{"id":242,"date":"2021-08-25T10:33:44","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T10:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsniagara.com\/?p=242"},"modified":"2022-04-29T05:10:57","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T05:10:57","slug":"lowerniagarasalmon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsniagara.com\/lowerniagarasalmon\/","title":{"rendered":"Lower Niagara Salmon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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OUTDOORS
\nNIAGARA
\n<\/span><\/b>“It’s yours, use it,
\nprotect it, share it”
\n<\/b><\/span><\/span>“Niagara’s
\nPremier Outdoors Website”<\/span><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>“Most informative and up to date outdoors website on the
\nplanet”<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/td>\n

\n

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\n<\/a><\/span><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 HOME<\/span><\/p>\n

Fishing King Salmon in the Lower Niagara River with Captain
\nFrank Campbell & Matt Higgins <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

A New York Times Article <\/span>
\n<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

A Bruising Fight in Rough Water <\/span><\/b>
\nBy Matt Higgins; New York Times<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\nWith boiling currents below and steel skies above, Capt. Frank Campbell<\/b>
\nsteered up the Lower Niagara River in search of king salmon.It was a warm afternoon during the second week of October, normally a prime
\ntime to catch king, or chinook, salmon during their annual run up the green
\nriver. But a water temperature near 70 degrees meant thousands of fish were
\nwaiting in Lake Ontario for the river to cool.With boiling currents below and steel skies above, Capt. Frank Campbell<\/b>
\nsteered up the Lower Niagara River in search of king salmon.<\/p>\n

It was a warm afternoon during the second week of October, normally a prime
\ntime to catch king, or chinook, salmon during their annual run up the green
\nriver. But a water temperature near 70 degrees meant thousands of fish were
\nwaiting in Lake Ontario for the river to cool.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Campbell headed in the opposite direction, piloting his 21-foot boat into the
\nNiagara Gorge, beneath the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge carrying traffic to and
\nfrom Canada.<\/p>\n

We were in pursuit of those fish that had preceded the main run.<\/p>\n

The entrance to the gorge is a tempest of white water and white noise, where
\nthe cliffs suddenly rise to 350 feet and house enormous concrete hydroelectric
\nplants.<\/p>\n

A charter boat captain who spends 250 days a year fishing area waters,
\nCampbell brought us to Devil\u2019s Hole, at a spot thick with rocks and rapids
\nfour miles below the falls. We were there to catch one of the most prized
\nfreshwater fish in North America.<\/p>\n

A mature Lake Ontario king salmon can easily weigh 30 pounds. To catch such a
\ntrophy in the raging waters of the gorge, with the trees showing the first of
\ntheir fall colors, makes for a rare fishing experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only other opportunity people could have for catching fish like this
\nis going to Alaska,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cThere\u2019s no other sport fish to
\ncompare to them, size-wise or fight-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although native to the North Pacific, king salmon were introduced to the
\nGreat Lakes during the 1960s to cull baitfish populations.<\/p>\n

Steve Dolan<\/b> is an assistant manager and fish culturist at the Salmon
\nRiver Hatchery in Altmar, outside Syracuse, where Lake Ontario\u2019s king salmon
\nare raised. The hatchery stocks roughly 1.5 million annually in the lake\u2019s
\ntributaries. The fish then spend up to four years feeding in the lake before
\nreturning to the rivers to spawn before dying. In the Niagara, king salmon run as far upriver as the falls. And although
\nthey do not feed while spawning, they will strike at bait. \u201cThey\u2019re not in a
\ngood mood,\u201d Dolan said. \u201cThey\u2019re looking to spawn. It\u2019s their natural
\ninstinct to get something out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

To provoke the fish, Campbell lets his boat drift with the current and uses
\nsalmon eggs as bait. He sets hooks on a skein loop near the river bottom, using
\na 15-pound leader on 17-pound line. The trick, he said, is to make the eggs look
\nnatural and ensure the bait remains near the rocky bottom.<\/p>\n

Campbell, who has 17 years\u2019 experience as a captain on the river, adroitly
\nmanaged to keep the boat steady in the current while fishing, offering
\ninstruction, freeing snags and fending off barbs about failing to catch
\nanything.<\/p>\n

Bill Hilts, [Jr.] <\/b>an outdoors liaison with an area tourism agency, had
\naccompanied us for the day, providing a foil for Campbell and a recipe for
\nchicken-wing-flavored king salmon steak.<\/p>\n

Although the weather had cleared, revealing the river\u2019s emerald water, our
\nprospects dimmed because salmon do not favor light. Still, the fish were there.
\nCampbell had been hooking them for weeks. Fishermen on a platform at the New
\nYork power plant were netting them. And the salmon seemed to taunt us by
\noccasionally leaping from the water before disappearing with a splash.<\/p>\n

But after more than three hours, we had yet to net a fish. Campbell had
\nhooked one early on, but the line snapped.<\/p>\n

By 6 p.m., another charter boat had reached its limit \u2014 three king salmon
\nper person in New York waters \u2014 and headed in.<\/p>\n

It was then, as the sun slipped below the rim of the gorge, that our fortunes
\nimproved. Campbell hooked a fish and handed me the rod<\/a>. The spool whined, and a
\nsalmon leaped. I reeled furiously. For 10 strenuous minutes, the fish fought as
\nI alternately raised the rod and reeled. Campbell finally netted the 25-pound
\nthrasher a half-mile downriver amid the turbulence from the power plants. My
\nfirst king salmon was a muscle-burning thrill.<\/p>\n

Thirty minutes later, Campbell hooked another 15-pound king. The gorge had
\ngrown dark by then, and we were alone on the river. We took one final pass
\nthrough Devil\u2019s Hole and returned to the docks at Lewiston.<\/p>\n

In a cleaning station on a bluff above where the river runs wide and slow,
\nCampbell cut flanks from the fish for steaks and removed several pounds of
\nbright orange eggs that would be used as bait. With the meat in a pile to one
\nside, and the eggs in another, the scene was a visual aid for something Campbell
\nwould say later. \u201cSalmon eat and spawn,\u201d he said. \u201cThose are the only two
\nthings they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Celtic mythology, salmon were thought to be wise, with their smarts
\ncorrelating to their number of spots.<\/p>\n

But here on the Lower Niagara, catching king salmon is not so much a cerebral
\npursuit. When the conditions are right and the fish are running, it is a battle
\nin muscular currents with a feisty fish and the river roaring like the crowd at
\na prizefight.<\/p>\n

Home<\/a> \/\u00a0 Bill
\nHilts Jr. Weekend Fish Locator<\/a><\/p>\n


\n<\/a><\/span><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 HOME<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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