Any Luck In Upstate Ny?

[J Francho]

3 hours ago, GTN said:

I live 1.5 miles from the northend and fish Conesus a lot but have a kayak tournament on Honeoye in a few weeks. That’s why I was asking

Grind it out.  You'll catch some numbers, but keep working them and upgrading.  Good luck!

[Krux5506]

On 7/29/2020 at 12:06 PM, MacJig said:

 Have you ever  fished the ponds at the High Acre Nature Area in Fairport (the ones tied to the Waste Management Co.)? They look promising but have never heard much about them.

I fished them a few times including a trip on my kayak which, honestly at the time I didn't know was prohibited but nobody bothered me. Definitely good sized bass in there though at the time I was semi clueless and didn't catch much. Been wanting to go back one of these days. 

[clayton86]

20 hours ago, GTN said:

I live 1.5 miles from the northend and fish Conesus a lot but have a kayak tournament on Honeoye in a few weeks. That’s why I was asking

Like j francho said just get the limit and plug away having a limit helps a ton in the NYKBF events. I stepped away this season but in the past just having a limit usually held ya decent in the standings. 

[bclark7b]

Went to the newark wide waters yesterday. Only managed 3 bass all less that 2lbs. There are weekly tournaments there. I know I'm not the best angler out there but I would be interested to know what the bags were at those things.

My brother had a tangle in his line so threw his ned rig as far as he could and messed with his line for a few seconds and had a fish on when he reeled in. Ended up being a catfish of some kind must have dropped his ned right in front of the things mouth.

[ww2farmer]

Been a while since my last report on tournaments, so I'll just go back to the start and give a "mid season" recap to date on the doings.

 

Friday solo angler open series:

#1 on Silver 6/26/20....won that with 17lbs 9oz

#2 on Conesus  7/10/20...cashed with a 2nd place finish with 20lbs 12 oz.

#3 on Silver 7/24/20.....3rd with 11lbs 14oz  

#4 on Conesus 8/14/20...8th with 16lbs 5oz

 

Thursday evening 3 fish open team tournaments on Silver

 

#1 7/2/20.... we (my buddy Aaron and I) won with 8lbs 13oz

#2 7/16/20... fished solo and got 5th with 10lbs 11oz

#3  7/30/20.... fished solo BOMBED and didn't weigh in

 

  Allegheny Bass open Team tournament's (with my buddy Aaron)

 

#1 on Cuba 6/28/20....we cashed in 2nd place with 16.19lbs

#2 on Waneta Lamoka 7/5/20... we cashed in 2nd place with 16.20lbs

#3 on Conesus 7/19/20..... we got 5th with 17.49lbs

#4 on Honeyoe 7/26/20.... fished solo and cashed in 2nd place with 12.00 lbs

#5 on Cuba 8/2/20.... we BOMBED with 3.10lbs

#6 on Silver 8/9/20.... fished solo and Won with 18.03 lbs AND got lunker with a new tournament PB of 7.05lbs

 

Misc. Events:

 

 CV Bass League's Annual  Team Open on Silver 8/15/20.... we (My buddy Tim and I) got second with 16lbs 3oz...just missed the win by 2 oz.

 

And I fished one of the Tuesday night team open tournaments on conesus in mid July solo....my livewell pump died an hour into the event, so I had to dump the lone fish I had at the time and call it a night early. It's all but impossible to change pump cartridges on my boat on the water, as you would need three arms, 6 hands, the ability to work tools with your feet, and a double jointed spine to do so....but on land..it takes 10 minutes. Oh well.

 

So it's been a decent YTD with 3 wins (all on Silver..go figure LOL) and five 2nd place finishes on a bunch of different lakes. A couple of middle of the pack finishes, and a couple stinkers...which is slightly above a 50% cashing rate...I'll take it,  as it's not easy to win or beat a lot of these guys. I'm at a slight handicap the rest of the Allegheny team tournament season, as my buddy Aaron is unavailable for the rest, but I'll be fine going solo.

 

For the most part, it's been a boo-boo free season, no lost fish that have cost me, no fights with other anglers LOL, and other than the livewell pump issue, no major boat or equipment trouble....yet.

[NolanEckert21]

Went to conesus after returning from thousand islands, to try are new boat out. The sad part is could only mange to catch 2 fish !! That would have kept. I was expecting a little better after my buddy caught 23lbs a couple days before. Even the tourney guys had 19lbs, definitely low for that lake. The bigger of the 2 caught on a dock and only one on the weed line, after flipping it all day!!! I don’t know weather I need to slow down or fish some new water.

[NolanEckert21]

I’ve heard some guys target smallies on silver, and would like to try that out a little. Any tips or tactics on smallmouth on silver would be appreciated 

[ww2farmer]

Tournament season ended for me yesterday with my solo angler season finale on Honeyoe. Weather permitting, the rest of my fall will be spent fun fishing.

 

I had a good, borderline great tournament season. Avoiding mental meltdowns, and long strings of bad tournaments. Of course there were a couple of stinkers, but I quickly got over them, and fished strong all year.

 

I fished 8 tournaments on Silver. Won 4 of them, cashed in 2 more, had one one where I was just out of the money, and one stinker.

 

I fished 3 tournaments on Honeyoe. Won one, got 2nd in the other two.

 

I fished 4 tournaments on Cuba. Cashed in 2, stunk in 2.

 

I fished one tournament on Waneta Lamoka, cashed in 2nd place in that one.

 

And I fished 7 tournaments on Conesus, cashed with a 2nd and 3rd in two of them. Had middle of the pack "decent" bags in 3, and stunk in two.

 

The highlights of my tournament season were: #1 winning an open team event solo on Silver and catching a new tournament PB lunker of 7.05lbs in the process. #2 winning one of my solo angler events on Silver against a good field in blowout fashion by more than 5 lbs. #3 Cashing and winning on lakes against teams that have WAY more exp. on them then me (Honeyoe, Cuba, and Waneta), and #4 not beating myself mentally, and getting spun out all year when things started slow, or I had a few bad breaks during the day...that's been my albatross for a few years, and a bad habit I developed AFTER years of success because I didn't know how to cope with adversity, and the fact that EVERYONE is good now. In 2012-2016, I kinda got used to always winning and cashing, but 2017-2019 taught me that most everyone can win at any time now, and the difference between doing well or not is between your ears more than anything now. 

[nosdog2]

Looks like a great season for you @ww2farmer !  Missed our few outings this year!  Esp that fall bite!  Been hitting them here in MN pretty good, although the average size LM are a bit smaller overall than what I am used to on Silver.  But I am going to make it up to Mill Lacs for some SM here for that Fall bite and I am sure the size up there is better. 

[roadwarrior]

7 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

Tournament season ended for me yesterday with my solo angler season finale on Honeyoe. Weather permitting, the rest of my fall will be spent fun fishing.

 

I had a good, borderline great tournament season. Avoiding mental meltdowns, and long strings of bad tournaments. Of course there were a couple of stinkers, but I quickly got over them, and fished strong all year.

 

I fished 8 tournaments on Silver. Won 4 of them, cashed in 2 more, had one one where I was just out of the money, and one stinker.

 

I fished 3 tournaments on Honeyoe. Won one, got 2nd in the other two.

 

I fished 4 tournaments on Cuba. Cashed in 2, stunk in 2.

 

I fished one tournament on Waneta Lamoka, cashed in 2nd place in that one.

 

And I fished 7 tournaments on Conesus, cashed with a 2nd and 3rd in two of them. Had middle of the pack "decent" bags in 3, and stunk in two.

 

The highlights of my tournament season were: #1 winning an open team event solo on Silver and catching a new tournament PB lunker of 7.05lbs in the process. #2 winning one of my solo angler events on Silver against a good field in blowout fashion by more than 5 lbs. #3 Cashing and winning on lakes against teams that have WAY more exp. on them then me (Honeyoe, Cuba, and Waneta), and #4 not beating myself mentally, and getting spun out all year when things started slow, or I had a few bad breaks during the day...that's been my albatross for a few years, and a bad habit I developed AFTER years of success because I didn't know how to cope with adversity, and the fact that EVERYONE is good now. In 2012-2016, I kinda got used to always winning and cashing, but 2017-2019 taught me that most everyone can win at any time now, and the difference between doing well or not is between your ears more than anything now. 

 

[ww2farmer]

1 hour ago, nosdog2 said:

Looks like a great season for you @ww2farmer !  Missed our few outings this year!  Esp that fall bite!  Been hitting them here in MN pretty good, although the average size LM are a bit smaller overall than what I am used to on Silver.  But I am going to make it up to Mill Lacs for some SM here for that Fall bite and I am sure the size up there is better. 

Whoah!! Wait?? Minnesota? When did that happen?

[nosdog2]

11 minutes ago, ww2farmer said:

Whoah!! Wait?? Minnesota? When did that happen?

About 2 months ago!  The rona made the move and selling the cabin tough, but had a great work opportunity out here that I couldn't turn down.   So far it's been amazing.  

[MN Fisher]

11 minutes ago, ww2farmer said:

Whoah!! Wait?? Minnesota? When did that happen?

 

Just now, nosdog2 said:

About 2 months ago!  The rona made the move and selling the cabin tough, but had a great work opportunity out here that I couldn't turn down.   So far it's been amazing.  

We're kidnapping people on the sly.

[clayton86]

Finally got my first fish of 2021 last night been out 3 times so far in Lake Ontario tributaries here in orleans/Monroe counties. With the lake being down 2’ it’s been tough but not terrible. First trip out I hit Johnson’s since I grew up on that river I seem to always hit it first. Last word trips I’ve gone to sandy next to Hamlin beach. Sunday had a ton of hits and only one hookup surprisingly it was a smallie I thought it was a pike since they were mostly quick 1...2...3 strikes like pike tend to do and it was kinda fighting like a pike but once up to the yak could see it was a 15” or so smallie. Hook pulled when tried to lift into the yak so didn’t touch it so doesn’t count. Last night went out again same spot and two casts apart at the mouth of the lake I got 2 with the 2nd being my PB I didn’t have a scale and only my buddies tape measure. She was a little longer than the widest part of the yak at 21” figured about 5.5-6lbs.

 

water temps half mile in from Ontario were at 62* last night after work about 6pm at the mouth of the lake I was getting 47-49* depending on what side of the channel I was in 

[Krux5506]

Got a new kayak being shipped to me (hopefully) this month. I have Hemlock on my mind but never fished it. Usually my methods for fishing new waters is covering water either with swimbaits or spinnerbaits. Any tips or areas you guys who fish it or have fished it would recommend? I won't have electronics on my kayak....yet

[J Francho]

Dawn or dusk and fish deep. 

[CrankFate]

On 8/4/2020 at 1:11 PM, J Francho said:

No one.  No one.  No one catches them in summer.

Not claiming to know the area, but this might mean they are sitting alone in between 18” and 4’ of water, with no top cover, right next to the bank, in the burning hot sun, where most fishermen will tell you they never go in the dead of summer because of low O2 levels.

[J Francho]

14 hours ago, CrankFate said:

Not claiming to know the area, but this might mean they are sitting alone in between 18” and 4’ of water, with no top cover, right next to the bank, in the burning hot sun, where most fishermen will tell you they never go in the dead of summer because of low O2 levels.

I think they're just scattered in the slop that makes up most of the place in summer.  Seeing as there are 20+ lb. bags to be had on a relatively decent day so minutes away is more likely the reason no one has it figured out.  

[CrankFate]

7 hours ago, J Francho said:

I think they're just scattered in the slop that makes up most of the place in summer.  Seeing as there are 20+ lb. bags to be had on a relatively decent day so minutes away is more likely the reason no one has it figured out.  

All I can say whenever anyone says that no one catches when it’s hot out, is that I am the last person you’ll see hit the water at 4 am before first light. Usually, I show up when everyone else is leaving saying “it’s too hot now.” That was even the case with my PB, which was caught in the last moments of the trip, with the guide telling me I should’ve been there earlier because they stop biting at 10. I casted exactly where the guide was saying not to throw the bait, because it was too hot. I casted into the thickest pocket of steam coming off the water right next to the bank.

[J Francho]

You're welcome to fish Honeoye all summer. You practically have it to yourself. And you'll catch a ton of 11" fish. Maybe even luck into a 5 pounder. You seem determined to prove everyone wrong, so I think you're the guy to do it. I'll be next door at Conesus culling fives. 

[CrankFate]

23 hours ago, J Francho said:

You're welcome to fish Honeoye all summer. You practically have it to yourself. And you'll catch a ton of 11" fish. Maybe even luck into a 5 pounder. You seem determined to prove everyone wrong, so I think you're the guy to do it. I'll be next door at Conesus culling fives. 

I was actually up in those parts 2 years ago. No guides anywhere in the region would even do bass only fishing. Didn’t make it to Honeoye. Proving people wrong isn’t going to help anything. Because if the big fish are sitting in 18” of water in the sun, they’re not going to be easily catchable. I believe this is because they probably go into the hot water to speed up their digestion. After pigging out. Unless you find one that’s just about ready to go feed again, they probably won’t bite anything. You will always be better off fishing where there’s fish biting. It was a nice area up there. But it was all trout and pike. Between all of us, over several days, we only had a half dozen bass the biggest being a little over 3.5lbs. 4 were smallies.

[CrankFate]

Fishing is hot in downstate new york, right now. As good as ever. The fish are Spawing and Post Spawning around where I am. I would say its 50/50 between spawning and post spawing.

[bobby_stripes]

Can we talk more about this Honeoye  lake and why we think the bigger fish are so difficult to catch come summer?  It reminds me of a small pond I fish in NJ where the fish are certainly catchable during the pre-spawn and spawn but come post-spawn everything changes.  The lake is full of vegetation and post-spawn you're left with one of two options: flip into the grass and hope to hit one on the head (because it doesn't seem like they will move very far for the bait), or wait until you see some surface activity and try to hightail it over there and throw a horny toad over the area to catch the attention of whatever is actively feeding.  I've seen videos where pros like Seth Feider say that bass in grass lakes will school up on specific spots in the weeds but that hasn't been my experience on this lake for whatever reason and it sounds like it's a similar story at this Honeoye  Lake. 

 

Do we think there is a lack of schooling because there's just so much food available for the fish in these lakes or because the food they're eating doesn't require them to school up?  And do we think that with an entire lake of slop that there are so many great ambush points that the fish are naturally spread out and don't have to work hard, and thus won't move very far for a bait?   

[Fred Allen]

Fishing is very good here Albany NY area. Six Mile, Collins Lake, and Dunham Reservoir are all great. Must be great fishing if it makes me feel like im a pro catching big ones all day. Top water baits all 3. Sexy dog killed them at 6 mile, floating rapala twitching on Dunham and frog at collins. 

[billmac]

So I fished a small pond in the Adirondacks a few days ago.  The pond looked to be a uniform 3-4 feet deep everywhere.  No visible cover except a few lily pads, some downed trees, and a little overhanging brush.  We tore up the pike and very nice largemouth, all pulled within a foot or two from shore.  I caught what may be my PB pike (about 34", 10-11 lbs) on about my third cast, from the bank while we waited for lunch to be ready.  I caught the first pike on a chatterbait, had a pike break me off a few casts later, and then the rest on a spinnerbait. My wife caught the best bass of the day on a meeney spin.