Any Luck In Upstate Ny?

[nosdog2]

On August 21, 2016 at 9:37 PM, River Dave said:

Quick question for Farmer or any of the other regulars on Silver Lake. What is the best option for launching a boat on that lake? I launched at the state park last time and it was a bit of a circus pulling the boat out at that launch ( or maybe every other boater was just having an off day) so I wondered if there was a decent  alternative. Also wondering how the fishing has been. Thinking about coming out on Tuesday this week in search of pike and bass. 

That is pretty much your only option.  You might be able to pay at the Silver Lake Marina (SLM) or Macks across the lake, but I am not 100% sure on those two spots.  I know the SLM doesn't have the greatest hours. 

Sometimes you just have to be patient there that is for sure.  I was out there last Thursday evening figuring it would be empty, not sure if there was local club tournament or something but there was about 15 boats at dark all trying to get out.  I put the lights on the boat and went fishing across the lake until I didn't see anymore headlights.

There was a lot of grumblings of slow fishing that day too, but I did quite well that day.  Didn't have the numbers, but the size and quality was excellent.  Like Farmer said, that 12' range had guys sitting out a bit from shore and hitting the usual spots around the lake.  I had excellent luck some of the docks and trees.

[River Dave]

Thanks Nosdog. I'm out here now and it's slow so far. Real slow. This is very different fishing than what I usually do (where are all the deep weeds?????) so it's tough for me to figure out. Hopefully I'll find them before the day is over but so far I cant even catch any pike. The only ones I've seen catch any fish this morning are these two guys. Came down and grabbed one right next to the boat. Just seeing  that was worth gettin' up early. 

 

PS: the launch was brutal last time I was here. Long line of boats waiting to come out but then new cars kept coming and launching their boats so nobody could get out. Took me an hour to get out of the water. 

[nosdog2]

I find when that happens, there is a 'soft spot' just to the left of the main docks about 2-3' to the right of the big tree where you can beach your boat bow in and then grab your truck/trailer and get in line when people are being stupid.  I use this spot a lot when they pull the docks out in the fall and early season before they are in since I don't have a keel guard.

[River Dave]

Struggled quite a bit early on yesterday but they finally turned on in the afternoon and , in the course of a couple of hours, I was able to land two of my top five lifetime biggest largemouth including my new PB. Wow, I've never seen such healthy fish before. My plan for the day was to fish deep weedbeds but once I got there I found out there is no such thing on that lake. I'd like to say it was my superior skill set that finally figured out the fish but I think it's just a case of me still being there when they started biting. I did basically the same thing all day and didn't catch anything and then they suddenly started loving what I was doing. I only caught a dozen or so fish but most of them were caught in a two to three hour window plus I lost some fish and missed a bunch of hits so it was pretty action packed for a while there. As a bonus I even ran in to WWIIFarmer on the water. Real nice guy and knows that lake inside and out. Even gave up a few of his honey holes. Thanks Farmer! 

Best three fish, 5.13, 4.13, & 3.14

Got to see a gorgeous sunrise and an even better sunset so, yea, it was a good day on the water. 

 

[ww2farmer]

On 8/24/2016 at 6:45 PM, River Dave said:

. As a bonus I even ran in to WWIIFarmer on the water. Real nice guy

 

Are you sure it was me? LOL

 

[River Dave]

  Ouch, Silver certainly sent me home with my tail between my legs today. The afternoon bite never materialized so I ended the day with just the one fish I caught in the morning. I had a couple of pike bite offs and some pike follow to the boat but never ended up landing one today. Very humbling experience but still a nice day on the water. Real pretty sunrise/sunset, saw a bald eagle and a mink, took a little swim to cool off, and just enjoyed being on the boat all day. Good for the soul and all that. 

  I didn't see Farmer on the water but think I saw his trailer at the ramp so I'd be very interested to hear how he did today. I'd love to know if it really was that tough or if it was just me. I tried everything everywhere so I would have thought, sooner or later, I'd run in to some fish. What's the verdict Farmer, how did you do tonight?

 

[ww2farmer]

20 hours ago, River Dave said:

. What's the verdict Farmer, how did you do tonight?

 

I did  poor  by my standards. I fished for 2-3 hours and caught 5 bass. A pair of 3lbers, a pair of 2.5lbers, and a 13" squeaker keeper.

This place has always been slow in early Sept.....Everything that has been working all summer is a grind to just get a few bites, and the good fall stuff has not started yet. Fish are scattered all over the place, a few shallow, a few in the weeds............and LOTS AND LOTS of them suspended over deep water. Chasing suspended fish is not my game. Your best hope for a good day the next few weeks is to be there when a wad of those suspended fish come into the grass to feed for an hour or two. Some people curse the post spawn...........I have always thought, at least here, the summer to fall transition has been the worst. Wait till the first extended cool spell in which were due for anytime now, and things will be popping again.

[River Dave]

 I'd never wish a bad day of fishing on anyone but, I have to admit, it makes me feel a little better knowing you struggled yesterday too and it's not just me. I had high hopes but didn't know the lake went through a tough transition like that.

   I have a nephew coming in from Chicago in a couple weeks specifically to go fishing with me so the pressure is on. I know we can do the River like we always have but I thought he might like a change of scenery so yesterday was a bit of a scouting mission for that. My final four were Silver, Cayuga, Coneseus, and the upper Niagara. Never made it to Coneseus this year so that's out and struggled at both Cayuga and Silver in the past month so I think we'll play it safe and hopefully get some numbers in the River. Won't get any five pounders (and probably wont even break 4#) but I hope he can catch 20+ 2-3 pounders and make the trip worthwhile. I plan on seriously fishing the River for the first time in months on Friday so hopefully they are where they should be this time of year but the water's really warm this year so who knows. I have a couple of weeks to figure it out. 

[ww2farmer]

45 minutes ago, River Dave said:

 . I had high hopes but didn't know the lake went through a tough transition like that.

   

IMHO......after fishing this lake my entire life. There are a hand full of times you want to avoid bass fishing here:

#1 The late summer .............AKA.........right now.

#2 Any time the water is less than 40 degrees............like after the ice goes out, or in the late fall/early winter.  

#3 Sleep in and hit the water in the afternoon if there was a thunderstorm during the night........no matter what season

#4 Also sleep in and hit the water in the afternoon if there was a frost in the morning..........no matter what season

#5 The day after a big algae bloom strikes.........while the green water makes for great fishing, the first day or so after it hits, seem to always suck as things adjust. Especially if the water was pretty clear before hand.

#6 When the barometer bottoms out ..........failing is fine, steady is fine, rising is OK, but when it hits rock bottom this place goes on lockdown

This is a semi structure-less shallow bowl fishery and all these things make shallow water (15 feet or less) bass difficult to catch. This lake has an odd quirk, in that when things are unfavorable, most of them do not bury up in thick cover and hunker down. They get far away from the bank or the offshore grass and hard cover, and will suspend 10-15 feet down over 25-30+ feet of  random featureless water. Food is of no concern to them, as there is bait in every square inch of the water here. You can still have good days when it's tuff here.............if your timing is right, and not ALL of the bass vanish, just a lot of them.

 

 

[nosdog2]

Great insight.  

[River Dave]

Solid info, thanks Farmer. For a guy with limited days on the water information like that is just as useful as "go here and use this" because I can better manage my time and pick my days to come out there. Most of those things don't seem to affect the River all that much so I'll know better next time when to stay and fish the home water and when to make the drive out your way. I did see some suspended fish on the sonar and saw huge clouds of bait on there everywhere I went so I see what you mean about current conditions. I think I'll give it a month or so to cool off and come back and try it again before the season is over. 

I also did a Google search on the crazy pike I saw swimming above the water and it sounds like a farly common thing with pike, muskie, and particularly tiger muskies. Everybody seems to have a theory on why and none of them are the same so it sounds to me like nobody knows why they do it. This is just a picture I pulled off Google, the one I saw was further out of the water. 

[River Dave]

Ok question for you guys: I have a nephew coming in from Chicago specifically to fish with his "expert" fisherman uncle which, unfortunately, is me. Tough break for him. We will be mostly looking for numbers rather than giants. Not after dinks but decent sized 1, 2, 3 pounders or so would probably work. We will be fishing this coming Friday so my question is where is the best place for us to go this time of year? I hear Honeoye is good for numbers but I haven't fished it much and never this time of year. I love Cayuga but never fished it this time of year. Coneseus is a possibility as is Silver Lake but Silver has been tough lately. I thought we could hit the upper Niagara but I was there the other day and had one of my worst days ever on that body of water so that's probably out of the running. I have one more chance to scout a new place before he gets here so tomorrow will find me out there somewhere looking for fish, just don't know where yet. What do you guys think would be the best bet at this time?

[bigbill]

Anyone fishing the salmon spawning in upper NY state?

[Scorchx1245]

So I've been doing a lot of fishing on Cayuga lately, and Erie. I only caught 3 2lbsers on eerie for my tourney and only 3 on Cayuga for 7lbs. Cayuga practice 3as awesome even landing my personal best of almost 7lbs. But, the stretch I found these fish on 3 days before got bombarded the day of the tournament, me being the last boat out there were 5 people all dangling wacky senkos, and drop shots on my outside weedline. Guy cut me off and by about 300 yards and watched him find a school of about 15 2lbsers and just destroy my area, it was real frustrating, then a pleasure boater broke down and asked if of tow him around the point, turns out it was the other point 5 miles down.... and Erie my 18 foot nitro was a nightmare on Erie for practice with 7 footers, broke my front graph right off, i do owe Jfrancho, for help on onieda. Just can't catch a brake this season. Lol but I wouldn't trade it for the world !!  So now my season is over finishing 30th out of 60 for AOY. Now it's fun time fall fishing !!!! If anyone wants to get together in the upstate area, let me know !!! (Coneus, Honeoye, Cayuga, Seneca, etc hell maybe Oneida again.) 

[River Dave]

I ended up taking my nephew out to Cayuga on Friday. The day started out great but then a front blew in and killed the fishing. We were on the water by 7am and caught several bass the first hour or so on a mix of topwater baits and spinners. The sun came through the clouds by about 8:30 and shut down the topwater bite but we were doing ok on spinnerbaits. We had probably 8 or 9 bass and a few pickerel in the first two hours but by 9:30 the skies turned black, an icy cold wind started howling from the North and we were getting small craft advisories on our phones. The worst of it blew through after about an hour but the fish were done by then. In the next ten or so hours we caught a handful of pickerel but even they were slow to bite. We caught more fish in the first two hours than we did in the other ten. Tough day. Weather report was 75* and sunny with a chance of a shower in the evening so we didn't even really bring any warm clothes. My truck said it was 48* when we got off the water.  My T shirt and shorts were definitely not cutting it in that wind that's for sure. Even at my age I learned a lesson. I won't get caught unprepared like that again. 

[Subaqua Adinterim]

Just got back yesterday from two weeks in the ADKs spent in the Blue Mountain lake area.  Been going up there every year for the past ten years or so and this was the best year.  Caught from  20 to 30 each day, casting mostly toward shore.  In the deeper lakes, I was using a shakey head set up or weightless t rigged senko type worms, the 4" size worked the best.

In the shallower lake, I had good luck using a booyah frog with a trailer hook.  This was the first time using this technique for me and it was a lot of fun.  I have attached a few pictures .  Most fish were around 2#s, some were over 3.  I don't use a scale.  All fish were released right after landing.  The one on the dock was caught right next to it so I set it there for a better picture, as it is hard to take a picture sitting in my hybrid canoe (Hornbeck), and this was a good size fish, so easier to take a picture that way.

[rmcguirk]

Got out both days this past weekend on Conesus.  Fishing, for me, was pretty slow.  Nothing doing on top water, which had been pretty reliable the last few weekends, and almost nothing on moving baits (two pike bite offs).  I did have some luck bouncing a jig and pig on the bottom, including this guy, my new personal best at 5.95LBs.  The scale bounced on 5.99 a couple of times before settling at 5.95.  Would've loved for her to go 6, but haven't cracked that yet.   

 

[nosdog2]

Fished Silver all last week, some days were better than others but overall it was a tough week.  Biggest was a 5.2 for bass and a 35" pike that was super fat; should have weighed it for s## and giggles but didn't think about it until later.  

The lake is wayyyyy down, I would say at least 2 feet.  The first three dock sections at the park are on the ground and my trailer tires were falling off the end of the ramp.  So take care if you are a fan of power loading because it really isn't an option right now unless you trim way up.  Perhaps Farmer pulled the plug in the bottom??  

Some of the mornings were a bit brisk.

 

 

[Subaqua Adinterim]

Wednesday afternoon - went to Canadice for a few hours.  Caught one LMB about 2# on a t rigged 4" senko; that was it for 3 hours.  Water was way down, shore in some places was about 75 feet out from where it was in the spring.  Made the mistake of getting out in the mud in one spot and sunk up past my knees, fortunately I was in hip waders and was able to fight my way out of the muck and get seated back in my canoe.  Dangled my legs off each side as I pushed out to clear water to rinse the mud off my boots before putting my feet back in canoe.

A couple of pictures from a beautiful afternoon.  One picture is of the south canoe launch area, that's my wife's  Little Swifty kayak on the rocky area.  Just to provide perspective; the large downed trees to the left in that picture were almost completely covered with water in the spring.

[J Francho]

They drop the water there for winter to kill the zebra mussels.

[Subaqua Adinterim]

On October 21, 2016 at 0:07 PM, J Francho said:

They drop the water there for winter to kill the zebra mussels.

Interesting.  I thought it was due to the lack of rainfall this summer as well as the normal drawdown by the Monroe County Water Authority to provide water for the city of Rochester.  I have seen some type of fresh water mussels in the water; never knew they were zebra mussels.  Not sure if low water will eradicate zebra mussels, if they are in fact present in this lake.

[J Francho]

They are VERY much present in the lake.  The low water kills a great proportion of them.  It's not so much an eradication plan (impossible) as it is a control plan.  It works pretty well, but can make it a pain when launching.  This is what I was told by my friend Paul, a biologist prof. at RIT.  AFAIK, all the Finger Lakes have zebra mussels, as they interconnected via canals, rivers, and creeks.

[ottosmagic13]

On 10/24/2016 at 0:20 PM, J Francho said:

They are VERY much present in the lake.  The low water kills a great proportion of them.  It's not so much an eradication plan (impossible) as it is a control plan.  It works pretty well, but can make it a pain when launching.  This is what I was told by my friend Paul, a biologist prof. at RIT.  AFAIK, all the Finger Lakes have zebra mussels, as they interconnected via canals, rivers, and creeks.

Not just zebra muscles but also quagga muscles. Here's some info from Hobart and William Smith Colleges about Seneca Lake but it has been true for most bodies of water in the region. 

The zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) relative (same genus but different species), the quagga mussel (Dreissena bugensis), has just invaded Seneca Lake during the early 2000's. First sightings were in 2000. Evidence from Lake Ontario suggests that the quagga mussel can live in deeper water and influence the ecological food web to a greater extent than the zebra mussels. Is Seneca Lake in for another plankton crash? The data suggests not, even though quagga mussels now dominate (80 to 95%) of the living mussel populations.

Luckily quagga muscles don't seem to be nearly as bad a zebra muscles when it comes to affecting fisheries. I couldn't find any data from this year (early 2015 being the last published) so it's one of those time will tell things. I know the fishing at my parents house on Seneca Lake has rebounded in the past few years. 

[nosdog2]

Had Silver all to myself today, the lone boater.  Fishing was tough though, not a productive day at all, but hey I wasn't at work.

[Last_Cast]

On 11/17/2016 at 10:53 PM, nosdog2 said:

Had Silver all to myself today, the lone boater.  Fishing was tough though, not a productive day at all, but hey I wasn't at work.

AMEN!

Nothing better.