Late fall action

Its been awhile since I updated my blog, I was pretty busy on the water for the last three weeks fishing smallmouth and steelhead. The smallmouth action was awesome on Erie with all the mild weather, got a fish over 6 lbs almost every trip. Average size wasnt as big as usual, but the big fish were there. This year that was a tremendous amount of perch everywhere I stopped in 40-50 feet of water. I dont remember that many perch around, we caught them on everything from jigging spoons to dropshots to tubes. Pretty impressive when you can lip a perch.
Steelhead action was good through Nov. with lots of lakers mixed in as well. Even got one that was 21 lbs. Weather has finally caught up to us with high winds and rain. River has been dirty for a few days now with no real sign of clearing for a another few days. High winds tomorrow should keep it dirty. If it does stay dirty, the fish will climatize and start feeding. I had a great kwik fish bite last fall with the same conditions, less that two feet of vis for many weeks. Hopefully though, the winds will calm and fishing can get back to normal. Only good thing about the rain and wind is that it will bring in fresh runs of steelhead.

Oct fishing

Smallmouth fishing on lake Erie is excellent right now, fish are starting to consolidate near wintering areas meaning huge catches of numbers and big fish. Jigging spoons, tubes and dropshot continue to work great. Great time to bag a trophy fish. Average size is way up as well.
Musky fishing on the river is very good as well. As the shallows cool off and the weed beds die off, many muskies use the main river channel where they are easier to catch with trolling techniques. Fish are starting to get quite girthy as well.
Steelhead action on the lower is starting to get good, many fish up river in devils hole all the way to the falls. With cooling water many of the drifts down stream from devils hole will likely turn on as well. Hopefully we will get a good run of browns this year that hold on the lower drifts, last year they seemed to blow by the lower drifts and headed right up river to the whirlpool.

Sept smallmouth

Smallmouth fishing on lake Erie and the Niagara river has been excellent all summer long. With cool summer conditions, many fish have remained in the river system and shallow on the lake making for some excellent days on the water with fish pushing 6 lbs. Drop shotting deeper structure has also started to heat up with big fish starting to show up on fall spots. I expect a great fall for big fish.

New Lowrance HDS8

Finally got around to installing a new HDS8 sonar on my boat and trying it out on Lake Erie. The new Navionics Platinum Plus map is a must have on Erie. The new mapping includes dimesional countours of the bottom showing humps and drop offs that where not apparent on the previous Navionics maps. It really opens up a whole new world out there. I drove around checking out the new structure and was quite impressed with its accuracy, and the amount of fish it held. Looking forward to trying it out with the new structure scan coming out this fall.

Summer smallmouth

The weather for the past month has been terrible on lake Erie. I had three days of calm mornings when I could get a topwater bite going. The rest of the days have been breezy to windy. Not so much as I couldnt get out, just couldnt get a topwater bite going. Spinnerbaits, jerkbaits and crankbaits have been the ticket to great days on the water. The shallow bite has really slowed down, most of the fish have finished the spawn and move out to a bit deeper water, usually the first drop off. This is where the crankbait and jerkbait bite has been the best. As summer progresses and the fish set up on their traditional summer rockpiles, the dropshot bite will take over for me. Look forward to hooking into some bigger fish during this pattern. Most of the shallow fish are in the 2-4 lb range, not too shabby, most of my first time clients on Lake Erie are blown away by how hard these fish fight. Like they say, pound for pound the smallmouth bass is the toughest freshwater fish!

Lake Erie bass opening week

Topwater action has beeen limited so far due to the winds and rain that have been passing for the last week. Fish have been extremely shallow, as little as 2 feet of water. When conditions were right, spooks and prop baits have accounted for most of the fish. When the wind was too strong to throw topwater, we have been having tremendous luck with spinnerbaits. Fish are smashing them with a vengance. The water is alot colder than normal for this time of year and I suspect that the shallow water bite will continue for sometime. We even managed to catch a beautiful 16 lb muskie on a spinnerbait in 4 feet of water on lake Erie...what a surprise that was! See you on the water.

New website up and running

My newly renovated website is up and running. Hopefully, more people will get the chance to find me on their searches on the fishing here on the Niagara and Lake Erie. It truly is a fishermans dream destination with the excellent steelheading, smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing. The musky fishing is on a comeback with good numbers in the river. In a few years it will back to its old self again as one of the better musky fisheries on Ontario. I still have some dates available for the Ontario opener of bass fishing. The first week is the best topwater action you will see all year. Lots of fish and big fish still shallow from the spawn. Big fish on a topwater last year was a giant 5.4 post spawn female.

Lake Erie smallmouth

The NY state trophy season is still living up to its name. In the past few weeks in June my clients have managed to boat several smallmouth in the 20-22 inch class weight up to 6 lbs. The average size is way down, however some big post spawn females are still around. Best consistant bite has come deep in 27-30 feet of water for myself. Trips to the shallows has been spotty with lots of small fish. The topwater bite hasnt really started yet, but I suspect with water temps climbing into the mid sixties they should start hitting topwater with a vengance. Tubes, jigging spoons, drop shotting and emerald shiners are doing the trick for us. The tube bite is best with a good breeze while the jigging spoon bite is good on those calm days. Emeralds work all the time! The Ontario season opens soon and the topwater bite is historically amazing, usually lasting a couple of weeks. In the past, I have been able to catch fish as deep as 25 feet on surface baits. Of course, the weather has to be perfect. Last year was the first year as far as I can remember where I couldnt get out other than a couple of times to fish topwater. Hopefully this year will be good.

Late May NY state Trophy smallmouth

Almost a month has passed since I started fishing the NY state trophy smallmouth season. The weather couldnt have been any better, I only lost a couple of days on the lake due to winds. The fishing has been good to great the whole time and there werent too many trips my clients didnt manage a fish over 6 lbs. I am working on getting a new web site up and the pictures of the big fish will be on there. Some real hogs with a few measuring to 22 inches. However, the 7 lb mark still eludes my boat. I cant believe with the numbers of fish caught, probably pushing one thousand, someone didnt land a fish over 7 lbs. Just goes to show you how rare the actually are. I still have a few weeks left, however with the spawn in progress, weight loss will be an issue.
Dragging tubes, jigging spoons, jerkbaits and emerald shiners have been accounting for most of the fish. Tube still seem to catch the biggest fish, even over emerald shiners at times. I guess those big females like their meals dragged infront of their noses. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will be able to post a report on a seven pound fish one of my clients was lucky enough to land.

NY state Trophy smallmouth

Its been a week since I started fishing smallmouth on Lake Erie on the NY side. Numbers have been very good with clients averaging around 60 fish days. Two fish over 6 lbs have been caught so far, but the 7 lb mark still escapes me. Dragging tubes, dropshotting and jerkbaits have all produced very well with most fish coming from 24-21 feet of water. Weather looks good for the upcoming week, hopefully a 7 lb fish will find its way to my boat.

Lake Erie smallmouth

Finally got the opportunity to fish Erie for smallmouth yesterday. Wanted to get ready for the next three weeks of charters. Caught fish on tubes right away in 23-27 feet of water so I decided to try the shallows to see if a jerkbait bite was happening. When I got there, I noticed very stained water, less than 4 feet of visibilty. I made a few casts with no bites so I decided to work my way over to another waypoint by using my electric motor. I decided to throw my jerkbait out and troll it behind the boat. I didnt go 10 yards and got a bite. A nice fat typical prespawn 4 lber. Hmm, I let her go and threw my jerkbait out again and kept trolling. I immediately got another strike. Well, since it was such a nice flat calm sunny day, I decided to keep trolling. I must have landed over 20 fish myself in a few hours. I even threw out another rod to see if I could get double headers...which I did, many of them. The two biggest fish were both in the 5 1/2lb range. Not too shabby for my first day out. Hopefully I will be able to add some nice pictues of some 6 lb plus fish to my website in the next couple of weeks. Typically jigging spoons and tubes get the most bites this time of year, however condtions where perfect for trolling jerkbaits this time.

Muskies Canda Odyssey April 25 2009

Havent been on the water too much lately, probably not a bad thing considering the cold north winds. They are brutal on the lower river. I have been spending most of my spare time working on my Franky Baits in preperation for the 2009 Muskies Canada Odyssey in St Catherines ON. on april 25. Its a bi yearly event and consentrates strictly on musky fishing. You will find alot of the areas basement bait builders along with tackle retailer from around the area. If you cant find what your looking for at the odyessey, you probably dont need it. There will also be many seminars going on all day long. The raffle table will make you salivate, amazing amounts of tackle and equipment. I hope to have a good number of baits on hand from 8" to 14". The hard part is trying to figure out what patterns to paint. Hopefully I will have a good selection for people to choose from. Hopefully see you there.

Lower Niagara report April 2

By far yesterday was the nicest day of the year so far. Morning started out chilly with a SE breeze coming down the river, with the water temps still in the low 30's it made for a cold morning. That changed by late morning when the wind calmed right down and the sunshine took over. Morning bite was slow for us, we took a few fish on pink roe bags. Things picked up in the afternoon and we ended the day going 8/10. I was suprised when we landed a beautiful female and she started dropping egss. Spawning in low 30 degree water. Amazing. The water quality was very good still over 3 feet of visibilty. I am sure above the dams the water would have been crystal clear. Rain expected for the next couple of days, hopefully that wont have much effect on the river. Its also supposed to get cold next week with brisk NW winds. Supposed to be back out on Tues...hopefully tht forecast will change for the better by then.

Lower River Report March 31

Water quality remains good even with the rain the last few days, visibility was beyond three feet. Fishing was slow today, my client and I managed 5/6 rainbows in the 5 1/2 hours we fished. Conditions weren't great with temps slightly above freezing and very breezy out of the west, reminded me of a Dec day. Small pink bags and pink power worms getting the bites. There seems to be alot of dead smelt floating around, alot more than I have noticed in the past. I would imagine the trout are well fed.

New Lowrance HDS units

I worked the Toronto Sportsman show for the last five days in the Lowrance booth. I had alot of time to play with the new High Definition units that came out this spring. All I can say is WOW. The picture, clarity is phenomanal. The new Solar Max screen makes viewing the screen from any angle crystal clear. The new units come with a two year warranty that should make consumers feel alot more secure about dolling out the big dollars for some of the bigger units. This year all the HDS units come with a built in broadband sounder. I had alot of people ask questions about the broad band, seems it wasnt out long enough for people to fully understand what it really did. It was designed for saltwater deep sea fishing where anglers where searching for fish on structure hundreds of feet deep. It does have alot to offer us shallow fresh water anglers as well.
I had added a broad band to my unit last year and loved it. Makes finding smallmouth on Erie alot easier on bottom among rocks. They call this ability target seperation. For trollers, it will show individual hooks more clearly from pods of bait. It also keeps its bottom lock better when traveling at higher speeds. I can be cruising at 40 and still be able to detect bottom hardness that may hold fish.
Another great feature the new HDS units have is the ability to read the new Navionics Platinum Plus chips. When installed in an HDS unit, not only does it show contour lines, it also shows what looks like satellite images of bottom contours. Alot like looking at google earth but much more pronounced. For example, a well known point in lake Erie shows multiple rock piles and humps strewn around its outer edges. The only way anglers would have found any of these humps would have been to drift or drive over them and mark them on their gps. Now, you can see each of the humps and how far out they actually are. Many people where very impressed and I can see how it will make a difference when looking for isolated pieces of structure that may have never been fished.
I am looking forward to trying out one of these units on my boat this spring. If you ever get a chance to spend a day on the water with me, I can point out all of these amazing new features on the new HDS units.

March Steelhead

Fished the Niagara River for the last three days, pretty tough considering the nice weather. Water is stuck in a silty 1-2 foot visibility. Seem the Canadian powerdams keep pumping out muddy water, must be reminance from the rain and melt we had last week. We fished for three hours on Friday and landed three and lost one, kwikfish seemed to be the ticket in the stained water. Sat was no better, my brother and I started at noon and fished til 4:30, I think we only landed three fish. Today I had a charter and we landed 7, it was a long day. Got a couple of really nice fish in the 8-9 lb range. Roe bags in pink and yarn flies seemed to work ok, even got one on a plastic minnow. Didnt get a chance to really fish the kwikfish due to the northeast wind. Boy, there were alot of boats on the water today, most of the drifts were packed. Those steelhead must have bumps on their heads with all the lead coming down at them.
I wont be on the water for at least a week, I will be at the Toronto Sportsmans show all next week, stop in at the Lowrance booth and check out the new HDS Lowrance units...way too cool!

my first blog

Hi, my name is Frank DiMarcantonio and I would like to welcome you to the Niagara Sportfishing blog. I hope to share with readers stories, tips and techniques to help make your trip to the Niagara Region fun and safe. I have been fishing these waters since I was a young boy and have always been amazed at the quantity and quality that Niagara's lakes and rivers produce. I have been guiding since 1995 and have ejoyed ever minute of it, tons of great memories, great catches and friendships have been made along the way. I have always prided myself on my results and the reputation that I have upheld since I started guiding. I believe a good guide should not only be able to put his clients on fish, but also leave them with the memories of a fun filled day on the water.


A good guide should also supply his guests with the best tackle he can afford. I have been lucky to have created good relationships with people in the fishing industry such as Adrian Flemming, owner of Grimsby Tackle, probably one of the most respected men in the tackle business. Adrian has been at it for over 20 years. If you are ever in the Grimsby area, make sure you stop in and check out his Tackle shop on Highway 8 in Grimsby, its worth the drive. The guys there know their stuff and are the friendliest people you will ever meet. Through him, I have been able to supply my guests with what I think is the best tackle available today. G Loomis rods and Shimano reels make any day on the water alot more fun! If you have never experienced what a quality rod and reel feel like, then spending a day on the water with me will indeed open your eyes to what I am talking about.


I also try to stay on top of tends and tactics that make fishing more fun and productable. From dropshotting to shaky heads to new Japanese baits that will blow your mind! I am not afraid to try new things. Since guiding is a hobby for me, which probably is the reason I still love it to this day, I put all my effort, and most of my money, into new products and tackle. I am also one of the few guides to run a Ranger 620VS multi species boat. All I can say is get in one and you will understand why Ranger is the best built boat in the world.


I hope you visit my blog often and learn a few things from my experiences. Hopefully we may even share a day on the water. To learn more about my guide service, please check out http://www.niagarasportfishing.ca/ for more info and pictures. Take care and fish everyday like its your last.