This spring I had the pleasure of fly fishing with guide, Daniel Scheda. I first booked Daniel for a wade trip on a Lake Ontario tributary last Fall. During that terrific trip, Daniel spoke passionately about the incredible smallmouth bass fishing that could be had during the pre-spawn bite on new-to-me Eighteen Mile Creek.

Eighteen Mile Creek is a tributary to Lake Erie, located just south of Hamburg, NY. It’s named appropriately after its run of roughly eighteen miles from its source in the town of Concord, flowing north and then west before entering Lake Erie at the community of Highland-on-the-Lake in the town of Evans. It has one major tributary, the South Branch Eighteen Mile Creek, which joins the main branch within Eighteen Mile Creek Park. The creek drains a 120-square-mile watershed.

Given its proximity to Buffalo and its suburbs, Eighteen Mile Creek can get significant fishing pressure, according to Daniel. The trib’s spring and fall runs of steelhead are the most noteworthy draw, but as we prepared for this trip, Daniel warned me we’d want to start before sunrise to get a jump on the fishermen drawn to its spawning run of smallmouth bass. It would turn out that his advice was well-founded.

I met Daniel just before sunrise at a public access to Eighteen Mile Creek, referred to as “18 Mile Creek – Lake” on google maps. The access has adequate parking space and lies just off Old Lake Shore Road. After gearing up, we initially fished a deep pool under the Old Lake Shore Road bridge. Daniel had me start the day fishing an indicator rig and a marabou jig. We would fish two color variations of this jig off and on throughout the day – black and white being his favorite colors – but Daniel will also fish other colors such as olive, brown, and even chartreuse. What intrigued me most about this fishing technique was the subtlety of the “takes” one experiences. I easily missed at least a dozen fish during my initial attempts to fish the jig with success. Even brief hesitation or a hair’s touch of the indicator was a missed bass, and these fish were consistently hooked in the top of the mouth. According to Daniel, the bass come up, mouth the jig, and reject it in the blink of an eye, so quick hooksets are critical, and “free” as he reiterated throughout that great day on the water.

The early morning was spent fishing from the bridge access down to the lake, and even fishing the lake itself. This was about a half-mile wade and a fairly easy one at that. This section of the river is generally wide and shallow, with deeper cuts, especially where the river runs up against the shale shoulders of the creek banks.

Looking downriver to Lake Erie from the Old Lake Shore Road bridge.

As we waded downstream, Daniel changed to a streamer set-up, using a 7 weight 9-foot fly rod rigged with a floating WF7 line. The leader was tapered to 2X and 7.5′ in length. Daniel clips the last 18″ of the leader and ties on a micro-swivel with 18″ of 8 to 12 lb fluorocarbon tippet tied to the swivel. He goes with the 8 lb tippet if the water is really clear but generally fishes 12 lb., as the bass are usually not at all line shy.

Daniel’s streamer of choice is a pattern he learned about while fishing Michigan rivers for smallmouth: Schultz’s Swingin’ D…

Outfitter and guide, Mike Schultz, created the Swinging D as a swim fly with built-in wounded baitfish motion. The fly features tandem hooks, the front being as large as a 2/0, with the rear stinger hook at a size 2 or smaller. It also uses a half cone-shaped buoyant head that gives the fly diving motion. The fly is typically fished with a sinking or intermediate line to pull it down in the water column.

Daniel’s Swingin’ D was a little different in that the head was not buoyant. Daniel made it using a 3D printer out of a dense plastic that allows the fly to sink, primarily because the relatively shallow nature of 18 Mile Creek would not allow the use of a sink-tip line.

The bass had a hard time resisting the side-to-side action of the Swingin’ D, including how it pauses and suspends between strips. The fly Daniel had me use was the white version, with plenty of flash. It was highly visible in the relatively clear water of Eighteen Mile Creek and watching the eats of the bass was exhilarating to say the least.

We fished the streamer down Eighteen Mile Creek to the lake. One area in particular, where the creek hooks northeast, featured a deeper cut along the bank and a long submerged log. We caught many bass there – the bass seemed to love having the structure of the log for cover – no doubt due to the presence of bald eagles and osprey along the creek and lakefront.

We also fished the lake itself at the mouth of Eighteen Mile Creek in the shadow of the shale bluffs looking out over the lake. This was much deeper water but nonetheless productive.

The lakefront of Lake Erie is shown here looking southwest. Note the tall shale bluffs. The creek is seen in the background to the right in this picture.

After wading and hiking back to the car, we drove upriver to another DEC access at the end of Basswood Drive. There is a nice parking area here and like our first stop, a good number of cars and trucks filled it. We hiked down a long trail into the creek gorge and arrived at a very nice hole just upstream of a right-angle bend in the creek. This section had several anglers fishing it for obvious reasons as it was excellent holding water, so we crossed the creek and moved upriver to a place where a massive stone train trestle crossed the creek gorge. This was another fine stretch of water characterized by deep shadowy cuts in the river bedrock.

Daniel Scheda is seen here at the train trestle pool upstream from the Basswood access. This stretch featured deep cuts in the bedrock of the creek and good holding water for smallmouth bass.

Two fly anglers had been working this stretch from the other side without luck and took some time to sit and watch Daniel and I as we worked the cut with the marabou jig.

We moved again after landing a fair number of bass, climbing back up the long trail out of the gorge to the access where we rested and took a lunch break. Thick Wegmans subs with all the trimmings, chips, cookies and water made for a great lunch.

The weather had been perfect for smallmouth fishing, especially given the very clear water conditions. Smallmouth bass are light-shy, and for good reason. Eagles, osprey, kingfishers, and herons all have incredible eyesight. It had been overcast all morning but now the cloudy skies were hinting at rain.

Our last stop was a spot Daniel referred to as “the cemetery.” We parked along an old cemetery perched on high ground that overlooked the creek gorge. A long footpath led us down the gorge to the creek. From there we fished upstream with the streamer and indicator rig, picking away at the bass in the many runs and pools of that section of the creek.

We headed back to the car just in time with the rain starting. While I was very pleased with the fishing, Daniel said the bite had been better the prior week. He had noticed on a number of occasions that the bass were not as aggressive in taking the fly, likely signaling that the spawn was nearing. Indeed, we did see some bass on beds and of course avoided them. Regardless, I would classify it as a great day with over 30 bass to hand. The quality of the fish was excellent, with size ranging from 14″ to over 18″.

A fine bass caught under the tutelage of Daniel Scheda, a terrific fly fishing guide.

Eighteen Mile Creek is one of many Great Lakes tributaries that get runs of spawning smallmouth bass in the spring. Like the pre-spawn bite in our local warmwater rivers, timing is everything for this bite, so these more distant destinations require a bit of luck to time it right or a local who can give one a call when the fishing is on. And while our local Southern Tier rivers can provide some very large bass for the taking, the tribs like Eighteen Mile offer a shot at some truly epic lake run fish, measured more in pounds than inches.

The distance to Eighteen Mile Creek is roughly 3 hours from Vestal/Endicott/Binghamton, so not ideal for a day trip but not impossible either. It would be a better overnight trip, arriving in the evening to get a jump on a very early start the next morning. If you go, be armed with a 10 foot 6 or 7 weight for indicator nymphing, and a 9 foot 7 or 8 weight for streamer fishing. While flows when I fished were fairly tame, boots with felt and cleats are recommended, as well as a wading staff to keep safe especially when you are wading across bedrock.

I’ll add that Daniel Scheda is a fantastic guide who knows the tributary waters of Western NY extremely well, along with the fishing along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. He is easy to fish with and extremely knowledgeable. My two trips with him were outstanding. Daniel also has a great YouTube channel featuring videos of his fly fishing trips as well as fly tying of his favorite patterns. It’s well worth a look!