First Trip to Lake Ontario

I've been able to develop some really awesome friendships in my business with several of the partners who have joined us in the venture. One of those friends invited my wife and I to come to stay with them in Henderson Harbor, NY to do some fishing. Having only caught 1 dink small mouth in my life, I was pumped to say the least. I really didn't know what to expect but knew we would catch a lot of fish. We had an absolute blast and caught 60-70 fish per day without fishing very long days at all. The crazy thing was they just have an entirely different thought process up there than we do down here.

First, pretty much every guide/charter captain uses live bait. They call them soft shell crabs but they are actually small crawfish that have just molted and the small mouth apparently can't resist them.

Secondly, 95% of the people that hire these guys keep their limits of small mouth (5 or 6 - depending if in the US or Canada) every day with most having an awesome shore dinner in the afternoon.

Most fish were 2-4#....the biggest was 6# right on the nose.

While the technique wasn't what I expected the result was an absolute blast and we WILL be going back.

Sounds like you guys had a great trip.

Your fish would look bigger if you weren't 7 feet tall!

Wow, very nice!

What a blast you guys had. Thanks for sharing the beautiful fish. Post us up some info. to contact for a similar trip.

Thanks,
Donald

I've told you for years, I need to hire a personal midget to go on trips with me to take pictures of my fish!! It was truly a blast, even if it was a little different than what I was expecting.

The charter captain's name is David McCrea. His phone number is 315-938-5069. He specializes in small mouth fishing but also does some salmon, walleye and lake trout trips. He runs a very nice 37' Chris Craft.

The shore dinner is something to behold. He does this for the vast majority of his customers, assuming they want to. Basically you fish all morning through lunch time then head to an island where he and 2 of his partners have built small pavilions. He feeds you enough food that you want to roll over and sleep for the next 3 hours. The meal starts off with the "appetizer" which is a bacon, onion and lettuce sandwich. Sounded gross to me but was amazing somehow. They fry the bacon there on the large grill. The next course is a salad. Then the main course is the fresh fish you just caught (they only keep really small ones). The fish is fried in LARD and just amazing but definitely not on the healthy side. Then right when you think you are about to die, he makes you his version of french toast. It's white bread dipped in an egg wash then deep fried in the bacon grease. He then pours real maple syrup and a little cream on it. Its ridiculous!!!

Day 1 we just fished all day and didn't do the shore dinner. We picked up our wives on Day 2 and did the shore dinner with them after they got to do a little fishing.

David stays so booked that you normally have to put your reservation in at least 6 months in advance. The only reason we got the dates we did was because my friend is his partner in the marina they own together in Henderson Harbor.

Wow what an amazing trip!! And the guide service itself sounds like the best part! I've never caught a smallie over 15" so that would be something cool to see and do! And who care if it was using live bait!

That must be the international fishermans shore lunch, I've been on several guided trips trout fishing on the white river, and that is exactly what we had every time, minus the French toast.

Atta Boy CG!

Holy CARP - A Stax sighting! Where have you been?

He's been hugged up tight to Momma and his new Big Green Egg....

he's been not returning texts or calls

I thought he was dead so I didn't try text or calls

I'm expecting to join it!