Greater Niagara Region
Frank Campbell
The Lake Ontario Counties Spring Derby is now history and it was an exciting finish. George Prentice of Smicksburg, Pennsylvania was fishing with three others in Olcott on the final derby morning when a rod went off. 15 minutes later, they netted the king salmon. It was BIG! It was 11:30 a.m. and the derby ended at 1 p.m. They needed to get it to the Boat Doctors in Olcott quickly! They weighed it just after noon – a 25-pound salmon that took over the lead in the spring derby with less than an hour to spare. It won a check for $15,000. Once again, 19 of the top 21 salmon came from Niagara County. Top brown trout was a 19-pound, 5-ounce fish caught by Jeff Wawrzasrek of Rochester. Two of the top four lakers came from Niagara waters. Big lake trout was a 27-pound, 5-ounce fish reeled in by Salvatore Cappuccetti of Theresa while fishing the Henderson harbor area – narrowly beating out Ed Klejdys’s 24-pound, 4-ounce Niagara Bar laker. Ten of the top 20 lake trout came from Niagara ports. The winning walleye also came on the final day when Michael Stange of Ahtol, Massachusetts caught a 10-pound, 5-ounce Oswego River fish. Check out the LOC Derby page for a final leaderboard.
Collecting intel on the fishing for the next week or two is difficult with all of the fishing contests coming up the next three to four weeks.The Wilson Harbor Invitational Salmon Tournament is this weekend and the Skip Hartman Memorial Pro-Am Salmon Team Tournament is May 31 to June 1 out of Wilson and Olcott. The spring action seems to be slowly transitioning into a summer program. Fish have scattered according to Capt. Joe Oakes of Salmonboy Charters. There are pockets of fish scattered both east and west of Wilson between 120 and 350 feet of water. It has mostly been a spoon program, 30 to 85 down below the surface.
There are still a few trout hanging around in the lower Niagara River but it won’t be long before they are gone with the warming water temperatures. Both steelhead and lake trout were caught the past week in Devil’s Hole according to Capt. Frank Campbell of Lewiston. They can be found throughout the system to Lake Ontario as they migrate back to the lake. The one-two punch of emerald shiners and MagLips has worked best for trout. To target trout, you must be willing to move and seek out active fish in drifts. What might work one day may not work the next. Bass and walleye have been more cooperative of late, says Campbell. For bass, use Ned rigs, jerkbaits, and swimbaits. You must use artificial lures when targeting bass during the catch and release season. For walleyes, blade baits and minnows have been working the best. On the Niagara Bar, there is a mix bag available including king salmon, Coho salmon, brown trout, and lake trout. Overall numbers are scattered now due to some east wind events, but when the bait returns, so will the fish. Mike Rzucidlo of Niagara Falls hit the Artpark area from shore on Sunday and managed to hook four different species of fish using an ultralight fly rod with 4-pound test line while tossing small jigs. He caught smallmouth bass, steelhead, lake trout, and sheepshead.
Matt Wilson of Lewiston hit the lower river Sunday and used his Garmin Fish Eye 3D to identify fish-holding areas. Jerkbaits and blade baits worked best. He had Shane Stark on the boat with C-Head jigs and blades. He caught four fish between 5 and 6 pounds in the river on one drift and many more below the 5-pound mark. They caught all of these fish inside the river and at the end of the day they went in front of the fort and found many more bass with brown trout mixed in. Bait of the day was a Flicker Shad in black and silver and 3-inch Keitech perch pattern swimbait.
Wayne County Fishing Update
Chris Kenyon
Lake Ontario
The LOC Spring awards were held Sunday at Riley’s Pub and Grill. Although most kings from the derby were caught in the Niagara area, that’s just what usually occurs during the spring.
Kings are in Wayne County, and it has been the best fishing in years. The bite has been around 200 to 300 fow down 35 to 60 feet. Spoons have dominated the best bite; however, flasher flies have also brought the kings to the net.
The weight of the fish have been between lows of 10 pounds and highs of 20 pounds. Straight out from Sodus and to the west towards Hughes’ Marina has produce the most hits.
Bays
The rock bass have been hitting in Sodus Bay. The tasty fish give a nice fight on Ultra-lite gear.
The perch in Port and Sodus Bays have been scattered, however you can catch some hefty ones if you move around. They are still hitting chartreuse and white grubs 2-inches in length.
Some pike have been caught trolling the shallow water out from Skipper’s Restaurant. Also, the east side of LeRoy Island. The pike like to hang out in the 4 to 6 fow range.
The bullhead bite is now over for this season.
Limits for northern pike are 5 fish 18 inch minimum.
Limits for walleye are 5 fish 15 inch minimum.
Launch sites for Sodus: Next to the Coast Guard Station (till Memorial Day) and Bay Bridge Sport Shop. Check out the Margaretta site to see if you can launch there. It’s on your right on Route 14 just past Martin’s Marina.
Launch sites for Port Bay: Barrier bar road at the north end of West Port Bay Road and the south end DEC site.
Erie Canal
Canal- Fishing from the shore under the Port Gibson bridge has produced crappies.
Kayak anglers love the calm waters of Widewaters. They launch at the Wayne County Park and paddle both east and west between the locks.
The bass season starts June 15th if you wish to keep your catch. Make sure the fish are 12 inches and the limit is five fish.
The official opening of the canal is May 17. 2024.
Anyone underway in a boat less than 21 feet in length anytime between November 1 and May 1 must wear a securely fastened life jacket.
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:
Don’t let any post LOC Derby doldrums set in! There’s plenty of big Kings out there evidenced by the spring LOC Derby results. The top fish were all 20 something pounds including the grand prize – 25 pounder. Those are good salmon by spring standards and other Kings of that weight still swimming have a real good chance of becoming 30 + pounders by end of summer and fall. Lakers were likewise well represented too with a heavy leaderboard. Browns on the leaderboard were light but that probably reflects fish over 10 pounds were tough to come by. Up and comer fish less then 10 pounds are surely numerous and those younger year classes are coming up through the pipeline for future big fish. Fall tributary runs of browns so far point to strong numbers. For all you tourney anglers, next in line is the Wilson Harbor Invitational this weekend.
Meanwhile there continues to be good and unharried action here in the Oak waters off Point Breeze. Lots of wide open Lake Ontario waters to roam for civilian rec boats and the home port based charters before the westward migration of captains returns likely after the Wilson tourneys!
At the end of last week, a few days of east winds made for tougher action. Now though, winds have lately been prevailing westerly with some rain showers off and on. Ahead there is the chance for NE winds again but the forecast is not calling for anything like days on end. Watch for storms and check marine forecasts as precipitation remains in the forecast for nearly every day ahead.
Seems like many trollers are in a searching mode, trying different depths and areas while the Lake is trying to transition to the warmer season patterns, likely a little earlier then traditional June timing. One rec boat recently had Kings and Lakers and a few browns east of Point Breeze in 65 – 90 fow on downriggers 45 and 55 down with a spoon program. Another out of state charter had Kings to almost 20 pounds off Green Harbor in 120 fow.
Capt. Jeremy Sage of JD’s Custom Charters fished 5-6 miles west of the Oak in 80-130 fow. “We had depths from 5-90 ft down throughout the day with a few MVP setups. 2 face 8 inch echip with an Atommik stud fly behind it and a black jeans Salmon candy mag off a 65 rigger. We landed 12 and dropped easily that many. Lost a couple potential LOC fish but that’s fishing! Our catch was made up of 1 Atlantic, 1 coho, 1 laker, 9 kings – biggest landed being 18 lbs! It was a grind but great day overall and persistence paid off.”
Oswego County
Spring fishing in Oswego County remains hot! There are still plenty of salmon and the browns are getting bigger by the week.
‘Fish Girl’ Lands Massive Lake Ontario Brown Trout
Elaine Supp, a charter captain from Pulaski who goes by the social media handle Fish Girl Outdoors, recently landed the biggest—and prettiest—Lake Ontario trout she’d ever seen, in the most unorthodox way possible.
Supp and her first mate, Chase, a golden retriever, motored out from Mexico into deep water on Sunday evening, looking for salmon, but soon turned back toward port to troll for walleye instead. She pulled her rods and reset for walleye, using medium-light flat lines and stick baits in 25-30 FOW.
With about an hour of daylight remaining, one of the rods started bobbing. Supp grabbed it and the drag screamed as if she’d hooked a salmon. But at this depth? On a flicker minnow? A salmon didn’t make sense.
Whatever it was, it didn’t budge when she tried reeling it up. If it was a walleye, it was going to be a record, but first she had to land it. When the fish started running again, Supp didn’t dare tighten the drag. The light tackle was already at its limit….
Read the Full Article on Syracuse.com (By Steve Featherstone)
Lake Ontario – Oswego
Click Here of the 10 day Forecast
Browns can be found from 15-40.’ Overall, we recommend looking a little deeper than where they were the last few weeks.
Downriggers set 10 to 35,’ 2-6 color leadcores and slide divers at 30-60.’
Spoons: “2 Face,” “Rosemary Baby,” UV Black Widow,” “Geezer,” “SSW.”
When targeting salmon 160-300’ has been best. 2-4 miles east and west of the lighthouse has been our “go-to.”
- Downriggers set 30-80’ down
- 5-10 color leadcores
- 200-300’ coppers
- Divers from 40-180’
Lake Ontario – Mexico
Click Here of the 10 day Forecast
If you’re looking for brown trout action your best bet is to head north of the Salmon River. We recommend putting out a spread of lines from the surface down to 235’ down, fishing 15-45’ of water. The creek mouths are providing the only colored water lately.
The salmon anglers are heading out to 130’ and fishing as far offshore to 300.’ But the best action has been in 150-200,’ especially east to west of 9-Mile-Point. Along with Kings there have been lake trout and browns mixed in.
Free Oswego Fishing Guide
The updated Oswego County Fishing and Hunting Guide is now available online and in print. The guide features a new cover and an expanded listing of fishing guides and charters.
The 67-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.