Greater Niagara Region
Frank Campbell
It was a busy couple of days on the lower Niagara River for both walleye and bass. On Friday, it was the Reel Impact Tournament, a local fundraiser for Catching Dreams Charters – a local charity focused on taking kids fishing that have been impacted by cancer. Once again, Capt. Ned Librock of Pendleton and his merry band of volunteers put together another great event involving 13 competing boats. The WTS team comprised of Gary Hall Sr. of Niagara Falls, Gary J. Hall of Lewiston, Santino Hall of Lewiston, Declan Keller of Winter Springs, Florida, and Ashton Keller of Winter Springs, Florida competed in the annual tourney and had a banner day of smallmouth bass fishing, landing 28 fish in 4 hours. The well-known Coast Guard drift produced fish up to 5 pounds on 3-way swivels with crayfish as the bait of choice. As is often the case on the lower river, the drift was “hot” for a day or two and by the end of the weekend the fish had scattered. They caught the most fish of any one boat, winning the Sparky McGranahan Award. Shaylee Klaes of North Tonawanda reeled in the big fish for the event, named after Jed Woomer, a 28-inch walleye. She also caught the most unique fish (and smallest) fish, a 1-inch goby. She was fishing with Capt. Connor Cinelli of Grand Island, who was sponsored by Northtown Automotive.
In the inaugural Fishing For a Better Tomorrow Walleye Tournament supporting the SPCA on Saturday, Michael Maholic of Bradford, Pa. took top honors with a two-fish weight of 15.9 pounds. Included in his catch was the big fish of the tournament, an 11.4-pound walleye. He won a check for $1,500. Second place went to John Hottot of the Town of Niagara with 15.1 pounds of walleye for two fish. His prize was a check for $1,000. Hottot was fishing with his wife Lani and his friend Keith Matthews of the Town of Niagara. They were working the clay banks with Lani’s homemade harnesses she calls “Lani Lures,” outfitted with silver hammered blades. Third place went to John Pinkham of Olcott with two fish weighing 13.3 pounds, winning $500 in the process. There were 28 boats competing in the contest.
Out in Lake Ontario, John Van Hoff of North Tonawanda headed offshore over the weekend with his daughter Madison and fiancé Jordan Holmes of North Tonawanda. They worked the 26 Line on the GPS around the 450-foot mark with a spoon program 50 to 65 feet down. They used riggers and divers back 175 clicks on a No. 2.5 setting to take a mix of steelhead, king salmon and Coho salmon.
Capt. Mike Johannes of On the Rocks Charters in Wilson fished this week from 400 to 500 feet of water. There was a good mix of salmon and big steelhead out there. His best baits were black and green but spoons such as the Moonshine burnt bread, shadow, seasick waddler, and carbon 14 were hot. Also, the DW rambler with a white back took several fish. His riggers were from 42 down to 90 feet down with sliders working, too. His divers were 50 to 60-foot down and catching fish.
Over in Olcott, Karen Evarts of The Boat Doctors and Tackle Barn reports there was a bit of a lake rollover, forcing many anglers to head offshore for a mixed bag of salmon and trout for the best action. Target deep water close to the International border. Some anglers are picking up some salmon in 120 to 200 feet of water in front. Meat is the rage for salmon, spoons for trout. Frog colorations and anything bright seems to be working. The next big derby is the Fall LOC Derby August 15 through Sept. 1. August 15 is also the Ladies-only Reelin’ for a Cure tournament out of Wilson and Olcott. The 50th Anniversary of the Greater Niagara Fish Odyssey Derby is August 16-24. Sign up on the Fishing Chaos App on your Smartphone.
Wayne County Fishing Update
Chris Kenyon
Lake Ontario
The August bite has been in 150 to 200 fow down 50 to 80 fow.
Purple Michigan Stinger spoons, meat rigs, and flasher flies have been the favorite. They are all working off the dipseys and riggers.
Try to be on the water early!!
Make sure you sign up for the LOC Autumn Derby. The Grand Prize winner will receive $20,000 cash. That is an enormous amount of money!!
2025 DERBY DATES
• Fall Aug 15th Sept 1st.
• Register now to win your share of the $147,150 guaranteed cash in the 2025 loc derbies!!
Bays
Sodus Bay is a bass fishing paradise. The largemouth are hitting at weedbeds, between the islands and along the shoreline. Fish early to beat recreational boat waves.
There are still bluegills at the north end. The perch that leave the bay and enter shallow water of the lake have been moving around, searching for bait.
They will be back in the bays for some excellent ice fishing. (hoping for safe ice already)
Port Bay bluegill action has slowed, however that bay also has some heavy largemouths.
Sodus Bay boats can be launched at the Margaretta launch on the west side of the bay or Bay Bridge Sport Shop at the south end.
Port Bay has the south and north DEC launch sites from West Port Bay Road. Both 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
The canal is the place for bass anglers. The launch site at Widewaters Park is excellent with lots of space for the trailers.
The largemouths are being caught everywhere on the canal. Fish the weedbeds with Senko rigs.
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:
Summer and warm weather remain upon us, with a refreshing break in the humidity levels. The forecast for this week is for temperatures to continue warming, accompanied by some increased humidity levels. There’s no significant rain or storms forecast, except for a slight chance of rain showers over the Niagara Frontier around mid-week. The summer has been relatively dry, and Lake levels are beginning to show a quicker drop toward the seasonal fall low. Anglers are out and about with good to moderate levels of trolling and rec traffic out of Point Breeze.
A couple of days of E winds at the end of last week had most guys back searching offshore. They were generally successful for the past weekend – still into mixed bag chances of Kings, cohos and steelhead. The cohos are getting bigger, with a handful of catches reportedly around the 20-pound mark. Then there are the guys still working the sometimes cold inside water, finding some browns and Atlantics to round out the mixed bag chances. The inside water looks to be setting back up again, and there are only light E or SE winds in the near-term forecast.
Some hawg salmon are being landed by both charters and rec anglers! Check out both big fish above for what the potential is to be hooked up for anglers fishing out of the Oak. Capt. Bob S. from Sunrise II charters says, “I’ve been fishing the mid water around the 25 – 27 lines or 200 – 450 fow and working NW and SE. Mainly spoons for me, a black magic being the best 40 to 85 ft down. Earlier it was a combo of spoons and flashers 55 – 100 ft down with a 200 mag diver with a green bam.”
One rec boat did a half-day excursion with nice rainbow and coho action for the early morning, all on spoons. Then later in the morning, they got into some teenage Kings that fought real hard, with bigger, lazy, matures hooked on meat off the riggers. They were over 350 fow on a NW troll set up 75 ft down. Coming back in later, they found good-looking temps around 175 fow. Mark and Teresa are a team who say, “We love fishing the Oak!”
Oswego County
Don’t miss Spey Nation! On the lake, salmon fishing has been inconsistent lately, but big fish are still possible!
Spey Nation 2025
August 8-10, on the banks of the Salmon River
Spey Nation 2025 is quickly approaching! The Spey Nation event presented by Swing The Fly will again take place on the banks of the Salmon River, August 8th through the 10th, 2025.
As in past years, the main event occurs on Saturday, August 9th, starting around 8:30am at the Pineville Boat Launch in Pineville, NY. The Saturday event is open to-the-public (AND FREE) includes a variety of spey-related presentations throughout the morning and into the mid afternoon with topics curated to provide a full range of ideas and concepts.
Lake Ontario – Oswego County
Click Here of the 10 day Forecast
Salmon have been caught in depths ranging from 80 to over 600 feet, with the most consistent bite coming in 500 to 700 feet of water, 50 to 90 feet down. Flashers paired with meat rigs have been the most productive setup recently, though mag spoons are also accounting for a fair number of catches.
Lake Ontario – Mexico
Click Here of the 10 day Forecast
Anglers are running northwest until they reach about 110 feet of water, then trolling deeper. Once fish are located, north–south troll patterns in that depth have produced the best results. Mag glow spoons and flashers pulling meat have been especially effective. Some anglers are also targeting brown trout near the plant in 45 to 70 feet of water. For a more predictable bite, heading north and trolling for lake trout remains a solid option.