Casting for Cold Chrome on the Mighty Niagara

This Christmas season I finally found a chance to fish the Lower Niagara River. I had been to Niagara Falls many times in the past, as a tourist and while passing through on my way to the US, but I had never given fishing it much thought until I moved back to Ontario a year and a half ago. I must admit I've always viewed the Niagara as a case study of how commercial tourism and greedy mismanagement can fully ruin the appeal of an amazing natural wonder.

This winter has been record-breakingly warm here in Southern Ontario. With no safe ice around I finally jumped on an opportunity to get down to the Lower Niagara River for some of the big trout I had read about year after year on lists of hot-spots in fishing magazines.

After spending a few hours online researching safe shore access points we decided to try a spot we had heard about near the Queenston jet boat docks. When we finally climbed down the steep gorge to the edge of the river it became clear that I had never fished water like this before.

Just feet from the rocky shore, the river bottom dropped straight down into seemingly bottomless darkness. The river churned and rushed in front of us with whirpools forming out of nowhere at the edge of eddies and the seam of the main river current. At the end of a long cast the current pulled our lines downstream but closer to shore the current of the eddies pulled our lures hard upstream. I had never been this close to such powerful water and in my head I repeated the words, "don't fall in."

I had recently spent a few mornings drifting roe and beads in the lower Credit River with minimal success so I was in no mood to float fish on this day. I was jonesing to cast hardware. With a river as huge as the Niagara I could two-hand my 10 foot steelhead rod and fire my lures as hard and far as I could.

I started casting 2/5 oz. Little Cleo spoons. The water was slightly cloudy so I decided to try a #4 Blue Fox Vibrax spinner to try to draw some fish to my bait with the spinning blade's aggressive vibration. After my friend Alfie lost a fish on a silver Kastmaster spoon, I tied my blue and silver Cleo back on.

And good thing I did. A few casts later, while I was watching the gulls kamikaze diving into the river for baitfish, I nearly had my rod pulled out of my hands by a chunky female steelhead. The fish was fresh; bright silver with a light greenish grey back and she fought hard, making my drag scream 3 or 4 times before Adam was able to get her in the net. A powerful fish from a powerful river.

A Niagara River Steelhead

Shortly after that fish, the first flakes from the winter storm that was forecast for the afternoon started falling and we made the climb out of the gorge. Fishing not only gave me a chance to fight a beautiful Lake Ontario rainbow trout but it also gave me a chance to see and feel what the Niagara River is really all about. Hidden behind all the kitchy tourist crap and the lineups to get on the Maid of the Mist is a powerhouse river that should be respected and experienced up close.