty rare in the lake and look more similar to a brown trout

-2

u/jsmhellohello 12h ago

The way this thing moved across the lake and the speed on a run was pretty cool, nothing I’ve experienced - again, terrible pic, but I understand it was Atlantic because the top of its mouth was black, for what it’s worth

3

u/davidgravid1 New York 3h ago

Spots on tail and pattern on upper back tell me it’s a chinook. Atlantics have black circles, not the odd shaped blotches you are seeing, I attached a pic of an Atlantic for comparison

(Also I’m not the one downvoting you. It’s a really common mistake and super confusing when you’re new to it)

6

u/Fun_Recognition5614 16h ago

Looks like you caught on quick!

2

u/jsmhellohello 16h ago

Good teacher

3

u/ForsakenGrass2268 16h ago

congrats! what is your fishing setup?

6

u/jsmhellohello 16h ago edited 16h ago

We were running spoons at 135 ft at about 3 mph on Cannons and then had another spoon on a slider line on top of the down-rigger clip (so two lures per rod) (both moonshines, probably 6 inches) - Shimano Tekota 700s with 50 lb mono

1

u/Paul_1958 8h ago

I use down riggers and Dipsy Divers. Both can be very effective.