Salmon River, Oak Orchard, Oswego River, Oneida Lake, Niagara River, Fishing Report 4/14/08
The salmon river flow is still very high, but spawning & dropback steelhead are being caught if you know where to fish.
Worms and egg sacs are working best and driftboats are hitting fish back-trolling plugs. fish the edges and slack spots, seams, breaks and eddies.
Worms and egg sacs are working best and driftboats are hitting fish back-trolling plugs. fish the edges and slack spots, seams, breaks and eddies.
Howie and Marc were up on their annual Spring trip and they really hit it right this year.
The river was very busy with a lot of boat traffic We hung back, fished real slow and crushed them behind the racing armada of boats We ended up landing 8 and losing more. 2 of the fish were browns and the rest were steelhead.
Friday the guys wanted to try the lake shore and the browns bit OK but the offshore wind had them scattered. After taking a quick break to dry out and grab a coffee, we headed to Altmar and it was the same thing, we banged them all the way to Pineville, but the big boys were on the bite today. Orange Rapala's and Luhr Jensen Hot shots in pink and gold took the bites. It was a great trip.
Big Skamania for Howie
Howie was on fire landing three big fish in three holes.
Marc with one of the eight fish he landed.
Brown trout fishing has been good along the southeastern shoreline with most anglers trolling in 6-8 ft. of water with stick-baits. Areas near creek-mouths are best due to the warmer water temperatures.
Saturday as you know the river went to 5,000 so new guests Dave and Ron were up for a shoreline troll. I had the Lund ready to go and we took a few fish off of Sage creek , but the water was dirty and there was a lot of boat traffic, which was really good to see, despite high gas prices. Seems like everyone has the itch to fish. I saw 25 to 30 boats stretched from the salmon river to Catfish. The lake was gorgeous, but it was cold.
We picked up and ran west to Butterfly and the fish were there. We ended up getting what we needed and more including one nice 8 pounder. The fish were all fat and healthy, but the lamprey scaring is incredible. Every fish has multiple hits. They were also packed full of gobies and that is good news, as there are plenty of them for the browns to eat.
Dave with a dandy!
Ron with a few of his.
Major Lamprey Hits on all of the fish!
Reaping the rewards! Fresh BT on the grill after a good day of fishing!!
The Oswego river is high as well but there are a lot of fish in that river system and the water there is much warmer then the salmon river. Work the areas right tight to shore at the dam, behind Leto's Island, Lock & and behind the hotels in the harbor.
Fish eggs and jigs under a float or bottom bounce.
Western New York fishing report by Jay Peck – www.jaypeckguides.com
The rain from last Thursday night throw Friday 4/10 – 11/ 08 has left 1 ¼ of inches of rain. This has ones again put all the rivers back up again. We are back to fishing high muddy water, at least this time the water is warmer. The rain has caused the Oak Orchard Rivers water flow to come up about 16 to 18 inches from where the Oak was last week. Water flows are dropping but very slowly, right now the Oak is fishable but still high. Water temperatures have cooled down a little this week. The water temperatures still remained in the mid 40s, today’s 4/14/08 temperature is 44 degrees. The biggest challenge on the Oak Orchard is not the high water but a massive run of suckers. In places along the Oak it is almost impossible to get a drift without hooking a sucker. What we have been doing, is fishing large flies just off the bottom. We are still hooking up a few suckers, but at least not as many.
Water flows in the areas smaller creeks and rivers have quickly dropped back into good fishing conditions. I suspect the steelhead fishing in the smaller waters is quickly winding down for the spring. There is still steelhead around, but the fishing is quickly becoming spotty.
The rain from last Thursday night throw Friday 4/10 – 11/ 08 has left 1 ¼ of inches of rain. This has ones again put all the rivers back up again. We are back to fishing high muddy water, at least this time the water is warmer. The rain has caused the Oak Orchard Rivers water flow to come up about 16 to 18 inches from where the Oak was last week. Water flows are dropping but very slowly, right now the Oak is fishable but still high. Water temperatures have cooled down a little this week. The water temperatures still remained in the mid 40s, today’s 4/14/08 temperature is 44 degrees. The biggest challenge on the Oak Orchard is not the high water but a massive run of suckers. In places along the Oak it is almost impossible to get a drift without hooking a sucker. What we have been doing, is fishing large flies just off the bottom. We are still hooking up a few suckers, but at least not as many.
Water flows in the areas smaller creeks and rivers have quickly dropped back into good fishing conditions. I suspect the steelhead fishing in the smaller waters is quickly winding down for the spring. There is still steelhead around, but the fishing is quickly becoming spotty.
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