Buffalo NY Fishing Report – Observations from 11/18/2024 – 11/24/2024
Here’s our latest Buffalo NY fishing report:
Awesome week! Mother Nature injected a little chaos here and there but overall, every outing was excellent. Trout slams are becoming more common, the bass continue to eat so much they’re scales look like they’re going to bust, and the boat traffic is starting to diminish a bit. Although the peak fall action has been slow to arrive, I think it’s just now starting to get wild. Keep reading for more details.
Days on the water: 5
Who we fished with: friends/clients
Where we fished: Lower Niagara
What we caught: smallmouth bass, lake trout, steelhead, brown trout
Tactics: drifting bait, jigging bucktails, swimbaits, and blade baits, casting crank baits, drifting beads, pulling plugs
Detailed Reporting/Daily Observations
11/18/2024 – Fished the Lower Niagara out of Lewiston, NY with Matt, Jim, and Ryan. The trout bite started off really slow so we switched things up and fished for bass for a little while. That bite was ridiculously good – both for size and numbers. Matt caught the biggest smallie I’ve boated this fall. Eventually, that smallie bite died off so we returned to trout fishing and ended the day strong.
11/19/2024 – Fished the Lower Niagara out of Lewiston, NY with Sam and Brad. Conditions were perfect – minus an east wind that made it tough to target bass and to get out on the bar. Still, the trout complied all day and we were able to find a little pocket where we could get into some smallies.
11/20/2024 – Fished the Lower Niagara out of Lewiston, NY with Steve and Alex. It was windless and crowded so I decided to pull plugs through deeper water away from the crowds to start the day – it was awesome! However, there was little diversity of species throughout the day.
11/21/2024 – Fished the Lower Niagara out of Lewiston, NY with Steve and Ethan. Late the night prior, a big windstorm passed through the region and kicked up 8’+ waves on Lake Erie. Unfortunately, those couple hours of chaos stained the water heavily. Steve and Ethan live in New Hampshire and have been fishing with me for a few years now. Unfortunately, around half their trips have been affected by some wild shift in weather, leaving us to work through a mess.
We ended up fishing heavily stained water though raging current. However, those conditions ended up being beneficial in that we could drift places that don’t have current on calm days. The bass bite was ridiculously good, but the trout bite was tough. I’m glad these 2 are good sticks because it would’ve been a bust otherwise.
11/22/2024 – Day off. Facing stiff N winds, cold temperatures, and consistent rain, we opted to reschedule the trip.
11/23/2024 – Fished the Lower Niagara out of Lewiston, NY with Nick, Wayne, and Chad. Simply put, it was the best Lower Niagara session for me this fall. Diversity of species – check. Good sticks – check. Consistent action – check. Unexpectedly nice weather – check. Minimal crowds – check. GOOD TIMES!
11/24/2024 – Day off. Clients cancelled earlier in the week. Didn’t end up filling it. A big WNW was blowing all day – I was happy to stay out of that anyway.
Seasonal Assessment/General Observations
On the Conditions
Since I stayed on the Lower Niagara all week, I don’t have a ton of observations. However, I did see a couple trends. Here they are:
- The trout continue to be in full spawn mode. Every female we caught was loaded with eggs. Every fish we caught had a mouthful of eggs. If you aren’t fishing beads – start.
- The steelhead numbers are finally starting to increase in the Lower Niagara. We boated quite a few on Saturday. That timing makes sense due to the presence of so many eggs on the bottom. In case you didn’t know – all those eggs rolling around on the bottom is why steelhead run the rivers this time of year.
- The bass keep getting fatter and fatter. The water is still in the low 50s so live bait remains my presentation of choice. I think they have a few more weeks of growth to go, but they look like they’re getting close to busting through their scales right now lol.
- If you’ve been fishing lately and plan to do more in the upcoming weeks, introduce some variety in your day and pull/drift plugs. It’s a blast and will keep you outside of the crowds if you do it in the right places.
- As of this writing, the water is 52 degrees coming out of Lake Erie. In other words, it only dropped 1 degree from last week. It’s a couple degrees warmer than it’s been since we started recording lake temperatures in the 1920s. Likely, that’s what has kept the steelhead numbers at bey, until very recently.
- The Lake Ontario bar has yet to load up with fish. That zone is way behind compared to previous years. Plus, the wind has made it tough to get out there on most days. The best is yet to come.
Buffalo NY Fishing Report – Forecast for 11/24/2024 – 12/01/2024
Forecast Commentary
If this forecast holds, it looks like we’re going to finally get hit with the first bout of COLD weather and maybe some snow by the end of the week. Although I’m not stoked about a deep freeze coming, we need it.
As I mentioned above, the water is still warm (for this time of year that is). This upcoming cold snap should drop the water temperature a few degrees and make that environment a little more inviting for trout and maybe even kings. Fingers crossed that we’ll see this happen by week’s end.
I’m booked every day, minus Tuesday, and I’ll likely spend all of them on the Lower Niagara. There are a couple days on the docket where I might be able to convince folks to fish Erie, but that’s doubtful. Big winds and precipitation are far more comfortable to fish though in the shelter of the lower Niagara.
Happy Thanksgiving folks! If you’re going to start Christmas shopping this week, don’t forget that I sell gift certificates. The process is easy. Give me a call to discuss.
Stay healthy my friends – mentally and physically,
Ryan