Good news western new yorkers! im back in buffalo and so are the northern! fish the bays and marinas on the buffalo waterfront with inline spinners, Husky Jerks (HJ12 or HJ14), and big chubs and even swimbaits! the pike are in heavy but that doesnt mean we shouldnt practice catch and release, you wont catch a thirty or fourty incher without releasing the twenty inchers!
Good Luck to all and keep posting any reports if you do fish the waterfront please and thank you. if anyone needs tips on fishing for these toothy critters in buffalo feel free to ask. if you're embarrassed to ask an eighteen year old then you can email me in confidence SeanYeates22@yahoo.com=]

Sean Yeates

For those on a more tight budget like myself....USE WIRE LEADERS....i've lost 3 nice lures so far, all on bit lines.  So i switched to wire leaders.  I dont find it inhibiting the lure enough to reduce strikes.  Just this past week i caught 9 in one day ranging from 12 to 22 inches in length.  I havent tested it out on spinners though, i've been using HJ-12 HJ-14 and DHJ 12.  These jerk baits are producing for me on an average of one catch every 15 casts. 

Any other tips out there for bass/pike would be greatly appreciated, i consider myself an intermediate fisherman and would welcome any ideas. 

for big smallies try wacky rigging any four to six inch Gary Yamamoto's Senko on a red 1/0 cirlcle hook in either brown, junebug, watermelon, or black with any color flakes. cast out to the drop offs let it sink for ten-twenty seconds then jig it with five to ten short/light shakes of of the rod tip. this technique is hot for smallies AND bucket mouths. i even hooked into a northern an some rock bass.

Sean Yeates