Buffalo NY Fishing Report – Observations from 11/24/2024 – 12/01/2024
Here’s our latest Buffalo NY fishing report: It was a week of cold, wind, rain, snow, poor water clarity, and an unfortunate number of risk averse decisions (on my part). I only ended up fishing 2 days this past week. Had I not been so wary of Mother Nature’s wrath, it could’ve been at least 5 days…if not all 7. I’m anxious and a little let down, but I’ll get over it. December is an awesome month for angling around here and the crappy weather won’t last forever. Keep reading for more details.
Days on the water: 2
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
11/25/2024 – Fished the Lower Niagara out of Lewiston, NY with Jack, Jack Jr. and Olivia. They did awesome, but Olivia had herself A DAY! I’ve been fishing with this crew for a few years now. It’s been awesome watching her get better year after year. 
11/26/2024 – Day off.
11/27/2024 – Had clients coming in from Alabama. A couple of days prior to the trip, the forecast looked bad. Winds were supposed to blow up to 30mph out of the southwest the day prior to our scheduled day. They saw this forecast too and were rightfully concerned that a trip up here might end up a bust. I empathized with their position, so we opted to reschedule. It ended up being a good day – those that went for it had strong sessions.
11/28/2024 – Booked a last minute, half day trip on the Lower Niagara with Steve and his son Henry. It rained for the first 2 hours and we had wind blowing out of the north in the teens. Water clarity was borderline, but very fishable. Still, for some reason, we struggled. 
11/29/2024 – 2 days prior to execution, I discussed what I saw in the forecast with my clients. The wind looked like it was going to be horrendous and the daytime highs looked like they might peak in the low 30s. So, we decided to reschedule. Unfortunately, that forecast didn’t come to pass. It turned out to be a nice day for this time of year. The guys that went for it had strong sessions on the Lower Niagara.
11/30/2024 – I had clients that were supposed to come in from Connecticut. Leading up to the trip, I saw a forecast that included a couple days of 8’+ waves on Lake Erie with the potential of a big dump of lake effect snow. I thought for sure the system would be trashed and that it would’ve been painful to fish through. My clients saw the same thing and didn’t want to suffer through that so we cancelled. It ended up being fishable and the other captains that went for it caught fish on the Lower Niagara. I’m glad we didn’t execute the trip though, their commute home would have been treacherous.
11/24/2024 – Feet of Lake effect snow fell the night prior. Big wind out of the SW kicked up 8’+ waves the whole day prior and in turn, reduced water visibility to about a foot. Plus, my clients for the day live in the south towns where there was (is) a driving ban. We cancelled the trip.
Seasonal Assessment/General Observations
Every year, when the temperatures drop rapidly and the first days of highs-around-the-freezing-mark show up, chartering gets complicated. I’ve been booked every single day in recent weeks, but only ended up executing a fraction of those trips. Why? Risk aversion to be blunt. Caring for the welfare of my clients/ensuring my clients have a good time is the more considerate way of phrasing it.
On Transparency
Why I Think Transparency is the Best Policy
I learned long ago that transparency is paramount in this business. By transparency, I mean that I am brutally honest with my clients about what to expect. I’m this way for a couple reasons.
For one, I’ve booked MANY guides on my travels around this country. Unfortunately, I’ve had a handful of bad experiences. Sometimes, it was because guides took me out in conditions where catching fish was an unlikely outcome. Other times, guides didn’t consider that I booked flights, rental cars, and lodging, and didn’t encourage me to reschedule even though the forecast was dicey at best. The only way for me to take that as a client was that the guide wanted to get paid, regardless of the potential outcome.
Secondly, I’m sensitive to the fact that folks are planning on spending their hard-earned money on a trip with me. Plus, logistics can be complicated for some folks. People have to take time off of work, arrange for childcare, buy licenses, equip themselves, etc. It gets even more complicated when folks are travelling here as there are potential sunk costs with flights and lodging if we don’t end up fishing/make the final call in a timely manner.
Being transparent is just good business in my opinion. Sharing the decision-making process with my clients allows them to know where I stand and empowers them to make the best choice. However, being transparent isn’t without its pitfalls.
Where Transparency can…Hurt
Although I think transparency is the best policy, there’s a way to do it in a way that benefits both the client and my business…and I’m still trying to master that balance. For example, almost all the days that involve making a tough call about going out involve the air temperature, precipitation, and wind.
Air temperature, precipitation, and wind are only a big factor around the Buffalo Niagara Region from mid-November – late March. Many folks want to fish during this period in the hopes of catching big trout – lake trout, brown trout, steelhead, and sometimes – king salmon. So, if a client wants to catch these fish, preparation is key.
When folks book a trip during this period, I explain to them that weather is going to be a factor, and they must prepare for it accordingly. However, a significant percentage of folks listen to me, then forget about it shortly thereafter. So, when we get close to execution, they see a forecast that is calling for temperatures in the 30s with a chance of snow and lose interest/freak out and decide they want to reschedule…even though those temperatures/conditions are the norm for that time of year. I get it – I empathize with those thoughts. Still, both parties lose out. The client misses out on an awesome experience. I lose income.
Final Thoughts
Perhaps I’m overly sensitive to the concerns of my clients and could be a little more rigid on what I consider go and no-go criteria. If I’m being completely honest, there was a time when my level of concern was loosely related to how profitable the year had been. In other words, if I don’t check myself, and I’ve had a lackluster season for earnings, I may gamble and execute trips in suboptimal conditions that I wouldn’t execute if I had a good season. Business is good these days, so I tend to play out the hands that I can win.
Still, it’s painful for me to cancel or reschedule. I’m aware of how that affects my clients, so I’m not happy about the friction injected into their lives. I’m also left stir crazy and wondering if I was too conservative when I find out that my colleagues decided to go for it when I didn’t – especially when that means I lost out on thousands of dollars of income.
So why am I writing about this now? Because, as I mentioned in the intro, I was booked 7 days this past week and only executed 2. Many of my colleagues were booked 7 days and executed 4 or 5. Were these guys less transparent than me with their clients? Maybe. Were their clients more resilient/heartier than mine? Also, maybe. Or, maybe they didn’t give their clients a choice at all and just decided to go for it. “It’s gonna be cold and windy boys, dress for it or suffer the consequences.”
Either way, to all those reading this, trust me that I’ll only take you out if I think there’s a strong potential for an awesome day. Please do me a solid and plan to endure a little bit of pain from the cold/prepare yourself for the conditions. If enduring a little bit of pain in the hunt for big fish isn’t your idea of a good time/worth the investment – I get it. But don’t book trips during times when it’ll likely be cold in the hopes that it won’t. Final note on the topic – glory often favors the bold.
Buffalo NY Fishing Report – Forecast for 12/01/2024 – 12/08/2024
Forecast Commentary
The forecast for this upcoming week is similar to what we just experienced. However, the wild, lake effect snow generating weather looks like it’ll arrive on Wednesday and last through Thursday. Stiff N winds will follow that chaos through the weekend – taking the region from cold to frigid. In other words, there will be a lot of last-minute calls.
I have Monday and Tuesday open – I already rescheduled those clients in anticipation of poor water clarity. Still, I’m getting stir crazy and will likely fish through the mud with friends/family on both those days – just to see what happens. Winds will be light and the sun will be out so that’ll make it enjoyable enough. I plan to hit Erie one of the days and the Lower Niagara on the other.
Beyond that, who knows what’ll happen. Fingers crossed, Mother Nature’s mood will change and maybe we’ll get a couple more days of fishable weather this upcoming week. Stay tuned.
Stay healthy my friends – mentally and physically,
Ryan