From trophy trout and salmon to smallmouth bass and walleye, every species of fish that…
Weekly Fishing Report
Each week, catch up on a full report on where to fish, popular baits and lures, weather conditions and upcoming fishing tournaments and derbies.
Niagara Falls USA Weekly Fishing Report For January 1, 2025
Happy New Year! Be forewarned that on January 1, the daily walleye limit in the lower Niagara River drops from three to one fish to help protect large spawning females. Most of these reports came before the high winds hit Monday, changing the water conditions to marginal at best.
Alan Raymond with the Wicked Worm in Youngstown reports rainbows are becoming more prevalent all along the river and chartreuse beads seem to be the trick. Browns are still biting near the Coast Guard station on beads or white plastics behind a jig head. It’s been a tricky week for Artpark and the surrounding area but it’s still producing some lakers and a good amount of rainbows. Beads/egg sacs seem to be doing the trick. The Youngstown shoreline has been yielding multiple smallmouth bass and an occasional Northern pike.
Capt. Tyler Siegmann of CGF Guide Service reported that the last blowout we had weather-wise brought a lot of fish into the system. Last week he did well along the Artpark and Stella drifts totaling 30 steelhead caught between 2 days of fishing, mostly on beads and egg sacs. Another day was a slower bite for steelhead but he picked up a handful of lakers and brown trout fishing Kwikfish and minnows on the bar off three-way rigs. The water was a beautiful green tint with a few feet of visibility, but that has started to change with the winds on Monday.
Mike Ziehm of Niagara Falls river was fishing the gorge on Monday and reported that the water was high and the water clarity went from 5 feet down to around 2 feet with all the rain and southwest winds. He landed 3 steelhead and a walleye in the morning on his No. 4 chartreuse and pink mix spinners. On Friday he landed one steelie and a bunch of lake trout on chartreuse No. 4 spinners. The day before that, he reeled in several nice steelheads all on spinners.
Wade Winch of North Tonawanda was on the lower river over the weekend, and he did well on steelhead using yellow and chartreuse beads of various sizes fished off three-way rigs. He then switched over to minnows and caught walleyes and brown trout. The water conditions were excellent. The only downfall was the large number of anglers on the Niagara Bar where he saw very few fish caught. The clear water probably spread the bait out and made things more difficult. Target drifts or areas with fewer boats.
The Salmon School set for February 13-16 at the Greater Niagara Fishing Expo is now sold out, but there are still seats available for the walleye school on those same dates. Check out www.niagarafishingexpo.com for details on the school.
Sign up for a fishing tournament or derby in Niagara Falls USA. See the full schedule of events here.