Any Luck In Upstate Ny?

[DogBone_384]

11 hours ago, PAGreg said:

Wow, really!? I just assumed everything was locked up. I'm 2-2.5 hours from the finger lakes, so not easy to go check for open water. Might think about getting the boat out next warm stretch.

I'm no where near PA, and 4 hours from the NY border, but I took a drive by my local spots and found open water in two of them.  The shallow waters were/are locked up, but two deep (30'+) kettles were wide open.  Though the farthest is only 45 minutes from home.

I didn't catch anything, but got out on my kayak in February, in New England.

Best of luck for the rest of the winter!

[Hurricane]

I am so ready to go fishing.. 

[ww2farmer]

-20 at Silver Lake this morning................I guess it's still winter.

[PAGreg]

Anything opening up that way?

 

I took a ride down to Raystown lake here in PA today and was surprised to find the majority ice free. The launch was busy with a steady stream of bass boats. It was 67º.

[ww2farmer]

26 minutes ago, PAGreg said:

Anything opening up that way?

 

I took a ride down to Raystown lake here in PA today and was surprised to find the majority ice free. The launch was busy with a steady stream of bass boats. It was 67º.

Nope..............Silver is locked up end to end side to side..........with about 2 foot of snow on it. Except for the ends,  the ice is generally unsafe, but it ain't going no where until the snow is gone. I have no idea about Conesus, that place is not usually on my radar until after SIlver is open, and I am in need of a change of pace.

[River Dave]

I had some time to kill before work this morning and stopped at my regular launch on the  upper Niagara River in Tonawanda. Looked like something straight out of "Deadliest Catch". We had wind blowing close to 40 straight upriver making things particularly nasty. All the ice had blown to my side of the river and way the rollers moved through the ice pack looked pretty wild. From what I could see from the Thruway this end of Lake Erie is all locked up. Could be loose stuff getting blown up against the ice boom but all I could see was ice. Tough year, cold enough to have enough ice that you can't " regular" fish but too warm to have solid ice for ice fishing. 

[Dantzx190]

Caught my personal best largemouth in upstate New York

7 lber from schroon lake in the Adirondacks

[River Dave]

Western New York Outdoor Show and Expo at the Hamburg Fairgrounds next weekend. Anyone else plan on attending? It's not that good of a show anymore but it's only 15 minutes from home so we go every year. Nothing else to do this time of year and the show scratches the itch a little bit.

 

 

PS: Schroon Lake, real pretty area there. Love that place but never fished it.

[clayton86]

I took the kids last year to the show I might go again this year because my buddy is working a booth there and can get me in for free. I wasn't impressed last year but then again I didn't get to look around much chasing kids most the time listening to them whine to fish for the trout in that little set up they had. But if a drive for me about hour 20 to get there 

[ww2farmer]

Get ready.................a week of 50 and 60 degree temps coming up, with rain mixed in combined with thinner ice than usual for this time of year. I predict I will be back on the water in 10 days or so, if we don't get another extended deep freeze spell. I drove by Silver both yesterday and today.............lots of ice fisherman out yesterday mid day, today..............not a soul to be seen out there and the ice was looking mighty iffy and lots of run off coming in. Conesus and Honeyoe usually lose their ice first, but I like to stay close to home the first trip or two of the year to make sure there's no issues coming out of storage with the boat and other gear.

[clayton86]

Yeah I scoped lake Alice today on my way home from work a few holes open near the dam and otter creek it should be open the rest the way by the weekend. I'm gonna try to get the kayak out Wednesday afterwork gonna try johnsons creek at the mouth of the lake. Probably hook into some steel and hopefully a bass if lucky but usually don't get into bass till closer to April 

[River Dave]

Lake Erie and the Niagara River are both wide open now (saw two boats on the river this morning). The River has been mostly ice free for a bit but the launches were full of frozen log jams until now. 

 

[kbeeb374]

Anyone know if keuka or lamoka waneta is open yet?  hoping to go out somewhere Saturday.

[clayton86]

I made it out in the kayak today on johnsons creek. Didn't have even a hit but I was mostly just enjoying the scenery of ducks, deer, geese usual wildlife I've been trying to kill over the winter. Wind wanted to send me to Canada my arms feel like jello from the paddle back. Lake Alice is now wide open also I went but today to fish oak orchard but all my split shots where at home so I left.

[ww2farmer]

Southern 1/3 of Silver is wide open, and the extreme north end is open. Middle part of the lake still has ice, but it's not long for this world with giant holes/cracks in it. I loaded up the boat with the tackle today, by Monday I hope to launch and at least make sure everything is still working.

[River Dave]

On 2/28/2016 at 7:11 AM, clayton86 said:

I have no idea why there is a quote from Claton here and I can't get rid of it so I'll post a new one below this.

[River Dave]

Getting the boat together already, now there's a guy after my own heart. Mine is still in storage and I doubt getting it out anytime real soon is even an option but I was wondering if there is any reasonable hope of catching fish this early in the year. Is going out now more to scratch the itch or are there really catchable fish this early? I've never tried it because I thought the water had to warm up considerably more but one thing I've learned since discoverering this website is I don't know $#!+ about fishin' and most of the things I've always thought turn out to be wrong. I was even wondering about the pike in Silver Lake and if they were something to chase early. I see the TV shows where they find them up shallow right after ice out. 

[ww2farmer]

1 hour ago, River Dave said:

Getting the boat together already, now there's a guy after my own heart. Mine is still in storage and I doubt getting it out anytime real soon is even an option but I was wondering if there is any reasonable hope of catching fish this early in the year. Is going out now more to scratch the itch or are there really catchable fish this early? I've never tried it because I thought the water had to warm up considerably more but one thing I've learned since discoverering this website is I don't know $#!+ about fishin' and most of the things I've always thought turn out to be wrong. I was even wondering about the pike in Silver Lake and if they were something to chase early. I see the TV shows where they find them up shallow right after ice out. 

I have caught plenty of smallmouth, and perch right after ice out...........largemouth are hit or miss. If you time it right, you can be on them, but the windows are small and tight this early. Out of an 8-10 hour day, they seem to bite in one or two little flurries all day. Pike can be caught regularly.............but they are off limits targeting them intentionally until season opens for them (as well as walleye) on the 1st Sat. of May. I catch more than I care for on accident while targeting bass. I am not a fan of fishing in water temps in the 30's...........it's slow, but it beats not going. Once the water temps hit the low 40's............which can be just a day or two.............or as long as a couple of weeks after the ice is gone, the fishing is much better.  

.

 

[River Dave]

Yea good point on Pike not even being open yet. It's been so nice this year I forget it's only March. When I've seen people like fish after ice out its usually in Canada where it's probably May or June before the ice is gone. Thanks for all the info, that's a great post because I have zero experience fishing this early. I don't usually dust off my gear until mid April and never get the boat until May. I'm thinking that will change this year (along with a lot of other things).

[ww2farmer]

Silver is ice free................end to end, side to side. Maybe I'll be out there tomorrow.

[ww2farmer]

Put the boat in around 10am this morning, caught 2 smallmouth before noon, 2 pike from noon-2 while looking for largemouth, and 6 smallmouth after I decided to give up on largemouth for the day. The best five were a 5-1, 4-9,4-5,4-3, and 3-13.................. The water is wet, the fishing has started...............I now keep my mouth shut about what I am doing. Pics of the better fish...

[rmcguirk]

Nice healthy looking smallies. Guess they came through the mild winter in fine form. 

Two non how did you catch them questions: what was water temp?  And were all the hold-over weeds in the shallows from last summer gone?

[River Dave]

Look at that, way to come out swinging! I fish the Niagara almost exclusively for smallmouth and catch a lot of really nice fish but your top 3 on the very first time out were still bigger than anything I caught last year. I'm amazed , impressed, and more than a little jealous. 

[ww2farmer]

1 minute ago, rmcguirk said:

Nice healthy looking smallies. Guess they came through the mild winter in fine form. 

Two non how did you catch them questions: what was water temp?  And were all the hold-over weeds in the shallows from last summer gone?

Water temp was 38-39.........................Weeds in Silver were gone last year around mid-late August due to all the farm run off from the record  rains we had May-July, and heavy algae blooms once the water was warm. No sun light = no weeds. Silver's watershed is in the middle of dairy farm land. We got about 25" of rain over a 7 week period from late May into early July. Right after all the surrounding land was planted and fertilized. This rain carried with it a tremendous amount of nutrients into the lake. All was good....................until the water reached it's peak temps in August. We had an algae bloom for the ages here that thrived on this runoff. It lasted until October, and basically choked the grass out by robbing it of sunlight. The dying weeds just added more fuel to the fire, and kept the bloom going for weeks, if not months longer than most blooms we get. 

By the time the bloom faded...........there wasn't much standing healthy grass left. BUT............I have seen this cycle before. The grass will be fine this year, just as long as we don't get all that rain in the late spring/early summer again. Clear water = good weeds all year, with carry over into the winter.  The best time for it to rain here to keep the water clear is in April-May BEFORE the farmers start planting.........OR from mid July on...........after the crops have started taking up the fertilizer, and the ground is dry with the ability to soak up the rain, instead of it being saturated and ending up in the lake.

[Hurricane]

Solid fish Farmer! Jealous....