The Columbus Day weekend is behind us and what a time it was. Perfect weather! Clear cool in the AM sunny warm in the PM.
I have to say the numbers of people in the upper river rivaled any days from the snagging era. It was incredible to say the least. Guess most of Oswego County still remains recession proof thanks to the tremendous fishery that we have. Gas is dropping, shops and guides are busy, restaurants and bars have been packed. All is right in fish city for now.
Speaking of that, huge budget cuts are coming for the DEC and our outdoors sports programs. Can you believe they want to cut funding to programs that make money? Why not cut programs that cost money. Look for a more in depth view of this in the Show issue of Lake Ontario Outdoors that will be out in December.
Back to fishing. Depending on who you talked to, fishing is tremendous to terrible. Much of this depends on the anglers ability but more importantly location. There are not fish everewhere. You have to look around. Standing on a stump and looking for a fish to swim by you for five hours, will probably not go to far towards fulfilling your expectations or your cooler. Just fish! Look for deep fast moving water, down size your baits and line and just fish!
I spent the last four days in the lower river and we did well avoiding major crowds. We had less fish but less people. We had less salmon but more trout.
We fished single eggs, small pink estaz flies and blue & white egg sacs. Sorry I didn't get more photo's as I know you guys like seeing your mugs on the site.
Water is down to 335 and this will make things more difficult as the week progresses. Stay tuned for more.
Here are my open dates for the remainder of 2008.
October 29, 30.
November 26, 30.
December 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 30, 31
Oak Orchard Report from Ron Bierstine at Orleans Outdoors www.orleansoutdoors.com
Oct now, and it definitely feels like trout and salmon time... Most all anglers enjoying good fishing for salmon, fishing pressure pretty heavy thanks to pleasant warm weather so far thru this holiday weekend. Crowds are thinning some now with the close of the long weekend. Still some cool nights with salmon migrations underway and fish pretty well spread thru the whole of the river. Warm days forecast thru this weekend may stall some of the upstream salmon movement from lower river sections, but the nights remain cool, so overall the fishing should remain pretty good with trib water temps staying cool. Anglers reported lots of migrating fish Sat and there are still fish staging a while downstream like in the Bridges area. There are good concentrations in the fast water gravel stretches and each day there are a few more reports of browns or steelhead being caught. Some trout hook-ups are incidental for salmon fishermen, although the careful drifter targeting trout can expect some opportunities in a days effort. Getting thru the skads of salmon is the hard part.
Niagara County report courtesy of Bill Hilts jr at www.outdoorsniagara.com
Good numbers of salmon and trout are being reported by anglers at 18 Mile Creek, especially below Burt Dam. A good mix of king salmon, steelhead and brown trout have made their way up through the creek system, fair game for anglers using skein, egg sacks and egg imitations. Fishing your offering under a float is one of the more popular approaches to use. In addition to the area below the dam, casters are still working the harbor and piers with spoons and spinners. Egg sacks will also catch fish. Trolling or casting with stickbaits is another option. If the winds cooperate, lake trolling is still a good way to catch salmon and trout. For staging fish, use J-plugs or spoons inside of 100 foot depths. If you want to head to deeper waters, the 250 to 350 foot=2 0range is still prime for steelhead and a mix of immature salmon with spoons or fly-flasher combinations according to Wes Walker at The Slippery Sinker. Over in Wilson, bass are still hitting in the creeks as reported by Terry Swann. Large numbers of gizzard shad are in the creeks, also bringing in pike and trout.
Niagara salmon fishing has picked back up again thanks to a little turbidity to the water and cooling temperatures. Water temperatures were around the 60-degree mark going into the weekend. Local guides were reporting three to six fish per day, with 10 to 12 hits the normal opportunity earlier in the week. But when the sun came out and there were some clear, blue skies, fishing became a bit tougher for salmon in Devil's Hole.
