Finger Lakes and Western New York Fishing Report
Nick Petrou of Natural Outfitters Guide Service
It’s been an interesting week of fishing here Natural Outfitters Guide Service. The bite seems to be all over the place from lake to lake with fish in many different phases.
On the bass front, most largemouth and smallmouth have moved into their summer patterns, but the post spawn curse is still lingering. Many of our finger lakes bass are in one of three places, offshore roaming on baitfish, buried in the shallow weeds, or up shallow under docks. The best techniques for largemouth have been skipping wacky rigged senkos under docks and flipping texas rigged creature baits or jigs into the inside weed edges. Smallmouth action has been best using a dropshot or small swimbait on the outside edge of the vegetation out to 30 feet of water. Both species can be caught on topwaters and moving baits in the low light periods or at night.
Lake trout fishing on a few of the finger lakes remains hot and heavy. With numbers of fish and size getting better as the summer goes on. Fish seem to be sitting in the 50-90 foot range scattered around bait balls. Vertical jigging swimbaits on heavy jigheads or blade baits has resulted in the best bite. Be prepared to tangle with some larger fish into the 12-15lb class and lakers in the 6-10lb range have been common.
Panfish action has remained steady, with most of the bluegills and perch coming off the outside edges of the weeds out to about 25 feet. Most of the fish have been on the smaller side, but there have been some perched mixed in that are pushing 12 inches.
I just got back from a two day trip up on the St. Lawrence River with clients that were looking to break their personal best smallmouth. Fish on the river and in the lake are in full post spawn mode with some fish still on nests guarding fry. We targeted fish sight casting on shallow flats with marabou jigs and Great Lakes Finesse underspins paired with a small swimbait. When the fish wanted to bite, they did, but most fish we cast at ignored our offerings. The deeper fish saved the trip. Out in 25-50 feet of water in the main river channel we dragged ned rigs and dropshots and put together a great catch of smallmouth up to 5 pounds and some bonus walleye.
Greater Niagara Region
Frank Campbell
You must be in it to win it! That’s the advice for anyone fishing Lake Ontario for trout and salmon. Get in the LOC Derby! Two category-leading fish were caught this week (brown trout and steelhead) – a 17-pound brown out of Olcott and a 13-pound steelhead out of Wilson. Those anglers were not in the contest. Here are the new leaders reeled in this week. For Grand Prize, Lucas Lukowski of Auburn reeled in a 27-pound, 14-ounce king salmon to take over the lead for the $15,000 Grand Prize. Doug Angold of Rochester weighed in a new brown trout leader at 16 pounds, 4 ounces while fishing out of the Oak. A new steelhead leader came out of Olcott this week when Capt. Anthony Ellis of Redemption Charters weighed in a 12-pound, 10-ounce fish at the Boat Doctors.
Fishing has been amazing for a mix of salmon and trout, reports Karen Evarts at The Boat Doctors and Tackle Barn in Olcott. For king salmon, it has been a good meat bite in the mid-water and offshore. Fish can be found from 180 to 500 feet of water. Lime and brighter green colors are working best. Speed has been around 2.5 mph at the ball with most of the fish coming from 50 to 60 feet down.
Capt. Mike Johannes of On the Rocks Sportfishing decided to give the steelhead a try offshore and started fishing off Wilson at the 28 line. He fished to the 30 line and found that a northwest troll was working best. His 200 and 250 copper lines were working with super slim pink panties and 28-size creamsicle spoons. The 45 and 50-foot riggers were also catching fish (including Coho salmon) on those spoons. His biggest steelhead was over 13 pounds, but his customers were not in the derby. Spiny sea fleas were thick out there. Johannes says to use 30-pound test line or flea flicker line to limit your problems.
Capt. Dave Scipione of Lewiston hit the drop off on the Niagara Bar and he found some browns in 80 to 90 feet of water. His biggest was a 10-pound brown taken on a Rodfather Warrior spoon. Other spoon patterns that worked were green jeans and green alewife from DW and Warrior. The kings they caught were under 10 pounds.
Moss is still an issue in the river system, but it appears that there could be some relief in sight reports Capt. Joe Marra of Niagara Rainbow Charters. He fished for bass this week and tried to work around the moss whenever possible. The best fishing occurs before 9 a.m. when water levels come up. Crabs and minnows worked well on drop shot rigs, as well as off 3-way rigs. Capt. Dave Scipione of Lewiston also had to deal with moss. If you can get your presentation down clean, the fish will pick it up quickly. He limited on walleyes each day last week using gold-bladed, pink-beaded worm harnesses fished on a 3-way rig.
Alan Raymond with The Wicked Worm in Youngstown reports that moss was letting up. Smallmouth bass can be found throughout the system. LOC derby guys were able to pull out a 13-pound brown trout from about 60 feet of water out the mouth of the river. He also noted that local bass ponds are picking up big time for largemouth.
Wayne County Fishing Update
Chris Kenyon
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario-The Sodus Pro-Am is this week, so most of the anglers fishing are “tight mouth.” I could take my binocs to the shore and scope out the boats. Even if I identify a few, do you think they would talk to me?
The kings are back and were hitting in 150 to 200 fow. Use dipsy divers and downriggers. Michigan Stinger spoons…green and silver are working.
You can also find some action shallower in 100 to120 fow. Troll speed of 2.5 as been working.
The Sodus Pro-Am is scheduled for July 19-20 with Captain Jack’s Big Fish Friday July 18th.
2025 LOC DERBY DATES
• Summer June 28th July 27th
• Fall Aug 15th Sept 1st.
• Register now to win your share of the $147,150 guaranteed cash in the 2025 loc derbies!!
Bays
The bass fishing in Sodus Bay has been excellent. Fish the weedbeds on the south end of the bay. You should also work between the islands in the north section.
The usual rigs are Senko, spinnerbaits, top water, or swim lures.
Fish early as Sodus Bay will have heavy boat traffic later in the day.
The perch that were in Port Bay have entered the lake. This happens every year. You can find them in 8 to 10 fow east of the bay.
In the bay the bluegills are hitting next to the channel. Use small bright jigs tipped with some spikes.
Both the south and north DEC launch sites from West Port Bay Road are in great shape for boats with enough parking for the trailers.
New York, the open season (harvest) for largemouth and smallmouth bass, collectively known as black bass, runs from June 15 to November 30, with a catch-and-release season from December 1 to June 14.
Sodus Bay will be the place to be when the bass season opens.
Erie Canal
Kayak angling has become extremely popular in the canal. You can launch your craft at the kayak site at Widewaters.
Canal fishing is a quiet adventure with little wind and smaller boat waves.
Widewaters, which is between the locks, has the best bass fishing in the county. It is also a great place for panfish anglers.
Conditions permitting, all portions of the New York State Canal system are now open. This is the 201st consecutive year of travel along New York’s Canals and the 200th anniversary of the original Erie Canal’s completion on October 26, 1825.
There are no tolls or fees for recreational use of the Canal system this year.
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:
The summer trolling season is in high gear now on the Lake Ontario Orleans County waters! Only a sea bag can help slow it down! Plenty is going on – like the summer LOC Derby with robust leader boards all around, the second leg of the KOTO, charters, and rec anglers all bending rods. Hook-ups include more and bigger Kings, good numbers of Atlantic’s, brown trout, and plump-looking steelhead. Congrats to Dave Wolinski of Team Richmond VI for the KOTO second leg victory. They’ve been leading from the wire, but the tourney is close and there’s still time for more competition.
The summer hot weather is hanging in fairly consistently. Calm winds lately or meager lake breezes are the norm. Mostly dry weather with storms and rain over the past week passing north or south of the area and blowing up once past the Niagara Frontier going east. The forecast is for continued hot weather through mid-week and a chance of thunderstorms with a slight seasonal cool down ahead for the weekend.
Hard to pick one best pattern yet, trollers are working in different zones. But the productivity has definitely improved. Capt. Lou B. of Get the Net Charters says, “Fish are still scattered, but fishing has improved. We are finding the best water just west of Bald Eagle Creek at 150 – 250 fow. Spoons are best for Kings and steelhead with a few cut-bait bites. Bites are higher early on and then deeper at 60 – 80 ft down later in the morning.”
Tim M. from PA aboard the Yankee Troller on Crazy Yankee Sportfishing brought in the big King good enough for 5th place in the summer LOC. It fought so hard that they had to slow the boat down to fight it into the net. It hit off a diver out 150’ rigged with cut bait. Capt. Rick H. said, “We were on the 26N line trolling east. The thermocline was down 45- 50 ft. The bait was a Kryptonite E-chip pulling a homemade meat rig running in 48°F water.”
The Rigger Mortis boat got a good King and the 18th place steelhead for the summer LOC. They were catching them on UV Michigan Stingers at or just below the break in 56 – 58 F water, which was about 54 ft down this past weekend.
Other serious rec anglers like a family team from PA, as of today, got some big Kings over 20 lbs and 4 brown trout. A local tin boat troller also of today on a short AM troll before work got 3 species (King, coho, steelhead) all in close, where he found the best cool water.
Oak Orchard river mouth dredging efforts are just about wrapped up. We expect the heavy equipment barges and tugs to be departing soon. With more and more boating traffic out there, including anglers and pleasure boaters, let’s all use courtesy and respect while we give appropriate rights of travel so all can enjoy time on the water!