Finally! Warm Weather and a New Pattern
At long last, a new pattern is here. If you’ve been reading our posts for awhile now, you know that I lack patience. That comes into play when I’ve been doing the same thing for a prolonged period. Last September was the last time I fished without my bib and warming layers. Finally, this new pattern of warmth and sunny skies over the last week allowed me to fish without gloves and only a long sleeve shirt to keep me warm. It also marked the waning of the salmonid runs and the beginning of pre-spawn smallmouth bass action. We’re very excited about this change.
Don’t get me wrong, we love catching steelhead, lakers, and lake run browns. However, we’ve been longing for warmer temperatures and smallmouth bass for about a month now. It’s weird when you think about it – here in Buffalo Niagara, these species are available to anglers for over 7 months out of the year. Another month and a half is dedicated to king salmon and cohos (for those captains like me that only fish the lower river for them in the fall). That leaves about 4 months of the year dedicated to smallies. I’ve missed them. Finally, they’re back!
Observations from the Water (20180429 – 20180505)
We have been thoroughly enjoying this warm weather and the new pattern. By new pattern, I mean fishing different gear, for different species, on different water. We got our last jabs in on some steelhead this past Monday and Friday and picked up some huge numbers – not many big fish though. We poked around the Buffalo small boat harbor on all the other days and found smallmouth bass right away. We caught them on flies, tubes, and bait. It seemed like everything worked. We’ll let the pictures tell it.
Plan for next week (20180506 – 20180512)
We will continue to exploit the new pattern until it isn’t new anymore. We found smallies in all their classic spring haunts over the past week but aim to continue to scout new spots that aren’t loaded with anglers. This awesome weather is a blessing and a curse. It marks the beginning of pleasure boaters, WAY MORE weekend warrior anglers, and ultimately a ton of traffic on the water. We are going from having the water nearly to ourselves as charter captains to now sharing it with everyone else. It’s cool though – it’s a new pattern, I’m fishing in flip flops, and I’m happy. If you want to hit the water with us, click here and we’ll call you right back.
Check out this video to get a glimpse of what’s in store for you if you book a trip! Don’t be deterred by the fact that it’s fly fishing focused – we specialize in ALL TACKLE types and experience levels.
Tight lines!
Being born and raised in to a commercial fishing family in Florida and then in 1979 I met my wife and we moved to Virginia and got married I then became hooked on recreational fishing also with a rod and reel and I would get comments from my friends don’t you ever get enough fishing and I would reply no not really it’s in Virginia where I got hooked on smallmouth bass fishing in the James and Hardware rivers and granite it was nothing for me to catch 40 to 50 fish in a day by myself but I never experienced the size of small mouth that I caught this past week with Ryan. It it always been on my bucket list to catch a 5 lb Smallmouth. Ryan had experienced shared with me about The Incredibles Smallmouth fishing in Lake Erie on trips this winter for steelhead fishing with him on the Niagara River so I booked a trip for me and my son Jonathan to fish with him the first weekend in May of course you are disappointment we arrive Saturday and the lake is just chocolate milk so no good to go there so we went to the river lake trout and then went back to the lake late that evening right before dark and I was able to scratch that off my bucket list as soon as we arrived the water cleared some and that first 5-pounder was in the boat along with several others of course the next day was even better multiple 5 pound fish. I was in able to go fishing again with him on Monday and that day was just unreal we netted 27 fish and I would say 20 of them were in the four and a half to 5 lb range for the last 40 years I have fished the Gulf Coast East Coast West Coast Canada Alaska and now the great lakes and by hands down this one of the best fishing trips I have ever experienced so if you want to fish with a guy that gives you 110% effort I suggest Ryan Shea on our first date with him when we experience the muddy water in the lake the trip is normally an eight and a half hour trip we actually fished from 6 in the morning until 8:30 at night 14 and a half hours this is the kind of effort he puts in to put his clients on fish and it worked. Thanks again Ron for a great trip and experience and of course all I’m thinking about now is the next time.
Thanks for the love, John. Much more to come. Stay safe on the roads! See you soon