January 2025 Fishing Reports
Winter weather is hanging in for this last part of Jan with cold temps, snow and wind. Yesterday and thru last night under wind blown conditions there was a couple inches of area wide snow. Temps are forecast cold today and chance for another round of area wide light snow for tonight.
Temps may rebound into the 30’s F for the mid and end of week under windy conditions again. Lows will still be dropping back at night so its not likely there will be any significant loosening of the icing conditions on the tribs just yet. All total there is something like a foot or so of light, windblown snow for the area which may settle but probably not make for much runoff thanks to the forecasted highs this end of week.
Flows in the Oak are real low and clear. Some of the fast and shallow water runs are noticed in but those are not typically good fish holding spots right now anyway. A handful of light line drifters have hit the open water at the dam where some steelhead and browns are hanging in.
If you are hearty enough and use small or natural baits you can almost always find the overwintering fish there will turn on for you at some point during a day. The other area smaller tribs are low and clear and frozen over.
We need to break toward some serious melting action for best steelhead chances – so stay tuned to see if it’ll be slow and steady toward this late winter or something more fast and furious like a significant warmup with rain.
After a couple days of milder temps at the end of last week it has turned cold again. Welcome back to winter! Look for these cold temps with highs in the teens to hang in thru the week according to the forecast. Finally too, the area has some snowpack.
There was some lake effect snow off Lake Ontario that swirled around and parked and dumped 8 – 10 inches here on the WNY south shore thru yesterday. Its a cold fluffy snow so I would guess there’s not a whole lot of runoff there and it probably doesn’t extend all that far inland. But… It all counts toward the total and there is the chance that a Lake Erie lake effect snow band may reach up to this area later today/tonight.
Chance of slight warm up with highs in the 20’s F for the upcoming weekend. Fishing pressure pretty light thanks to the weather. Best success in these conditions will be for the resident fish at the dam on the Oak. Flows are low and clear and icing conditions will be closing in for any downstream water. The other area smaller waterways are frozen over.
Some local anglers are hitting the ice for panfish or pike or walleyes. Remember the lower reaches of any of these tribs is still moving water so exercise caution and only go out on safe ice. Lake Alice above the dam should be making ice cover that we haven’t really seen in years.
We’ll see how the rest of the mid and later winter goes for the weather but things could be shaping up for more traditional timing on later winter/spring action if the cold hangs in. So think Feb/Mar/begin Apr for the Oak, Feb/Mar for the smaller waterways, Mar/Apr/begin May for Niagara/Genny and end Mar/Apr/May for lakeshore troll or cast.
Flows are down another notch in the Oak to about low. Water color is clear and there is some more bank ice forming but the fast water areas remain open. The downstream slow water is open for now with bank ice closing in all the more. There is the chance that may lock up for drift chances with the forecasted cold and snow thru this mid-week or at least get chunkier from snow.
Chance of a few inches of lake effect snow brushing this area over the next couple days with greater accummulations expected SW of here off Lake Erie. Temps are forecast to warm above freezing for highs for the end of week and beginning of the weekend and then cold again after that.
On the Oak careful drifts of small beads and tipped jigs are yielding some brown trout and steelhead hookups at the dam, downstream holes and frogwater.
Check out the nice holdover hungry Oak brown trout below. With the dropping and clearing flows water cover is going to be getting skinnier. The other area smaller waterways are low and clear and mostly frozen. There are big water chances at the Genesee River or Niagara River.
