Lower Niagara River Fall Bite Is On!! 2024
bassman78 reply :
Water at 66 and the smallies have moved in. Only able to get out for 3 hours and had some great action. Missed one that was at least five pounds, jumped and spit it about 10 ft from the boat. Biggest of the day was almost 4 lbs. Average was around 3 with 5 smallies and two largemouth.
BuffaloBass716 reply :
Largemouth fishing is getting good in the upper Niagara too. It seems like better fish and more of them everyday.
archman reply :
We went earlier this week and boated around 90 in a days time. Tubes and dropshot were the ticket.
bassman78 reply :
I havent had a 20+ fish day here yet. I'm trying. I can usually only get out for about 4 hours at a time. Were you just drifting and jigging that drop shot? What depths and what part of the lower. I usually drift that flat at the boat ramps at Fort Niagara this time of the year and throw lipless cranks if they in shallow or 10' if they are pulled back. I got 2 4 pounders this past Saturday. They were in 10-15' of water. None shallow but it was pretty cold that day. Saw guys either drop shotting or jigging, not sure what they were doing but I didn't see them catching any. Didn't see anyone catching anything really so i felt pretty lucky with my 2. This is only my second season up here so I'm new to smallmouth fishing but am hooked.
AssassinAngling reply :
I'm heading to the upper river on Friday. I'll let you know how I do!
BuffaloBass716 reply :
On 10/10/2013 at 3:36 AM, AssassinAngling said:I'm heading to the upper river on Friday. I'll let you know how I do!
Where abouts in the upper river do you go? Do you use a boat?
AssassinAngling reply :
Sadly i'm stuck on the bank for the rest of the season but occasionally i'll take the boat out on the river. Theirs a nice spot where the canal enters the river. Fishing off the break wall is also a nice place to go.
BuffaloBass716 reply :
On 10/10/2013 at 8:58 AM, AssassinAngling said:Sadly i'm stuck on the bank for the rest of the season but occasionally i'll take the boat out on the river. Theirs a nice spot where the canal enters the river. Fishing off the break wall is also a nice place to go.
Where will you be on Friday? Maybe Ill see you on the bank somewhere because its supposed to be nice all week.
archman reply :
Believe it or not we did it in the kayaks. I don't have a depth finder so I am not totally sure how deep. But we fished right at the edge of the faster drift. My buddy had trouble with the presentation I fished him probably 6 to 1. I would cast to about 10:00 and usually the hits came when it got to about two. Sometimes I would try to stay vertical in the faster water and that worked. The mouth in the lake was VERY good in the transition water. For tubes I just casted upstream out of the weedy parts and put the rod down as I drifted. They loved that. The last day there wasn't as much current which made for easier fishing in the yak but the bite slowed. We fished pretty much straight out from the launch right by the coast guard, all the way out about 200 yards into the lake. I saw many boats fishing shallow on cranks but not doing as well as us. This is our 2nd year up there and I am hooked too.
AssassinAngling reply :
On 10/10/2013 at 10:28 AM, BuffaloBass716 said:Where will you be on Friday? Maybe Ill see you on the bank somewhere because its supposed to be nice all week.
I'm planning on going to squaw island in the morning till late afternoon depending on how things go. I'll be the guy with a camo fishing hat.
BuffaloBass716 reply :
On 10/10/2013 at 11:12 AM, AssassinAngling said:I'm planning on going to squaw island in the morning till late afternoon depending on how things go. I'll be the guy with a camo fishing hat.
Ah, Okay. I tend to stick more down steam where the water isn't as fast and I'm not fond of that area or neighborhood. Well if you ever venture around the Isle View or Niawanda Parks, I'm sure ill see you. Good luck
AssassinAngling reply :
On 10/10/2013 at 10:46 PM, BuffaloBass716 said:Ah, Okay. I tend to stick more down steam where the water isn't as fast and I'm not fond of that area or neighborhood. Well if you ever venture around the Isle View or Niawanda Parks, I'm sure ill see you. Good luck
I'll be shure to check em out. Thanks!
Siebert Outdoors reply :
Nice smallie!
AssassinAngling reply :
Had an ok day on Friday. Had a great morning bite on tubes and crank baits but it fizzed out as noon approached.
BuffaloBass716 reply :
On 10/12/2013 at 8:44 PM, AssassinAngling said:Had an ok day on Friday. Had a great morning bite on tubes and crank baits but it fizzed out as noon approached.
Did you stay at Squaw Island all day? What was the set up you had working?
AssassinAngling reply :
On 10/13/2013 at 9:35 AM, BuffaloBass716 said:Did you stay at Squaw Island all day? What was the set up you had working?
I was at Squaw Island all day, Smoke shad tube jigs and crankbaits were producing the best.
BuffaloBass716 reply :
On 10/13/2013 at 10:30 AM, AssassinAngling said:I was at Squaw Island all day, Smoke shad tube jigs and crankbaits were producing the best.
For the tube jigs, how do you like to use them in the river? I've never tried them so far. Do you just use a regular tube jig head? You must have used a heavy jig head because of the current there right?
AssassinAngling reply :
On 10/13/2013 at 11:42 AM, BuffaloBass716 said:For the tube jigs, how do you like to use them in the river? I've never tried them so far. Do you just use a regular tube jig head? You must have used a heavy jig head because of the current there right?
I was using 1/8 ounce tear drop jig heads. It depends how fast the current is but the heavier you go the more stuff you usually snag and loose.
archman reply :
Thinking about going to the lower Niagara the weekend of November 8, are the smallies still around this late in the fall?
AssassinAngling reply :
On 10/27/2013 at 10:03 PM, archman said:Thinking about going to the lower Niagara the weekend of November 8, are the smallies still around this late in the fall?
It depends on how much the water temp changes and how cloudy the water is. This weekend the water was like chocolate milk, most of the guys I talked to were having a bad weekend of fishing. Check the dec fishing report before you go down their!
wnybassman reply :
Can also check this website to see the clarity coming out of the river, as long as there is clear skies.
http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/modis/modis.php?region=o&page=1
Looked pretty dirty today too.
archman reply :
I heard a strong SW wind muddies up the river. Can anyone tell me why?
wnybassman reply :
On 10/29/2013 at 9:15 AM, archman said:I heard a strong SW wind muddies up the river. Can anyone tell me why?
It muddies up the water on the eastern shore of Lake Erie, which in turn flows down the river.
AssassinAngling reply :
The Power Authority sucks the Lower River down starting November 1st, Does this affect the bass fishing? I have never been bass fishing this late in the year, once the Salmon and Steelhead start running in August all my fishing is focused on them!
archman reply :
On 10/30/2013 at 8:12 AM, AssassinAngling said:The Power Authority sucks the Lower River down starting November 1st, Does this affect the bass fishing? I have never been bass fishing this late in the year, once the Salmon and Steelhead start running in August all my fishing is focused on them!
That is a great question, anxious to hear the answers.
wnybassman reply :
On 10/30/2013 at 8:12 AM, AssassinAngling said:The Power Authority sucks the Lower River down starting November 1st, Does this affect the bass fishing? I have never been bass fishing this late in the year, once the Salmon and Steelhead start running in August all my fishing is focused on them!
How do they suck the lower river down? Do they start filling the holding reservoir? That isn't huge so it can't take that long with the volume of water heading down the river. I just don't understand where the water goes, either it goes over the falls or through the power plants, but it's got to go somewhere and it all ends up in the lower river.
AssassinAngling reply :
On 10/30/2013 at 6:37 PM, wnybassman said:How do they suck the lower river down? Do they start filling the holding reservoir? That isn't huge so it can't take that long with the volume of water heading down the river. I just don't understand where the water goes, either it goes over the falls or through the power plants, but it's got to go somewhere and it all ends up in the lower river.
They suck it down with two 50 foot diameter pipes just above the falls.
wnybassman reply :
On 10/31/2013 at 1:38 AM, AssassinAngling said:They suck it down with two 50 foot diameter pipes just above the falls.
So where does that water go?
AssassinAngling reply :
On 10/31/2013 at 5:15 AM, wnybassman said:So where does that water go?
They run it through turbine generators at the power authority, and fill the reservoir. It comes out at the bottom of the power authority.
wnybassman reply :
On 10/31/2013 at 5:22 AM, AssassinAngling said:They run it through turbine generators at the power authority, and fill the reservoir. It comes out at the bottom of the power authority.
So it really doesn't affect the levels downstream of the power plants? How long does it take to fill the reservoir?
AssassinAngling reply :
On 10/31/2013 at 5:34 AM, wnybassman said:So it really doesn't affect the levels downstream of the power plants? How long does it take to fill the reservoir?
Yes, and starting Nov 1st they basically run as much water through the plant as they can. They do the same at night time during tourist season, they have to run so many gallons per minute over the falls during tourist season. They use the reservoir during the day to make up for the lack of water during the day. I'm pretty sure it doesn't take long to fill but the level stays low the whole winter.
archman reply :
So do we know yet how this affects the bass fishing this time of year? 
AssassinAngling reply :
On 10/31/2013 at 10:20 AM, archman said:So do we know yet how this affects the bass fishing this time of year?
I have some free time tomorrow ill do some research and get back to you.
archman reply :
On 10/31/2013 at 11:19 AM, AssassinAngling said:I have some free time tomorrow ill do some research and get back to you.
Cool, looking forward to what you found out. I went out on Lake Erie yesterday around me, and absolutely slaughtered the smallies. It's not often on Erie this late in the year you can get a yak out. So I am really looking forward to coming back up for one more swing at some smallie action before I completely switch over to steelhead.
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