Fishing Line / By Will Elliott

>Niagara River/Lake Ontario

Ice-melt runoffs have stained most feeder streams, but lower river waters remain clear, with just enough of a stain to keep fish from clearly seeing bait offerings.

Boaters go with every option for tricking trout. Live minnows, eggs (sacks or skein) and Kwikfish all take steelhead trout. “Some stick with only one of the three (bait choices) and do all right,” said Capt. Frank Campbell while fishing the river Wednesday morning.

Lower river waters are ice free now and boaters can get to all the popular drifts to check out trout. Most hits come from steelies, with an occasional brown and lake trout taking lures held close to bottom.

On the Niagara Bar, drifters do best with live minnows and chubs, with lake trout doing the main munching. As in the river, baits held close to bottom along a ledge edge will get the most attention.

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>Ice outings

Ice shanties have to be off the ice statewide by midnight tonight. This day also marks the last day of fishing for walleye, northern pike, tiger muskellunge and chain pickerel. Those species become legal again on the first Saturday in May.

Lake Erie: Perch schools stay on the move off Sturgeon Point. Minnows held close to bottom work best, but the run can be extensive at times. Best perch numbers have come from 60-foot depths more than three miles off Sturgeon.

Late-season activity usually puts ringbacks closer to shoreline reefs and shoals, but this season the best buckets have come in after long-distance runs north and west of the point. Ice depths remain more than a foot after recent thawing and surfaces are smoother with the meltdown.

Chautauqua Lake: Maple Springs has been besting Burtis Bay for panfish. The Mayville to Maple Springs area has produced fair numbers of good-sized bluegills and crappie. Ice conditions remain solid, with slush covering a solid foot of ice in most areas. Numbers of keeper-sized walleye remain low; deep-water jiggers often hit into schools of white perch at depths of 40-50 feet. Even the shoreline bite has been deeper, with the better catches coming from outside weed edges.

Lake Simcoe: Perch numbers and sizes dropped early in March, but this past week saw spurts and spates for perch prospects at depths of less than 30 feet off the Pefferlaw River, said Jerry Kucharchuk at Peninsula Resort.

Huts must be off the lake today, but a two-foot coating of green ice and smooth surfaces allow for good RV and road vehicle passage out to good perch shoals inside Georgina and Thorah islands. For an update on ice conditions and late-season perch in the Pefferlaw area, check with Kucharchuk at 1-800-565-LAKE.

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>Feeder streams

Streams showed some clear water well away from their mouths earlier in the week, but by Wednesday most were dark chocolate milk for clarity. Ice jams on most Lake Erie feeders put things on hold there, but Lake Ontario’s larger feeders offer good shore-casting options from piers at Wilson, Olcott and Oak Orchard Point. Heavy casting spoons (Cleos, Wobblers, etc.) work best in the wind and current.

e-mail: willodrs@gmail.com

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