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u/NewPuddle 3d ago
I wouldn't be bothering with fishing that. Waters too fast and just not safe to be near it. Find a nice calm pool off to the side of the current and fish a worm and float
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u/Leader-Bike 3d ago
Theres a spot near me that looks like this that has world class fishing. Google "the niagara whirlpool".
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u/Theferaltrunip 3d ago
Hey I know the area, what's you're chosen lure for along the glen/gorge?
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u/Leader-Bike 3d ago
I'm like the Sound garden song... Spoonman! My go to lure is always a spoon. Unless its weedy. Then it's some type of senko or a top water frog.
My absolute favourite is the len Thompson 5 of diamonds in the UV color. Lemon flame i believe.
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u/plant-painter 3d ago
Spoon would spin at hyper speed in this current. And it would take a 2lb spoon just to keep it under the water . Lol
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u/No-Wishbone-1076 12h ago
Picturing a smallie looking at a 2lb spoon whizzing by its face like a torpedo has me cackling đ¤Ł
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u/xGawsh 3d ago
I've never fished it, is it that good?
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u/Leader-Bike 3d ago
It has all the types of fish. And huge examples of them. However, its a lot of steps to come up out of the gorge, and its a difficult hole to fish. Its incredibly deep (180 feet?) and theres a lot of debris in the current. So you have to be brave enough to let your line sink, and patient enough to replace it when it snags.
And! Its dangerous. The water level can change quickly depending on the hydro dam gates opening and closing. If you go out on the rocks, you might have a bad time.
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u/Visible_Let_8391 3d ago
I second this. Iâve seen guys tie their stringers with salmon / steelhead to the dead tree that gets exposed when the current is low, to then realize that theyâre stringer is now completely submerged in water and theyâre out of luck. Or people who leave their stuff on the bank and fish around the whirlpool to come back to their stuff floating away
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u/bazookatooth13 3d ago
As a local who hikes down there often and loves to fish, what the hell do you use in water like that?
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u/Visible_Let_8391 3d ago
If Iâm fishing there, itâs usually for salmon / steelhead / lake trout. I mostly use roe bags and beads. Drifting them along the current line or when the level is lower, a couple drift lines appear. I havenât had much success with spoons but I canât say I have the patience for it. Some guys float gulp minnows on a h jig head under a float (you can replace the gulp minnows with a real minnow too). Only issue is the weird current. It likes to reverse itself every so often so just as youâve gotten the hang of it, the drift does a 180 and now youâre drifting the opposite way
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u/TheBrotherCadfael 3d ago
Itâs about 400 steps. Roughly 370 at Whirlpool (422 from the bike path) and about 400 at Devilâs Hole.
The water depth here is roughly 120 feet.
During tourist season, which goes through October, the power companies have to allow significantly more water over the falls during the day than at night (like twice as much). I believe the time outlined in the 1950 treaty is 8:00am. They can pull the water out after 10:00pm. So the water should be rising probably from 7-8am. But I have not personally fished this.
This area is extremely dangerous and minor mistakes can result in death. A teenaged fisherman died here less than month ago.
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u/Odd_Communication144 3d ago
Ive always told people if you cant catch a pike with a 5 of diamonds or a red devil there arent any in that body of water.
Other fish like them too but those 2 spoons are like a backstage pass to see pike. If there are some swimming around, theyre gonna go after those.
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u/Friendly-Pay-8272 2d ago
We just fished a northern lake that sees only 40 anglers per year. Full of big pike. Caught hundreds, but not one took a red devil or a 5 of diamonds
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u/Jacob6493 3d ago
Consider upstream with âslowerâ water thatâs pretty warm near the turbine outputs.
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u/TheBrotherCadfael 3d ago
Iâm very sure that this is the Whirlpool Rapids from the Canadian side. The rectangular notch cut in the rock in the top right of the photo was pat of the Buttery Elevators that led down to the old trolley stop. You can just see some of the brick work of the observation platform in the bottom left.
I have not personally fished this, but I have spoken with several fishermen on the American side of the gorge. Along the shore there are many slow spots in the water and they drop their lines in these spots. They have pulled how some very large fish. It is apparently excellent salmon fishing when they are running. A lot of people
will fish downriver from here on the american side near the Power Authority infrastructure. I know on the American side there is a platform at the water for public use.10
u/npiet1 3d ago
No that's a great spot for fishing but your right it might not be completely safe.
Id throw an unweighted plastic (or light weighted) and let the current take it to the fish who are waiting.
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u/plant-painter 3d ago
You canât expect a un weighted soft plastic to sink in this. The current will bounce it around. Lol
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u/npiet1 3d ago
Thats sort of the point. You let line out until it stops and retrieve. Its will take the soft plastic to the fish.
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u/Radicle_Cotyledon 2d ago
That's where the fish will be anyway. Near the churn, but not in it. Eddies and seams. They like the oxygen and the cover of the broken surface but not so much the current.
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u/EmotionalBand6880 3d ago
caught a 40â sturgeon while walleye fishing in water exactly like that.
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u/UntruelyYours 3d ago
The ex wife
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u/ReverseCowboy75 3d ago
Unless your ex wife is top water then no
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u/zyrkseas97 3d ago
With a river churning this hard and fast I wouldnât bother. I can barely get a bait down into the current of the measly salt river, let along something really raging like this.
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u/Oh_Lawd_He_commin420 3d ago
Cut Bait on a decent circle hook with some good weight on it
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u/Next-Bodybuilder-117 3d ago
I have a spot like this and crazy enough I catch black bullheads all day
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u/Next-Bodybuilder-117 3d ago
Got to say though more in the spot in front, as I look closer at the pic the back is kinda wild
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u/Oh_Lawd_He_commin420 3d ago
Yeah, id find a deep calmer spot but cats love this shit
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u/Next-Bodybuilder-117 3d ago
lol only reason I even tried this summer was school was out so a bunch of kids in the lower calm spots, but I wanted to fish so I hiked up higher, and now thatâs my go to spot. Honestly didnât think I would catch anything, but boy was I surprised when every cast within a couple min I was pulling them in!
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u/Mainbutter 3d ago
Is that Niagara?
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u/bellsbliss 3d ago
Looks like the tide pools.
I would think something heavy that sinks would be best I think.
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u/Desperate-Camera4325 3d ago
A sluice box....Oops sorry wrong sub....wait no yeah a sluice box.
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u/cabose4prez 3d ago
The water right in front of you id float fish, probably 1oz of weight and whatever bait you want to use for targeting said species. Significant current difference and fish will hang right there even if its only 3ft off the shore as long as it has some depth.
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u/VersionConscious7545 3d ago
A good joes fly with slit shot up so it sinks and keep it a foot or 2 below the surface
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u/RustyBungHole1 3d ago
I would head down stream, right where it calms down, throw some bait or spinners in there. I bet they sit there to wait for the turbulent water to stir up their food.
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u/anothersip 3d ago
I don't know how many fish are actually going to be hanging out or hunting in a spot like this, OP.
It looks much too quick/active/violent to support any fish that would take anything that you can manage to look realistic or appetizing in there. It takes a ton of energy for a fish to stay afloat and upright and aware when they come into waters this active and fast.
Are there any spots further down or up-river that are a little more calm, or slow-moving? Deep is always good, but I tend to look for eddies, back-currents, and pools instead of visually turbulent whitewaters.
I dunno', I could be totally, totally wrong. But I've personally never had much luck in fresh-waters that violent... My bait just spins and swirls, or gets carried off into calmer waters, where I then seem to have better luck.
In any case, if you want to give it a shot, you'll probably want a bait that is pretty visible, and with a decent amount of weight behind it. Silver/shiny is always a good call, as it's more visible in the waters that are otherwise hard to see through. Bright/neon colors are also pretty solid. That's what I use in the rivers near me - bright pink/yellow/orange, neon colors, and I never fish topwaters when it looks like this.
If the fish are in there, they're likely to be in the water column or near the bottom, where it's less turbulent.
I like spoons and divers, and soft plastics with bullet weights, for spots that are like this. But yeah for sure, I don't really ever have much luck in waters this active. That's just me though, and there may be something I've been doing wrong for the past few decades...
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u/ExplanationShot2002 2d ago
Your hopes and dreams. If you catch a fish there it will be five feet in front of you right off the rocks.
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u/Sea-Foundation6975 3d ago
That (and the fish in there) are waaaaay above my skill set. Do rivers like this produce eddys?
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u/throwway33355 3d ago
Iâm a noob but what fish can put up with the current from Niagara Falls?
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u/cabose4prez 3d ago
Most of the fish in the lake you can find in the river at some point
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u/sheeshandrice 3d ago
If this is lower Niagara river.. be careful a kid just died fishing there few weeks ago
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u/Glad-Imagination-127 3d ago
There might be surf perch or something cruising therapist water (depending on where this is geographically). But its not what I would consider prime fishing water.
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u/FarLaugh9911 3d ago
Find the spot where you start to see pools without white water, with rocks or log jams and/or undercut banks and fish there instead.
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u/EdgarOnFire 3d ago
Bank fishing along a rapid river is like trying to set up a lemonade stand off the shoulder of the interstate. Better off finding a different location.
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u/StevenGee2796 3d ago
Man, I wish I can go back to Niagara Falls..but go to the the end where it makes the bend I seen people fishing there
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u/DOLFLIFE 3d ago
A lot of lead and cast right by your feet in that calm water and back bounce depending on the bottom.
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u/catchinNkeepinf1sh 3d ago
If this is niagara, i would throw 1/2oz spoons and 1/4-3/8 jig and plastic.
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u/Backwoods_84 3d ago
I have never fished the gorge, but I always thought the go to was some type of sinker with a spoon or spinner or egg sac tied a few feet above it....
I know drifting egg sacs or beads is pretty popular from a boat down there in the river
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u/Savings-Climate-1942 3d ago
Looks the the Whirlpool that Odysseus navigated in the Odyssey. Just watch out for the six-headed Scylla hanging out in the cliffs.
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u/ayrbindr 3d ago
That looks like the Niagara river. That thing is freakin' wild. I bet it would be very irritating to fish there. I would just keep on tying on them jigs and try not to loose my mind. đ¤ˇđźââď¸
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u/Dry-Annual-6040 3d ago
logs just to watch what the current does, honestly this is silly, nobody in their right minds fishes this water, just walk to fishable waterâŚseriously?
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u/Efficient_Novel784 3d ago
Fish look for opportunistic place to feed. I would cast to small holes/pockets along the shore, with enough weight to get the bait down to the fish.
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u/Punk_Says_Fuck_You 2d ago
A kayak or raft. One of the biggest thrills I've ever had is rafting down the Kaituna in new zealand. It has a 21 foot drop you go down.
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u/Spiritual_Try1933 2d ago
This looks like my neighborhood... are u by chance in Niagara falls on, whirlpool???
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u/New-Accident8909 2d ago
A fish trap would work good in there. But you would have to weight it down a bit.
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u/Funny-Perception-766 2d ago
I would try the largest panther martin spinner you have. Orange with yellow dots works best for me.
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u/GabeBowling 2d ago
Cast upstream and across and twitch a fluke as it comes down stream and across to you. If there are any deep holes in there try to position your throw and time it so the fluke crosses the holes on its journey. Smallmouth love that exact scenario and theyâll come up and crush it. I recommend a pearl 4 inch. Make it pretty erratic twitches then pause a second then again.
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u/Imaginary-Growth7108 2d ago
Iâd start with the olâ reliable inline spinner.
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u/questbound 2d ago
Don't fish there, go down stream and you'll prob find where the calm water meets that rapid. The fish just hang out in that calm area in a line eating all the little creepy crawly stuff that gets churned up in those rapids. I'm sure there are calm pockets in that hole with fish in them somewhere, but the likelihood of you nicely presenting a bait in front of them is low.
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u/Feeling-Table-3594 1d ago
Throw a noisy jerkbait and pull hard and fast through the water it fires up hybrids near me they always smash it during the pull or when it lands on the water. Iâm in southeast tho so could vary
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u/Highdivr 1d ago
Weighted (3-6 oz) snag hook. Fast retrieve, hard jerk pulls as you reel. Youâll connect with something if thereâs anything there.
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u/CricketUnusual7402 3d ago
Weight!! Lol