Got out to a local river mouth along the shores of Lake Ontario this morning. I arrived just before sunrise, switched on my headlamp and began assembling my new rod (purchased used but in brand new condition, 8'6" Okuma SST). The water was calm and I could already hear and see fish disturbing the water, some less than 15'-20' from shore.
The water was still fairly dirty from the heavy rain on Tuesday and Wednesday so I started out with a glow-white Little Cleo with orange dots, 2/5oz.
Within the first 30 minutes of casting, I had two hits, both about 10'-15' from shore nearing the end of my retrieve. From then on until about 8am the fish continued to feed at the surface of the water. Some fully breaching and from the short glimpses I saw, they appeared to be trout (the few that cleared the water looked to be browns). There were dobson/alderfly larvae strewn across the water's surface, the trout seemed to have no issues finding them despite low visibility.
As the sun rose above the horizon, the near-shore activity began to slow down. Two distinct "mudlines" emerged, the first about 10' or so from shore and the second a few hundred metres further out (pictured below):
I packed it in just after 10am, put a few (momentary) bends in my new Okuma rod and seeing trout feeding so close to shore gave me confidence for the next time out. To be continued...
Shore Casting Lake Ontario, Pursuit of shallow spring trout
