Buffalo NY Fishing Report – Observations from 10/13/2025 – 10/19/2025
Here’s our latest Buffalo NY fishing report: This past week delivered a classic mix of fall conditions — solid action, variable weather, and a bit of corrective maintenance drama to keep things interesting. Most of the time was spent on the Lower Niagara, targeting kings with focused effort and decent success. While numbers in the river aren’t what they used to be, putting in the time continues to produce a few solid hookups. A quick run to Lake Erie out of Barcelona showed that walleyes are still stacked in the eastern basin, with some quality lake trout mixed in deeper. Water temperatures continue to drop, the leaves are changing (and falling), and wind is starting to howl. The fall transition is progressing steadily, and the best is still to come.
Days on the water: 5
Who we fished with: friends/clients
Where we fished: Lake Erie, Lower Niagara River
What we caught: king salmon, lake trout, walleye, smallmouth bass
Tactics: Trolling downriggers, divers and planer boards with harnesses and spoons; drifting live bait and skein; casting deep diving crankbaits
Detailed Reporting/Daily Observations
10/13/2025 – Up from Mississippi
Fished a half day trip on the lower Niagara with Henry and Besty. This wonderful couple was up from Mississippi on a NY fall foliage tour and decided to book a fishing trip while they were in WNY. I’m very happy they did. We had a blast – and managed a few biggies in our short session. Awesome morning! 
10/14/2025 – Day 1 of Steve and Bruce’s Trip
Fished the Lower Niagara with Steve and Bruce, in town from Maryland. When Steve booked the trip, he told me that catching a king salmon with his older brother was on his bucket list. I told him that I’d be happy to oblige, but that it might be a struggle as king salmon fishing in the river isn’t what it used to be. Still, I let him know that I was confident that if we focused strictly on kings, we’d likely catch a couple. So, we went for it. King salmon – bucket list – check! 
10/15/2025 – Day 2 of Steve and Bruce’s Trip
Fished a half day trip on Lower Niagara with Steve and Bruce. The weather didn’t cooperate – stiff N winds kicked up white caps from the boat launch all the way down to the lake. That kept us confined to Devils Hole. The kings weren’t nearly as cooperative as they were the day prior. We made a couple connections but only managed to land one.
10/16/2025 – Maintenance Day
When I got off the water the day prior, I noticed that my boat was leaning hard toward the starboard side on the trailer. Upon further inspection, I saw that the rear starboard wheel of the trailer was flush to the wheel well. I got under the trailer and located the problem – the leaf spring for that tire was snapped.
Unfortunately, I had to cancel my trip for this day to get my trailer fixed. Here’s a big shout out to Falls Auto Spring to taking care of me/getting me operational in short order.
10/17/2025 – Back to Barci
Fished Lake Erie out of Barcelona Harbor for walleyes and lake trout with Bill and Derrick. When I spoke with Bill the night prior, I gave him a couple options – fish out of Buffalo for smallmouth bass and maybe some walleyes; fish the lower Niagara for kings, walleyes, and bass; or fish Lake Erie out of Barci for ‘nessie and her cousins plus some walleyes. He chose wisely.
Erie was bigger than forecasted – there were consistent 1-3’ waves with the occasional 4’er – rolling from the S. We set up in around 90’ and angled our way out to deeper water. Like my previous visits in the past couple weeks, walleyes were dominant at first – we managed a 2-man limit in no time. As we got deeper, more and bigger lakers showed up. The boys went home with sore arms and wild memories. Awesome day!
10/18/2025 – Ryan and Jack are BACK!
Fished a half day trip on the Lower Niagara with Ryan and Jack – regular readers of this blog are familiar with these guys by now. They wanted a crack at catching a king in the hole, so we went for it. Jack picked up a walleye on his second cast – it was small, and it was also dark still, so I didn’t take a pic. About an hour later, Ryan got a nice king. After another hour of grinding, we went downstream and caught a couple tanker smallmouth and my first brown of the season. Gand slam achieved!
10/19/2025 – Weather Day
Huge SSW winds gusting into the upper 30mph range, a small craft advisory, and a gale warning forced me to reschedule my trip. Fishing the river would’ve been the only option – even then, the current would’ve been super-fast so I was happy to take a day off.
Seasonal Assessment/General Observations
For the second week in a row, I spent most of my time on the lower Niagara, but was able to poke around once on Erie. Not much has changed since my last report, but here are a couple of notes:
- No change on salmon – they are thick in the tributaries now from the Oak to 18. I wouldn’t say they’re thick in the Niagara – but if you put in a day’s work, you’ve got a good chance at catching one or two, maybe three.
- The water temperature dropped a few more degrees this past week. As of this writing, the river is flowing around 62 degrees. That’s a little warmer than the historical average, but not by much. It’s been warmer – it’s also been colder this time of year.
- Unfortunately, I didn’t target smallmouth bass on Erie this past week – so I don’t have much to report there. From the handful of my colleagues who did – the bite has been hit or miss – but big fish are getting caught daily.
- Walleyes are still thick in the eastern basin. I didn’t fish out of Buffalo, NY this past week so I don’t know if they’re there still. However, a couple of my colleagues fished out of the Catt and Dunkirk and got easy limits. They were thick when I fished out of Barcelona. I’m not going to say they were loaded out there but we got our limit with ease.
Buffalo NY Fishing Report – Forecast for 10/20/2025 – 10/26/2025
Forecast Commentary
Every October, a wild multi-day wind event barrels through the region – somewhere in the upper teens to low twenties of the month. Well, that’s underway. From today through what might end up being Thursday, HUGE winds out of the west will ravage WNY. Waves over 10’ will kick up on Erie and the current of the Niagara will rage. This will certainly cause me to cancel/reschedule some trips.
It always sucks canceling/rescheduling trips, but there’s a silver lining to this crappy weather. For one, it’ll stain the water – perhaps prohibitively so for a few days – but it should clear up to fishable levels by the weekend. That’s good news – we’ve been fishing SUPER CLEAR water for months now. That shock to the system will give us anglers an advantage in the upcoming days. Secondly, the Niagara needs some raging currents to flush out all the loose/dying weeds.
I’m optimistic that I’ll be on the water again before the weekend. I doubt Lake Erie will lie down enough to fish prior to the weekend so I’ll likely get a weekday outing in the river – either the upper or lower. Gotta stay flexible this time of year!
Stay healthy my friends – mentally and physically,
Ryan
NOTICE: My spring calendar is already heavily booked. I’m not sure how/why it happened so early this year, but a lot of folks have been proactive and reaching out well in advance of the season to book a prime date. If you’re interested in experiencing spring insanity and want to ensure you have a date, please get in touch soon.