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The Oswego River is formed by the Oneida and the Seneca rivers. It is approximately 23 miles long and enters Lake Ontario in the City of Oswego. The Oswego River is second only to the Niagara River in size as a Lake Ontario tributary.
The Oswego River has several dams that are used to hold back water for the canal system and to generate electrical power. The Varick power dam is the first one that blocks the fish migration upstream. It is located right in the city about a mile up from where the river enters the harbor. In the fall the steelhead, brown trout, and salmon will collect up below the dam providing anglers with a fantastic fishing opportunity.
The Oswego Harbor is a commercial shipping port. It is also the gateway to the NYS Barge Canal, better known as the Erie Canal. Its sheltered waters offer fisherman a refuge on those days when the lake is a bit to rough to venture out on. Oswego Harbor is referred to by many as the best port on Lake Ontario.
Fishing the Oswego Harbor can really produce some amazing results. In the spring it offers a fantastic fishery for brown trout and steelhead. In the summer bass and walleye fisherman are here in large numbers. As the summer nears it end usually in mid September the salmon will collect up in the harbor prior to the fall run. Once they have become concentrated in the harbor they offer anglers a wonderful fishing opportunity.
The Oswego area of Lake Ontario has produced a
World Record Coho Salmon as well as the New York State Record Brown Trout . Stephen M. Sheets of Woolrich, Pa., caught the record breaking coho that weighed in at 33.45 pounds on August 13, 1998. Tony Brown of Schenectady, NY caught the new state record brown of 33-pounds, 2-ounces on June 10, 1997. Both of these fantastic fish were taken by clients of local charter captains.
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