September 14, um, bass fishing report

[Tony Scime]

My brother and his son, Chad, are in town this weekend to help repair my mother's deck. My nephew Chad likes to fish so we decided to go out on Friday before the front passed through. It would be easier to work on the deck with the sun out on Saturday, anyways.

My nephew's from Michigan, so the first strategic decision was whether he should get an Ontario or a NY license. The forecast was for the wind to kick-up in the afternoon, so I though we'd go with the NY license, where we might have more protection from the wind (wrong about that - they were quite northerlies). Also, if we tried for muskies, I thought we'd have a better chance in the east river.

My nephew's never caught a muskie so we started by taking a troll down the east river. Not really a good idea for a non-troller - lots of weeds. So after one run we decided to head up river and give bass fishing a try. Afterall, we were there to have a little fun (muskie fishing isn't always fun?).

I haven't really fished the river for bass in almost 30 years, and I've heard that it's better than it used to be? (I like jo jo's use of question marks, I think it's catching on). Back in the early 80s I did a lot of river bass fishing in the summer, and caught quite a few, but my biggest was 18" (which I still think is a big river bass). The past few years I've done a lot of bass fishing, but all in the Lake. So I was sort of anxious about trying the river (and I do get a little envious at times watching other boats catch bass while I'm trying to catch a muskie).

We started in the deep water south of Strawberry adjacent to Ontario Street. We drop-shot gulp minnows. First drift my nephew catches an 18"er. He matches my biggest river bass ever! As long as were catching fish we figure why move, plus floating weeds were not a problem like they'd be farther down river. We kept catching 2 or 3 bass of various sizes  every drift, with the larger fish coming from deeper water. At the beginning of one drift I hooked onto a nice fish which made a little jump, and saw that it was a sizable specimen. I told Chad that his big fish lead may be in jeopardy (we compete for the largest, smallest, most fish and most inches). The fish was 19.5"s - my biggest river bass ever! I tell him that I have the big-fish lead all locked up for sure, no way he beats 19.5 in the river.

As the front closed in, the fish really starting hitting. My nephew hit three 15 to 18"ers in rapid succession (he takes the lead on numbers and inches). On the end of the drift he hooks another that's taking him a long time to get in. I figure his drag is too loose (I tighten it a bit). But he sees it's a big fish. Oh, oh. Should I really net it? He already had a big enough lead. Well, I net it. Butt-boarded measuremnt at 20-1/4"s. Boy, the river has really changed. A 19.5 and a 20+ on the same day.

After the front passed and the north wind really kicked in, the fish kept hitting, but not the big ones. We caught a lot of 10 to 14"ers. We left just before the heavy rain came in. Chad won most fish, largest fish, smallest fish, and most inches (he beat me by 94"s - ouch!).

When I took my niece out in the lake last summer she caught a 22"er, larger than any summer bass I ever caught in the lake. And now my nephew catches a 20"+ river smallie, larger than any I ever caught (which was the 19.5).

I guess I'll have to keep a bass rod in the boat and keep trying. 

[Scott McKee]

Stick to the Lake, Scime!  Nice day!  Chartreuse and green?  You should enter a bass tournament next year and fish with a complete stranger.  They may pop a few 24-inchers for your bag.  Have you thought of taking Jon bass fishing to remind him of what it's like to catch fish in the River?  On second thought, he may refuse to musky fish again.

We stayed down the east River all day and didn't do nearly as well as you.  My experience with the wind switch was similar to yours; more smaller fish.  We were fishing near the water intakes by Tonawanda Island when the wind shifted.  The River was  a mess there.  With the temperature dropping and the River rolling, I longed to musky fish, but Bruce loves his bass.  Tonight I get to torture him with one really looonnnggg troll.

Here's our plan for tonight: We are going to troll from UN1 to UN whatever until it's dark, run to Bayer Creek and troll back.  Big surprise, huh?  I really hope they didn't cut in the Harbor yesterday?  On Wednesday I went in the water to check the suspended weeds first hand; almost non-existent?  We were getting twenty plus minutes of clean lures?  I fear tonight may be much less?  Oh well?  (You're right is it catching on?)

Good luck tonight everyone and Tony, stay out of the damn River for bass!

[Tony Scime]

We caught all our bass on black/white colors. I tried green/chartruese and watched my nephew catch fish after fish while I went fishless. So I switched back to black/white, but it was too late to catch up.

[Scott McKee]

Interesting.  The chartreuse and green bite has dried up for us recently.  Last year we couldn't keep them off this combo.