Spring Kings at the Niagra Bar

[Y-Knot]

What is better to use in april at the bar. Flies or Spoons and does any certain color patterns stand out to anyone?

[waterlogged]

We run it all including sticks from planers. All seem to work at one time or another.

[Yankee Troller]

You can use both! Last year the first weekend of the derby we fished off the Welland and our first rip came off a bomber fished behind a slide diver. We lost that fish, but our second hit came on a SD Dalmatian with a hammer fly. Two years ago it was a hot fly bite, and last year I had better luck on spoons for the month of May.

I will keep an up to date report section on my website and this site throughout May if you want to check for hot lure colors and combos. Also, I will be staying at the boathouse if you want to stop by and shoot the breeze.

You can also scan radio stations and listen tot he guys talk about whats working and whats not. One of the most important things I have learned over the years is to put down what you have confidence in. Its hard to fish someone else pattern.

[Storm Warning II]

104 days on the countdown clock!!!!!!!

Won't be long and we will be under 100!!!

Maybe if these above average temps hang around we may find Kings more along the lines of the size that they were in spring '05 because the Big Boys may have been able to feed more aggressively throughout the winter.

[Storm Warning II]

Oops! I actually meant spring of '06 Kings.

[chinook]

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but remember last year it was the same weather wise only to have winter set in rather severe, from the first of Feb. thru into almost April and look what we were given.

[Gill-T]

Yeah, wierd year again shaping up. Climate change? shifting of seasons? All I know is '06 on the bar had to be one of the best for numbers and size. Last year had to be one of the worst. For what ever reason....wierd winter weather or otherwise, the baitfish and salmon missed each other. Because the Niagara plume was colder than the rest of the lake, most of the salmon were off Jordan to Weller in Canadian waters where Hamilton Bay water was mixing in ( warmer ). Lake Erie kept it's ice well into April keeping Niagara water cold. The bait did not move in shore until mid-June, and by then most of the fish were between Olcott and Oak Orchard already. I was charting huge plumes of bait between Wilson and the bar all June with NO Hooks around them. Steelhead dominated our catch early. It was not until late June when some of the Canadian fish moved thru the area that the bait and Kings found each other.....then it was on! July and August was great off the bar and I had the whole are to myself. We were the only boat out there all summer. Not sure what happened, but recounting a post in May on Spoonpullers' site, a troller disappointed with the poor bar fishing headed out deep for ****s and giggles, and reported a pod of bait that extended for MILES. Two weeks later I believe all that bait came a shore. Too bad the mature Kings had moved on.