Read Fishing Reports Weather for Oak Orchard . Water color has improved to about 1 plus feet of visibility. Best meat rig is a 10 white double crush glow green dot spindoctor, w/an Irish Thunder Twinkie rig behind it. All the water, at least in the fishable mile or so stretch below the dam on the Oak, is open and ice free. Look for more fish going to gravel on the no doubt water temp warm up this week. The picture of the week is from Catchn Hell Charters with a happy group of anglers from NJ on their annual trip to the Oak. In the spring while waiting for perfect conditions sometimes things only get worse, so if theres a reasonable fishing window consider hitting it sooner then later. Lots of snow across WNY from an area wide snow. Look for angling pressure to build likely toward this weekend. The rain is Lake Effect so as is often the case with snow most of it goes south of the area. Brown trout on an average are on the smaller side this year with a bigger one here and there mixed in. Last week, on good flows, there was good action, then tougher again thru the past weekend on higher flows and now this week before another potential rise in flows there are a few more guys out there getting scattered hook ups. This area will be on the far end of it. When that fish hit the deck, big boy hit the 200 diver and headed for Niagara county. Fishing pressure fairly heavy thru the past weekend and even thru yesterday but for this mid week period now with wetter weather looks quite a bit less., Tom and his crew from Pennsylvania joined us Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. No major chill down seen in the near term forecast and there is some rain or showers going over to snow showers forecast for Thursday and Friday. Ernie Calandrelli has been slapping the eyes with harnesses. Within a few minutes, an 8 lb steelhead hit and Bill was on his first Lake Ontario fish. Free reign for trout and salmon moving up and down the waterway of the turbine channel gives so many more angling opportunities immediately and in the future. 106. Landing a nice salmon today at the dam. Other area smaller tribs are dropping back toward low and clear and warming thru this week. (June 12-13) with the King of the Oak (KOTO) on Friday (6/11). Flows in the Oak are responding nicely to a few days of previous cold with dropping and clearing. Forecast is mostly clear thru the upcoming week, no significant impact expected from the upcoming east coast storm. Most noticeable drop will be the Oak since the Canal flows are also throttling back. Seems like the Kings just arent concentrated in any particular fast water spot in any trib and thats the tougher reports I hear from guys. Pier head foot soldiers may want to at least occasionally do an about face from lakeside casting at times to check the scene in the channel. May 21st is the scheduling for the canal opening. Chance of icing in select areas. Amazing how when the vegetation awakens and the runoff equation changes. No trolling gear required, you can get in on this action casting or drifting! Other hook ups weve heard about in the Oak include a few browns, some smallish Atlantics and a good sized steelhead or two. Herring Twinkie Fly rigs fooled some big uns! (Deadline for the Open was Monday, 6/7). Use white minnow rubber three inches long. Tuesdays fishing was EPIC despite it being a bit breezy. On the backside of this latest cold weather and accompanying wind, the land lubber casters and small boat trollers and small boat casters should be able to get back on those near shore brown trout in semi stained water while the cooler water and bait hangs around. Fishing has been a challenge. Boaters are asked to use the Oak Orchard State Marine Park on the WEST side of the River on Archbald Rd. Please check our website, at visitoswegocounty.com, for the current CFS. Chance of rain mid week and if there is a significant amount of precipitation flows in all the area tribs could be back on the rise and going off color. No icing anywhere and the downstream slow water is wide open. For now, cool weather and cool water action is hanging on and theres no serious warmup forecast in the near future. Theres no obvious movement of fish around the Oak rivermouth either, although there has been a few Kings caught there by the casting foot soldiers. Mixed sizes today with a couple in the 10 lb range and a couple around 28 lbs, most were in the 15 to 18 lbs. Fish have been taking mostly spoons with a few meat and flasher/fly mixed in. The bite was not hot and heavy but we picked at a few steelhead as we approached the 30 line. For more information contact the fire station at 35 E. Cayuga St. by calling 315-343-2161. The bend in the rod didnt feel like an average steelhead and we were thinking a decent king salmon was on the line. As of 8/23/21, the current leader of the Fall LOC Derby is Theresa Hoodley from Pottstown, PA with a 32 lb 2 oz Salmon, weighed in at Wilson. Thru the past weekend we heard of guys getting steelhead hookups nearer the dam including a few good fish. Capt Ryan Bostain checked in with a report for the San Diego for their 3/4 day trip today down south, we ended the day with 103 Yellowtail for our efforts. The Port Bay pier (small) is at the end of West Port Bay Road and the Sodus Bay pier (long) are places to cast out heavy spoons. Fishing pressure not bad, as mentioned above we may be in a bit of a lull between ending salmon efforts and starting brown trout efforts. This weeks report is from Ron Bierstine from Oak Orchard Tackle & Lodge: The last shot of rain was Sunday and theres been some cooler weather for the beginning part of this week. More importantly he shares his expertise on what lures have been successful for him and his crew. Fish as soon as reasonable conditions allow instead of waiting for supposed better conditions that may or may not materialize. Rick Hajecki from Crazy Yankee Sportfishing. Flows in the Oak are clearing slowly and hanging in somewhere between med and slightly high. Seasonably cold is forecast thru about mid week so those bumped up flows are already on the retreat though. Looks like a nice fishing window right now in those smaller tribs that normally might be frozen up this time of the season. Hard copies can be requested by emailing FWFish@dec.ny.gov. So it sounds a little like an improvement from a struggle for a hook up to getting a few. So anglers can mix it up with that turbine tunnel action at the dam or they can work their way downstream for more traditional drifts thru holes and runs. Our best set up was a 10 white double crush glow Spindoctor with A-TOM-MIK glow warship twinkie head. New open Lake steelhead creel limits should help overall survivability too. The Clubs cooperation with out of the area fishermen is truly above board and greatly appreciated by all! Alex found offshore bait, then a couple pockets of fish each day with the bait. No real change yet seen in Oak upstream headwater flows but shortly Canal water will run out and Id be looking for some kind of continued lowering flows by end of week or weekend that is without any new significant precipitation for runoff. Look for cooperative wind and wave action now and thru mid week with chance for higher wind forecast at the end of the week and subsequent tougher dirtier water chances. Flows in the Oak down just a touch, maybe some of that love from Canal water being shared with Johnson Creek is responsible for that. Water temps have remained downright cool late into this season despite up and down flows. Lets hope the weather keeps serving up the so-far good fishing chances! A few Kings now are in a spawning mode and likely with the next consistent cool down, therell be a whole lot more. Point Breeze/Orleans County/east side boat launch is still closed while construction is hopefully soon to wrap up. We are surely going to have water for high and off color flows when the weather breaks toward spring. The other area smaller waterways have mod to med flows and are slightly stained at 2+ feet of viz. Upstream action so far mainly for a few fish at the dam. For information on fishing Great Lakes tributaries, visit the DEC website. Expect water level fluctuations thanks to hydro power operations and whats been a delayed leaf fall. Albion, NY 14411 The NYS Canal Corporation releases water from the Erie Canal into Lake Ontario Tributaries in Western New York on an extended and pulsed schedule each fall to enhance trout and salmon fishing opportunities. Just prior to the lowering of flows, guys reported steelhead hook ups at the dam and overflow pools and scattered downstream thru the fast water gravel stretches for spawning fish. Divers: 220-240, 400 coppers. The other area smaller tribs have good looking med and slightly stained flows for now and likewise should be dropping back toward mod or lower and clearer. End of week there is the chance for mixed bag precipitation and Lake Effect Snow for the weekend. The longer those fish stay in the overflow pool, they harder they become to get out. Mike Ziehm of Niagara Falls reports that he is still getting some salmon and walleye from shore in the gorge casting spinners and jigs. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Then theres the building King numbers at the dam, fish numbers probably outpacing the creeling pressure to this point. We are hearing of a few more browns now in the Oak, especially thru yesterday. Next better chance at real rain is this weekend. The state is funding the effort as part of the Lake Ontario Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer. With no real winter to come out of and trib and open lake water temps all on the warmer side, who knows for sure how the steelhead gods will play things out over the next couple months?! Centrally located along the southern shore of Lake Ontario between Rochester and Niagara Falls in the town of Carlton, Oak Orchard Tackle & Lodge offers quality fly fishing equipment, conventional tributary drift tackle, float fishing gear and shoreline casting tackle. You can see the Canal drainage influence in the stained color but Canal release flows sure look more tempered in the smaller tribs then say the Oak. Salmon are stacked up in Olcott Harbor and spinners are working for shore casters. Hard copies can be requested by emailing FWFish@dec.ny.gov. With the lake conditions ideal for offshore fishing, we headed out to the 27 line and trolled north.