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Matt Vogt of Newfane with a decent Lake Ontario steelhead he caught out of Olcott.
Poor weather limited the Orleans County Open tournament to one day last weekend and fishing was a bit tough. Niagara River action is limited because of moss. There is one big kids contest in Niagara County this weekend when the Wilson Conservation Club hosts a countywide contest from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday.
Lake Erie and tributaries
The combination of wind and tight-lipped fishermen competing in the 40th annual Southtowns Walleye Derby has limited the number of available fishing reports. The fishing club handles things differently and list the top fish on its website, but no names or where they are fishing. You won’t find out until the awards ceremony June 23. The derby ends Sunday. The current leader is a 10.7-pound walleye. Leading the youth division is a 7.14-pound fish. For daily updates, visit southtownswalleye.org. Two important seasons open Saturday – the regular black bass season and the Great Lakes musky season. Make sure to consult the fishing regulations guide to understand the details. For musky, it’s essentially all catch and release with a 54-inch minimum size limit in Great Lakes waters. However, you can target these fish starting Saturday. For bass, most waters in the state have been catch and release. On Lake Erie, there is a trophy fish exception that allows anglers to keep one bass with a minimum size of 20 inches until Saturday. Then it reverts to the rule of up to five bass and a minimum size of 12 inches. That still doesn’t change the attitudes for most bass fishermen. Only about 1% of the bass caught are harvested in the lake based on the state’s open lake creel survey.
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Niagara River
Capt. Dave Scipione of Lewiston wanted to get on the lower river despite the moss and struggled at first in the lower stretches. Then he decided to try Devil’s Hole. While moss was present, it didn’t seem to be as bad. He ran his custom pink-beaded worm harnesses with a gold Colorado blade off three-way rigs to take walleye and steelhead. They even caught smallmouth bass, even though he was not targeting them. The regular bass season opens Saturday. Capt. Frank Campbell of Lewiston reports that the moss is still heavy in the river but there are fish to be had including bass, walleye and the occasional trout. Bass are in all phases of the spawn. Different presentations will work for different phases. Walleyes are in the river system and feeding, but the challenge is getting a bait to them without getting too mossed up.
In the upper river, moss remains a problem. Matt Wilson of Lewiston figured out the bass enough to catch nearly 40 bronzebacks on Saturday fishing the upper river with Shane Stark and his C-Head jigs and blades. Field testing new products, they used their electronics to find a hard river bottom, which had less moss. They found a big school of bass in 8 to 14 feet of water in an area stained from the rain. Tip from Wilson was to use the wind to your advantage when casting. They let their bait hit the bottom and then slow rolled it back to the boat. It was all goby and natural black shad swimbaits on Stark’s jigs. On Sunday, Wilson hit 20 bass by using a drop shot setup with a plastic shad in white, 18 inches above the weight, which helped to keep off some of the moss. Steve Brzuszkiewicz of Marilla tried to find a walleye derby fish by casting firetiger stickbaits at the channel drop-off in the Strawberry Island area and managed to catch a few walleyes but only around 24 inches – good eaters but not legal fish for the Southtowns Walleye contest.
Lake Ontario and tributaries
Weather continues to play a role in angling success, evident by the results of the Orleans County Open Salmon and Trout Tournament. Saturday action was canceled, but Capt. Pete Alex of Vision Quest Sportfishing had a plan. Thursday they started fishing from 30 Mile Point to Point Breeze and found some big bites offshore, 13 miles northwest of the Oak Orchard River. That was where the team went Friday and located a good mix of king salmon and steelhead, including its biggest salmon for the day at 23.6 pounds. On Saturday night, Alex looked at surface charts and saw a break at his Thursday and Friday spot. He went to the same area, targeting bigger fish with 8-inch and 10-inch Spin Doctors rigged with meat and regular-size Dreamweaver spoons. Kings came from 60 to 130 feet down, while steelhead came from 50 feet and up. The team’s final score was 266.80 points based on tournament scoring of five salmon and five trout. Dave Antenori’s Screamer team, last week’s Pro Am winner, was second with 256.50 points. In the Amateur Division, Roll with It, led by Richard Raidline of Pennsylvania, set the pace with 156.40 points. The team fished west of the Oak in 140 to 200 feet of water, placing its Moonshine spoons 50 to 80 feet down on riggers. Capt. Mike Johannes of On the Rocks Sportfishing reports decent action out of Wilson from 150 to 350 feet of water. There was a good mix of salmon and trout – kings, cohos, steelhead and lake trout. The biggest king was a 17-pound fish hitting a Carbon 14 spoon down 62 feet. Other hot spoons included purple alewife and the UV Hulk. He took a few fish on divers set on No. 3 and out 150 on the line counter. The biggest lake trout was 18 pounds. Most of the fish came from 52 to 87 feet down.
Chautauqua Lake
A cold front and high winds have made fishing interesting, according to Capt. Mike Sperry of Chautauqua Reel Outdoors. He has picked up a handful of musky since Friday with the largest at 41 inches. There is lots of bait and fish in the remaining pondweed. Find good green weeds and there’s fish in them. Casting jerk baits and trolling 4- to 5-inch Shad-style baits have worked. He picked up a few fish while trolling a little slower than usual, around 3½ to 4 mph. Walleye fishing was tougher the last week. Jigging in the weed pockets is still the best technique. Hair jigs, jig and twister combo and jigging spoons are the best options. Trolling harnesses will pick up some walleyes as well. Stay tight to the weeds and bring plenty of crawlers.
Finger Lakes
Cayuga Lake: Lake trout action has varied with fish fairly scattered, reports Capt. John Gaulke with Finger Lakes Angling Zone. They are widely distributed along the length of Cayuga Lake from Levanna to Ithaca and depthwise with fish from 20 feet to 150 feet or more. Fishing is good for largemouth bass and occasional chain pickerel on the north end of the lake. Bass are post-spawn.
Seneca Lake: Lake trout action was slow over the past week for Gaulke. Good numbers of fish are near Geneva and south to Sampson State Park, but the bite has been spotty. He is starting to see round goby in lake trout stomachs. Alewife schools are massive on Seneca Lake and fish are probably very well fed.
Owasco Lake: Gaulke reports that lake trout fishing is decent here. Perch are all over the lake along weedlines.