On to the local status report. The last 3 weeks have seen a marked increase in availability and predictability of Kings in the eastern basin, with 2-4 in the box being a good average for a good, average troller. Frozen alewives are being inroduced by local bait dealers this year as a possible alternative to the West Coast herring strips, but they have no track record and only wishful promoters so far. Browns are still being taken in the very early daytime hours in 40-75' of water, with some pretty good steelhead coming in to boot. Depending on the day and conditions, action has been good off Oswego, 9-Mile, straight out of the Salmon River and off Sandy Pond.
Smallmouth bass are everywhere, and as usual, no one's fishing for Northern Pike.
Surprisingly enough, whether it be the economy or something else, the fishing pressure has been extremely light offshore. While most charter boats are heavily booked for August and September, they're chomping at the bit because July bookings are slow in spite of the excellent catches. During the course of the last week, sparse periodic flows from Niagara Mohawk's hydro station on the Salmon River have drawn an amazing number of large Skamania Steelhead, Brown Trout, Kings and Atlantic Salmon up and into the river. While the water has been turned off during the day trapping and crowding fish in the deeper pools from the Black Hole up through Altmar, night-time releases have permitted them to move progressively upstream. When you find 'em, you'll frequently find 50-100 fish per hole, at a density easily equal to, perhaps even greater than the height of Salmon season, just not in every hole.