Fishing: Steelhead anglers prove their mettle
Ugly weather predictions for Thursday morning could not dim or dampen the dozens of steelhead hunters fishing the lower Niagara River.
Boaters and shore anglers from Lewiston up current to the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge hooked into a nice variety of trout before lunchtime at noon.
Lewiston landing
While Lewiston usually serves as a main access site for anglers with boats, the launch ramp right now has a closed sign. Work crews are performing repairs on the ramp and other access features.
A monstrous concrete slab, covered with a massive plastic sheet, now cures at the top of the ramp. Once fully hardened, the slab will be pushed in place at water level so boat trailers can smoothly roll into and out of the water. Another large slab will be poured to complete the ramp-way above the water level.
In the meantime, crews have completed one platform and stairway and will begin another walkway south of the ramp. Also, the cleaning station across the access road will have a new grinding auger when all renovations are completed.
For now, boaters can access the lower river at either of the two ramps at Fort Niagara State Park or the Town of Youngstown ramp up current from the state park.
Shore-casting anglers have to head up to Artpark for access to the river while ramp repairs are under way, but Lewiston could be a nice stop on a drive along the New York shoreline of the river.
Visitors to Lewiston can view much more than cold-weather boaters launching and leaving the landing right now.
A new "Freedom Crossing Monument" has been completed and was dedicated on Oct. 14 on the north side of the Lewiston Landing lawn. The five action figures, four adults and a child, depict Lewiston's role in transporting slaves to freedom in Canada along the Underground Railroad.
The scene includes the riverbank and a sturdy row boat residents used to transport slaves across the strong currents of the lower Niagara River.xleg
Fish landing
River currents ran their usual strong thrust Thursday morning, but it was the promised rain mixed with snow and hefty north winds that made things a challenge as Capt. Chris Cinelli, his longtime friend Al Lutkins, and I set out just after 8 a.m. in search of trout.
Steelhead trout served as the main target, but drift fishing the Niagara this time of year can produce all kinds of salmonid species. "The kings are pretty much done, but we should do well on the steelies," Cinelli said as we pulled up current to set up a drift along the Artpark shoreline.
Despite the chill, rainfall was slight and the sun even tried to crawl through the clouds at times. But the fish started hitting as soon as we put lines in the water. Times such as these can warm hearts and hands better than the best-insulated coats, hats and gloves.
Lutkins, an avid archery deer hunter from Hardyston, N.J., and Cinelli have been buddies for two decades or more. Lutkins hunts Western New York whitetail woods and gets out with Chris whenever they can arrange a trip.
Like bow hunting, you have to be there and things may or may not go right each time the game gets close. Deft at lure placement — two inches off the bottom, according to Cinelli — and a master at hook setting, Lutkins booted a few but kept a steady run of rod-bending hookups.
Cinelli took first best fish honors with a classic, fall-colored brown trout that measured more than two feet and probably weighed in the 7- to 8-pound range.
This and all other fish caught are still there for anglers on shore or in a boat to enjoy. Cinelli held up a half dozen or so of the bigger boys for photo shoots and they all swam back to their feeding and/or spawning sites along the river's shoreline bottom structures.
Chris worked a line on occasion, clipping a steelie or two, Lutkins got some decent steelies along the way but waited until the final drift to reel in the really respectable nearly 10-pounder shown in the photograph.
"That one jumped head high," Al said of his hard-darting silver fish. All the steelies have traces to wide bands of that frost-red pink side band along their silvery steel-like body finish.
My catch ratio fell below the others, but one vicious 12-inch 'bow, smallest fish of the day, managed to pull the line into a snag that resulted in a donated sinker.
At the end of one of the last drifts, a Kamikaze lake trout took my egg sack and No. 12 hook for a ride down current. Chris measured it at 35 inches and 19 pounds. Big as it is, Cinelli noted there were much bigger lakers as well as trout and salmon cruising these waters.
As well as we did aboard Cinelli's new Lund Pro-V with its 150-horsepower Honda four-stroke engine, shore anglers did as well or better casting from Artpark access points.
"[Shore casters] usually do well on the lakers, because they spawn close to shore," Cinelli explained. But on this day shore casters drifting egg sacks under a float/bobber or casting silver spoons took their share of these high-leaping chrome critters. Many of the dozen or so shore casters walked up or down stream as a steelie streaked out of the water up or down current.
Cinelli books steelie charters throughout the fall and winter months. For updates and outings plans, check with him at 479-2812.
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