Greater Niagara Region
Frank Campbell
Lake Ontario salmon fishing continues to be very good, but it can fluctuate from day to day depending on wind and what it does to water temperatures and the Niagara River plume that flows into the lake. For the Wilson Harbor Invitational Salmon Tournament last weekend, Capt. Pete Alex of Vision Quest had a strategy of fishing east one day and west the next. Fishing with Kevin McClean of Pittsburgh, Lucas Rupp of Erie, and Eric Kelly of Wilson, they went off the old Somerset plant site in 45 to 55 feet of water and found smaller fish.
They decided to work deeper baits, in 175 to 220 feet of water where some bigger salmon had been coming all week. They switched from a spoon program to a meat program, fishing deeper as they trolled out. They started hitting some bigger fish right away. It was consistent until noon when the wind started kicking up and they finished in third place for the day. The top team on Saturday was Yankee Troller and Capt. Rich Hajecki. Day two the Vision Quest team headed west to the Niagara Bar. Alex knew things had changed to the east and he felt that the west would be best for him. Everyone in the field went east except for Alex and they fished 150 to 240 feet of water north of the Bar with 75% meat and 25% spoons. Most of their good fish came on meat with Dreamweaver Spin Doctors (like Saturday) and Dreamweaver magnum spoons. While their 6-fish tournament box was 5 pounds lighter than the day before, they still managed to score nearly 300 points (based on 10 points per fish and a point per pound for a daily 6-fish tournament limit. Big catch on Sunday was Tom Allen and his A-Tom-Mik team from Pulaski.
Karen Evarts with The Boat Doctors and Tackle Barn in Olcott reiterated that the salmon fishing has been on fire. Most boats are trolling the inside water all the way out to 350 feet. Best baits have been cut bait and spoons. Best colors have been green, black, silver and glow patterns. Flies are working, too, behind a spin doctor. Quite a few fish have been caught off the piers there on spinners and live bait.
Matt Vogt of Newfane hit the lake with friends Tony Harris and Isaiah Clark recently out of Olcott and found decent action 60 to 70 feet down over 100 to 150 feet of water using all Dreamweaver spoons. He found it was difficult to get four rods in the water. Harris managed to catch his first salmon ever on a wire diver.
In the lower Niagara River, Capt. Joe Marra of Niagara Rainbow Charters reported that he is still seeing some Chinook and Coho salmon on the Niagara Bar by running bait and MagLip plugs off three-way rigs. However, with the warming water temperatures, fish are moving deeper. The water is warming up moving out to the red can/drop off area. In the river itself, there are still some browns and steelhead but that could change quickly because the water temperature has gone up 4 degrees in 2 days. Bass and walleye are becoming more available and there are a fair number of silver bass in the system, too.
Alan Raymond with The Wicked Worm in Youngstown reports bass are hitting along the river shoreline. The Lewiston Smelt Festival is Friday night this week at The Griffon along the river from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Get there early.
There is a new bait and tackle shop in Niagara Falls – Fishinn Bait and Tackle located at 642 Hyde Park Boulevard in Niagara Falls. Good luck.
The next big local contest is the Skip Hartman Memorial Pro-Am Salmon Tournament out of Wilson and Olcott June 5 and 6. You must register by May 24th. Call Penny Hartman at 628-2361.
Wayne County Fishing Update
Chris Kenyon
Lake Ontario
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The International Joint Commission currently states Lake Ontario will reach flood stage by May 22. This does not affect our tremendous trout and salmon catches in Lake Ontario, however, use caution motoring to the lake. ijc.org
Mag spoons are the dominate presentation with Dreamwever and Michigan Stingers excellent choices. The Natural Born Killer (NBK) from Michigan is a favorite color.
Flasher flies are also catching trout and salmon. Currently charters are fishing in 80 to 120 fow. The browns and kings are hitting both east and west out of Sodus Bay. The kings have been 10 to 15 lbs. with some smaller cohos in the mix. The Brown trout in the deeper water are also reaching weight in the teens.
Bays
Respect shoreline property while fishing Sodus, East and Port Bays. The high water is near flood stage.
The perch in Sodus and Port Bays are close to the channels and are in 25 fow. Perch eyes at the terminal end of a 2-nich grub with a tail are catching perch.
The Fish and Release season for bass ends June 15th. The regs for keeping bass are 12inches 5 fish.
Erie Canal
The water level is high at Widewaters, however still very safe. Both east and west from Widewaters have perch, bluegills, and some pike. The launch site at Widewaters has a large parking area for trailers, and a special dock for your kayak.
The Erie Canal is now open and will close on October 14th.
There is an excellent DEC site that lists all the boating launch areas in Wayne County: dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/boating/launch-sites/wayne-county
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. On 1298 Route 104 is Ontario Country Max and 625 E Main St. is Palmyra Country Max.
Orleans County
Orleans County Sportfishing Coordinator Ron Bierstine:
Wow, what happened to spring?! And all that cool, wet weather we were experiencing? The area is in the midst of an unseasonable warmup that should last until Tue. Chance of rain or storms later Tue and Wed and then a return to cooler and seasonal temps. Longer range forecast is then calling for the chance at some easterly lake breezes through the upcoming holiday weekend. Look for near shore water temps on the rise for now but we’ll have to wait and see what the temp profile looks like at the mid depth ranges or after any upcoming easterly winds.
Fishing pressure and trolling traffic is mostly light, especially on weekdays. Many trollers and charters still targeting the west basin. For the Charters and rec anglers hanging in here around the Oak and Orleans County waters the action though remains real good. The good numbers of mid sized Kings has not gone away and hefty lakers and browns are filling in the mixed bag catches. The salmon seem hungry and are willing biters on basic rigger or dipsey spreads. Marking bait has been sporadic, but alewives did make a couple day appearance at the rivermouth mostly around the end of last week. Not surprisingly some Kings were caught as shallow as in 15 fow probably shadowing some of that bait in what was still cool water. There could be bait moved back farther offshore or east or west that we are just not hearing about.
Capts. Laura and Ken V. of Rusty Lure Sportfishing have been catching salmon averaging 10 – 15 pounds. “Most everything is working, fishing 60 – 100 fow with a hot spoon bite. Lake trout are mixed in too. We are getting busy with excited clients this weekend.”
Two anglers did just a few hour AM trip on the fishy rec boat Green Hornet and hooked about 10 -12 spunky Kings right out front around the weather buoy. Fishing 4 rods in 70 – 100 fow with riggers from 30 – 50 ft down and wire divers out 80 and 100 ft were all that was needed for the morning action. Spoons, various colors in mag sizes all worked. Surface temp was 54 – 56 F and down 50 ft it was 46 – 47 F. The down speed was 2.5 – 2.8 mph and hits came pretty regular with most fish landed. Just a few rods tripped that didn’t result in fun battles.
So far the action shows great promise for good numbers of Kings this season. We’ll see if the bigger mature fish start to become more regular in what’s so far really just the start of the summer trolling season.
Oswego County
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Fishing has started to slow this week as overall temperatures continue to rise.
Lake Ontario – Oswego County
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With a drop in flows from the Oswego River, salmon have started to spread out. High flows and stained water near the mouth previously kept king salmon concentrated and easy to target, but conditions are now becoming more uniform and the king fishing has slowed.
Brown trout fishing has slowed as well, though it remains decent. The biggest change has been the substantial warming of the shallow water, causing browns to spread out and slide slightly deeper.
Focus on 25–60 feet of water and fish a bit deeper as the day progresses. Early in the morning, fish can still be caught on flat lines and one-color lead cores, but once the sun gets higher, adjust your presentations deeper.
Divers and longer lead cores have been the most effective setups, especially 3–7 color lead cores. Short copper setups are also producing fish. As trout move into deeper, clearer water, natural-colored patterns have become more effective.
Lake Ontario – Mexico
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There is still a small patch of stained water in the corner of the bay holding a few brown trout for anglers looking to target them.
Salmon have started moving back out of the bay, so anglers targeting kings should expect to work hard for a limited number of bites.
The best action right now is lake trout fishing in 130–160 feet of water. Start in front of the Salmon River and head north.
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