It really is a great fishery honest!

  Its the time of the year again when I loose more charters that I do.  Wind, dirty water and extreme cold are playing havoc with my trips.  I apologize to all those that I haven't been able to get out the last couple of weeks.  It would be nice if the weather just got cold and stayed that way,  it would let Lake Erie lock up a bit and reduce the amount of dirty water that flows into the Niagara River when the winds pick up.

  I suppose I could do the trips in the dirty water and hope for the best, but I am pretty sure that those of you that are first time clients would never book again if you don't get a real taste of how good the Niagara River fishery is like.  I don't blame you, no one wants to spend all that money for a few fish.  I am the same way.  I suspended my trip to Falcon Lake Texas because the bite was so poor due to low water and fishing pressure.  I know what Falcon Lake can be like and probably wont go back til it returns to its glory days.

   I do have the luxury however of being picky with my trips because I don't rely on my guiding as my first source of income. By being able to do this, I can give my clients the option of rescheduling instead of taking the chance to fish in less than ideal conditions.    

  Some of my first time clients did get the chance to experience the amazing fishery on the lower river this fall and here is what they had to say about it.

Brad Coultes from the Hamilton region writes

"Hey Frank,

thank you again for the awesome fishing yesterday. You are an excellent guide. I'm doing what I can to get your name out.

Can we book a day next year for trout again? Same time is awesome. "

Noel Hooper from Milton writes

"Hey Frank,

Thanks again for yesterday, we had a great time. Crazy fishing.

Can you send me the photo you took of me with the big brown trout?

Thanks,

Noel"

Jay Anderson from the Peterborough area writes

"Hey frank, thanks again for the awesome trip. We won't forget crushing those Lakers and hooking up those steelhead and browns. 

My family and I cooked that trout up for dinner when I got home on Monday. It was really good.
Thanks again and we plan on booking another trip with you next year"

These are the types of experiences that I wish all my first time clients can have, and under normal conditions, usually do.  I know that once you get a taste of the fishery, you will be hooked for life!  I still have clients that have relocated as far as New Mexico that still come to fish with me in the spring and fall for smallmouth and trout...that's how good the Niagara can be.  To those clients that have had two and three cancellations already this year, I just hope you understand that I am only trying to get you out in good enough conditions so that you will have a great time and consider re booking with me in the future.   I know that if you do, we will be spending allot of time together in the boat.  :)

Good Fishing. 

Frank.

Fishing with Bob Izumi

I was lucky enough to get hooked up with Bob Izumi to shot a show on the Lower Niagara River.  The premise of the show was to highlight the diversity of the trout fishing and try to get a grand slam on film. My clients love trying to catch a brown, lake trout and rainbow when they come out with me so I thought it would make for a good show.
  If you are wondering what kind of stresses come with filming a show, I will tell you. Obviously, the fish have to be biting, which they had been the last two weeks, incredibly I might add, so this wasn't really a concern.  We had to use Bobs boat because of sponsorship obligations, so fishing from a new boat and boat control is a major issue.  This day however, there was no wind so I was confident  I could pull it off.
   I rely heavily on my GPS when I guide so not having my waypoints kind of stresses me out.  Fortunately, Lowrance has a new feature on their graphs that lets you download regional waypoints instead of downloading all 5000 waypoints from a unit.  Just box the area you want to download and load it onto a chip then upload it onto another unit.  I highlighted the whole lower Niagara River to include all the waypoints and trails from the day before and uploaded them onto Bobs unit.  I had everything I need for a successful trip.
   Here are a couple of screenshots to show what i am talking about.  Really easy on the touch screens.





   Getting a grand slam usually  isn't a problem at this time of the year as there are plenty of rainbows, browns and lake trout in the system.  I had tried to get Bob out on two different occasions earlier in November however high winds and dirty water put a stop to that.  I had a cancellation and called Bob to see if he would be available to shot the next day.  Bob is a fisherman and he understands when an opportunity arises for a good bite to jump on it and he did all he could t get there the next day.   We hit the water at 1pm and headed right for the mouth to catch some lake trout.  I didn't even have my jig tied up and Bob was already hooked into a lake trout on a new Johnson jigging spoon.  He was having a hoot catching Lakers on the spoon landing a few more.  I hooked one up on film on a Berkley jerkshad on a jig head but lost it on the fight.  Believe it or not, he had never fished the Niagara Bar for lake trout.  I found that hard to believe.  We could have easily stayed there the whole time and just fish for Lakers but I had to remind him about the premise of our show and that we should move on.  It was now almost 2 pm.  It was so funny, he was like a little kid.  He really loves to catch fish.
  We ran back into the river to a spot I had been catching Brown trout on for a couple of weeks including some giants to 15 lbs.  We made 5 or 6 drifts and didn't hook up.  I was getting nervous, Bob wanted to eat a sandwich.  The guy doesn't get rattled.  He told me when there is a camera in the boat, the fish stop biting....great.  I ran to another spot which is a know Brown spot and hooked a decent one to about 6 lbs.  We could have stayed and made a few more drifts but time was becoming an issue.  It was already 3 pm.  We had to catch some Rainbows or the show would be lost.  We ran up river to Queenston to finish the show.  Ironically, I caught 12 browns of the first spot the very next day with clients...he was right.
  We made one drift on Queenston and nothing, I started to get nervous again as the bite normally starts to die as the sun drops below the horizon.  We made another drift and Bob hooked up a small bow.  Thank god I though in my head.  At least the show will be saved.  We proceeded to hook up on every drift after that.  I asked if he wanted to run back down river to try to get  a few more browns but he was happy hooking bows.
  This was Bobs 13th and last show of the season and he was happy to get it finished as he was going away on vacation that week.
  I have filmed a few shows in my time, but I have to say, even though I didn't have allot of time to do it, it was the most fun I have had filming.  Bob is no doubt Canada's leading TV fishing personality and you would think it would come with some kind of over inflated ego, but I have to say, he is no different than me or you, he just loves to fish.  He will be the first person to tell you, he is the luckiest guy alive.  Good fishing.







 

Winter steelheading and lake trout update

Water temperatures  are the coldest they have been in years for this time of the year.  38 degrees on the lower river.  The steelhead mania that was two weeks ago is starting to slow.  I am not sure if its the water temps or the fish have just pushed past.  We just got another river blow out from 50 knot winds on Erie the last two days so maybe we will get another big push of steelhead into the river from Lake Ontario.  There are steelhead head on every drifts now on both the NY and Ontario side.
  I took some clients for a couple of hours to the mouth to fish Lakers.  They have never experienced that kind of fishing.  We had a fish  or two with a few triples hooked up on every drift.  Dropshotting, jigging spoons or jigs all caught fish.  The Lakers are finished their spawn and are moving out of the river and onto the bar.  They are eating everything in sight!  It will be like this right into April.  Its allot of fun as long as its not too windy.  Anything out of the South is OK out there.

Best Steelheading in years!

It seems the cold weather has brought in an amazing run of steelhead into the Niagara. It hasn't been this good in years. 30-50 fish days for two weeks now. Most of the fish my clients have been catching are steelhead with the odd laker mixed in. The brown fishing is good but has taken a back seat to the harder fighting rainbow.  A few giant browns have caught however. Frederick from Quebec was lucky to land a couple fish to 15 lbs!

Early fall trout

The fall trout fishing has been very good, when the wind isn't blowing that is. Looks like it's shaping up to be another windy season which means lots of dirty water. Ugh.
  The steelhead fishing is very good up in devils hole with the odd one being taken at art park. Lots of lakers around to keep things interesting. Browns really haven't shown up yet in any numbers. Hopefully with all this wind and dirty water it will pull loads into the river. They are always nice to have around in dirty water.

We should be so lucky!

I took out a repeat client  named Lou a couple of weeks ago.  This is his second trip with me in two years.  Lou lives in Florida and is 93 years old...yes, you read it right, 93.  I honestly didnt think I was going to see Lou again last year, but when his son in law called and told me he was coming out again this year i was shocked...and pleased.
  Lou is a great guy. He really enjoys life, obviously..lol.  Lou has been retired for over 30 years....I cant even wrap my head around that.  I am going on my 24 year of working and this guy has been retired longer than I have been working.  Simply amazing.  He is someone for everyone to look up to.  Lou is a great fisherman as well, he hooked many smallies and plays everyone magnificently.  He always wants to use the ultra-lights as well to get more fun out of them.  Lou lost a really big fish the last trip unfortunately when it jumped 3 feet in the air, probaby in the 4+ lb range.
  Lou is a great sport as well, I hammer him with the old jokes when he is in my boat and he just laughs.
Lou is coming out again with me at the end of the week for his second trip of the season.  I hope to see him next year as well.

Ontario Bass opener a huge hit!

The Ontario Bass season opener is off to a tremendous start...as I anticipated.  The water temps were almost 10 degrees colder than normal and allot of fish are still shallow.
  This is one of my favorite times of the year to fish smallmouth bass.  Its time to put away the tube baits and the dropshot rigs for a while and pull out the topwater baits  You can fish them all day long this time of the year with amazing results.  Is not about trophy fish, but some may argue that, since we have caught allot of fish between 4-5 lbs on topwaters.  Many people would die to catch a 4 lb smallmouth on a topwater bait.  The bites are both viscous and spectacular.  Watching a 4 lb smallmouth absolutely crush a topwater bait is a site to behold.  All my clients the past two weeks have been thrilled with the results.  The weather has been nearly perfect as well with low winds,muggy drizzly days and overcast skies.
   I suspect this tremendous topwater bite should last another week or so, after that its back to the grind with the dropshot rigs...but for now, they are staying in the rod locker!
 

  

NY State Trophy smallmouth season nearing the end

Had my last scheduled smallmouth trip on the NY side of Lake Erie yesterday.  I took out three repeat clients of mine, Troy, Dave and Dave.  They have fished steelhead with me in the past and I have told them that they had to try the smallmouth fishing in the spring.   They finally booked, although late in the trophy season, Erie did not disappoint.  The reports said otherwise as many guides were complaining of tough days with little bites.
   I have been at this since 1995 and one thing I learned in the spring is that good spots are always good spots.  The cool thing about the big fish on Erie is that they don't need specific spots per say, but areas that they congregate.  Some of these areas are up to a mile long.  Year in and year out, I always find them on these stretches.  When things get tough, I don't run around looking for active fish, just fish my areas and figure out a way to get them to bite.  Sometimes it takes live bait, but allot of times, a few fine adjustments with the lures does the trick.
  Troy was absolutely on fire, he picked up the tube bite immediately and really did a number on the fish.  He figured out that they wanted a very aggressive forward pull to the tube.  Once he regained contact with the bait after he jerked it forward, the fish were there.  He landed his personal best an even 6 lb er.  The average size was also impressive with most fish going between 3-5 lbs.  These guys couldn't believe how good  the fishing is on Erie.



  I also included some pictures of fish that my WV clients caught a few weeks ago.  I have been really lagging behind on my reports...too busy fishing I guess.







  I am looking forward to the Ontario opener in a couple of weeks.  It is really setting up to be an incredible top water bite.  With the late spring and June 1 being on a Sat., the bite should be amazing.  I still have a few openings if anyone is interested in the best top water bite on the year.

It's all relative!

I am writing this because maybe one day down the road I will re-read it to remind myself how lucky I am to have such a remarkable smallmouth fishery.   I know I sometimes take it for granted.
  I had the pleasure to take out Nate Zahn the other day for a smallmouth trip on Erie.  Nate had scheduled two days however the unstable weather the last week had forced us to cancel one day.  He was going to drive up from Delaware on Mother's Day and fish the Monday and Tuesday .  How many guys do you think would risk their health telling their wife they were going to leave for a fishing trip on Mother's Day!  Well because of the poor weather, he ended up driving up on the Monday and fishing on Tuesday.  He drove 7 hours to fish one day on Erie.  Now that's a hardcore smallmouth fisherman.
  I met him that morning and started apologizing for the conditions.  The river was running dirty and I was afraid the lake might have been in the same condition from the 30 knot winds the days before.  Nate took it all in stride and said don't worry about it so we set off.  The water wasn't as bad out in the lake, still a nice green color about 2 feet of visibility.
  Nate was not interested in fishing live bait so I didn't bring any along though it definitely would have put a few more fish in the boat.  We started out dragging tubes with little results so I switched to a drop shot rig and immediately hooked up.  I switched Nate over and he quickly hooked his first fish, a healthy 5 lb 6 oz beauty.  This was Nates biggest smallmouth of his life.  How many places could produce that with such poor conditions.


We continued with our pattern and hooked well over 30 fish that day with Nate landing many fish over 4 lbs and another 5+ lber as his last fish of the day.  



To me the day was a slow one, however Nate was tickled pink.  The smile on his face says everything.  Thanks again Nate for making the trip and reminding me how lucky I am.  I look forward to fishing with you again soon.

2013 Trophy Smallmouth

I had planned to post a report allot sooner, however the poor spring weather made that impossible.  I had my first trip booked April 13, but didn't get a trip done til April 26.  High winds and cold made for a really tough start.  The weather has stabilized and fishing is amazing...as usual this time of year.
  The usual tactics, dragging tubes or Poor Boys Erie darters, dropshotting and jigging spoons are working great.  Biggest so far is a 7.3 with many fish over 6 lbs as well.