Any Luck In Upstate Ny?

[clayton86]

Anyone been to cayuga lately? I've got a the NYKBF state championship there this weekend. Done some research and asked around already and have a fairly solid game plan but seeing if anyone else has any input on the lake recently. 

[John Gustas]

Anyone know if Silver still has a Harmful bloom?  I'm hoping the chilly mornings are quickly eradicating it.

 

Crossing my fingers for Friday!

[ww2farmer]

1 hour ago, John Gustas said:

Anyone know if Silver still has a Harmful bloom?  I'm hoping the chilly mornings are quickly eradicating it.

 

Crossing my fingers for Friday!

Beats me, I haven't been there in a while...................because I got sick from the bloom. Literally. Fever's, chills, bacterial infection...on antibiotics, the whole 9 yards.

[John Gustas]

26 minutes ago, ww2farmer said:

Beats me, I haven't been there in a while...................because I got sick from the bloom. Literally. Fever's, chills, bacterial infection...on antibiotics, the whole 9 yards.

Holy crap man.  I went there during what seemed to be the peak (like ecto-cooler water... SO GREEN!), and even the seagulls were like "yeah, f@&k this." And sat on the shore.  I took that as a warning and left.  

 

Hope you're feeling better.

[ww2farmer]

Since last report:

 

I have been out of action sick for almost 2 weeks, but between my last report from my tournament win on Conesus on Sept. 14th and getting sick 2 weeks ago I went out 5 times. 

 

One was Sat. the 16th of Sept. on Silver I got to the launch at day break to find 25 boats in the parking lot ready to blast off in two diff. tournaments that I knew nothing about or was not in. I found places out of their way to fish and caught 5 good fish goofing around until noon and then headed home. 

 

The next day, Sunday the 17th of Sept I went to Conesus..........same thing, place was mobbed with other tournaments going on, and I did the same thing I did the day before on Silver. Stayed out of the way, goofed off trying new/stupid stuff, caught a half dozen good ones and called it a day before they all returned to the launch at 2 or 3.

 

I then fished Silver on Tuesday night, Sept 19th for 2-3 hours and it was a very good evening. I caught a limit of smallmouth and a limit of largemouth with the best five combined over 20lbs

 

I had errands to run on my day off on Thursday Sept 21st, so I never got to the lake until mid-afternoon, and it was SLOW. I don't remember much other than it was a grind all afternoon/early evening to get a limit of average sized fish.

 

I then fished another clubs team open tournament on Silver Sunday Sept 24th, and finished in the middle of the pack. I went back out after the tournament to lick my wounds, and ended up catching a few fish better than anything I caught all day in the contest, with the highlight a 5-8.

 

Then I go sick, and didn't return to the water until today, Oct 5th.

 

nosdog2 and I spent most of the day out there on Silver and it was a GRIND. Between the two of us we put a dozen or so fish in the boat all day. He got one early, and then mid to late morning we put another limit or so of decent fish in the boat. Then the slow times began. At one point we had a 4+ hour stretch mid-day (which included our lunch break) without much action other than fish short striking,a dink and a few coming off. I called an audible and we switched up what we were doing for the last hour or so we had left to fish, and in that last hour we caught most of our better fish of the day. I got the last minute rally started with a solid 5-2,  and we both put decent fish in the boat shortly after that.

 

It's been 10 days since I been out there, and I think we have entered my least favorite time of the season. The dreaded summer to fall transition period.

[Hurricane]

My best day of the year was a day on Cayuga... Boated bass after bass.. Biggest fish were a couple 4lbers and a couple 5lbers...

[nosdog2]

Well my long week of hunting and fishing has come to an end.  Started off fishing last Thursday with @ww2farmer and like he said we started and ended with fish, but the midday slump was a grind.  But the weather was great and the time went by with pointers taken to improve my fishing.  I am now maybe a 3/10 on the skill level of skipping jigs under pontoon boats, trees, and docks; but at least I can do it now!

 

I spent the remainder of the week fishing and hunting and did very well with the same patterns on Silver lake with the morning bite being very good and then about 10-11 am it shut down hard.  The algae bloom was really present most of the week with only "clearing" on the really windy days, but most of the mornings was casting topwater through the pea soup.  It did lead to the advantage of being able to see exactly where you cast and where the fish blew up at it!  

 

I have to say the whooper plopper really shined on the top water all week.  Each morning it put four to six fish in the boat on some great top water action.  And a few 30"+ pike as well.  Each morning yielded at least one 4+ lbr  (I caught a few right at 4.11/12) and several 3's, but no dinks.

 

I did make it out to Conesus later on Sunday and it was VERY windy.  Never fished that lake and with the conditions, we made the best of it.  Managed to put a few in the boat shallow, and had a buddy with me who had very limited fishing experience so he was chucking the bluegill whopper plopper all over, and beat us all.  He got bites with it near docks, off both the outside and inside weed edges and  just about everywhere he chucked it.  And this was pretty much all day.

 

Hunting was great, but started with my new Amish neighbor walking around "turkey hunting" my property close to dark.    Spent a lot of time hunting with a buddy who has a managed farm and didn't really see anything that I wanted to harvest quite this early in the season.  

 

BUT, as I was leaving last night to travel back down to Maryland, I got about 2 miles from my cabin and smacked a very large doe with the truck.  Dented the bumper a bit, but the Ram definitely won the battle.  Call the State Police and got a tag, my Dad swung by and picked her up and I headed back down to reality of work.

 

This was Tuesday morning on Silver:

[clayton86]

Hit silver this evening for the first time to target bass. Stuck two only weighed the bigger one at 4.9lbs. I'm trying to upload the pic but won't let me. 

[Rick Howard]

im catching fish shallow and deep right now.  On average I'm Catching better fish deeper.  It's like a playground though.  I can flip in the shallow to mid depth wood.  Throw spinners and squarebills at shallow or mid depth wood.  Crank or toss tubes at deeper weed lines, humps, rock piles, or wood.  Or if I find some feeders I toss a popper or jerk-bait.  Most productive has been deeper weedlines that are still healthy.  Quality and quantity Are on those.  

[J Francho]

On 10/13/2017 at 10:08 PM, clayton86 said:

Hit silver this evening for the first time to target bass. Stuck two only weighed the bigger one at 4.9lbs. I'm trying to upload the pic but won't let me. 

https://postimages.org/

Or right click in FB, and copy image location to paste here.  That fish was a slob!

[J Francho]

Lol

Here:

 

[clayton86]

Lol thanks @J Francho

[ww2farmer]

Since last report:

 

Sunday 10/8/17: held my final single man open tournament of 2017. Wind was brutal and the field was small . I ended up in 2nd place with 17+ lbs of largemouth, but got my butt kicked by wnybassman and his 22lb bag of 4 smallmouth and 1 largemouth.

 

Thursday 10/12/17: Dedicated the day to smallmouth and did OK on them, with a few bonus largemouth while chasing the brown ones. The highlights were a pair of 4.5lbers (one green, one brown) a pair of upper 3lb range fish (one green, one brown) and a bunch of 2.5-3.5 lb fish of both colors.

 

Sunday 10/15/17: My year end "classic" tournament for everyone who won or cashed in the various tournament formats I held this year. Well...................I finished the tournament season much like I started it. Spun out, and humbled. It got off to a bad start from the get go when my partner (whose boat we were using) was 1/2 an hour late to the ramp...so instead of starting at 7am like everyone else we didn't start till 7:30 or so. Then we proceeded to waste the first hour or so of fishing doing stuff I don't like to do, in places I don't like fishing.(I'll give my partner the benefit of the doubt here, as he has caught good fish doing what we started with...just not today) When we finally got on my stuff, I was already about 50% shot mentally for the day, and I lost all confidence in what I was doing. I basically put it on auto pilot for the rest of the day, and sat on the back of the boat counting the minutes until it was over. 

 

And that's it for my tournament season. I'll still fish quite a few more times, but after Sunday's fiasco, I'm glad they are over. A quick recap of the tournament season for me is:

 

Bad start: The first several events I did just horrible. And got into a bad habit of throwing in the towel and going in early during a couple of them.

 

Good middle to right up to the 2nd to last tournament: I saved the season with a win, two seconds, two thirds, and a fourth place finish from about mid- July through early October. I did have a few more stinkers than usual in that stretch too, but they are easier to stomach when you can string together a couple of good ones.

 

And then a terrible finale tournament where I reverted back to my early season habits of getting spun out.

 

Every year is learning exp...and what I learned this year is:

 

#1 I like fishing by myself WAY WAY better than fishing team events. I am expanding my solo angler open tournaments, and getting out of team events.

 

#2 I recognized some of my early season woes were on me, and my attitude, and once corrected did much better. I have got to remember to stay focused and positive when tossed a curve ball. 

 

And #3.............I am not good at losing. For the past 4-5 years prior to this year I won or cashed way way more often than not. And having a down year has not left a good taste in my mouth.

[ww2farmer]

Well, it's been awhile since my last report, but here goes:

 

Thursday 10/19/17: Started the day on Silver, caught one 4.5lb LM before the starter on my boat died. Used the pull rope to get her started and back to the ramp. Drove right to my mechanic and dropped it off. Hopped in with my buddy and fished the rest of the day with him on a small lake near his house. Did decent, I caught 2 over 4, another pair over 3, and a bunch of 1.5- 2 lbers.

 

Thursday 10/26/17: Boat was done, drove down to get it, and then fished Silver in the afternoon. It was not half bad. I got on the water about 2pm, and fished shallow for a couple hours. The pike bite was insane, but in between catching lots of those, I managed a half dozen decent largemouth with one over 5. After I got my LAST chatterbait I owned bit off, I slid out to some deeper grass and started throwing a jig around. I caught a limit of 3-4lb fish doing that before I ran out of daylight.

 

Then the rain/wind/cold hit, and kept me off the water for a while. I didn't make it out again until:

 

Sat. 11/4/17: Had stuff to do in the AM, so didn't get out until 1:30 or so. Spent the first 2 hours looking for smallmouth and came up empty. Went largemouth fishing after that, and had a great afternoon. With the highlights being a 5-6, a pair over 4, and lots of decent 2.5-3.5lbers. 

 

That might be my last time out this year. It's gotten a little chilly around here as of late, and I am getting soft in my old age. I have not had a great deal of success this fall with smallmouth, and would like to have at least one more crack at it before I put it away. But it might not happen.

 

 

[ww2farmer]

Well, I drove over to winterize the boat around noon today, and get it ready to go into storage next week...........but took one look at the lake and just had to go fishing.

 

Despite the low 30's air temps, and mid 40's water temps I had a good day of largemouth fishing. Smallmouth have been such a frustrating exercise this fall I didn't even bother with them. No hogs, but a couple 4's, and a couple 3+'s mixed with a few pike and smaller bass to keep me out there for a few hours. Called it quits about 4:30, fogged the motor, took all my gear out, put RV anti freeze in the bilge/livewell, drained the carb, and changed the lower unit oil. All that's left is a trip to the car wash for a hose down/vac job on the way to storage (next weekend), and take the batteries out when I get there. And that's the end of my 2017 season.

[nosdog2]

Almost time to wake those sleepy boats and get this thread back on track!!

[ww2farmer]

2 hours ago, nosdog2 said:

Almost time to wake those sleepy boats and get this thread back on track!!

It's still winter here LMAO.

[desmobob]

2 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

It's still winter here LMAO.

Every time I get ready to take the winter tarp off the boat, we get another Nor'Easter.   8"-12" forecasted for my area tomorrow afternoon through Thursday.  :-(

 

Tight lines,

Bob

[nosdog2]

4 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

It's still winter here LMAO.

Well I did say almost...  LOL!  

[desmobob]

12 hours ago, desmobob said:

Every time I get ready to take the winter tarp off the boat, we get another Nor'Easter.   8"-12" forecasted for my area tomorrow afternoon through Thursday.  :-(

 

Tight lines,

Bob

Forecast for my area was updated... Winter Storm Warning: 10"-16" with localized amounts up to 20".

 

 

Tight lines,

Bob

[J Francho]

I guess we're dodging that bullet in WNY....

[Last_Cast]

On 3/7/2018 at 8:34 AM, J Francho said:

I guess we're dodging that bullet in WNY....

Lucky you.

[J Francho]

12 hours ago, Last_Cast said:

Lucky you.

Well, we do get nailed by lake effect much more than down state.

[NYWayfarer]

On ‎3‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 8:34 AM, J Francho said:

I guess we're dodging that bullet in WNY....

Capital region on up to Saratoga dodging as well.

[J Francho]

By "dodging" it, that also means temps in the teens.  

 

It has been a very cold March.