Great Lakes/Niagara River Musky Season

[mostlymuskies]

My first clients for the fall on the Upper Niagara River start this Tuesday night,hopefully the action is as good as last year fall trips were.

[mostlymuskies]

I decided to get out last night to see what action we could find in the west river.Rained most of the night but we got a little action.34",37",38 1/2" muskies took a 5 1/2" Wiley out 60 ft of leadcore over 12 to 13 ft of water trolling slow at 2.5 mph.Water temp was 64 degrees,floating weeds were there but still 10 minutes between cleanups.

[mostlymuskies]

Last night with the East Northeast winds and cold front we could not move any fish at all.Floating weeds were also a big problem.Surface water temp was 66.4 degrees.Back out tonight for some more Northeast winds.

[mostlymuskies]

We did mark lots of bait fish on the 13 to 14 ft edges coming out of 20 ft + water.Also many big musky hooks on the same 13 to 14 ft,all were tight to bottom.Water clarity was at least 10 ft.Going to be stiff Northeast winds through Saturday,first change in wind direction the fish will be on!Water temps are dropping,was 66 last night and 65 degrees today.Last year when the surface water reached 60 degrees I had some multiple mid 40" fish days all the way up to the big snow storm in November that crashed the water temp to 36 degrees and everything blew out into warmer water of Lake Erie until it stableized back to 43 degrees last week of November.

Edited October 1, 2015 by mostlymuskies

[mostlymuskies]

With all the Northeast to East winds is making it difficult to troll cross stream at upstream angle and keep correct lure speed.Once you get enough kicker rpms to make way again'st the wind,your crankbait is working to fast from the 3.5 mph river current.Then the slightest downstream angle and your speed jumps over 6 mph.Along with lots of floating weeds to deal with and the fact I catch very few muskies in winds out of the East,I moved the clients I had for the next 3 days out to later dates.Next time on the water will be Monday.

Edited October 2, 2015 by mostlymuskies

[Riley]

Thanks for the updates Larry. I was out Wed and managed 40" in UN2 at 9pm before the winds picked up, on a prototype crank i just finished off. Keep the reports coming!

[mostlymuskies]

Riley,Tommy was wondering who was in the boat that caught the muskie near Canadian shore edge that night,Congrats!

[Riley]

Fished the triangle 4am-9:30am, then relaunched at navy for a quick troll, no luck but marking lots!

[mostlymuskies]

We spent about 4 hours trolling Beyers Creek & Black Creek area from 9 pm.At 10:05 pm we caught a 34"er and at 00:35 am we caught a 35 1/2"er.Floating weeds are still a problem,cleaning every 10 minutes.Water temp was 64 degrees.Launch ramp at Big Six Marina will close on Oct 11th.

[Riley]

Maybe my transducer is'nt reading correctly, i had 60 in the triangle and 59 down by navy sunday morning.

[mostlymuskies]

Riley,your temps may be correct,I was fishing up against the shore just down stream from Black Creek and that water could have been warmer.That is why the bait fish were stacked up at the 12 ft drop by the Riverside Motel & Campground dock.

After looking at Lake Erie water temperature taken from 20 ft down at the Roundhouse it was 60 degrees.So I may need to look at my own transducer if the water near Black Creek was not warmer.

Edited October 5, 2015 by mostlymuskies

[mostlymuskies]

Tonight we started near Frenchman Creek,lots of big hooks,no hits.We moved down to Beaver Island Marina,more big hooks,closed mouth.Dropped down to Shipyards and caught a 30 1/2" muskie almost scraping the wall near the gaspump.Crossing the river to the pine tree near the Homeland Security Camera Pole,up on the edge we caught a chunky 40"er.We quit at 00:30,could not take anymore of cleaning off weeds,floaters were very bad.Water temp was 59 degrees,slob time very soon!

[mostlymuskies]

Tommy Rinehart caught a nice 43 1/2" muskie last night before the rain up infront of Strawberry Island!

[Riley]

Nice, hoping to make it out Sunday night. Hoping the weeds are better.

[mostlymuskies]

Riley,I will be back out Sunday night as well,the floating long string grass weeds were a big problem the other day.

[mostlymuskies]

If RayJ from Pa shows tonight we will have to go to the Harbor behind the protection of the walls to get out in the high SW winds.Water temps are below 60 degrees so there could be action in the rolling waves! Go Bills!

[mostlymuskies]

Tough fishing in the waves in the Buffalo Harbor,only a 34" & 35" muskies,did not mark much.Water temp 60.5 degrees in North Gap,61 degrees up the Buffalo River.Back to the west river tomorrow night.

[Riley]

None for me Sunday night but a friend caught a low 40" on one of my custom baits in NightShiner trolling during the day. Must be good sign seeing those young fish in the harbour. Out again this weekend, hopefully my luck improves.

[mostlymuskies]

Was on again off again about going tonight with the West winds,finally picked up the client from the motel and headed to the Harbor.Much rougher water then last night,but fishable.The first trip up the Buffalo River gave up a 37" muskie.About an hour later we caught a 40"er trolling up the General Mills Slip.Water temp was 60 degrees in the Buffalo River and 60 degrees in the North Gap.Heading down the road for a hot coffee,back out tomorrow night.

[mostlymuskies]

Fishing the Buffalo Harbor has been nice not having to clean floating weeds every 5 minutes like in the river.Water temps are still 60 degrees and need to drop to the mid 50's before mass quantities of bait fish show.None of the smaller muskies we are catching now up there now have that bleached markings look that the muskies have that spend most of their time in deep water.So we are catching only local fish so far and mostly all smaller male fish.I will give it a couple more days of harbor fishing as I wait for the floating weeds to slow back down in the river,then go back to the bigger muskies present in the west river.

[fishsevern]

Thanks for the continued great reports Larry.  My brother and I will be trolling the west river Oct 20, 24, 29 for our annual Niagara musky hunt.  3 day trips in 9 days will hopefully give us some results.  Results not bad last year in 2 trips got 2 smaller 34 inch fish and one 44".  Hoping for bigger and badder this year!

 

Time to Bring it!  

[mostlymuskies]

Chris Kempf & I went to the Buffalo Harbor about 7 pm.We started trolling in the South Gap 58 degree surface water and very much a dead sea.We then went out into the 4 ft rollers and washboard and crossed out into 35 ft water going to the North Gap.Water surface temp raised to 59 degrees outside South Gap & up to 60 degrees approaching North Gap outer departure bouys.Still.not marking much at all.Around Donley's Wall to Green Flashing Bouy's going intob Black Rock Canal we began to mark smaller fish & walleyes along the edge.Up the Buffalo River the water temp dropped from 61 degrees last night to 58 degrees tonight,lots of bait fish but no big muskie hooks.Everything in muskie hooks be marked last night were no where to be found tonight.We gave up at 11 pm and went home skunked!

Edited October 15, 2015 by mostlymuskies

[mostlymuskies]

fishsevern,Good Luck this year on the west river.We will return to the west river tonight and work our way from Frenchman Creek to Black Creek in the dark hours.I hope to get back into the river action after spending a few nights in the Harbor with limited success.

[mostlymuskies]

Water temps now below 60 degrees in the Upper Niagara River.With the quickly dropping water temps the muskies and bait fish are now moving up shallow and near Creek mouths that have warmer water.So in trolling you should be working over 10 to 13 ft depths on the edges of deeper water from 20 to 25 ft.Speed is very important,up stream if your going 1.7 to 2.0 mph over bottom gps,the river current is also moving past the crankbait at 2.5 to 3.0 mph,so your crankbait is 4.0 to 4.5 mph in lure action.At cross stream angles your pulling at an angle to that current so you can go from 2.0 to 2.5 mph to keep the same 4.0 to 4.5 lure action.Once you go down stream your going with the current and you need to slow down to the point you still have crankbait action,around 4 to 4.5 mph over ground gps.It also takes 1/2 the line out to get depth going down stream with the current.

Most important when hooking a muskie trolling up stream is to turn out to the side to get even with the muskie so you are drifting down river with the fish equally instead of the current pushing the boat down river to toward the fish.Always try to use your net from the downstream current side of the muskie as you scoop current will balloon open the net and you will have less chances of getting hooks in net bag and fish flapping outside of the rim.Very soon the muskie action is going to pick up with fall upon us,freezing temps this weekend.

Edited October 15, 2015 by mostlymuskies

[mostlymuskies]

Today Chris Kempf & I saw the winds were turning the river brown and decided to get to the Harbor while it was still green tint there.Was a wet ride thru 25 mph winds and wite caps to North Gap.Was very rough fishing there so we ducked into the Buffalo River.At noon the rod on my side began to sing,after a short fight into the net she went.Then she twisted every hook up in the net bag and I had to cut 5 hook points on 7/0 treble's.Got on Legend Perchbait,that took awhile.The fish got extra stress because of this so I got a quick messurement and back into the water for revival.The fish came around so quick Chris could not get a picture of me holding her only this picture of her swimming back home! The winds went up to 35 mph + so we decided to get back to SBH before it possibly twisted the docks out of place,was a total wet ride back going into the wind with all the spray good thing it was not below freezing.Back out first time winds get below 25 mph !