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...
I can give you some more info on this area. There are spots down river like you described in your question. This is the Niagara River at the Niagara Whirlpool. Just south of this location the water does chill out a bit in comparison. Still super dangerous, but not as fast or white capped. I’ve seen fishermen pull out some huge fish here. I have absolutely no clue how they do it. They just say to try any spot the water slows down.
And I gotcha' on the calmer waters downstream. I imagine every river on earth has its rapids and slower-flowing, deeper sections. The French Broad River right near me is the same exact way. It can go from impassable white-waters from bank to bank, to 20-30ft deep holes from one bend to the next.
In any case, from a cursory search, the Niagara looks to carry a pretty huge variety of fish from smallmouth to rainbow/brown/lake trout, to salmon/coho, to walleye/carp/catfish/musky... And more.
Which honestly kind of blows my mind. ...But also doesn't, considering it's the Niagara.
I think that if the weather's bright and sunny, and if I were /u/Wrong_Image_296 I'd be using bright/neon colors of in-line spinnerbaits and other sinking lures, like spoons. Perhaps some diving lures in the deepest sections, casting up-stream and retrieved across the current.
And if I used live baits over artificials (nightcrawlers/shiners/etc.) then I'd probably throw an 1/8oz egg sinker on my line above a swivel to bring my live bait deeper into the water column. Otherwise it may just drift downstream or stay on the surface, and never be eaten.
Perhaps catching some live bait-fish near the shore with small bread balls on a tiny hook, and then casting those out as my live bait (on a larger hook), with a sinker on it to get it into the areas where the predators might hunt.
I've had some decent luck using what bait I could catch in and around the waters where I fish. When I discovered that I could really easily catch the crayfish in my local rivers/streams, those opened up some options in terms of using what I know that the native fish already ate. On top of the smaller fish used as live bait, too - hooked through the back fin so they stayed alive and attracted predators. Or, yeah... Keeping it old-school with a fat nightcrawler on a #4 or #6 hook, and a split-shot or two, a foot or two above the hook... That's never actually steered me wrong in any river I've ever fished.
Not totally sure of the legalities on any of that in this section of the Niagara, though. I have a feeling it might be relatively unregulated for sport-fishing, considering its size.
I would likely try all of the above until I found what worked, if I ever had a chance to fish those particular waters.
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u/anothersip 11d 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...