August 2025 Fishing Reports
Last week's prediction that the NE winds wouldn’t change much turned out to be fake news! We had a couple of days of hard winds that brought icy water near shore and, for the most part, scattered the mature King action that had been coming on. Then, on the back side of that, as the water tried to stabilize this past weekend, most trollers reported lots of current out there as the warm and cold water was moving around. Direction of troll, speed and lure action on your spread can all become a challenge under those conditions.
For this week so far, we are back to prevailing winds, on the stiff side for the beginning part of the week, with a definite cool down in the weather department. The cooler temps should usher in a fall-like feel and hopefully bring the good water back near shore. At some point here, sooner than later, we may find some Kings holding to the near shore water as they might stage up, and any changeable water conditions may not necessarily chase them. How will the staging action go this year? It's hard to say with such changeable weather, but stay tuned and keep that boat in the water if you choose. There’s often good action long after many trollers have pulled for the season.
For the past weekend, most boaters headed offshore looking for scattered salmon and stable conditions. What they generally found was a really good steelhead bite. The Riggor Mortis boat, which has the 15th place steelhead in the Fall Loc Derby, started at the 28 line and fished spoons a few feet above the break. They set the rest of the spread deeper for Kings. The steelhead action for them came on higher riggers, sliders and dipseys.
For Len S. aboard the rec boat Teach I he started at the 29 line in about 450 fow a little east of the Oak. He was working his mooching rod/reels on downriggers about 60 ft down when a big steelhead hit. The troll was east at about 2.4 mph.
Capt. Lou B. from Get the Net Charters went out of Bald Eagle Marina to between the 26 and 27 line. “On Sunday, there was a down temp break in 400 fow. We fished the cold side of the break and found a good class of steelhead and some teenage Kings. All rods were firing with spoons, meat and flies. The best spoons were a Warrior Lures blue perch. The Cole family from OH had a great catch!”
Here we are in the late summer open Lake trolling season, and big Kings are being netted both offshore and near shore. The near-shore action does come and go somewhat as the easterly winds dictate, while the offshore action is more consistent for most boaters. It seems like when as many fish might get moved offshore from east winds, at least some are staying put or easing near shore. That seems like a sign of the summer season breaking toward early fall and staging or migration behavior. In fact, a few fish are beginning to show the telltale signs of darkening up and getting bigger kypes. Any trout or salmon finding what has been a good head of Oak Orchard River (must be Canal feed because of droughty conditions) is most likely going to be met with river temps too hot for successful migrations.
Cooler seasonal conditions are no doubt on the way. Same more routine precip would be a good thing too, and there is the chance for showers or storms through this mid part of the week. We are once again following med–stiff NE and E winds for the end of the past weekend and the beginning of this week. Near-shore temps may have stalled just short of a full-blown cold water flip. The forecast ahead for the end of week and the upcoming weekend looks seasonal, with the next chance of precip by the end of the weekend.
Lately, Capt. Mike L. of Intimidator Charters says, “The fishing has been remarkable!” Capt. Mike G. of Get Hooked Charters says, “With east winds, things may change.” Capt. Chris V. from U-Betcha Charters says, “Fishing has been good for us. We fished the inside waters in 83 – 135 fow. Spoons on a 32 ft rigger and a super slim and a 48 ft rigger with a stingray frog were best. So far, it looks like the east winds might have just moved the good water out a touch.”
The big money and big fish final Fall LOC Derby is underway now until Labor Day. Whatever the weather brings, and as wind and waves allow, get out there in the Orleans County waters with what’s left of this trolling season for your next big hook-up or prize-winning fish!
Summer weather is hanging in. As the weather continues to heat up and temperatures stay warm, it seems as if the salmon action is becoming somewhat more consistent. It's still not necessarily an everyday in-shore bite, but the mixed bag chances sure are good, and there are definitely some big, mature Kings coming over the gunwales.
Another hot and mostly calm day today, and then a chance of rain or showers for the midweek as a cool front goes through. Near-term forecast after that looks like seasonal summer warmth with the next chance at precip around the end of the weekend. There were some stiff east winds at the end of last week, but since then, there’s been just light lake breezes, so not enough to bring icy water in close. Most charters and recs are heading to off-shore waters. But as the near-shore waters might stabilize and as we move deeper into the season toward fall and trib runs, near-shore staging action could pick up.
Speaking of those east winds, CJO of Tightlines Charters says, “late last week the NE winds once again turned off the fishing inside of 200 fow. Best trips for Troutman2 have been fun action on med steelhead fishing in 300 – 400 fow and 45 – 65 ft down with a spoon program. Higher speed trolling with NK 28’s were best. For best ledge action, watch the Oak Orchard buoy for when the bottom temp indicates 45 – 55 F. Fish On!”
Capt. Gerry S. of Rod Benders Charters says the fishing is the best he’s seen all season. He’s been getting some nice big steelhead and Kings. “We fished the 33 – 35 line for mature Kings, coho and steelhead. Flasher flies chrome two-face with pro Am fly meat rigs from Route 18 Tackle. Mag DW orange Halloween spoon was good too.”
Capt. Lou B. of Get the Net Charters is having good off-shore action out of Bald Eagle. “There are stable temps and fish can be caught in good numbers with a good mix of steelhead, teenage & mature Kings and cohos. We’ve been working the 27 – 30 line, finding good pockets of fish. It's been mostly a spoon bite for us, but flasher/flies and meat rigs are taking their fair share of fish.”
Summer and warm weather remain upon us, with a refreshing break in the humidity levels. The forecast for this week is for temperatures to continue warming, accompanied by some increased humidity levels. There’s no significant rain or storms forecast, except for a slight chance of rain showers over the Niagara Frontier around mid-week. The summer has been relatively dry, and Lake levels are beginning to show a quicker drop toward the seasonal fall low. Anglers are out and about with good to moderate levels of trolling and rec traffic out of Point Breeze.
A couple of days of E winds at the end of last week had most guys back searching offshore. They were generally successful for the past weekend – still into mixed bag chances of Kings, cohos and steelhead. The cohos are getting bigger, with a handful of catches reportedly around the 20-pound mark. Then there are the guys still working the sometimes cold inside water, finding some browns and Atlantics to round out the mixed bag chances. The inside water looks to be setting back up again, and there are only light E or SE winds in the near-term forecast.
Some hawg salmon are being landed by both charters and rec anglers! Check out both big fish below for what the potential is to be hooked up for anglers fishing out of the Oak. Capt. Bob S. from Sunrise II charters says, “I’ve been fishing the mid water around the 25 – 27 lines or 200 – 450 fow and working NW and SE. Mainly spoons for me, a black magic being the best 40 to 85 ft down. Earlier it was a combo of spoons and flashers 55 – 100 ft down with a 200 mag diver with a green bam.”
One rec boat did a half-day excursion with nice rainbow and coho action for the early morning, all on spoons. Then later in the morning, they got into some teenage Kings that fought real hard and bigger, lazy, matures on meat off the riggers. They were over 350 fow on a NW troll set up 75 ft down. Coming back in later, they found good-looking temps around 175 fow. Mark and Teresa are a team who say, “We love fishing the Oak!”
