When it comes to memorable fishing feats on the water, angling attention is often focused on salmon and trout. For Lake Ontario, New York’s top water body for trophy action, this Great Lake is the place to be for numbers as well as size – quantity and quality. Personal best catches are not uncommon when it comes to these salmonids. The icing on the proverbial cake is the chance for a state record. Many of the Empire State’s record salmon and trout catches have come from this lake and many of them etched marks in the record books during the 1990s. The biggest of them all is the mighty Chinook or “king” salmon.
King of Kings
The year was 1991. George H.W. Bush was president, and a gallon of gas was $1.14. In sports, the New York Giants won the Super Bowl (over the Buffalo Bills and the famous “wide right” kick), the Pittsburgh Penguins were Stanley Cup champions, and the Minnesota Twins won the World Series. And on Sept. 7, Kurt Killian of Berwick, Pa. caught the state record Chinook (King) salmon for New York.
The witness was longtime skipper and guide Capt. Troy Creasy of High Adventure Sportfishing, and he recalls that day vividly.
“I was in fact guiding him that day the fish was caught in the lower Salmon River, part of Douglaston Salmon Run,” remembers Creasy. “It was caught at the top of the Clay Hole while we were fishing from shore. There was a major run of fish that day and there were literally thousands going by us at the time. We were lucky enough to hook one on an orange fly I had tied called the “Creasy” and surprisingly the fight didn’t last very long. As it made a hard turn towards us, it came downstream and literally beached itself in front of us. I jumped on that fish and got my butt kicked, but that is pretty much the story of catching the record fish.”
That wasn’t the end of the story though. The next step in the process was to weigh the large fish on a certified scale.
“We finally got it to some official scales after I was kicked out of the local supermarket for carrying the big salmon inside the store! We were able to weigh it at a small shop called the Silver Star Market and the official weight was 47 pounds, 13 ounces and it was 48 inches long.” What a catch!
Kurt Killian of Berwick, Pa. with his state record Chinook salmon from the Salmon River - 47 pounds, 13 ounces
The 1991 record was the kickoff for a ‘90s decade of salmon and trout records that still stand to this day. On April 5, 1997, the state record Atlantic salmon was caught out of Wayne County in Lake Ontario when Mike Dandino hauled in a 24-pound, 15-ounce fish that stretched the tape to 35 inches. The fish hit a Long A Bomber while they were trolling.
The next in line was the state record brown trout that was reeled in by Tony Brown of Schenectady on June 10, 1997, while fishing with the late Capt. Gerry Bresadola aboard the Dixie Dandy out of the Little Salmon River in Oswego County. The fish hit a Smithwick Rogue stick bait out in the lake off an area called the High Rocks in 25 feet of water. The weight was an impressive 33 pounds, 2 ounces and measured 38 inches long. It broke the existing record by more than two pounds. The fishing line was only 8-pound test with a 6-pound test leader. Brown took 30 minutes to bring the behemoth into the boat.
In 1998, Stephen Sheets, Jr. was fishing with the late Capt. Mike Stilin of Fish Tale Charters off Oswego County in Lake Ontario when they hooked into a monster Coho salmon while trolling with cut bait on August 13. Because of its size, they thought it was a Chinook salmon. After closer inspection, they realized it was a Coho and started to look for a certified scale when they returned to port. The official weight was 33 pounds, 7 ounces! There was a bit of controversy surrounding its status as the world record. While it is recognized as the state record, the world record is another Oswego County fish – Jerry Linton’s 1989 Coho catch in the Salmon River is listed as the world record at 33 pounds, 4 ounces.
Tony Brown of Schenectady with the record brown trout in the state - 33 pounds, 2 ounces.
Francine Brant of Tonawanda holds up a 27-pound brown trout she caught out of Wilson with Capt. Rich Brant, her stepson. Personal best fish are caught all the time in Lake O.
Former Lake Trout Record
What causes a fish to grow to record proportions? Age certainly helps, and genetics may play a role. However, one big reason is an available food source that is both plentiful and full of nutrition. Mother Nature may also play an important role in determining how things grow outdoors. A perfect case in point was the former record lake trout that was caught in the shadow of Old Fort Niagara at the mouth of the mighty Niagara River on the fringe of the famed Niagara Bar. The year was 1994, another one of those magical marks for the 1990s.
John Mamrak, Jr. of Easton, New Jersey was fishing with his friend Bill Sprecher who owned a 22-foot Grady White boat and two other buddies. They were drifting off Fort Niagara, jigging shad-imitation lures, when a big fish grabbed hold. Nearly 45 minutes later, the fish was netted and hit the floor of the boat. It was a huge lake trout!
They brought the fish into Williams Marine in Youngstown, a weigh station for the Empire State/Lake Ontario Fishing Derby at the time and threw it on the scale. It was an eye-popping 39-1/2 pounds, stretching 42-1/2 inches long!
Once the paperwork was completed and the fish was verified by the Department of Environmental Conservation, it became a new record catch. It bested the previous record of 32 pounds caught in Lake Placid in May of 1986 by 7-1/2 pounds!
The analysis didn’t stop there. Fish biologists kept the fish and found that the bulging lake trout was only 11 years old – unbelievable. In the stomach of the beast were 99 smelt and alewife, and it still tried to eat the lure that Mamrak was offering to any available fish in the area. Apparently, this fish was missing one of its chromosomes needed for natural reproduction. With no urge to spawn, all it wanted to do was eat! Talk about feeding frenzy! The record catch lasted until 2003 when a new mark was set in another New York Great Lake – Lake Erie. The record is now 41-1/2 pounds, but don’t be surprised if Lake Ontario reclaims its record in the future.
Rob Wilson of Ohio with a state record Rainbow/Steelhead that he caught out of Olcott -- 31 pounds, 3 ounces.
Record Steelhead Story
The only salmonid record from the lake that wasn’t documented in the 1990s was the Rainbow Trout record. That was a 31-pound, 3-ounce fish caught by Robert Wilson of Tallmadge, Ohio while fishing out of Olcott on Lake Ontario on August 14, 2004. The fish was 39 inches long.
Wilson was fishing 12 to 14 miles out of Olcott with his father, Robert, and Tom
Briggs of Kent, Ohio around 7:30 a.m. on that fateful day when the behemoth hit their Pirate 55 watermelon with gold fleck spoon offering. It immediately stripped off about 300 yards of line from their Daiwa 47LC reel and tried to jump free. This was not a day that
the fish would win, however. Twenty minutes later, they netted the trophy
fish and put it in their cooler – thinking it was a big king salmon.
As the story goes, the Ohio angling crew was at the cleaning station when local charter skipper (the late, great) Capt. Bob Cinelli of Newfane saw the huge steelhead on the table. Before the knife sliced into the fish he told them to stop! It’s a steelhead and it could be a record! DEC officials were contacted, and the paperwork was filled out in the nick of time.
In this time of immediate research at your fingertips with Smart phones, tablets and laptop computers, one needs only to touch a few buttons to find a complete list of record catches. Check out a full list of records in New York at https://dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/freshwater-fishing/angler-achievement-awards-program. Now get out there and catch a big one!