River Dave

Ugh! ???

Switched finally flipped around 3:00 but didn't last long. Their lockjaw finally quit for about an hour but then came right back. I think I'll give Silver a break and concentrate on lakes where the fish eat for more than 45 minutes a day. That place has sent me home with my tail between my legs too many times. It's too bad, it's such a nice lake and it's half the drive of some of the other lakes I go to.

Definitely not on fire today either. Still waiting for the switch to flip.

I will be hitting Silver Lake for the first time in almost two years tomorrow. This will be my first actual fishing trip of the year so I'm looking forward to it. I've been on the river twice so far but always taking kids out so I didn't really fish. Silver has been tough on me in the past but it's also given three of my top five biggest largemouth so I keep coming back. Hopefully I can at least find some pike, I would be very pleased with that. I plan to be out from sunup till close to sundown or whenever I get bored. If anybody's out tomorrow give a holler, I'll be in the bow of a blue and white Bayliner capri.

Wow! That looks like a Lake Erie hog right there! Nice going Farmer, that sounds like an epic day for sure.

Hey welcome to Buffalo. Do a little research into the creeks feeding lake Erie around the Hamburg area, like Cattaraugus Creek and 18 Mile Creek. That's a pretty well known Spring hot spot for smallmouth. I havent personally done it in years though so you'll have to figure parking and such and if they are even in there yet (they should be). We used to park by a bridge (paid some old guy $5 to park in his yard) and walked downstream to the mouth. Good luck!

Boat is probably coming out this weekend but did some shore fishing the other day. First time in 583 days! Man it felt good to hold a fishing pole again! Had a few hits but didnt land any fish. No big deal they were just dinks but it was great to be out again. Shoulder was hurting that night but I was able to cast pretty well so that's one hurdle cleared. I think the main challenge will be getting the boat on the trailer with this shoulder and if it will hold up to a 12+ hour day of casting. Looking forward to finding out!

This never ending winter is really killing me this year. Tore up my shoulder last year and never got to fish at all. Never took the boat out and couldn't even fish from shore. Been waiting a looooong time for fishing season to get here! Last count was over 550 days since I went fishing! Come on Spring!!

"The cheap blueberry wine the local store sells is a great after the kids go to bed drink that my wife and I drink together once in awhile." Like this I hear you there. As much as I enjoy a complex Merlot there are some times when I just want some fizzy grape juice with a lot of ice. I'm in Western New York home of Welch's and concord grape paradise. There are some pretty good local sweet wines made with concords that most real wine drinkers would turn their noses up at but, I gotta' say, they're pretty tasty. ? I hardly drink at all anymore. Couple of wine tastings a year and split maybe a dozen bottles with the wife out on the patio over the course of a summer. That's really the only time I drink anymore. As for spare tires...........mine would fit a monster truck

I've seen both House Wrens and Carolina Wrens in the yard before but they never move into my wren houses. We have a lot of feral cats here so I think that keeps them from nesting. Only thing I ever get in any of my houses are sparrows, lots of sparrows. Birds are definitely our thing, we've pretty built the backyard around the feeders. My favorite thing is to sit on the patio and watch the birds, I could do that all day. I keep track of the birds I see and so far I've seen 32 species from the patio with the high of 21 different species in one day. No hummingbirds this year though, that is extremely odd. Don't know why.

Some good looking chow right there Ski. My butts usually come out looking like a meteorite, love the way yours look there. Chicken look great there too. I've done a bunch of really good thighs and some pretty tasty drumsticks before but I'm thinking of doing whole chickens tomorrow. I tried it once before and it didn't come out very good but I know some of what I did wrong so I'm hoping for better this time. I've never tried a brisket yet, just too expensive. I attempted a chuck roast a couple weeks ago and over seasoned that poor thing so bad it was barely edible (I still ate it but nobody else would). Live and learn I guess. It's all fun. I love doing thighs. Almost impossible to screw up and even the "bad" ones are delicious. Still working on the perfect skin, that's the real challenge.

Certainly can't compare to Napa Valley but I'm not too far from some great New York wineries. The Niagara region and particularly the Finger Lakes area have some great wines. Going on wine tastings is a great way to spend a weekend. Great scenery and I love the whole atmosphere.

If you're looking for a true smoker tough to beat the value on the Masterbuilt electrics. Somewhere around $150ish and will give you consistent results over and over. The stick burners like yours are the top dogs but unless you have a really expensive one they never seem to work very well. Too many air leaks and not enough insulation are the trademarks of a budget friendly pit unfortunately. If you're getting that acrid taste on your food you either don't have enough airflow or, most likely, aren't getting a clean burn. What you want for smoking food is a thin blue sweet smelling smoke. Billowing clouds of white smoke will make your food taste bad (voice of experience ?). I am far from an expert but I love running the smoker and the grill!

None for me unfortunately. I winterized the boat the other day and will take out to winter storage this weekend. That trip to Cayuga a couple posts ago turned out to be my last trip of the year. Total bummer.

Muskie selfies rule! Catching a muskie on bass gear is always a blast. I see a lot of fish here, get a lot of follows, and hook several muskies every year. Even with all that I still rarely get more than one a year to the boat so it's a thrill when it finally all works out. That's why I can really appreciate your picture because I know how hard it is to get a fish like that for most of us.

Wow nice muskie! What state was that caught in? Looks like our NY Great Lakes fish. Great picture too btw. I've always found walleye one of the best tasting but worst fighting fish. I never cared for the way they fought or the way we fished for them (always either jigging or trolling both of which I found boring) but as a food fish they can't be beat. I'm right on Lake Erie which has some incredible walleye fishing but even so I don't bother going after them. Just not my thing I guess. They are cool looking fish though.

I ended up taking my nephew out to Cayuga on Friday. The day started out great but then a front blew in and killed the fishing. We were on the water by 7am and caught several bass the first hour or so on a mix of topwater baits and spinners. The sun came through the clouds by about 8:30 and shut down the topwater bite but we were doing ok on spinnerbaits. We had probably 8 or 9 bass and a few pickerel in the first two hours but by 9:30 the skies turned black, an icy cold wind started howling from the North and we were getting small craft advisories on our phones. The worst of it blew through after about an hour but the fish were done by then. In the next ten or so hours we caught a handful of pickerel but even they were slow to bite. We caught more fish in the first two hours than we did in the other ten. Tough day. Weather report was 75* and sunny with a chance of a shower in the evening so we didn't even really bring any warm clothes. My truck said it was 48* when we got off the water. My T shirt and shorts were definitely not cutting it in that wind that's for sure. Even at my age I learned a lesson. I won't get caught unprepared like that again.

Glad to hear the old spots are still producing. I used to ride my bike from my parents house (over by like Salvatore's restaurant) to Blossom Rd for those fish. That was the only place I knew of back then with smallmouth so we would make the trek even though the ride ate up half of our fishing time. I hit Cayuga Lake again on Friday. The day started out great but then a cold front blew in and shut it down. Ended the day with probably 8-9 bass, about the same amount of pickerel, and some perch and rock bass. Not horrible but far from good. I like that lake though.

Really? I'm five minutes from there too! This was way back but the best thing we used there were crayfish that we caught right in the creek. We would spend the first 10-15 minutes catching crayfish and then use them as bait on light casting gear. Just like a hook and a small splitshot and drift through the deeper holes. Caught a bunch of fish out of there. I would imagine jigs, tubes, whacky rigs etc would be good back there now. We would start at the the Blossom Rd bridge and work our way down towards Transit. Never had to go too far though, I've never been more than a couple hundred yards downstream. I have a buddy that goes a little downstream and parks at Borden Rd and works upstream towards Transit but I've never tried that spot. Also have a neighbor that always swore by the creek at Union and William for bass. Said he would park like behind the Dave Christmas Tree Shop and the banquet place next door and fish that stretch. I've never been back there either though. I drove by this spot the other day and it's pretty dried up but there's usually water there . All the creeks are crazy low this year.

Hit the upper River again yesterday. Saw more fish than last time but still terrible out there. Water temp was still 75, jusy too warm. Heading to Cayuga Lake on Friday for the day, hopefully I'll be able to find them there. Can't help you much on spots Newbuck but read through this thread from the beginning and you'll see a lot of local spots mentioned by other guys. 18 Mile Creek from RT 5 to the where it meets Lake Erie is a good spot for smallmouth in the spring (so everyone says, I've never tried it) and the only stream I ever really fished is Buffalo Creek in West Seneca just below the Blossom Rd falls. Used to wade that for smallmouth years ago and did pretty well back then. Nothing huge but mostly 12"-13" fish which was fun. Used to ride my bike very far to get there and now I live pretty close by but haven't been there in years. Funny how that turned out. The red dot on the map shows where I used to go, I would start at the road and wade downstream hitting little holes as I went.

Ok question for you guys: I have a nephew coming in from Chicago specifically to fish with his "expert" fisherman uncle which, unfortunately, is me. Tough break for him. We will be mostly looking for numbers rather than giants. Not after dinks but decent sized 1, 2, 3 pounders or so would probably work. We will be fishing this coming Friday so my question is where is the best place for us to go this time of year? I hear Honeoye is good for numbers but I haven't fished it much and never this time of year. I love Cayuga but never fished it this time of year. Coneseus is a possibility as is Silver Lake but Silver has been tough lately. I thought we could hit the upper Niagara but I was there the other day and had one of my worst days ever on that body of water so that's probably out of the running. I have one more chance to scout a new place before he gets here so tomorrow will find me out there somewhere looking for fish, just don't know where yet. What do you guys think would be the best bet at this time?

Thanks Chris! Unfortunately that's the sole highlight of the season so far. I went back there last week looking for a reapeat and only caught one small bass all day. I'm out on the River right now and am just dyin' out here (which is why I'm on my phone instead of fishing). Been out for 8 hours and still skunked. Startin' to think maybe these fish don't like me anymore. Tough tough year. Need some cold rain or something to cool this water down. Still almost 80 in the River. I went over the side to cool off earlier and the water is the perfect temperature for swimming. Unfortunately it's horrible for fishing.

Solid info, thanks Farmer. For a guy with limited days on the water information like that is just as useful as "go here and use this" because I can better manage my time and pick my days to come out there. Most of those things don't seem to affect the River all that much so I'll know better next time when to stay and fish the home water and when to make the drive out your way. I did see some suspended fish on the sonar and saw huge clouds of bait on there everywhere I went so I see what you mean about current conditions. I think I'll give it a month or so to cool off and come back and try it again before the season is over. I also did a Google search on the crazy pike I saw swimming above the water and it sounds like a farly common thing with pike, muskie, and particularly tiger muskies. Everybody seems to have a theory on why and none of them are the same so it sounds to me like nobody knows why they do it. This is just a picture I pulled off Google, the one I saw was further out of the water.

I'd never wish a bad day of fishing on anyone but, I have to admit, it makes me feel a little better knowing you struggled yesterday too and it's not just me. I had high hopes but didn't know the lake went through a tough transition like that. I have a nephew coming in from Chicago in a couple weeks specifically to go fishing with me so the pressure is on. I know we can do the River like we always have but I thought he might like a change of scenery so yesterday was a bit of a scouting mission for that. My final four were Silver, Cayuga, Coneseus, and the upper Niagara. Never made it to Coneseus this year so that's out and struggled at both Cayuga and Silver in the past month so I think we'll play it safe and hopefully get some numbers in the River. Won't get any five pounders (and probably wont even break 4#) but I hope he can catch 20+ 2-3 pounders and make the trip worthwhile. I plan on seriously fishing the River for the first time in months on Friday so hopefully they are where they should be this time of year but the water's really warm this year so who knows. I have a couple of weeks to figure it out.

Ouch, Silver certainly sent me home with my tail between my legs today. The afternoon bite never materialized so I ended the day with just the one fish I caught in the morning. I had a couple of pike bite offs and some pike follow to the boat but never ended up landing one today. Very humbling experience but still a nice day on the water. Real pretty sunrise/sunset, saw a bald eagle and a mink, took a little swim to cool off, and just enjoyed being on the boat all day. Good for the soul and all that. I didn't see Farmer on the water but think I saw his trailer at the ramp so I'd be very interested to hear how he did today. I'd love to know if it really was that tough or if it was just me. I tried everything everywhere so I would have thought, sooner or later, I'd run in to some fish. What's the verdict Farmer, how did you do tonight?