Greater Niagara Region
Bill Hilts, Jr.
It’s November 30 and there are quite a few noteworthy occurrences that take place. For example, muskellunge season closes today with one exception – the lower Niagara River and Lake Ontario. The upper Niagara River produced a few nice late-season fish like the 50 inch trophy reeled in by Rebecca Gaulteri of Hamilton, Ontario. She was fishing with Capt. Chris Cinelli of Grand Island over the weekend and managed to catch a fish of a lifetime. Joining her was her husband, Francesco and her dad Chris Mills (who also caught a 45-inch fish the same morning). John Anthone of Sanborn hit a 30-plus pound 49 incher on Nov. 29, also fishing with Capt. Chris Cinelli. Below Niagara Falls, water was stained but still fishable after the most recent storm. The lower river had been hot the past week as waters cleared and trout fishing took off. Lisa Drabczyk at Creek Road Bait and Tackle in Lewiston reported that beads, egg sacs and Kwikfish/MagLips lures fished off three-way rigs from boats has been good to very good for a mixed bag of trout. Just ask 87-year-old George Gregory of Lewiston who was fishing with his son Kurt and Capt. Joe Marra of Lewiston. They caught double-digit trout over the long weekend using primarily egg sacs, catching steelhead up to 13 pounds and some nice browns. What had them talking, though, was a lake trout that both father and son caught at the same time. Remember that lake trout season is closed on the NY side until Dec. 31. However, on the Canadian side of the river, the lake trout season opens on Dec. 1. Shore fishermen are still doing well with the good conditions, especially off the NYPA fishing platform. However the platform closes as dusk on Nov. 30. Nancy Colavecchia of Niagara Falls caught her first-ever steelhead with a green egg sac while fishing off the platform. She was fishing with Mike Rzucidlo of Niagara Falls who caught nearly double-digit steelies on egg sacs and 4 walleyes on jigs. Drabczyk also reported that spinners and beads are also working in chartreuse, orange and pink colorations. The Niagara Musky Association will be hosting the John Henning Memorial Lower River Musky Tournament, a catch-and-release event that will be held Dec. 2 from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. You must be a member of NMA. Contact Scott McKee at 225-3816.
Fishing has been a bit slow in some of the Lake Ontario tributaries for steelhead and browns. Karen Evarts at The Boat Doctor in Olcott says that there are fish (mostly browns) around, but not much pressure from anglers. Hot baits in the tributaries have been spikes, egg sacs and beads. Gianni Etopio of Youngstown has been using his own hand-tied marabou jigs to take a mix of salmon, steelhead and browns.
Dec. 1 starts up the catch and release season for bass fishing. The only exception is for Lake Erie were anglers can keep one fish if they so desire, but the minimum size is 20 inches in length. Consult the DEC regulations at www.dec.ny.gov.
Oswego County
Mary Ellen Barbeau of the Oswego County Department of Community Development, Tourism and Planning.
Oswego River Report
According to Oz Angling Bait & Tackle:
After a few days of rain, which also melted most of the snow in the Oswego River drainage basin, it’s no surprise that the river shot up again. This morning it is flowing at 20,600cfs. When the turbidity starts to drop then I’d recommend fishing on the lower east side of the river behind the hotels. This is one of the best high water spots between December and April when the river is typically on the high side. Last winter we saw a large population of walleyes in this section of the river, however, the browns that usually hold there were very limited. With a resurgence in browns throughout the Oswego River this fall, we can expect to catch more browns in the lower river this winter and spring. Look for the turbidity to drop below 10 NFU for the trout bite to pick back up, and if you are going to fish in the dirty water, go with a big, bright, and loud presentation.
Notice: The bridge to Leto Island is closed, and there are mandatory personal flotation device (PFD) zones on the river. For more information, visit our website at visitoswegocounty.com and click on the Fishing Report along the top bar on the home page. The Oswego Fire Department offers loaner life jackets at no charge through its “Loaner for Life” program. For more information contact the fire station, 35 E. Cayuga St., at 315-343-2161.
Salmon River Report:
According to Whitaker’s Sport Shop & Motel:
On Wednesday we had heavy wet lake effect snow showers for most of the day but picked up only a few inches of accumulation. No question the water is high, but anglers are fishing both from drift boats and along the banks. The fish have been holding along the softer edges and inside seams. Yesterday the few anglers we spoke with were able to get into some fish in the upper and lower end of the river. Anglers reported that the visibility was fine and had improved from the previous day. Anglers who were fly fishing had the most success dead drifting with single egg patterns or nymphs. Anglers who were bottom bouncing or float fishing had the most success with pink and blue egg sacs.
According to the Douglaston Salmon Run:
Anglers today picked away at a few steelhead, no one had a banner day, but most anglers were able to bring a fish or two to hand. There were reports of heavy leaves in the water at sunup, but they had cleared out by midday. The water temperature at 9am was 35F. We picked up a slushy inch or two of snow in the afternoon but no major accumulation was expected overnight. Flows have increased to 1,200cfs through midnight Friday.
Oneida Lake report:
The shore night bite is still producing a few walleye with stickbaits.
Sandy Pond report:
There has been no activity reported from the pond. There likely won’t be much until the beginning of the ice fishing season.
Wayne County Fishing Update
Chris Kenyon
Streams
Some anglers from Massachusetts were fly fishing area streams two day’s ago and caught some late season browns and a few salmon. They make the trip every year to catch trout and salmon in Maxwell Creek. They said they tie their own flies.
You can also catch some browns by throwing out egg sacs and small spoons. The flow in area streams is borderline flooding. When it rains it pores…is the weather pattern in Wayne County. All the streams are flowing, something we begged for a month ago.
Bays
Starting November 1s you need to be wearing a PFD while in your boat. You need to wear it…not just have it on your boat.
No ice and the constant wind has kept anglers off the bays. The perch are in Sodus and Port Bays so if it calms down you can launch and catch them.
They are in 20 feet of water off the points in Port Bay. You can launch at the north end off West Port Bay Road, however that is a seasonal dirt road. If it snows you shouldn’t try that ramp. The south ramp is also on a seasonal DEC access road. If there is limited snow you can launch at both sites.
The bays in Wayne County have cold water, so it won’t take long to form ice. Our problem in Wayne County is that the bays are not protected from the wind, which slows the ice forming.
When it has safe ice, Sodus Bay is the place to fish. Last year’s catch rate for perch was phenomenal, and the fall anglers were catching 10 to 12-inch fish. All that is needed is some consistent cold temperatures.
Check out the rest of the Wayne County Tourism web page for the locations and hours of local bait and tackle shops.
Erie Canal
There is no one fishing the canal waters.
Orleans County
Orleans County Tourism and Bierstine of Oak Orchard Tackle and Lodge
Thanks to rain yesterday/last night AND a return to above freezing temps AND a little bit of snow melt AND no more thirsty vegetation AND groundwater now reasonably recharged after the droughty summer/early fall – all the tributary flows are on the rise and off color. Flows in the Oak are slightly high consisting of turbine water with about 2 plus ft of visibility. Water color may get dirtier over the next day or two, but should stay short of getting muddy. Flows are pretty similar to the earlier fall flows we had during Erie Canal supplemental water feed. The other area smaller tributaries have slightly high and dirty flows with one ft or less of visibility. Any earlier icing conditions should be clear now with a forecast through at least this week and weekend showing no real good prospect of those icy conditions returning in the short term.
Smaller tributaries should be cresting about today and then slowly clearing and on the retreat. Flows in the Oak are likely to stay up as they are now through the week, give or take, depending upon hydro power operations or anymore precipitation. It’s a real nice, later fall fishing, good flow window to redistribute browns and draw in late fish and/or some more steelhead. Some of the zombie salmon should be flushed out too. No major lake effect snow (LES) forecast here, some wet snow with little to no accumulation expected today changing over to better chance at a few inches of accumulations Tuesday and Wednesday. Heavier accumulations are expected south of here. Fishing pressure has measurably decreased for the beginning part of this week thanks to the calendar and likely PA and OH big game season openers. Anglers should look for a mix of spawning and post spawn browns and some steelhead.
