Upstate New York Fishing Report – October 11, 2018

Pictured above: Rich Pisa with a bomber king from the gorge

Greater Niagara Region

Bill Hilts, Jr.

The Niagara River salmon action is still going strong according to reports from shoreline casters and boat drifters. From shore, Ricardo Davila of Wheatfield was doing well tossing Booker glow in the dark spinners. Rich Pisa of Kenmore was drifting egg skein under a float along the shoreline around the Whirlpool. Mike Rzucidlo of Niagara Falls was tossing No. 3 spinners to take his first lake trout of the year off of Artpark. At the Sanddocks in Lewiston, Gianni Etopio of Youngtown was using a soft splittail plastic on a jig to take some walleye and even a salmon the last week. Charter guys like Capt. Frank Campbell of Niagara Region Charters are still reporting success in Devil’s Hole drifting treated egg skein on a three-way rig. Mike Cardamone of Lewiston was 5 for 8 on Salmon on Tuesday. A few steelhead are starting to show up, too. With air temperatures plummeting into the 50s this weekend, look for fishing to turn on again.

Olcott fishing action has not been consistent, but when it’s on it’s great according to Karen Evarts at The Boat Doctors. Pier action is a bit spotty for hardware chuckers tossing spoons and spinners. Egg skein will also work, off the piers and up the creek from a boat. Burt Dam is seeing some salmon and a few brown trout being caught. Over in Wilson, Joel Spring of Ransomville caught a big salmon off this kayak, dragging him around the harbor for a while. Pier casters are picking up some trout and an occasional salmon there, too. Out in the lake, head out deep for a mix of salmon and trout if the weather cooperates.

This weekend is the youth hunters for waterfowl and pheasant. Early archery season is still going on and other small game opportunities are also available such as for woodcock, rabbit and squirrel.

If you are into fly fishing or you are looking for a way to start up the activity, look no further than the Orvis Shop in Williamsville. This coming Saturday are two sessions on steelhead fishing – Steelhead fly fishing 101 and Steelheading Cattaraugus Creek. Sunday has a steelhead tube fly seminar and a fly tying session focusing on steelhead favorites. Call 276-7200 to see if openings are still available.

Oswego County

Mary Ellen Barbeau of the Oswego County Department of Community Development, Tourism and Planning.

Oswego River Report

According to Oz Angling Bait and Tackle:
The king salmon fishing has been phenomenal this fall. There have been big numbers of fish in the Oswego River for a couple weeks now and the fishing continues to improve as more fish enter the system every day. With a dry summer and warm start to the fall, the kings started running a bit later than usual this year and most female fish still have tight eggs. A change in the weather pattern is expected by tomorrow with much cooler temperatures in the extended forecast. Ever since the river temperature hit 65 degrees, the kings have really started snapping on skein, UV 10 mm beads, and Thundersticks. After having reached 9,000cfs at times this week, the flow is back to 6,250cfs this morning. There is a good amount of rain expected in the area today so keep an eye on the flow for changes.

Notice: The bridge to Leto Island is closed, and there are mandatory personal flotation device (PFD) zones on the river. For more information, visit our website at visitoswegocounty.com and click on the Fishing Report along the top bar on the home page. The Oswego Fire Department offers loaner life jackets at no charge through its “Loaner for Life” program. For more information contact the fire station, 35 E. Cayuga St., at 315-343-2161.

Salmon River Report:

According to the Douglaston Salmon Run:
The River Patrol fishing report yesterday indicated a real slow down in the estuary with little evidence of either fish presence or movement. Just upriver, however, there continues to be a steady movement of fish but that activity peters out in the middle section. The upper section is seeing a steady push of fish as well. Reportedly there were more steelhead being brought to hand than kings in the middle section. In the upper section, there were a mix of fish being caught – kings, steelhead, brown trout and even a few coho salmon.

According to Whitaker’s Sport Shop:
The warm weather is about to end as rain has moved into the area with much cooler temperatures following by tomorrow. Overall anglers have been doing well and getting into fish. We currently have fish in the river from top to bottom. We have salmon spawning throughout the river in the gravel areas. By far the majority of anglers are salmon fishing, but each day we are hearing about increased numbers of steelhead being caught in the lower end of the river and at the DSR. Over the last couple of days the most productive patterns have been estaz eggs, glo-bugs, steelhead hammer, egg sucking leeches, woolly buggers and flesh flies.

Oneida Lake Report:

After several days of summer-like temperatures, the thermometer is going to be dropping significantly by tomorrow and throughout the weekend. Once those cooler temperatures arrive, look for an increase in walleye activity and a more active night bite. Anglers are continuing to find a few walleye in deeper water when conditions allow. Look for bass along the weed beds. Worm harnesses, jigs, crankbaits and blade baits are working well.

Sandy Pond report:

The pond is typically quiet this time of year.

Wayne County Fishing Update

Chris Kenyon

Lake Ontario

There are still some trollers out in the lake…just the smaller boats. The kings are still hitting in 200 feet of water if you still have a boat in the water.

Streams

Maxwell Creek is still plugged-up at the mouth. Maybe Thursday’s predicted rain will be enough to open the creek. As soon as that happens, the kings and browns will be in Maxwell.

Salmon Creek in Pultneyville has fish and Bear Creek in Ontario has kings and browns. Throw- out the egg sacs. Hughes’ Marina also has trout and salmon coming in the outlet.

Pier fishing has also produced some nice kings; however, the Sodus Channel action can be hot or cold. It’s hard to predict. Cast out glow spoons or any other heavy spoon.

Bays

The perch are in Sodus Bay and Port Bay and are starting to school-up. That means to move around if you are catching the little ones. The water level in the bays is low so make sure you are careful launching your boat.

The perch are hitting small rubber minnows 2-inches long and tipped with spikes.

Bass season is open until November 30th, the last Friday in the month. The weed cover on Sodus is very heavy, especially at the southern end. Use extra pound-test leaders.

Erie Canal

There are still plenty of fish in canal waters. The bass are hitting anywhere you cast. There are shoreline opportunities all along the waterway. The locks are a great place to cast out your bait.

Orleans County

Orleans County Tourism and Bierstine of Oak Orchard Tackle and Lodge

We got more rain through the end of the past weekend and the beginning part of this week. Forecast is for unseasonably warm temperatures today and Wednesday with the next chance of scattered precipitation and colder temperatures Thursday. These two days of warm temps may stall things a little, but for the most part “runs” are underway (salmon and steelhead especially) so the fair to good action should continue.

Reports have anglers into salmon hookups still at the rivermouth and all the way to the dam. Concentrations of fish are good at the dam and the pressure from the past holiday weekend was pretty sporty. That should ease some through the upcoming weekdays. Oak rivermouth and lower river action is still underway and more then likely the med trickling of fish will continue for a while. Plenty of chances for conventional gear hook ups there still.

Lower river action is fair and frog water skein drifters into a good bite especially in the low light periods when the fish are active. In the fast water stretches below the dam, the action can still be on and off with probably the greatest concentrations of fish nearer the dam. Flows are real nice by fall standards especially compared to other smaller tributaries at something like medium or greater.

Typically we talk about lower and moderate flows in the fall. Other area smaller tributaries reports are spottier with flows getting better at something like moderate to medium and perking up after any given precipitation event. Look for more consistent action in the smaller tributaries with this next consistent cool down as long as reasonable flows hang in. Fast water Oak chances likewise should get more consistent. Hook ups include Kings of course, good numbers of steelhead, decent Atlantic numbers, a coho here and there and a few browns. Better brown trout action likely for mid to the end part of October and beyond