My first fishing report this year

[Tony Scime]

Got my boat out for the first time this year. My first trip out is typically to make sure everything is in good working order.

Well, the motors started and ran well. All the electronics worked. The boat floated. So good so far. Also got my season launching pass. I think I'm ready for musky season.

And it was a beautiful day. Bright sunshine. Light breeze. Water was high and clear.

I spent a few hours in the Donnelly's Wall area for early season smallmouths. I usually do quite well. I caught one 17 inch bass in about 4 hours. I would usually catch 20 or more in these conditions. Strictly drop-shot Gulp minnows. I finished with the same minnow I started with. That's quite unusual. But it wasn't me nor the minnow.

There were quite a few other boats out. The catching was few and far between. Did see one boat catching fish early on at the very southern tip of DW, but in a very tight area. Many boats were hugging the Bird Island Pier drift, usually a fairly productive drift,  but not much happening there this day. Another boat was trolling circles in the area. I usually see them consistently catch fish. Didn't see one hookup for them yesterday.

Last year at this time I caught many and large bass in the same area (I posted a couple videos last year). Hope yesterday wasn't an omen of this year's bass fishing.

[John Jarosz]

Tony...were you seeing any clouds of minnows this year?  From what I've been reading on other forums, there are plenty of minnows in the River but the ones in L.E. are starting to become scarce.

[Tony Scime]

John,

I launch my boat at the Tonawanda Boat launch at the foot of Sheridan. There were lots of minnows around the docks.

The only area I saw minnows in the Harbor area I was fishing was the southern end of Donnely's Wall. The water was quite clear and it was sunny out, so the minnows might have been in deeper water?

Tony