Niagara Falls USA Fishing: Forecast for May 23, 2018 from Destination Niagara USA

• LOC Contest Winners Announced…BIG CASH WINNER$
• Big Salmon, Big Brown Trout, Big Walleye, Lots of Smallmouth
• It’s a Good Time to Be Fishing Niagara!

Congratulations to all of the derby and tournament winners! In the Wilson Harbor Invitational tournament last Saturday, it was Tom Allen’s A-Tom-Mik team winning the $20,000 check by scoring 162 points – based on 10 points a fish and a point per pound – for his 6 best salmon. Runner-up and earning a check for $10,000 was On The Rocks led by Capt. Mike Johannes of Ransomville. In the LOC Derby, the 28 pound, 10 ounce Oswego fish held up for the $15,000 Grand Prize – caught by Daniel Manti of Cortland. Salmon were being caught all around the lake. More than half of the salmon winners came from Niagara. Niagara Falls USA also produced the first place lake trout and the leading walleye. In the laker division, Steve Klejdys of North Tonawanda took top honors with a 22 pound, 5 ounce fish caught on the Niagara Bar. For walleye, it was Harry Crannell of Queensbury winning the division with a 12 pound, 1 ounce fish he also caught on the Niagara Bar.  Capt. Chris Vogt of Albion won the brown trout division with an 18 pound, 1 ounce fish caught out of Bald Eagle Marina in Orleans County.

Lake Ontario

After a crazy couple of weeks of salmon fishing on the lake, things slowed down a little bit as the waters need to set back up again following a northeast blow. Most consistent action has been to the northeast of Wilson and Olcott in 250-plus feet of water.  Capt. Mike Johannes of On the Rocks Charters, coming off a second place finish in the Wilson Harbor Invitational tournament last weekend, reported he had to go a bit deeper on Tuesday morning.  His best rigger was set at 80 feet down, divers were back 150 and he was hitting fish with 200 feet of copper wire out, too. Best baits were a Sea Sick Waddler and a 2-Face spoon. Everything was magnum size. Earlier, most of the fish were up high in the 30 to 60-foot range, with divers working the best getting spoons out away from the boat. Lake trout were stacked up on the Niagara Bar again, but there weren’t too many salmon around according to reports.

Next big events on the angling calendar include the Don Johannes-Pete DeAngelo Memorial Big Fish-Three Fish Contest on May 31 and the 34^th Annual Lake Ontario Pro-Am Salmon Team Tournament June 1-2. Check out www.lakeontarioproam.net. Deadline to register for the Pro-Am without a penalty/late fee is May 25.

Niagara River

Lower river trout and bass action continues to be good for boaters. Using three-way rigs, bounce bottom with minnows to take steelhead or lake trout. Lakers up to 17 pounds were reported this past week. Bass are hitting swim baits and tubes. White and silver jigs will work off the NYPA fishing platform for trout and bass. Silver bass were hitting along Artpark from shore. The Lewiston Landing area is still producing walleye at night on plastics. During the day, bass and sheepshead have been hitting zoom swim baits according to Gianni Etopio of Youngstown.

In the upper river, some big rudds have been hitting jigs, bass are all over the place and some walleye were hitting around Unity Island.  For smallmouth bass, use tubes or swim baits around Strawberry or Motor islands. At the head of the river, bass were being cooperative there, too.

Have a great holiday weekend!