Lake Erie Outdoors
Fishing Forums => Niagara River => Topic started by: minnkota on June 14, 2018, 09:07:03 AM
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Keep an eye out for Tagged bass in the Niagara River
This is crazy, the bass were tagged in upper Niagara and some were caught in lower Niagara River. They jumped over the falls??
http://buffalonews.com/2018/06/13/tagged-fish-program-leads-to-impressive-results-for-local-angler/
As far as the tagging program itself, it shows that the weigh-in procedures of SCBM and the fish handling methods are working and that fish are surviving. Of the 16 tagged fish that have been caught, nine have come from the upper river or Lake Erie. It’s amazing that seven have come from the lower river, meaning below Niagara Falls to Lake Ontario. How did those lower river fish get there?
There are probably three options that are plausible. One is that they simply took the daredevil route and plunged over the falls … and survived. That’s what Cinelli believes. Other fish have made it over the falls and lived.
Another route would be for the bass to make it back out into Lake Erie and hang a right toward the Welland Canal. They could potentially swim the canal into Lake Ontario and find their way to the lower river. It’s a long trip through some swift currents, but Cinelli’s catch in the South Gap showed they can make it into the lake.