We meet at Queenston boat launch at 7:30pm. With the strong current and deep waters of the lower Niagara River (below the falls), we used 1oz pencil lead or slinkies to bottom bounce the drift.
The area has a huge back eddy where the fish often holds at the seams of the eddy.
I was using a pink roe bag and got a hit and run about 15 minutes into fishing. Since I lend Shane my medium 9' TFO rod, I was using my 12'6" Shimano Convergence float rod to bottom bounce. With the strong current, the very slow action rod was great to cushion the runs the fish took, but it also lack some backbone that was necessary to pull the fish out of the current. It took about 10 minutes to finally land the fish.
It was a beautiful 7lb buck (male) steelhead. Shane and I were craving some fillets, so we kept this fish
Flawless steelhead...beautiful spawning colour...large hump and defined kype.
We fished for a long while later without any action. At about 10:35am, Matt hooked into a fish using a white twister tail. He was also using his 13' float rod since he lend his 10' salmon rod to his bud Bobby. It was another longer fight but we landed it.
This fish was a chrome 7lb hen (female) steelhead. Matt decided to release this fish so she can spawn
About another 40 minutes later, Matt hooked up another fish using the white twister tail again. This one was a small fish. It was a dark 5lb hen. The fish was hooked in the gill and bleed profusely so Matt kept it.
Aside from these three steelheads, Matt also caught a small smallmouth bass and I caught a tiny round goby. Shane and Bobby, who were both newbies to this bottom bouncing fishing, were skunked. But I think it had more to do with luck today than technique. Fish were scarce and scattered. You really had to knock them in the head to get hit.
Can't wait to dive into 2lbs of fresh steelhead fillets!
Oh...another interesting thing happened today. At the launch, there was a rock about the size of a large cooler that took two victims. Two boat trailers were damaged when their owners cut the corner too sharp and drove over the rock.
The first victim was a trailer with a Ranger boat. The trailer had a large chunk taken out and the side of the boat scratched. They needed a tow truck to tow the boat/trailer away.
The second victim was a trailer with a Striper boat. The boat was okay...but one of the trailer beam landed on the rock and basically split in half. The owner decided to launch and fish anyways.
Scary stuff and not at all a good way to start the morning.