Greater Niagara Region
Frank Campbell
Fishing in the Niagara River has been good the past week despite super clear conditions. It may even get better with the forecast of wind and rain at the end of this week as the temperature drops to more seasonable conditions. It sure was a beautiful week!
Capt. Joe Srouji of Angler Edge Charters reports that the lower river has been fishing well for bass and walleye. He has been averaging 40 to 50 fish days on smallmouth bass, with limit walleye catches of three fish per person and a minimum size of 18 inches. Bass are taking large minnows on 3-way rigs and walleye are being taken by trolling worm harnesses. Srouji’s key to success while trolling for walleye is boat control, adapting your boat speed to be just a little faster than the current speed to ensure the blades are spinning. October is a great time to target both species as the fall feed kicks in.
Mike Ziehm of Niagara Falls is still catching salmon but they are super dark in color, in part due to the warm temperatures. Lake Erie is still 70 degrees after this week’s warm-up, the water coming through the river. With the water being so clear, it also makes fishing tougher. On Monday the visibility was 10-foot. Ziehm has been using his No. 4 handmade spinners in silver and pearl white. Look for water conditions to improve with the change in weather. It should also bring in some fresh fish. Low light conditions certainly help when the water is so clear. Tommy Holycross of Wheatfield reports he hooked into a nice steelhead late last week on a Little Cleo casting spoon off the NYPA platform. Walleyes are still around in good numbers but mostly shorts (undersized) are being caught. Smallmouth bass and the occasional silver bass were caught on white marabou jigs under float this past week. The number of salmon being caught is steadily increasing off the platform. Egg imitations and treated egg skein are working best.
Boaters in Devil’s Hole have struggled with the clear water conditions since last Thursday. However, on Thursday morning for the WTS Charity for Children event, Capt. Ernie Calandrelli and Capt. Frank Campbell split 15 kings in less than 5 hours of fishing for some decent action. Treat egg skein was the ticket, fished off 3-way rigs.
The two-day WTS event allowed for two days of fishing last Wednesday and Thursday – 4 hours on Wednesday and 5 hours on Thursday. A total of 13 boats participated as teams vied for the most total points based on 10 points each for walleye and bass, 100 points for salmon. The DiMino Tops team of Anthony DiMino, John Dimino, and Ralph Speziale was the Grand Champion Team, fishing with Capt. Joe Marra of Niagara Rainbow Charters. Individual winner was Speziale, racking up 660 points. A great day was had by all. The big winner was Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Community Center as the fishing/golf event raised more than $150,000 for the worthy cause.
Karen Evarts at The Boat Doctors reports that Lake Ontario action has been decent for staging king salmon for trollers working the waters in front of the Olcott piers with plugs and flasher-fly setups. Off the piers, the best fishing has been at night casting glow spoons, crankbaits, or fishing egg skein on the bottom or under a float. Some people have been picking up some perch while using egg skein, too. Some perch are being reported in Wilson, as well. At Burt Dam, some brown trout have started showing up. Best baits have been egg sacs and wooly buggers. Not too much to report as far as salmon, but that could change when the rain shows up on Friday, combined with cooler temperatures.
Wayne County Fishing Update
Chris Kenyon
Lake Ontario
Most charter boats have been pulled and the winterizing process begins. There are still staging salmon close to shore so if you have a small safe vessel, you can catch some kings.
Troll close to shore with stickbaits and spoons. Work the area close to Maxwell Creek, the Sodus channel, Hughes’ Marina and Port Bay.
Streams
With some precipitation predicted for Friday, the streams might have a decent flow. The best bet for catching browns and late running kings is to cast out from Wayne County piers.
The Sodus and Port Bay channels have returning kings and browns.
At the Sodus pier cast out heavy spoons. The best lures are the Kastmasters, Suttons, and Cleos.
Don’t forget your long handle net.
Bays
The largemouth bass are hitting everywhere in Sodus Bay. Use spinnerbaits, top water lures and Senko worm rigs. Some walleye were caught at the northern end of Sodus and pike were eating live minnows near LeRoy Island.
Port Bay has perch, largemouth bass, small crappies, and silver bass. The silver bass gives a great fight on ultra-lite gear.
Fish the eastern side of the 500-acre bay.
Erie Canal
The cats are hitting near Clyde. Widewaters, west of Newark, is always the place to fish for largemouth bass. The County Park recently has a kayak-canoe launch. This is a terrific place to kayak fish.
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:
Wow! What a stretch of weather we are in and forecast to last thru about the end of this week. Its exceptionally warm, mostly bright skies and continued dry. This end of summer and start of fall has turned into something like a moderate drought. A week or so ago I think the NE Lake breezes were counteracting the bluebird weather and so salmon migrations were still good. It could be that about now the warm, dry, and bright weather has caught up with the fishing action and so migrations could be in a bit of a stall right now. Even with that in mind though there are good if not strong numbers of Kings reported like in the Oak. Check out the pic above for the big Kings moving up the Oak Orchard! I laid eyes on the actual flows below the Waterport dam and they are really nice at about a med level. Clear water color as you would expect after no precipitation in weeks.
There doesn’t seem to be an exceptional amount of fishing pressure in any one particular spot. Even at the dam there’s only been days here and there where its been real crowded. That may change as we approach the upcoming holiday weekend but we’ll have to wait and see. For now guys are scoring their hookups like there at the dam and then again farther downstream in the lower flat, frog water with mostly float techniques. In between in the fast water stretches like around the Archer’s Club there’s been less intel but that nice flow I observed is real inviting for good dead drift and swing presentations.
Reminder – all the water, even at the Archer’s Club, is open to fish with access from either the Waterport dam parking or Park Ave Ext. Fishing Trail parking. The weather is forecast to change abruptly with cooler temps and rain or showers starting about Friday. That should perk up the fishing action more like typical fall conditions and with any wind/wave action that should also make for good water color/cover on the nearshore big Lake for more salmon migrations. Some browns and steelhead and Atlantics already reported in the catches so for this early in the season that’s an excellent sign for things yet to come thru Oct, Nov, Dec.
Oswego County
Salmon River, Pulaski NY
• Click Here of the 10 day Forecast
• Click Here for the Current CFS at Pineville
Fishing has been getting better each day. There was a steady flow of fish this week, but we are still waiting for the big push!
The salmon have started to dig beds. As the spawn progresses look for nests. But don’t disturb the hen; if you pick off the males more will fill in. If you take the hen, the whole nest will be left.
Fish are now spread out from top to bottom of the river. But the Pineville to town stretch has been very productive. The mouths of Trout and Orwell Brooks have been holding plenty of fish, since they cannot travel up the creeks. Other good spots are deep shaded pools like the Glass and the Snagging Pool.
The best baits this time of year are flies in egg patterns or comets. Rubber egg imitations and foam eggs are always productive. Another fun way to target salmon is running a side planer/ plug combo. M2 flatfish and K13&14 kwikfish are the baits of choice.
Oswego River, Oswego NY
• Click Here of the 10 day Forecast
• Click Here for the Current CFS
The levels have remained low. But anglers on the high wall have been having success early in the day, mostly on skein.
There has been a large pod of fish on the flats. And anglers in that area have been having success fly fishing and floating skein.
Reports are, with water temps near 70 degrees, many fish have left the dam and dropped back into the harbor. But with this weekend’s forecast, we foresee big changes coming.
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.
Thanks for the update appreciate that