Any Luck In Upstate Ny?

[River Dave]

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

[Gundog]

5 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

 The previously mentioned smallmouth.

Good lawd that is a big, fat smallie. 

[rmcguirk]

13 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

 The previously mentioned smallmouth.

Yikes, that's a stud.  I don't know what's more impressive:  that single amazing fish, the 11 fish over 5 (including another over 6), or the 100+ in the boat on a day that, a few miles away, I was scratching for bites on Conesus.  Outstanding!

[nosdog2]

Finally getting back from my trip to NY and knocking the dust off the boat and fishing tackle.  I had some plans with family that kept me from getting on the water as much as I would have liked, but like @ww2farmer said I was able to put a hurting on them the one afternoon I was on the lake.  Although I didn't have quite as an epic day as he did, I had a personal best day on the lake in number of large fish. I was able to put in the boat well over 10 fish all weighing over well over the 4/5lb mark with 2 that were absolute slobs pushing in the 6s. I can't verify 100% of the weights because someone.... forgot to put batteries in his scale after its winter slumber, but I have caught enough to get an idea of where they are sitting weight wise. Even more impressive I was fishing with my twin boys on the boat at the same time, so they are slinging spinner baits every which direction they could while learning to use a bait caster.  

 

I think my biggest accomplishment was getting both of my son's a bass over the 4/5lb mark.  I set a goal for myself this year to get each of my boys a large bass and I was able to accomplish that on the first trip out.  Only my wife wasn't able to fish since we didn't get her license in time for this outing.

 

A couple pics of my boys with their fish - edited for privacy........ ?

 

Also nice to run into a fellow BR member on the way in and exchange fishing info on his way out and chat a bit.

 

[bclark7b]

Went to canandaigua tonight. Caught two which were not worthy of bringing out the scale. After years of hitting the banks and fishing out of a canoe I feel overwhelmed now that I have a boat and have so much water I can fish. Hoping that I can figure things out after awhile, but since I got my boat things have been tough going for me! Still a blast to get out there and fish though, Just hoping for better results!

[ww2farmer]

Talk about the proverbial "air out of the balloon" day. This Sat. (yesterday) sure wasn't last Sat.

 

Oh, I caught a dozen or so fish, a few decent 4+ lbers, but it was a grind. I fished in two shifts, 6am-noon, got off the water to catch my daughters softball game from ***, then was back on the water from 3:30pm-7pm. All the action was in the AM shift, I couldn't get ANYTHING going in the afternoon. Not shallow, not deep, not slow, not fast, not for largemouth, not for smallmouth......nothing, I couldn't even tempt a rock bass into biting

 

Other than that, I had been out twice after work last week, Tues. night, and wed. night. Tuesday night was terrible. I spent the evening looking for smallmouth on beds, found lots, but they were not quite ready to bite, which is actually kinda rare for bedding smallmouth. They were easily spooked off, I caught the only 5 I could find that seemed locked, and none of them were big ones. However I discovered the yearly hoard of rock bass have moved into shallow water, so in between looking for the few and far between willing smallmouth, I kept myself busy by catching a million of those.

 

Weds. night was  better. I targeted largemouth, and in the 2 hours I fished put 15+ fish in the boat, with one over 5, one over 4, and a bunch of mid 3's as the highlights.

[nosdog2]

I am just jealous you are out!  Not a bad few outings, it is going to be really tough since you set the bar so high!  

 

I forgot to mention the amount of carp that were out in the shallows when I was poking around.  There are tons of hammers in Silver. 

[J Francho]

Did really well on Port Bay, yesterday.  a couple dozen bass, one almost 4, and two northerns, one over 10.  Everything on a spinnerbait.

 

Here's the pike:

Edited May 22, 2018 by J Francho
Added pic

[Subaqua Adinterim]

Went out yesterday afternoon. Fished shallow trying for bass and tossed out deeper for whatever might bite.  Aimlessly fishing deeper resulted in a good size pickerel and big lake trout - see post and picture of trout in Other Fish Species forum section.  

Started fishing at noon, took an hour break for lunch around 2:30 and fished until 6:30.  The pickerel and trout were caught between 1 and 2.  Saw many species of fish cruising the shallows, however, early on nothing there was interested in my senko or ned rig.  Just after 4 pm, things started getting better; in the last few hours, I caught 5 LMB, the 2 biggest ones estimated to be about 2#s, also 2 rock bass and a giant perch.  All the late day fish were caught in less than 6' of water on the ned rig, which worked well as the weeds have not grown in yet.  A fun first day out in the kayak enjoying decent weather; hoping to get out again later this week.

[selB]

Going out to a small lake this weekend (about 80 acres).  We will be going out around 2 and fishing till around 7 targeting LMB primarily.  Hoping to have a good day out with my buddies as our first outing together.  We were planning on doing the typical loop around the perimeter of the lake with hitting a few spots around the middle randomly (with some help from the fish finder).  any suggestions for this time of the year on a lake we've never fished before?  probably try a lot of stuff and see what works.  Usually we go out in the morning (6-7am) but this time were going out in the afternoon.  What changes for the afternoon vs the morning in my approach to getting the big fish? 

 

I attached the map of the lake were going to hit for reference.

Ball Pond.pdf

 

Landed this HOG last weekend.  Can't believe how hard she hit my Senko weedless lure.  Has to be almost 6 lbs.

 

[ww2farmer]

Since last report (which was Sat's double dip of mediocre AM, and terrible PM shift):

 

I fished almost all day Sunday, was at Cabela's when they opened bright and early to clean them out of LH $69 Fuego CT's, then hit the water at 10am. I should have just bought tackle all day LOL. It was a grind. From 10am-7pm I caught 9 bass, nothing over 3.5lbs, and nothing remotely pattern-able.

 

Then I went out again Tues. after work from 4:30-8:30, it was slightly better. Not on fire, just better than Sunday. Caught 12 in those four hours. But nothing note worthy for size.

 

Since the day of day's on the 12th, this place has been in a bizzaro funk. BUT, that's not uncommon here. We like to refer to it as the SLOW BUILD- PEAK-CRASH syndrome. It happens often.  And is fairly typical for here, especially when the water is gin clear, grass is not thick yet, . Rarely does this lake give you weeks on end of good fishing. It's just one of her quirks. It could be worse, like the funk it was in last year through most of mid to late May where skunkings or really bad outings were way too frequent.

 

I'll say one thing about this place, even after fishing it for 30 years, every year seemingly is a curve ball, and each trip out is a curve ball within the curve ball. But, that's why I love it. Keeps it interesting.

[CarlF]

I got my boat out for the first time in NY last night. Put in on the north end of Honeoye and fished for about 3 hours in the evening. Caught 8 11-12" fish, mostly shallow. Water was between 68 and 71 depending on bottom composition. I did not see any beds once the wind calmed down, but fish were pretty aggressive. 

[Subaqua Adinterim]

Went out yesterday afternoon for approx. 6 hours. Messed around with the ultralight using a small jig, as I saw hundreds of panfish schooled in shallow water along various stretches of the bank.  Had fun catching some relatively large sunfish, as well as a few large perch and a good size crappie.  Got bit off twice on the ned rig and landed a good size pickerel.  Had no luck with bass until after 4:30 and then was able to catch 4 LMB using a t rigged weightless senko in shallow water. One of the bass was about 2#, the other 3 together would not have weighed that much.  Had to leave at 6.  Saw many smaller LMB cruising the shallows in the few hours before I left.  Pics of the large crappie and the pickerel are below.

 

 

[rmcguirk]

Got out last night on Conesus for a couple of hours after work. Absolutely nothing other than a pike bite off. This morning was better, but not great. Got four before lunch, including a 5.5 LM, which made everything better. Everything came on a wobble head with a rage bug in 3-4 ft.  Tried to force feed a lot of other baits and nothing else produced. Got a peck or two on a drop shot, but they we’re likely rock bass or sunnies. Nothing but casting practice from about 11:30-2:00. 

[ww2farmer]

Silver was just OK yesterday. In 11 hours I caught 21 bass, with the best 5 being a 6-4, 5-11, 4-13, 4-6, and 3-12. How is that just OK??? Especially with another 6lber and one almost 6 involved?....because all 21 bites came in 2 different 2 hour windows, in relatively small areas. One in the AM that produced 13 bites, and one in the PM that produced 8. That means I spent 7 hours not catching a dang thing in between.

[ww2farmer]

This morning was......................not very good. The fact that I am off the water and typing a report at 1pm should make that seem obvious.

 

I got on the water about 5:45 this morning, and had one 2.5lb bass in the boat by 8am. Shifted gears, and tried something else, somewhere else on the lake, and managed to catch 6 more clone 2lbers by 11am. That was enough for me today, big ones were not biting where I was fishing, and holiday boat traffic was starting to ramp up.

[Dwight Hottle]

On 5/14/2018 at 6:29 PM, ww2farmer said:

 The previously mentioned smallmouth.

Sweeeeeeeeeeet!

[bclark7b]

So question for anyone who wants to give me ideas. I'm going out Saturday morning and taking a young high school kid out with me. I'm ok at junk fishing around and getting a few for myself in the boat at this point, but I'm horrible at patterning fish , and have never been very good at helping someone else catch something. Anyone know a good technique or lake which I could go to to help him catch a few bass. I'm not looking for secret spots or anything like that. Also size doesn't matter to this kid. I don't need to get 5 & 6's to keep him happy he's still a quanity over quality guy. I live in Phelps near Geneva. Thanks in advance!

[Gundog]

Just from looking at a map I'd say you aren't to far away from the northern parts of Canandaigua and Seneca. I've shore fished at Seneca lake state park. Start there. Target smallmouths cause they are plentiful. I'll leave the specifics of what to throw to someone that is in that area.

[J Francho]

10 hours ago, bclark7b said:

So question for anyone who wants to give me ideas. I'm going out Saturday morning and taking a young high school kid out with me. I'm ok at junk fishing around and getting a few for myself in the boat at this point, but I'm horrible at patterning fish , and have never been very good at helping someone else catch something. Anyone know a good technique or lake which I could go to to help him catch a few bass. I'm not looking for secret spots or anything like that. Also size doesn't matter to this kid. I don't need to get 5 & 6's to keep him happy he's still a quanity over quality guy. I live in Phelps near Geneva. Thanks in advance!

Honeoye has been on fire, lately.  It's a good numbers lake, and there's a chance for a lunker.

[NYWayfarer]

Memorial day weekend was very productive for me. I am not one to take my kayak out on a holiday weekend so I used google maps to find local spots to bank fish.

 

I was able to find a feeder canal by me that runs parallel to the Hudson River. There is a path between them and you can walk and fish the canal or the river.

 

I caught my biggest Smallmouth Bass of the year there. 2.14 pounds.

 

 

I also found a Rock Bass honey hole.

 

 

All in all I was able to catch over 30 fish over the weekend.

 

[kbeeb374]

1 hour ago, J Francho said:

Honeoye has been on fire, lately.  It's a good numbers lake, and there's a chance for a lunker.

What has been working well there? I am fishing Honeoye Sunday in my first tournament as a co-angler

[J Francho]

No details on specific baits, but the big ones have not disappeared yet, like they always do in summer.

 

Paper tournament?

[kbeeb374]

Yeah it is a paper tournament.  Still not sure of the specifics but i think its based on length.  Gotta ask my friend who invited me.

[bclark7b]

2 hours ago, J Francho said:

Honeoye has been on fire, lately.  It's a good numbers lake, and there's a chance for a lunker.

I forgot about honeoye. I have been there a few times in a canoe and had good luck, but they were a little small, but that would work great for this trip.  Should I be looking around docks and shallow or a little deeper?