🌡️ Preferred water temp
10–14°C (50–57°F) — tracks the thermocline closely.
⏰ Best time to catch
Late-summer staging off river mouths into the big fall spawning run.
Habitat
Lake Ontario and Huron open water, shadowing alewife schools; stages off river mouths in late summer.
Season by season
Spring
Nearshore trolling as bait stacks along colour lines — spoons and flasher-flies high in the column.
Summer
Deep offshore thermocline trolling with downriggers and dipsys.
Fall
Staging and river-run fish — drift roe or swing big streamers in deep pools (check open sections).
Winter
Back in the lake and rarely pursued.
What to throw
Flasher/fly rigs, magnum spoons, cut-bait rigs; roe and streamers in rivers.
Popular Chinook Salmon lakes
Lake Superior
Lake Huron
Lake Ontario
Lake Nipissing
Lake Simcoe
Little Rapids
Etobicoke Creek
Big Creek
Grand River
Nine Mile River
Belgrave Creek
Naftel's Creek
Open the map and filter by Chinook Salmon to see every Ontario waterbody where it's been recorded, with depth, regulations and live conditions for each one.