The Salmon River warmed back up, and the west-end kings went deep

What changed this week

• The river warmed 11 degrees. Morning readings climbed from 50°F on Friday 9 October to 61°F on Wednesday and Thursday.
• The bite dipped, then came back. The weekend and Tuesday rated mostly moderate. Friday evening and Wednesday evening both had excellent water.
• The west-end bite moved offshore. Last week DEC had kings staging inside 100 feet. This week the steady king and steelhead bite is in more than 400 feet, 50 to 100 feet down.
• Shore fishing on the lower Niagara has slowed. The water is very clear. Boats in the Devil's Hole drift are still catching kings.
• Browns are regular, and Atlantics are showing. Browns were in nine of twelve postings and Atlantics in three. Cohos are thinning out.
• The Altmar release was extended a week. It's still 185 cfs, and the posting runs out again at 11:59pm Thursday.
• Sodus is close to done for the season. Most charter boats are out of the water, and the Erie Canal closed on 14 October.
• The Oswego River is down to 1,050 cfs, from 1,130 last week.

The river warmed, and the bite came and went

Morning water temperatures: 50°F on Friday, 52°F on Saturday, 53°F on Sunday, 57°F on Tuesday, then 61°F on both Wednesday and Thursday. The afternoons ran 54 to 57°F through Tuesday. Wednesday evening read 62°F, the warmest of the week. Last week the river was cooling. This week it went the other way.

Friday 9 October was a good day. By the evening the middle part of the upper sections and the lower part of the middle sections both rated excellent, and the bottom end was crowded.

After that it eased. Saturday and Sunday rated mostly moderate, with the middle sections good on Saturday morning. The one posting for Monday 12 October was the best of the stretch, rating good all through the middle sections. Tuesday was moderate from top to bottom, and by Tuesday evening the upper sections were slow.

Wednesday it came back. In the morning the middle part of the upper rated good, and so did the bottom and middle of the middle sections. By the evening both had gone to excellent, with kings, cohos, steelhead and browns. The water was 62°F at 5pm, 185 cfs came out of the dam, and Pineville read 228 cfs.

The newest posting, Thursday morning, rated the upper moderate to good and the middle moderate, with kings, cohos and steelhead. The water was 61°F and Pineville read 220 cfs at 7am.

Fish above the estuary

The estuary was the weakest water on the run again. It rated slow in eight of the twelve postings from Friday to Thursday morning, and quiet with nobody fishing it in one more. It reached moderate three times, on Monday and in both Tuesday postings, and never rated better than that. The water just upriver of it rated moderate in most postings and good on Monday. If you're fishing the lower end, fish above the estuary.

Browns are regular, and Atlantics are showing

• Kings were in all twelve postings. They're still most of the fish.
• Steelhead were in all twelve too, and in every section at some point.
• Browns were in nine of twelve, up from six of ten last week.
• Cohos were in nine of twelve. Last week they were in every posting. They were missing on Saturday evening, Sunday evening and Monday.
• Atlantics were in three: the middle sections on Friday morning, the upper on Tuesday evening, and the middle part of the upper on Wednesday morning.

Fewer cohos, more browns and the first few Atlantics is the usual turn into the back half of the season. Three Atlantics is three fish, though, not a trend yet.

Yankee Angler's 10 October report says thousands of salmon came in on 5 October. It has fish still staging at the mouth and in the estuary while others move upriver, mostly kings and cohos with a few browns and steelhead, and some salmon starting to spawn. Nearly everyone is fishing eggs or egg imitations.

Flows and the release schedule

• Salmon River at Pineville (USGS 04250200), Thursday morning: 216 cfs, gage height 5.31 ft.
• Douglaston's Pineville readings ran 213 to 232 cfs all week, and the dam read 185 cfs on every posting for the second week running.
• The Altmar release is 185 cfs, posted from 6am on 1 October to 11:59pm on Thursday 15 October. Last week the same posting ended on 8 October. As of Thursday morning, nothing was published after tonight.
• No fall whitewater releases are posted. The Lighthouse Hill schedule still ends with 5–6 September.

This is the second Thursday in a row that the posted release runs out the night the report goes out. Both times it was extended a week at the last minute. That makes another extension likely, but it isn't a schedule. A guide who says they know next week's flow for certain is ahead of what the dam operator has put in writing. The release line is 1-844-430-FLOW.

Douglaston's forecast has rain tonight and on Friday.

Oswego River at Lock 7 (USGS 04249000), Thursday morning: 1,050 cfs, gage height 2.34 ft. That's down from 1,130 cfs last week. The Oswego is low and still falling.

The lower fly zone is still closed

DEC's 14 September action stands. The lower fly fishing section, from the Route 52 bridge in Altmar to the hatchery, stays closed until DEC has collected enough salmon eggs at the hatchery. DEC hasn't published a reopening date. The usual 1 September step-up from 185 to 335 cfs is still on hold because the reservoir is low.

DEC's Central New York hotline says this week that the section is closed "due to low water conditions." DEC's press release mentions the low water too, but the condition it sets for reopening is the egg collection, not a flow and not a date. If someone tells you the zone reopens when the water comes up, that's not what DEC's notice says.

Still open: the 16 miles of river below the Route 52 bridge, and the upper fly fishing area above the hatchery. You'll still see "closed until Oct. 31" online. That date comes from earlier closures, not from DEC's 2026 notice.

The west end: kings and steelhead moved offshore

DEC's Lake Erie and Western New York hotline for 9 to 16 October says trollers have a consistent bite for kings and steelhead in more than 400 feet of water, on spoons and flasher-flies run 50 to 100 feet down. Last week the same hotline had mature kings staging nearshore in less than 100 feet. If you fished in close last week, that water may be empty now.

On The Water's 8 October report puts names to it. Capt. Joe Oaks of Salmonboy Sportfishing reports good salmon and trout fishing in 400-plus feet, on spoons and flasher-flies 60 to 100 feet down. Capt. Matt Yablonsky of Wet Net Charters had steelhead in the same 400-foot water off Wilson, 60 to 80 feet down, where John Jarosz and his sons caught fish up to 11 pounds. Yablonsky has since moved to the lower river for salmon.

The piers at Olcott, Oak Orchard and the Genesee are still producing, mostly kings and browns, on large glow spoons, spinners and stickbaits.

DEC's best bets for the weekend are the tributaries: the Genesee River, and the creeks getting Erie Canal water, which are Eighteenmile, Oak Orchard, Johnson and Sandy. Eighteenmile and Oak Orchard lead on catches, with kings and some browns holding below the dams. There are quality kings on the Genesee near the falls. Sandy Creek is fair for kings up to at least the Parkway, where last week it was thin. Some kings have been seen at the Johnson Creek dam. Some smaller streams still don't have enough water to pass fish. Drift egg sacs, trout beads and jigs. DEC expects rain to draw more fish into the creeks.

The lower Niagara: good from a boat, slow from shore

DEC has decent to good numbers of kings holding in the Devil's Hole drift at times, with the best action when a fresh pod of fish moves in. Controlled drifts with three-way rigs and cured skein are the way to fish it. On The Water has Capt. Jim Gordon of Hawg Charters taking a limit of nine salmon for three anglers, with salmon fishing rated good to very good at Devil's Hole and up the gorge. A Charity for Children event caught 37 salmon and 385 smallmouth in two days on the lower river.

From shore it's slower. DEC says salmon catches at shore sites have been light because the water is very clear. Last week the NYPA platform and the state parks were producing. Spoons, spinners, deep-diving stickbaits and skein are still the baits. Fewer fish are taking them. Mike Ziehm fishes chartreuse spinners and jigs, plus skein under a float, and goes early, before the sun reaches the water around 11am.

Smallmouth are cooperating in all the lower-river drifts and on the Niagara Bar, with live shiners getting the most attention. Walleye are in most drifts, and browns are moving into the lower drifts. In the upper river, smallmouth fishing has been excellent since the water dropped into the low 60s. Fish outside the weed edges with live shiners or crayfish, which are beating ned rigs and tubes. Shore walleye along Unity Island are hit and miss.

Lake trout season on the lower river is closed until 1 December, so release any you hook.

Olcott and Oak Orchard

Karen Evarts of The Boat Doctors and Tackle Barn reports steady action off the Olcott piers for salmon and trout, on J13 Rapalas, spoons or spinners. Blue and red have been the best spoon colors, on Little Cleos. Eighteenmile Creek has decent flow from the canal releases and a good mix of fish, with egg skein under a float working best up to Burt Dam. The dam has plenty of browns and some steelhead on jigs and eggs, and beads are taking a few.

At Oak Orchard, Orleans County sportfishing coordinator Ron Bierstine reports big, green, aggressive kings in the Oak and nearby creeks, taking floats, hardware and swung flies. Flows are medium to slightly high, which is good for fish moving up. A good number of browns are in, and the action at the dam is moving downstream into faster water. Plug and skein anglers are getting bites in the slow water farther down, where fly anglers have the hardest time while the lake is high. He expects steelhead, cohos and Atlantics to join in.

Sodus Bay: the lake season is about over

Chris Kenyon's 8 October update in On The Water says most of the charter boats are out of the water for the winter. Small boats can still troll close to shore in front of Maxwell and west toward Hughes' Marina, but the lake can turn rough fast.

Inside Sodus and Port Bays there's still so much baitfish that the fishing is hard. Try live minnows. Perch have moved deeper, to about 30 feet. The Erie Canal closed on 14 October, so Widewaters is done for the year.

The Oswego River

On The Water's 8 October report has salmon at the dam in decent numbers, with plenty of browns. Fish the high wall with floats, beads or jigs and the low wall with deep-diving plugs. The skein bite has picked up since the water cooled.

DEC's Central New York hotline has a new 9 to 16 October edition, but its figures are from 6 October. Browns are coming mainly from below the dam, behind the hotel and along the wall. Salmon are taking eggs, lures and beads, and a few Atlantics have taken jigs and floats. Bass are around, and for walleye try large stickbaits or jigs. Some fish are holding at the power plant, but most are moving upstream.

Two practical notes from the hotline. You can't use Leto Island to reach the dam, so go in from the west (Brookfield) side. And some stretches of the river require a life jacket.

On The Water gives the river limits as three trout and salmon in total, with no more than one brown.