King Caught at the mouth of the Niagara River

[tincandan]

Just read Bill Hilts' fishing report, and apparently an 18 lb. King was caught at the mouth of the Niagara River. Maybe a good omen for the up-coming open water salmon season?

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[GAMBLER]

It was on the LOC facebook page.  The lake is way warmer this year than the last two.  It is even warmer than 2012 at this time. 

[Gill-T]

I am pissed!  I have a picture of the fish on my phone that Vince sent me.  I was hoping to catch the first King in the lake tomorrow.  Oh well.  Beautiful specimen.

[Sea-IV]

This is the king that was caught. Pulled off the LOC page

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

Beautiful specimen caught right next to me on Frank Campbells boat. It looked to be a chunky female entering its 3rd and final Summer. His solo angler elected to keep it so we examined it at cleaning station. Maturing female naturally produced(no adipose clip), with 2 large smelt in it and several gizzard shad which are what the lakers are gorging on currently. It was 39 degree water flowing from river. Looks like any 3 or 4 yr olds out there will be carrying some LBs this season. 

[TileMan Dan]

Whats is "LB's"? Pardon my ignorance.

[Sk8man]

abbreviation for pounds

[TileMan Dan]

Duh?!!! Thanks, Les. Head is totally up there on this one .

[fishdawg]

It's been a crazy month at the Bar, since early December I've heard of at least 15 kings ranging from 5-20lbs being caught.

[Xxx]

Well that's some encouraging news for the 2016 season. We are going to get some colder weather but as GAMBLER said the water is quite warm for this time of the year. I hope it will be easier on everything making for a better year. The only thing I did like about last year was the walleye spawn was really late last year due to the weather. Which gave us guys a good year last year. Let's hope she does a big turn for the good with this winter so far.

[Paul Czarnecki]

While I LOVE seeing kings caught in December and January--especially chunky ones like the one Frank's client caught, we need to keep in mind that our overall numbers of kings are still WAY down.

The one glimmer of hope we have for this year is the warm winter will allow the cohos to put on some weight and actually be a viable fishery this May.

[Storm Warning II]

Why do we think numbers are way down? The May Niagara flow fishing was awesome last may for two year olds and it seemed to dissipate for the rest of the season from there. I would tend to believe we ought to see a good class of 3 yr olds this year

[GAMBLER]

On top of kings putting on weight, the YOY alewive will survive. The last two years, the survival rate has been poor. We are right on track to follow the 2011-2012 winter. The 2012 class of 1 year old alewives was HUGE. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

[Paul Czarnecki]

Why do we think numbers are way down? The May Niagara flow fishing was awesome last may for two year olds and it seemed to dissipate for the rest of the season from there. I would tend to believe we ought to see a good class of 3 yr olds this year

The fishing last May was only good for about 2 weeks Matt. When the fish dispersed so did the fishing. Fishing all summer long was "dispersed".

With the warm winter don't expect to see a great concentration of fish on the Canadian side or the American side of the Niagara flow. Without the ice water coming out of Erie the fish will be dispersed all over the lake. Expect to see kings in "brown trout water" all along the southern shore as far East as Oswego and Mexico.

Of course, all that could change with two or three weeks of sustained east winds. [emoji15]

Edited January 9, 2016 by Paul Czarnecki

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

Why do we think numbers are way down? The May Niagara flow fishing was awesome last may for two year olds and it seemed to dissipate for the rest of the season from there. I would tend to believe we ought to see a good class of 3 yr olds this year

 

Last fall saw a great majority of STOCKED Kings mature in their second year, it didn't seem to be as extreme a proportion in the wild population. There will always be wild swings in the naturally produced population, but concerned interests all around the lake are looking at different ways to increase survival of the planted Chinnys. We are hoping for the best.

[Storm Warning II]

We fished out of Olcott from the week of Wilson through Memorial Day weekend and it was easy limit city with the only exception being WHI day (go figure). It was predominantly 2 yr olds with a number im first year recruiting class. Time will tell...

Edited January 10, 2016 by Storm Warning II

[Yankee Troller]

I've seen a few Kings taken on the bar in recent weeks besides this one. Gets the blood flowing. Although I'll disagree with Paul on the Spring fishery this past season I'll agree with his assessment about the rest of the year, and the fact the numbers are way down. We can sit here and debate why they are, but I think we've had enough of that in other threads. The truth of the matter is we wont truly know until September if we're right or not. In the meantime lets all hope for a better season!

Edited January 11, 2016 by Yankee Troller

[Gill-T]

From our foray out deep Saturday morning, I would say the baby kings are doing ok.  There appeared to be some surface bait to keep them growing over the winter. 

[big easy]

We fished out of Olcott from the week of Wilson through Memorial Day weekend and it was easy limit city with the only exception being WHI day (go figure). It was predominantly 2 yr olds with a number im first year recruiting class. Time will tell...

 

We also fished from Olcott to the bar on the last 9 days of May and hammered the Kings. The sizes were down a bit but the numbers were great.

It was the remainder of the season that went down hill ( especially the fall) August for us was terrible even the offshore steelie fishing that we could always depend on sucked.

last season was identical to the year before in lousy fishing.

I'm hoping things change for the better this coming season