fishfight
Well-Known Member
It was okay fishing for us , Niagara water gotten choppy, wrong forecast by the weatherman. it was almost 25-30km/hr, when the weatherman originally forecasted only 5km/hr. Hard to feel anything when water gets 2'-3' choppy under fast moving current. The pattern for the day generally was fish refuse to bite, since I was able to locate them by site. Water level was also 2 feet lower than last year's water level.
We landed only 7 smallmouth bass , all over 2 lbers, and lost at least 10 more. We have at least 10 other followers close to the boat then they shyed away. One lesson learned from losing our fish, we need to switch to smaller hooks on our lure or ensure hooks were sharp. Since SM bass have smaller mouth, slight tweaking needed unlike fishing for largemouth, seems less fish lost with regular lures. All fish caught and lost were at least 2 lber , couple of 3+lbers, hardly any SM bass under 1 lbers around. We also saw lots of fish spawning, but they refuse to bite after numerous attempt to catch them.
To ensure lure gets deep enough to compensate for the moving current of Niagara river, Lure used were 1 oz heavy spoon, 3/8 oz bucktail jig on grubs, and wiggler(kwickfish) lure. We were fishing at 8 feet of water, just 20 feet off weedbeds with tons of bait fish around. The similar pattern, that we repetitively applied, by moving our boat not too far off the weedbed, works for 3 hours of good fishing.
Within the 3 hours limited time of good fishing, just right when the wind started getting choppy, wind had changed from 15 to 30km/hr created 2-3ft wave, most fish suddenly gotten active then, either being landed, lost or just followers, the SM bass attacked very aggresively as always, cool to witness another fish tried to steal the lure off the mouth on the one that was just hooked. We fished for a total of 12 hours. Exciting to witness the fish always followed our lure from 15 feet off the boat, almost site fishing and waited at the right time to set our hook. Water was very gin clear in most area of the river.
Only one fish was caught on the Canadian side, probably an illegal migrating fish, Ha! Ha! It actually took the lure almost airbound right before I retreived my jig on grub off the water surface , a surprise action being a SM bass that pretended to act like a largemouth bass. The fish was landed not too far from where we had launch our boat, a bonus last fish landed right before we call it quits for the day.
We also saw musky, Rud, lots of 2" baitfish, spawning bass, carp, perch, suckers and 1 trout turning dark. The Musky refuse to take our lure after few attempt. Spawning bass did not even budge with drop shotting a senko, they were not scared even if our boat was on top of them. Most fish landed were on the US side and we had the US license. I would say we were 2-3 weeks little too late, water was already 72 degrees. If it was 60-65. we would have hammered them a lot based on my past experience. I was not able to get 2 other guys to go weeks ago. We will go back again during the fall when the temp reaches close to 60 degrees. Fishing is catch and release right before June 23rd opener on the US side.
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/bassfighter_album/vijayfish2.jpg 3lb + size Sm bass landed by my regular buddy
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/bassfighter_album/zack1.jpg Synx, member of this site, outfish my regular fishing buddy. His hook was not sharp and lost 2 big one. After I insisted that he sharpen his dull hook, he landed this one.
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/bassfighter_album/joshfish.jpg
We landed only 7 smallmouth bass , all over 2 lbers, and lost at least 10 more. We have at least 10 other followers close to the boat then they shyed away. One lesson learned from losing our fish, we need to switch to smaller hooks on our lure or ensure hooks were sharp. Since SM bass have smaller mouth, slight tweaking needed unlike fishing for largemouth, seems less fish lost with regular lures. All fish caught and lost were at least 2 lber , couple of 3+lbers, hardly any SM bass under 1 lbers around. We also saw lots of fish spawning, but they refuse to bite after numerous attempt to catch them.
To ensure lure gets deep enough to compensate for the moving current of Niagara river, Lure used were 1 oz heavy spoon, 3/8 oz bucktail jig on grubs, and wiggler(kwickfish) lure. We were fishing at 8 feet of water, just 20 feet off weedbeds with tons of bait fish around. The similar pattern, that we repetitively applied, by moving our boat not too far off the weedbed, works for 3 hours of good fishing.
Within the 3 hours limited time of good fishing, just right when the wind started getting choppy, wind had changed from 15 to 30km/hr created 2-3ft wave, most fish suddenly gotten active then, either being landed, lost or just followers, the SM bass attacked very aggresively as always, cool to witness another fish tried to steal the lure off the mouth on the one that was just hooked. We fished for a total of 12 hours. Exciting to witness the fish always followed our lure from 15 feet off the boat, almost site fishing and waited at the right time to set our hook. Water was very gin clear in most area of the river.
Only one fish was caught on the Canadian side, probably an illegal migrating fish, Ha! Ha! It actually took the lure almost airbound right before I retreived my jig on grub off the water surface , a surprise action being a SM bass that pretended to act like a largemouth bass. The fish was landed not too far from where we had launch our boat, a bonus last fish landed right before we call it quits for the day.
We also saw musky, Rud, lots of 2" baitfish, spawning bass, carp, perch, suckers and 1 trout turning dark. The Musky refuse to take our lure after few attempt. Spawning bass did not even budge with drop shotting a senko, they were not scared even if our boat was on top of them. Most fish landed were on the US side and we had the US license. I would say we were 2-3 weeks little too late, water was already 72 degrees. If it was 60-65. we would have hammered them a lot based on my past experience. I was not able to get 2 other guys to go weeks ago. We will go back again during the fall when the temp reaches close to 60 degrees. Fishing is catch and release right before June 23rd opener on the US side.
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/bassfighter_album/vijayfish2.jpg 3lb + size Sm bass landed by my regular buddy
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/bassfighter_album/zack1.jpg Synx, member of this site, outfish my regular fishing buddy. His hook was not sharp and lost 2 big one. After I insisted that he sharpen his dull hook, he landed this one.
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/bassfighter_album/joshfish.jpg
