Any Luck In Upstate Ny?

[ww2farmer]

59 minutes ago, bclark7b said:

What happened Ww2farmer? Things still slow out there? Or did you really sell the boat and take up golfing.

Still pretty slow.

 

Nothing has been sold yet LOL.

 

Last weekends tournament was a disaster. Unlike the first one, I HAD the bites to finish in the money but my execution was sub-par. Oh well................when it rains it pours.

 

Other than the occasional "venting" when I am flumaxed, I am just going to keep grinding away at them. I know it's not me, but the lake. Lots and lots of other good anglers are struggling over here.

[ww2farmer]

Yeah................it's the lake, not me.

 

Went to Conesus for the first time this year yesterday from 7am -3pm. I caught them pretty good. Easily my best day in a while thanks to the funk Silver is in. 

 

Mix of shallow and deep. Just kinda junk fished around. Normal summer spots were not quite "on" yet, everything was still close to, or on flats and other spawning areas.  Best three presentations were: swim jig when it was windy, wacky jig w/5" yum dinger when the wind settled down, and a 1/4 oz t-rigged 4" chigger craw under docks when the sun finally popped out.

 

The highlights of the day were a 5-10 early into the day, multiple 4+ lb fish through out the day, and steady action on 2-3 lbers all day long.

 

THEN................I had to pull out at 3pm ish to go to Silver and run my Thursday night tournament...........caught a lone 3.75lber all night.

 

My advise..............even though I live 3 mins from Silver................go somewhere else for a while. This place SUCKS this year. Other than a couple weeks early in the pre-spawn time frame, it's sucked since late last summer. I don't know what's going on, in 30 years of fishing here, I have never seen it in such a funk. I am not wasting any more valuable time off out there. It's a shame too..............I love the place. My whole fishing life has been spent there, but when I can not catch a bass doing anything in my normal routine that's worked for those said 30 years in areas that have held bass since the dawn of time, OR throwing curve balls and trying new stuff in different places, I have to throw in the towel and go somewhere else before my confidence is shot.

[nosdog2]

I fished Silver on Friday and only managed two LM (4.1 & dink) and a lone rock bass, with the larger coming off a downed tree.   Had to seek refuge under a tree in the early afternoon when an absolute downpour rolled through for a solid half hour. 

 

Like Farmer, I fish Silver due to convenience and really enjoy fishing that lake. But it has been rough as well for me this year in my limited time on the lake.  I am going to have to venture out and 'learn' a new lake in the area since I am pretty new to fishing off my own boat.

[Hurricane]

On 6/30/2017 at 6:38 AM, ww2farmer said:

Yeah................it's the lake, not me.

 

Went to Conesus for the first time this year yesterday from 7am -3pm. I caught them pretty good. Easily my best day in a while thanks to the funk Silver is in. 

 

Mix of shallow and deep. Just kinda junk fished around. Normal summer spots were not quite "on" yet, everything was still close to, or on flats and other spawning areas.  Best three presentations were: swim jig when it was windy, wacky jig w/5" yum dinger when the wind settled down, and a 1/4 oz t-rigged 4" chigger craw under docks when the sun finally popped out.

 

The highlights of the day were a 5-10 early into the day, multiple 4+ lb fish through out the day, and steady action on 2-3 lbers all day long.

 

THEN................I had to pull out at 3pm ish to go to Silver and run my Thursday night tournament...........caught a lone 3.75lber all night.

 

My advise..............even though I live 3 mins from Silver................go somewhere else for a while. This place SUCKS this year. Other than a couple weeks early in the pre-spawn time frame, it's sucked since late last summer. I don't know what's going on, in 30 years of fishing here, I have never seen it in such a funk. I am not wasting any more valuable time off out there. It's a shame too..............I love the place. My whole fishing life has been spent there, but when I can not catch a bass doing anything in my normal routine that's worked for those said 30 years in areas that have held bass since the dawn of time, OR throwing curve balls and trying new stuff in different places, I have to throw in the towel and go somewhere else before my confidence is shot.

 

You're in need of some Lake Erie/ Niagra River Smallmouth... 

[Subaqua Adinterim]

Back at it, and did much better than the week before when I caught only 1 big pickerel, a sunfish and a small LMB.  I got out yesterday about 3 p.m. and fished for about 3 hours, stopping to stretch a few times.  Before leaving at around 7, I landed 15 LMB (a few were about 3#, the rest were maybe 1#), 1 pickerel and a SMB that was just over 21".

I caught the SMB around 6:30  and didn't have a scale to weigh it, so I rowed over to a nearby aluminum boat (keeping the fish in the net and in the water as I went) and asked the 2 guys in the boat if they had a scale so I could weigh it.  They did; however, it didn't work, so they measured it for me and took my picture with the fish before I released it.

They asked me what I was doing to catch so many, as they had tried everything and caught nothing; so I told them the depth and the technique to use and one of the guys caught a 19" LMB on one of his first few casts. That was good to see, as they were really nice people and they were thrilled to catch something.  Also good to see that they released it after measuring.  I wished them luck,  and headed back to shore, happy to end the day landing a big fish and able to drive home in daylight.

 

I would post some pics, however when I try to attach a file there is a message that says I'm only allowed to upload 501.76KB which is strange because I have 195.31 mb capacity left for attachments?

[ww2farmer]

Reports from last several outings:

 

I fished Silver Sat Am on 7/1, Monday AM on 7/2, Weds. evening on 7/5, and all day yesterday. 

 

I fished Conesus all day Thursday on 7/6.

 

Silver reports:

 

7/1: Slow caught six bass all morning just kinda junk fishing around

7/2: Down right terrible, caught 2 bass all morning, again junk fishing.

7/5: Not terrible, but not one fire. In about three hours after work I did OK on quality fish putting a 5+lber, a 4+lber, and a couple of average size 2.5lb or so bass in the boat.

And yesterday was good, I caught 23 bass, but it didn't start that way. I fished from 6am to 7pm. From 6-10am I had ZERO fish in the boat. Caught two between 10-11am. Then 13 between 11 am-1pm. Went to lunch. Back on the water at 2pm or so, and caught 8 from 2-7pm.

Size was decent, with 6 fish over 4lbs, 6 over 3lbs, and the rest all ranging from small keepers to upper 2lb range fish. First day in a long while I found somewhat of a pattern and was able to run it for most of my bites.

 

Conesus was not on fire Thursday. I fished from 7am-4pm, and caught 10 all day. However, still better than Silver has been on it's slow days. Mid day bite was best there too, just like silver yesterday. I had 2 fish in the boat from 7-noon, then caught 8 from noon-4pm. Size was OK, not great by Conesus standards, but a pair of 4lbers, a pair of 3+ lbers, and the rest were a mix of small keepers to mid 2lb range fish.

 

There was ONE theme both Thursday on Conesus and yesterday on Silver. Mid depth water outside large weed flats, where the grass tapered from thick to scattered clumps. I think one of the reasons for the slow fishing the past two months (other then the obvious excuse of the up and down unstable weather) is that the fish have been spread out over large flats, being the proverbial "needles in haystacks" to find an catch. They might finally be starting to group up a little and get into their summer routines. 

[ww2farmer]

Lets see.............I fished almost everyday last week either after work or on my Thursday off.

 

Monday night on Silver: Not dead, but not great, caught a half dozen average sized largemouth.

 

Tues and Weds nights after work on Silver: Both nights sucked with a capitol S. I was skunked both nights. 

 

Thursday AM on Conesus before the monsoon. It was OK, put 7 good fish in the boat in about an hour or so before having to go home due to the storm. 

 

Thursday night Tournament on Silver: Did OK, caught 11 bass in 3 hours, and finished just outside the money, with 7.87lb three fish bag.

 

Friday night on Silver: Better then Tues/weds. but not as good as Thursday. About a clone of Monday night with half a dozen average sized fish caught in 2-3 hours.

 

Sat on Silver: Caught 20+ fish from 7am-3pm, and took 2nd place with a 15lb, 15oz. bag in an open tournament put on by CV bass. Best day of the week , although still not up to my standards, but cashing is cashing.

 

I am giving it a rest today. Still kinda slow fishing and I have other stuff to do.

[bclark7b]

Good to see it's been slow for other guys and it's not just me. I've caught a decent number of fish I just can't find size. Most years I'll get a bunch of 5#s and maybe a 6 or two, but this year I'm having trouble getting 4's. Hopefully I'll be getting a boat in the next month to expand where I can fish.

[ww2farmer]

Since last report I fished 3 times.

 

Sunday evening on Silver: I caught half a dozen, one good one 4+

 

Tuesday evening on Silver:  I caught 4, three small keepers and a 3 lber.

 

Thursday on Conesus: I held a weekday open tournament, single angler format. I finished 4th and just out side the money with a 17.20lb bag...Winner + 2nd had 21.02, and 20.29 respectively, and BR member wnybassman was 3rd and just clipped me out of the money with 17.75lbs. It was one of the funner tournaments I have fished in a while. I caught 50+ fish during the day, culling up ounces at a time all day long. I just couldn't get the elusive kicker. 

 

I wish I lived just 10 mins closer to that lake. As it is it's only a 30 min drive for me, but it's just far enough to be a PITA to go on all my after work evening trips.

 

[nosdog2]

Been really busy at work and having WNY fishing withdrawals!  Let see some pics.

[J Francho]

Pics from the past couple days.  Fish, and where I was catching them.

 

 

 

[nosdog2]

Great fish!

[ww2farmer]

Since last report:

 

Sunday 7/23- Held my yearly July team open on Silver. A tournament which I have won 2 out of the last three years. This year..........not so much. Had 3 small keepers with an hour or so to go,dumped them, put the boat on the trailer, and set the scales up early.

 

I fished Mon and weds evening on Silver the following week (7-24 + 7-26) I was skunked both nights.

 

Thursday 7/27 Fished Conesus from day break to 3pm. Caught a few smallmouth in the AM drop shotting off points when the early morning top water/moving bait bite didn't happen. Once the sun was high in the sky, I went to flipping heavy  milfoil in 6-8 feet of water and caught them pretty good. Caught 20 + largemouth doing this, with 7 of them over 4lbs, and a pair of those said 7 over 5lbs. Pulled out at 3 to go fish/run my Thursday night tournament at Silver. Caught two 2.5lbers all night, as did my partner, which was about middle of the pack, but since I was in  a hurry, the last one to have yet weighed in, and already out of it, I dumped them and went home.

 

Sat 7/29: Fished in the evening after the boat traffic died down on Silver. Not much, a couple of 3lbers and a 2lber 

 

Sunday 7/30: Fished from 6am-5pm on Silver. Decent day given my current performances there. Caught one over 4, one over 5, and a bunch of 2-3 lb fish. Just junk fishing. Some deep, some shallow, some in the mid depth grass.

 

Monday night 7/31: Fished Silver from 5pm-dark after work. Caught a 5+ lber and a bunch of decent ones working deep grass lines.

 

Weds night 8/2: Fished Silver from 4:30 pm-dark after work. Only caught 5, but those five were a 6-3, a 4-14, a 4-4, a 3-15, and a 3-11. All caught flipping docks shallow.

 

Thursday 8/3: Fished Conesus all day from 7am-5pm. Slow morning. Only caught 4 in the grass after NOT catching any on reaction baits early. Went shallow and flipped docks the rest of the day. Good numbers day doing that, but no real bunchs of hogs like Conesus is good for at times. Best I could do for size doing that was an upper 4lb range fish, and a couple low to mid 3lb range fish, but lots of action on 2-3 lbers. Enough so that it kept me doing it all day, because I was catching fish.

 

 

[ww2farmer]

Since last report:

 

Sunday 8/6: Fished Silver all day. Some other outfit had a club tournament going on out there. So to stay out of the way I just played around doing goofy stuff, in dead water until they were gone. Goofy stuff in dead water was not very productive. I caught 2 fish the entire time. Once they left and I started fishing "right" I had a decent afternoon.

 

Monday night 8/7: Fished Silver for a few hours after work. It was probably the best evening of the season so far for big fish.

 

Tuesday night 8/8: Fished Silver for a few hours after work. It gave Monday a run for the money for top evening outing for the season so far.

 

Thursday 8/10: Fished Conesus from 7am-2pm. It was SLOW. Worst day I have had there this year. I only caught 8 keeper bass all day, and nothing much bigger than low 3lb range. Had my last Thursday night tournament of the year on Silver in the evening...evidently Monday and Tuesday were a tease. My partner and I struggled our way into a middle of the pack finish.

 

Saturday 8/11: Fished Silver all day. Same old same old on Silver. Morning bite was brutally slow. Only having four fish by noon. But then the afternoon was on fire with size and numbers. And then they shut right off at 5:30-6:00 and I struggled for 2 bites from then till dark.

[bclark7b]

Went out to cayuga sunday. I've struggled there the last two weeks. I'm no good fishing in open water. Flipped some docks with little success. Caught a few small fish. Fishing there the last few times has made me realize I'm a world class pickerel angler but not so good with bass! If anyone knows cayuga I'm looking for advice.

[ww2farmer]

Since last report:

 

Monday night 8/14: fished for a few hours after work. It was slow. Two average sized largemouth, and one decent 3+ lb smallmouth are all that I caught.

 

Tuesday night 8/15: Carbon copy of Monday night, except I got one decent largemouth out of the three fish I caught.

 

Weds night 8/16: Terrible, one 3lb largemouth, one 4+ lber that jumped off boat side

 

Thursday night 8/17: OK, a 4+ lber,  a pair of 3+ lbers, and a handfull of small keepers to keep me awake between the better bites. Fished with my buddy , whom I have never fished with but is a good angler, and we meshed well together and he caught a handfull of decent ones too. We decided to apply our new found team work to a tournament this weekend.

 

Sat. Afternoon 8/19: Terrible, one 2.5lber, and one 4.5 lber.

 

Sun. 8/20: Fished a team open tournament with the "new" to me partner from thursdays outing, who, much like me is a local big stick on this lake most years, but is struggling this year. We have known each other for years, are good friends, and usually take turns beating each other. Well two wrongs made a right today. We bumbled and stumbled doing a little bit of each others stuff all day and came up with a solid 19lb 2oz. bag. Good enough for $$$ and 3rd place. He caught a couple good ones right away, and then we both chipped away at it adding decent fish and culling for a few  hours until about mid -day. Then both of what we do died, and we hung on for the cashing spot. We had  fun together, and it was refreshing to not suck for once this year. I am already looking forward to fishing with him again.

[nosdog2]

Finally made it up to NY to do some fishing this week.  

 

Started the week out fishing with Farmer on his boat.  I can't thank him enough for welcoming me to fish with him.  It says a lot when a fisherman is willing to help a new guy learn and I can learn a lot from this guy!  I have never seen someone skip under docks, trees, pontoon boats like that before!  I need to learn how to do that.

 

Silver has been slow as usual and through casual conversation I mentioned never catching a smallmouth before.  Enough said we pull up shop and he put me on the SM! Ended up catching my PB smallmouth - given the fact that it was my first, it was my PB!   

 

Went out solo this evening and it was slow again, caught rock bass like a champ and the below LM (3.8) on a jig.  Ended my night on a low, I decided to retie my jig and for some dumb reason I used a knot I never use to try and reduce the grass catching on it.  Well low and behold I pitch to a lily pad, it explodes, I set the hook....and gone.  Thought it was a pike at first that maybe bit me off until I reeled it in and noticed the tell tale undone knot curl.

 

Still got a few days more to fish.

 

 

[ww2farmer]

Since last report:

 

Tuesday night 8/22: Meet and took nosdog2 out on my boat for a couple hours in the evening. Like he said it was slow. I caught one hammer handle pike and 2lb ish largemouth before he mentioned he had never caught a smallmouth. So I took him to one of my smallie areas, put my rods down, and put him in good water. He got the good one in his pic, but we ran out of daylight and a storm was rolling in, so we had to call it a night before I could put him on another one.

 

Thursday 8/24: Held my 2nd, 8 hour "single man" tournament on conesus from 7am-3pm. I finished in the middle of the pack with a 12.98lb bag...easily my worst tournament ever on Conesus. I was around fish, I caught fish all day. I just had too many errors on the big bites I had and couldn't put them in the boat. I doubt I would have turned a 12.98 lb bag into a 20+ lb bag, as that was what it took to win and to get 2nd as well. But the 3rd cashing spot was within my reach at 18lbs if I get the lost fish/screw ups in the boat................yeah....you do the math. I didn't mess up on three minnows. And since they were shallow, and in gin clear water, it was a double kick in the jimmy seeing what I couldn't convert on. At least lost deep fish, or fish in the grass is "well it could have been just a scrappy 2lber" kind of deal....not so much when your sight fishing (yes!!! sight fishing hogs in late august....trust me...I have done this many times before on this lake this time of year). 

 

Sat. Afternoon 8/26: Had to work until 2pm, so got on Silver at about 4pm after a trip to the hardware store, and some work mounting a new on board charger to my boat. Fished till 7pm, when it got down right too chilly for t-shirts and shorts, and I forgot to bring a sweatshirt...it's August...I refuse. In those  3 or so hours I put 5 fish in the boat. Not much for numbers, but size was OK. One over 5, and the rest all solid 3+ lbers

 

Sun Afternoon 8/27: Carbon copy of Sat. afternoon. Had my kids youth football/cheerleading games until 2pm, and got on the water at about 3pm. Again, left at 7 or so when the air got a nip to it..(too cold for an Aug. evening if you ask me). Anyways, I caught 7 today. A little better than yesterday.. This time, again another 5+, one over 4, and the rest all decent 3lb fish.

[ww2farmer]

Since last report:

 

Monday evening 8/28: Fished from 6pm-8pm, caught a couple good ones (4lbers) in the first half hour/45 mins, as well as a couple average size fish. Clouded up and looked like rain was brewing during the last hour, and I went looking for a shallow reaction bite...and never got any.

 

Tuesday evening 8/29: Fished from 6pm-8pm again, and much like Monday night I caught them in the first 45 mins, and it was dead the last hour or so. 

 

Thursday 8/31: Held another one of my "Solo angler" opens on Silver and did OK. I got in the money with a 3rd place finish and a 17.59lb bag. Winner had 18.70, 2nd was 18.57, and 4th was 16.02. All four of us couldn't have fished more different. I finessed the heck out of them with light line and spinning rods rotating between dropshotting, flick shaking, a shaky head, a ned rig and a neko rig, because I wasn't getting bit on jigs/cranks/flipping/etc...I think all but one fish I weighed in came on the drop shot, and one was on the flick shake. The winner reported catching them ultra shallow on a swim jig,  2nd place guy reported catching them ultra deep slowly dragging a heavy finesse football jig around, and 4th place guy had all smallmouth (1st + 3rd place were all largemouth, 2nd was a mixed bag) I caught all mine in 10 feet of water on the deep milfoil edge, or just slightly deeper around clumps of coontail that you can only see on your electronics. Goes to show you there is more than one way to skin a cat on any given day out there. 

[ww2farmer]

Since last report:

 

Sat. 9/2....COLD in the morning. And I struggled for bites. I only ended up with 6 bass by lunch time, three of them over 3lbs, and the other 3 small keepers. Then my trolling motor broke. Came home, ordered parts, and the wait for said parts  began.

 

Sat 9/9....Trolling motor fixed. Hit the water around 8am, as I spent the first hour or so of daylight installing the new parts on the TM. It was also very cold in the morning, along with overcast skies, and a howling north wind. I have seen this TV show before, and decided to chase smallmouth, as the largemouth bite on these types of mornings is usually quite slow. The smallmouth were none too active either. I only caught 3 in the first 3 hours, a 3.5lber, a 2lber, and a dink. Gave up on them and went largemouth fishing. It was a whack fest. My best day for numbers all season perhaps. They were biting everything, everywhere. Shallow , deep, under docks, in the grass, on wood, I am pretty sure I even caught a few on land, and in the toilet at the boat launch. For as insane of a numbers day as it was....size was average at best. It wasn't a dink fest, but I couldn't crack 4lbs, and the vast majority of the fish were 2.5-3.5lbs.

 

Sunday 9/10.... Again another cold clear night, so I slept in and headed to the lake in the afternoon. Yesterday was better for numbers, but I did catch 7 fish this afternoon, including a pair of 4+ lbers, and the rest were all those same solid mid sized fish that bit so well yesterday. 

[Subaqua Adinterim]

Went out yesterday, from 2 until 6:30 with a break of about an hour to eat and talk to some people out on the water.  Caught 6 LMB and ended up with a pickerel right before leaving.  2 of the bass were in the 2-3# range, the rest were smaller.  The pickerel put up a good fight right from the start, unlike a typical pickerel, so that was fun.

Caught all except one on a ned rig, along the outside edges of the weeds.  One was caught with a 1/16oz. moon eye jig with crappie magnet plastic when I was playing at the beginning with my ultralight set up.

Most of the time, I would cast the ned rig to deeper water and while that was settling, I would cast an unweighted senko into the shallows.  I had no luck with the senko, but it was worth a try.  There was no wind, so it was a perfect day to be on the water.  I have attached some pictures.

 

[ww2farmer]

Since last report:

 

Monday afternoon: Silver was pretty good again.Had a 1/2 day of work and fished from noon - 6pm. Caught a dozen decent ones, including a 5-2 flipping docks. When that seemed to fizzle, I picked up the spinning rods and  drop shotted up another decent 1/2 dozen fish, with the biggest one of those a 4-4. To end the day I caught a 4-8 on a frog under some matted, uprooted crap that had blown up against the brakewall.

 

Thursday 9/14: Held another one of my solo angler tournaments. This one was on Conesus, and 11 guys showed up. Most reported a tuff bite, with several guys who are  very very good there not even getting limits..............I know how that feels, especially this year. BUT today was not that day for me. I didn't struggle, and caught 20+ fish. I didn't haul in one of those 20+lb monster bags that this lake can kick out, but I won with 18.81lbs. 2nd had 15, and 3rd was 14. 

 

I finally have this tournament season steered in the right direction after a disaster of an end to last year, and the start of this year.

[nosdog2]

Nice bag for the win!  Maybe hit up Conesus with you when I am up in a few weeks?

 

 

[ww2farmer]

35 minutes ago, nosdog2 said:

Nice bag for the win!  Maybe hit up Conesus with you when I am up in a few weeks?

 

 

Sure, if it works out time wise. 

[BuzzHudson19c]

Anyone ever do Cossayuna lake in Argyle, Washington county? I want to fish it once before the season is over but not sure what to expect.