One of the most dangerous mistakes a novice fisherman can make is to wade out into the upper Devil's Hole area. The large rocks at early morning time are exposed well above the water line but as the morning progresses the current starts to pick up and the level rises very fast in this area. Even if you had a life jacket on I highly doubt you would survive if you were swept into the river in this area. The rest of the river the rise is minimal on shore but the current change fluctuates all day long from fast to slow. We mainly wear just hunting boots on shore and never wade any Niagara water. My friend made the same mistake years ago and it could have been tragic had he not got back to shore in time. I posted this on my site years ago...   http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1101181774051395656AoBUjN

Well rippin lip, luckily the water went back down after only several minutes my buddy and his dad were on another rock farther out that was much larger and they were videoing the whole ordeal. At one point the water came over my hunting boots to about mid shin bc one of those friggin jet boats went by! We just got so caught up in the fishing we werent paying attention to our surroundings. Luckily it was the weekend of the big fishing derby I believe its called the odyssey tournament, and if we would have fallen in there were many boats around we were actually about to call one over if the water got any higher! Its very funny now looking back on the whole thing!

Man I get the chills thinkin about it! Could have been a bad outcome... When some rocks get wet, they turn slippery. Seems like the water reactivates the slime on them.

Yes the rocks are very slippery almost every rock has about a 1/2 in of algae on it! I was actually wearing leather work boots that were slip resistant and it actually helped although that isnt even why I wore them. When I was there for the first time we stayed with a local legend named Bill Joseph. This man is amazing he owned his own charter in lake ontario for awhile and guided on the river for some time. One of his buddies fell in one time by devils hole and floated down the river for several hours before he could finally swim onto shore IN CANADA. Another time he was in devils hole with his 22 ft boat and several clients. In the river like mentioned before there are many small "whirlpools" that just pop up out of nowhere at any given time. Well one of these little whirlpools pops up and sucks the transom of his boat down. He said that was one time in his life he thought he was dead. He says nothing's scarier than looking straight up at the bow of your boat and your 10 ft underwater in the whirlpool. But then he said it just spit em out! But anyway if you ever get a chance to meet Bill do it. His stories are so unbelievable but then he whips out a photo album full of pictures of it! Another story in particular was when he and his brother-in-law were in a tournament in january and went down to the river and he caught 2 16lb steelies in like 1hr to win the tournament. Then he whips out the newspaper clipping that reads "Bill Shows Em How Its Done"! Simply amazing! O and by the way sorry for the long post.

Also if you click on the link at the end of captain's one post you will see the rocks I am talking about being trapped on. My buddy and his dad were on the farthest ones out and I was about halfway in. Thats about how high the water got when it luckily started to go back down!

Nice fish!!

One more Laker photo on the river. No private property signs here 100% public fishing!

nice fish! 
they dont grow that big in wolf or coolspring

looks like the Art Park to me

Old favorite of mine, me and my son 14 years ago, Devil's Hole Niagara River. King Salmon from shore.