Buffalo NY Fishing Report – Observations from 03/16 – 03/22/2026
Here’s our latest Buffalo NY fishing report: Hey folks — it’s officially spring, even if it doesn’t quite feel like it yet. This past week brought a mix of freezing temps, steady rain, and the usual blasts of ridiculous wind. Still, I managed to get on the water 3 days, so there’s plenty to break down.
The theme of the week? Reps. Putting in time now sets the stage for when things finally warm up. Action is creeping toward what I’d call “entertaining,” but not quite there. Weekend crowds made it tough to get a clean read on the pattern, but overall I’m optimistic about where this is heading.
Days on the water: 3
Who we fished with: friends/clients
Where we fished: Lower Niagara
What we caught: lake trout, brown trout, steelhead
Tactics: drifting live bait
Detailed Reporting/Daily Observations
03/16/2026 – Day Off
Marginal water clarity endured from the rain the weekend prior. Big wind out of the SW blew through the region as well. It was very warm though – until it shifted back to winter overnight.
03/17/2026 – Day Off
Temperatures dropped into the low 20s-upper teens and the wind continued to howl. I wasn’t booked but even if I was, we wouldn’t have fished. The water clarity improved markedly though.
03/18/2026 – Last Day Off for the Week
Water clarity continued to improve, and temperatures made it back above freezing. The day was nearly windless too. That set things up nicely for the following day.
03/19/2026 – What a Wonderful Day
Fished the Lower Niagara with the Whisperer, Bill, and Fred. The Whisperer has fished with me many times on the Lower Niagara, but this was Bill and Fred’s first endeavor down there. In fact, they asked him to get in touch with me to put this trip together (the Whisperer doesn’t do cold very often – unless it’s in a heated ice hut). I was happy to oblige.
Conditions couldn’t have been better for this time of year – crowds were minimal, the sun made an appearance more than a handful of times, water clarity was perfect, and there was very little wind. Bill and Fred got a solid dose of what the Lower has to offer when everything lines up perfectly. 
03/06/2026 – Day Off
Wasn’t booked – didn’t fish.
03/20/2026 – Should’ve Stayed Home Lol
Fished the Lower Niagara with Ryan and Jack. When Ryan and I talked the night before, the rain wasn’t supposed to show up until around 11 a.m., so we planned on a short morning and an easy exit before things got wet. Well… the forecast was wrong.
We barely had an hour of fishing in before the rain started — and once it did, it never let up. Action wasn’t much to speak of either: a handful of small browns and one solid fish. We pushed upriver into Devil’s Hole hoping the canyon walls would give us a little shelter – they didn’t. Then a big southwest wind kicked in, dropped the windchill, and turned the whole thing into a grind.
At one point Jack said, “my hands are stinging really bad,” and that pretty much summed it up. Conditions crossed the line from uncomfortable to untenable, so we pulled the plug early.
03/21/2026 – Pressure Cooker
Fished the Lower Niagara with Al, Bob, and John. While I was waiting for them in the lot, I chatted with a recreational angler who spends a ton of time down there. He shook his head and said, “What happened? It was so good in February.” My response: “We happened.”
I’ll be straight — there just aren’t a lot of fish in the Lower right now. The water is ice‑cold thanks to that giant Lake Erie ice cube melting day after day, and when you mix that with weekend crowds, any hopes of an action‑packed outing usually evaporate.
That said, I love fishing with Al, and the guys he brings are always the kind who show up ready to grind. And grind we did. We put fish in the net, though only a handful were worth a photo. All things considered, the day turned out about as well as it could have. The guys — like me — were just happy to be on the water.
Seasonal Assessment/General Observations
Illustrating Mud Flows in Spring
I’ll use this section this week to explain why parts of the river remain clear enough to fish (above the dams/Niagara Falls – Devils Hole) even when the regional tributaries flood and dump mud. If you look at a map of the eastern basin of Lake Erie, all the major sediment sources—Cattaraugus Creek, the Buffalo River, and the Erie Canal—sit on the New York/eastern shoreline of the lake and the Niagara River. There are tributaries on the Canadian side, but they’re small and contribute very little sediment.
Because those major systems enter on the eastern shoreline, and because westerly winds typically keep that water pinned to that side, the muddy flow hugs the east bank as the Niagara pulls water from Lake Erie. In Tonawanda and North Tonawanda, the Erie Canal adds even more sediment—again on the east bank. The result is a split: clearer water on one side of the river and muddy water on the other. You can see this clearly when driving along the river or crossing the Grand Island bridges.
Downstream, that muddy water continues along the Robert Moses Parkway and eventually reaches the NYPA intakes. Those intakes pull in the dirty water, send it underground into the reservoir, and later release it through the dams—downstream of Devils Hole. That’s why the stretch from just above the intakes, over the Falls, and down to the dams stays clear, while everything below the dams turns muddy.
The diagram should help make sense of the flow pattern. 
Ice is Disappearing Fast
One more note – Lake Erie experienced insanely fast ice melt this past week. Take a look at these products. Rain, warm temps, and wind got Lake Erie down to below 15% in about a week. It won’t be long before the ice booms come out. 
Buffalo NY Fishing Report – Forecast for 03/23/2026 – 03/29/2026
Next week is looking dicey – some good, some bad. I looks like winter doesn’t want to leave yet – more days than not will hover around the freezing mark. Winds look like they’ll be all over the place too – SW, E, NE, and NW. The middle of the week looks like it’ll be OK – beyond that, there will be some last minute calls. The long range forecast is super untrustworthy this time of year – hopefully, things will improve.
I’m booked most days and if the forecast holds, I’ll spend almost all of them on the Lower Niagara. I’m hopeful that I can get out on Lake Ontario at least once to say hi to some giant lakers. There’s a chance I’ll poke around on the Upper as well. Stay tuned!
Stay healthy, my friends. Mentally and physically,
Ryan
P.S. I made a lot of improvements to me website over the winter – I updated every page with new content. Poke around – if you fished with me last year, you might see your picture pop up on one or more sliders. I apologize for not putting a report out last week. I made a lot of changes to the format, but when I did, I messed up my entire fishing report history. Not sure why this happened, but I’m working on resolving it. If you have any recommendations for things you’d like me to change on these fishing reports – send me an email, give me a call, or message me.