Published: July 17, 2008 11:32 pm      

OUTDOORS: Summer Lake Ontario Derby ends Sunday

1. Lake Ontario and tributaries

Target your fish 45 to 75 feet down over 100- to 200-foot depths with spoons or flasher-fly combinations. White spin doctors have been working in the flasher department and Dirty White Boy colors in the spoon department. If you want brown trout, try fishing on the bottom in 60 feet of water with smaller spoons like your greens, NBKs or green-gold patterns.

The Summer Lake Ontario Counties Derby ends Sunday, with the awards to take place at Abe’s in Sodus Point. Check out the derby Web site at www.loc.org or call (888) REEL-2-IN for all the details. The next lake derby on the books is the Orleans County Rotary Derby, set for Aug. 2-17. Weigh stations and registration outlets include The Slippery Sinker in Olcott; Narby’s and Four C’s at Point Breeze and East Fork Marina in Hamlin.

The LOTSA one day salmon derby is Saturday out of Olcott. If you want to fish from shore, the action for bass off the piers in Wilson and Olcott has been decent, with some crappie also being caught in Wilson. Bluegills have been hitting in the back bay of Wilson harbor with northern pike and sheepshead also being caught in both Wilson and Olcott harbors.

2. Lower Niagara River

Bass fishing has been decent in the lower river, but you still need to pick your spots. Spencer and Sarah Jamieson of Australia, who recently moved to London, England, won a drawing that entitled them to a fishing trip with Capt. Frank Campbell on July 11. In just a few hours, they managed to catch more than 15 smallmouth bass from Devil’s Hole to Fort Niagara.

The moss is starting to clean up, with crabs and shiners the best live baits to use. Tube jigs top the artificial lures list. Timing looks like it’s just about perfect for two bass contests next weekend, the Lower Niagara River Bass Contest sponsored by A-1 Bait and Outdoorsniagara.com Saturday and the Independent Living Projects Bass Contest on Sunday. Check out www.outdoorsniagara.com for details on both.

3. Upper Niagara River

Bass fishing continues to be good throughout the river. Mike George, Bill Hilts Sr. and Greg Syposs enjoyed a beautiful morning fishing for bass Tuesday and they caught a good amount of smallmouth up to four pounds on crabs. Using crabs for bait, though, you have to expect some sheepshead, too. All caught sheepshead on light tackle, with George taking the lunker of the day at better than 10 pounds. Hilts thought it was as big as 15 pounds, but you know how fishermen are. Don’t forget that the Erie Canal Derby continues through Sunday. For details, log on to www.eriecanalderby.com or call 772-7972.

4. Lake Erie and tributaries

Bass and walleye fishing both continue to be very good. Walleye fishermen are doing extremely well drifting worm harnesses near the head of the river and around the shipping channel near the lighthouse. Copper, watermelon and black-purple are all good colors to start with on your spinners. Towards Dunkirk, anglers are targeting 70 to 100 feet of water and fishing baits 20 to 60 feet down. Bass fishing is slowly moving out to deeper waters in preparation for the big Bassmaster Elite Series Empire Chase, which takes place July 31 to Aug. 3. Fish can be found from 20- to 40-foot depths, with bigger fish coming from the deeper waters. Live bait like crabs and shiners will work; best artificials are tubes, drop shot rigs baited with Berkley Gulp! and spinnerbaits.

If you’re a baseball fan checking out the Buffalo Bisons tonight, Matt Sphar of Pavilion — who has been fishing the Pro Circuit with BASS — will be “casting” out the first pitch at 7:30 p.m. in an attempt to help create a better awareness for the tournament coming to Western New York.

5. Chautauqua Lake

Largemouth bass fishing has been good the last few days in front of the launch at Celeron in six to eight feet of water. Use spinner baits or buzz baits over the tops of weed beds. You can fish all the way to Burtis Bay at the Lakewood Rod and Gun Club. Smallmouth bass have been hitting in the northern basin of the lake around We Wan Chu Cottages in 12 to 18 feet of water on the northwest side of the point. Tubes, grubs and crabs are doing the enticing. Craig Robbins reported three muskellunge over the weekend around the Victoria area. He was casting silver and black bucktails outside the weeds. He also caught fish around Camp Chautauqua. Walleye fishing has slowed and there are no new reports.

6. Finger lakes-inland waters

- Oneida Lake — Justin and Cathy Pokines of Central Square, along with their 10-year-old Trevor have been doing extremely well on the ‘eyes out of Godfrey Point by working dark-colored jigs tipped with worms over structure. Limit catches are available if the conditions are right between buoy markers 119 and 121, targeting 20 to 30 foot depths. Another area holding fish are the reefs and shoals around Shackleton Point in 15 to 20 feet of water on the drops. Jigs and worm harnesses will both work, as will trolling stickbaits. The Big Bay pickerel bite is still on and bass are being caught all around the lake off points, reefs, shoals and other types of structure.

- Honeoye Lake — Dan Sharp of Honeoye Bait and Tackle sends word that bass fishing was hot over the weekend, especially for largemouth using topwaters, minnows and crawlers around the weed beds. Perch have been hitting in the middle of lake around the 20-foot contour by drifting crawlers or crabs with a split shot. Not limits, but good numbers and most of the fish are over 10 inches long. A few walleyes are being reported but they’ve become harder to catch.

Bill Hilts Jr. is a past president of the New York State Outdoor Writers Association. Contact him at bhiltsjr69@cs.com.