Greater Niagara Region
Frank Campbell
The timing appears to be good for the start of the LOC Derby on Saturday. The Lake Ontario Counties Trout, Salmon and Walleye Derby will be held from July 1st through the 30th offering anglers nearly $40,000 in cash and prizes for the largest fish. The biggest salmon will win the $10,000 Grand Prize. First place in each of the five species categories will win $1000. There are weekly prizes that total $3000 – $1000 for the biggest salmon and $500 for the other four categories. Check out loc.org for details.
In Wilson, John Jarosz of Lake View collected another “Salmon Slam” recently while fishing with Capt. Matt Yablonsky of Wet Net Charters. They started northwest of Wilson around 200 feet of water and worked out deeper, all the while watching for water temperature changes and current breaks. First fish was a Coho, followed by several nice kings. Yablonsky was running spoons up high and meat deep down on both downriggers and slide divers. Near the end of the trip, the high diver took a 26-inch Atlantic salmon to complete the Slam. It ate a Silver Streak spoon (Yablonsky’s favorites) set at the highest rigger 50-foot down over 350 feet of water.
Capt. Anthony Ellis of Redemption Charters reports out of Olcott that there is a mixed bag of salmon and trout, grouped by both species and size. He fished from 200 to 300 feet of water, focusing his efforts in the top 50-foot with a mix of spoons and cut bait. He did have reports of some boats fishing in 100-foot depths, also in the top 50-foot, and picking up some nice fish.
In the Hooks for Harry Kids Contest last Saturday in Olcott, Jaxton Geisendorff won the friendly competition with a 28-1/2-inch carp from the harbor. Liam Hedley placed second with a 24-inch pike and third place was Parker Swoope with an 18-inch bass. There were 49 kids entered.
Dennis Clark of Grand Island did well on the Niagara Bar over the weekend. Fishing with Dan Kusz of Akron, the duo focused their efforts 70 to 90 feet down over 120 to 180 feet of water at the drop off. In addition to downriggers, Clark used divers set back 160 to 200 feet on a No. 2 setting. They ran all spoons with the best being a Carbon-14, JJ McMuffin, and Dancing Anchovy patterns. They were 3 for 5 on mature kings, reeled in a couple brown trout, and caught and released some other salmon for the morning.
In the Niagara River, moss is still an issue, but smallmouth bass have been responding to spinnerbaits. There are a few walleyes around, too. The walleyes have been hitting FF Sonar Minnow jigs by YUM. In the upper river, Capt. Chris Cinelli of Grand Island reports very good bass fishing going on despite the moss. The walleye action has been spotty. Meanwhile, Chris Trzaska of Buffalo is continuing to do well using Chuck Booker No. 3 spinners at the Beaver Island State Park marina – pike, bass, and even a musky.
The Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Association will be holding its monthly meeting July 6 starting at 7 p.m. Guest speaker will be Capt. Jonathan Ross talking Winning Summer Tournament Techniques, at the North Amherst Fire Hall in Amherst.
Wayne County Fishing Update
Chris Kenyon
Lake Ontario
Northeast winds continue to work havoc on temp changes. Today’s surface from Rochester is 52 degrees. And the fog hindered some weekend trips.
Hopefully the scattered kings will begin to show-up in a feeding pattern. Summer salmon in Wayne County hit the scales at 25 plus pounds.
Try fishing 300 to 400 fow. Some reports have the salmon out deeper.
UV spoons have been working the best. Put your favorite color down. Michigan Stingers UV Frog, Moonshine UV yellow or green, or Northern King Mags bright colors have all worked. The Dreamweaver NBK (Natural Born Killer) spoon is another go- to- bait.
Meat rigs have also taken some kings.
Don’t forget the LOC Summer Derby slated for Saturday, July 1st through July 30th.
Bays
The bass bite is on in all Wayne County bays. (Sodus, East, Port and Blind Sodus.)
There is a narrow outlet from Lake Ontario to East Bay where you’ll find the lunkers along the shoreline.
Sodus is the hotspot because this large bay (4,000 acres) has the lunkers. Fish around the islands and the east shoreline from LeRoy Island south to Bay Bridge. The weed cutters are near the south end, so you’ll need to move around.
Senko worms are a favorite bait. Use Texas rigs or others if fishing the heavy weeds. Spinner baits can work around docks. Actually, there are all sorts of rigs to fish bass.
Port Bay has bluegill action near the south end launch site. Or fish the channel for some smallmouth bass.
Erie Canal
With all the wind and fog on Lake Ontario the last few days, Widewaters is the safest place to fish. The largemouths are hitting the south side of the canal.
From the shore, fish near any of the locks on the canal. When the locks open the bottom is stirred up and the fish will bite. Now that the Erie is open to recreational vessels, the locks are very busy.
Bait for fishing is available on the south end of Sodus at Davenports and Bay Bridge Sport Shop.
On Port Bay Jarvis Bait Farm is open on Brown Road. The signs are on East Port Bay Road at the junction of Brown Road.
Toadz Bait is near the end of West Port Bay Road.
Notable Freshwater Fishing Regulation Changes
The following list offers a summary of the most notable fishing regulation changes resulting from the adopted rulemakings described above.
- New statewide regulation for rainbow trout, brown trout, and splake in lakes and ponds. The season will now be open year-round, with a five-fish daily limit, any size, with a “no more than two longer than 12 inches” harvest rule.
- Statewide Atlantic salmon regulations will now allow for a year-round open season.
- Ice fishing is permitted on all waters in New York unless specifically prohibited with the exception of Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, St. Lawrence, Warren, and Washington counties where previous rules remain.
- New specific dates replaced floating dates for statewide season openers to include:
- May 1 – Walleye, Northern Pike, Pickerel, and Tiger Muskellunge.
- June 1 – Muskellunge. (Note that in 2022, DEC will allow for the fishing of muskellunge beginning the last Saturday in May to accommodate previously planned fishing trips);and
- June 15 – Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass.
- A five-fish daily walleye limit in Oneida Lake.
- A new regulation to limit the growth of the walleye population in Skaneateles Lake. No daily possession limit; 12-inch minimum size limit, open year-round.
- The statewide sunfish daily harvest limit has been reduced from 50 to 25 fish: and
- The statewide minimum size limit for crappie has been increased from nine inches to ten inches.
Orleans County
Orleans County Sportfishing Coordinator Ron Bierstine:
Thanks to previous persistent medium N and NE breezes there was some cool but maybe not quite ice cold water out front of Point Breeze. Those conditions hung around about through the beginning part of this week with a slow moving low pressure system sitting and spinning. Between that resultant fog and then thunderstorms from the spinning low, boaters and anglers are reminded to operate safely on the Lake Ontario waters. Always operate with reasonable speed for the conditions and keep a sharp lookout for other vessels. The forecast for the mid week period is for the low to move off easterly and for NW winds picking up.
Smaller rec anglers and charters alike managed pretty good catches lately through the cold water and foggy conditions. Some found fish right in the fog while others chose to run past and get out of it. Either way wasn’t wrong and there were reports of fish caught as shallow as 30 fow all the way out and past 180+ fow. For a local and WV tag team rec boat the early bite was fast with 6 Kings landed before 7:15AM! Most of their action was in 80 – 125 fow on mag and standard spoons. Riggers worked from 25 to 50 feet down and 5 and 10 color leadcores got bites too. A nice mix of of mature and 2 year old salmon were landed amid the fun chaos of multiple rods firing at once!
Captain Oravec from Tightlines charters has been running his ledge pattern east of Point Breeze to about the glass house in 80 – 150 fow with rigs 40 – 70 ft down. He says “it’s been a terrific mixed bag catch of medium Kings (best one 24 lbs), browns and steelhead. Good looking Atlantic salmon are in the mix too! After a windy Wednesday forecast look for stable water and fish locations for this week. Fish On!”
Oswego County
Lake Ontario – Oswego
Click Here of the 10 day Forecast
The fishing out of Oswego has been great from 100-500’ of water.
Kings are feeding from 30 to 120‘ down. Most anglers are catching them on spoons while some are capitalizing with flasher/fly combos. Meat rigs they are taking fish also.
Dipsey out from 115-250’ and coppers in 20-500’ have been producing best. Hot spoons have been “Carbon 14,” “Black Wiggler,” “UV Tuxedo” and “UV Green Glow Alewife.”
Chrome patterns have been better in the sun, such as “Scumline,” “Chin Music” and “Lances 2 Face” with warship and stud rigs.
Lake Ontario – Mexico, NY
Click Here of the 10 day Forecast
All in all, fishing on the eastern part of Lake Ontario has been producing some great catches! In the bay the brown trout bite has been steady, and we are seeing some trophy fish coming to the net. North of the bay, towards Henderson, has produced some larger lake trout as well.
The browns are still being caught from 25 to 50’ of water from catfish to the buoy line. They have been spread out from the surface to the bottom, so we recommend covering water and the entire water column. When you find fish, stay on them!
If you want to target lakers head north to Sandy Pond and troll north in 135-160’. Blue, green and chartreuse glow blades have been working, while pulling spin n glow and ATOMMIK coho flies.
Register for the 2023 Pro Am Fishing Tournament
July 8-9, 2023
Oswego County Tourism caught up with the event organizers to ask some questions about the tournament:
Q. Who is the Pro Am Tournament for? Can anyone participate?
Anyone can participate in the Pro Am. Captains and guides have to fish the pro division, non-captains/guides have the option of fishing either division. Usually pro teams have four or more teammates and amateur teams have three or more.
Q. How can I register for the Pro-Am?
You can visit one of our local tackle shops: Fat Nancy’s, Woody’s, Sonny’s or All Seasons. There is also an online registration option, which has been posted on our Facebook page and at OswegoProAm.com. You can also call/text the event organizer, Mike Lewis (315) 345.0316.
Q. What is the total (expected) payout this year?
The predicted payout, based on 20 boats in each division should reach $18,000-$20,000 for pro and around $7,000 for amateur. The exact place payouts will be determined based on the final number of boats.
Q. How can I patriciate if I don’t have a boat?
If you don’t have a boat, you can hire a charter and enter the tournament that way. It would have to be in the pro division. We’ve heard there are still captains available, but don’t wait too long to contact them.
Free Oswego Fishing Guide
Click Here to Order a Free Guide
The 68-page guide includes a detailed overview of fishing opportunities on eastern Lake Ontario, Oneida Lake, the Oswego and Salmon rivers and a variety of other tributaries, as well as the more than 40,000 acres of public lands available for hunting.