Any Luck In Upstate Ny?

[J Francho]

Now is the time of year for big fish there.  Once summer hits, it's a dink fest.  I've never been able to find big fish in summer there.

[bclark7b]

Thanks J Franco for the honeoye recomendation! Between the two of us we boated around 50 bass. All basically identical 2#ers, but the kid had a blast so that was great!

[ww2farmer]

8 hours ago, bclark7b said:

Thanks J Franco for the honeoye recomendation! Between the two of us we boated around 50 bass. All basically identical 2#ers, but the kid had a blast so that was great!

It's a good thing you didn't come here then. This place has been terrible for a week. 

 

Thursday night I caught a handful of spawned out 2.5 lb smallmouth and today I worked my butt off for 5 of the same but of the largemouth variety.

 

Motoring around the lake looking at the graph shows the dreaded " everything is suspended 12-15 down over 25-30 feet of water" nonsense that goes on here when things get tuff. Just when I think I have seen it all, I have not. If we never get another year where April is a bust due to ice/snow, water temps go from the mid 40's a month ago to almost 80 as of Thursday, ZERO rain, the lake being 2 foot low this early in the year, gin clear water that you can see the bottom in 15 feet, no weed growth yet, and the bottom from the bank to 12-15 feet being absolutely covered with the worst, thickest, green slime/moss type algae I have ever seen...it won't be too soon.

 

I am taking a break for a week-10 days, this place has to pull it's head out of it's rear end, and I am sick of struggling for bites. My 1st tournament is in 2 weeks, and I don't need to be going into it all ticked off.

[PECo]

9 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

It's a good thing you didn't come here then. This place has been terrible for a week. 

 

Thursday night I caught a handful of spawned out 2.5 lb smallmouth and today I worked my butt off for 5 of the same but of the largemouth variety.

 

Motoring around the lake looking at the graph shows the dreaded " everything is suspended 12-15 down over 25-30 feet of water" nonsense that goes on here when things get tuff.

Wow! That's exactly what we saw at Candlewood Lake in Connecticut over the past week or so. The water temperature ranged from 69 to 71 degrees.

 

My partner I managed a 16 pound, one ounce, probably all spawned-out male largemouth bag while prefishing it on Thursday, and a 13 pound, eight ounce, three spawned-out male largemouth and two smallie bag during the tourney on Friday. Everything was caught shallow with slowly fished weightless wacky Senkos in two to four feet of water. The fish were gently hoovering the lures off of the bottom near pilings and rock piles.

 

I tried a deep diving shad crankbait while pre-fishing on Thursday to try and get to the suspending fish at 15 feet, but never saw any action from them. However, a one and three-quarter pound smallie we later boated shallow barfed up a couple of shad.

 

Here’s a three and one quarter pound spawned-out male largemouth from Thursday that should have weighed four pounds:

 

[ww2farmer]

Yeah, that's a thing on northern natural lakes with an abundance of forage, clear water and tons of bass. It's mother natures way of pulling the rug out from under us. 

 

In 30 years, I still have not figured out what triggers it to start, or to end. I have clues, but even then sometimes they will do the very opposite of what you think. It's almost ALWAYS in transition times when weather is unseasonable, and seems to last longer  the less "normal" the weather is. 

[RichF]

I fished way upstate (two different lakes) with my dad last over memorial day weekend and it was pretty tough.  Way tougher than it should've been.  No fry and a few small bass shallow near beds.  They were pretty aggressive and easy to catch but they didn't seem locked on at all.  Just cruising nearby.  I still have no clue what they're doing.  Seems like they're either just starting or at the very tail end. 

[bclark7b]

Spent a few hours on the canal in Newark after work today. Caught 23 bass in about 2.5 hours all LM. Still haven't had reason to dust off the scale this year they were all 2#ers. Had a blast the last two times out numbers wise. Hoping to add some weight to the mix soon.

[PECo]

30 minutes ago, bclark7b said:

Spent a few hours on the canal in Newark after work today.

Do you mean the Passaic?

[bclark7b]

8 hours ago, PECo said:

Do you mean the Passaic?

No the Erie Canal. In Newark NY

[Subaqua Adinterim]

Went out yesterday (2-8pm)  Wind was gusting, so stuck close to shore.  Caught 4 LMB on a senko, the biggest was about 3#, the rest were maybe 1# each.  Spent the most of the time having fun catching dozens of panfish with the ultralight rig.  Also saw a fawn in the weeds close to shore which was really cool.  Pics posted in Other Species fishing reports section.

 

Saw a guy that was also in a kayak , reeling in a laker.  Paddled out and talked to him and recognized him from last year. He targets the lakers and is really good at it; had hooked into 8 at that point, using a flasher type depth finder and heavy metal jigs for them.  He showed me his technique last year, however, I don't intentionally fish for lakers; but it was good to talk to him again as he was really friendly and just likes to catch lakers and releases them all.

 

One other thing of note was there was cotton type stuff from cottonwood trees all over the water.  Had to constantly pick this stuff of the lure as well as from the line.  This stuff is really fond of the braid line and almost seems to weave its way into the line, which is another reason I stuck mostly with the ultralight set up and floro line.  In spite of dealing with pulling this stuff of my line and lures, it was a great day on the water.

 

 

[ww2farmer]

Ended my little self imposed break due to sucking Thursday afternoon. It was not on fire, but better than it has been. I played around strictly with the Ned Rig, and caught dozens of Rock bass, plus 12 smallmouth, and 3 largemouth. Nothing huge. But a couple of the smallies were pushing 4lbs. This is the first time I have spent much time using the Ned rig. I fished it on a 7' ML spinning rod, with 8lb braid, and 6lb FC leader. I used the 1/15th oz Z-man heads, and Z-man finesse TRD's. It was a fun evening, as seemingly every cast between the LM and SM I caught, I was catching rock bass. The nice thing was...I used one TRD and jig head all night.

 

I also fished this afternoon for about 4.5 hours. It was a reverse from Thursday. A couple smallmouth, a dozen largemouth, and again...hordes of rock bass. This time I played with the Neko rig, but only after NOT catching much the first hour or so on less finesse styled techniques.  Quality was much better than Thursday,one largemouth over 4, a couple more in the mid 3's. Unlike the Ned rig, I have used the Neko rig quite a bit....actually used to use it a lot YEARS AGO, like in my bass fishing infancy, but this was the first time using tackle made for it. I always used, whatever I had laying around for hooks, and hardware store nails/screws for weights. I used the #1 VMC Neko hook, a 1/16th oz. Damiki nail weight, an o-ring, and a 5" yum dinger. Fished on 10lb braid w/8lb FC leader. I might break out my little digital reloading scale, and start weighing hardware store nails, because even with the o-ring, I lost a few dingers, and losing a bait AND sinker could get expensive fast. 1/16th was about perfect for today, so I need to find nails that weigh that much.

[bclark7b]

I've decided to work at finesse fishing this year because I have never been good at it so yesterday afternoon I just had a wacky rig nothing else. Caught 18 bass in 2 hours. One was 3#s the rest were 1&2# fish. I know I've seen farmer catch some hogs on the wacky rig. I'm just wondering why I'm just catching smaller fish? Is it just a random weight numbers game, or is there a way to fish it to catch larger bass? I think the neko rig will be the next thing I try.

[ww2farmer]

3 hours ago, bclark7b said:

I've decided to work at finesse fishing this year because I have never been good at it so yesterday afternoon I just had a wacky rig nothing else. Caught 18 bass in 2 hours. One was 3#s the rest were 1&2# fish. I know I've seen farmer catch some hogs on the wacky rig. I'm just wondering why I'm just catching smaller fish? Is it just a random weight numbers game, or is there a way to fish it to catch larger bass? I think the neko rig will be the next thing I try.

The number of big fish I caught on wacky rigs went up as soon as I STOPPED fishing them weightless.....which was years ago. As a bonus the weighted wacky rig still catches average size fish as good as a weightless rig. 

[bclark7b]

5 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

The number of big fish I caught on wacky rigs went up as soon as I STOPPED fishing them weightless.....which was years ago. As a bonus the weighted wacky rig still catches average size fish as good as a weightless rig. 

I used a weighted hook 1/16th is what I have I think. I used them at honeoye and the Erie canal which are mostly smaller fish areas anyways imo. I've been in the 2-12' depth. I've been tossing it around docks and holes in the weeds. Should I be going deeper for bigger fish? I'm horrible at reading a depth finder so I don't know what to look for if I were to go deeper at say Cayuga or Canandaguia which are the close lakes to me.

[bclark7b]

Went out tonight for an hour. Caught 2 rock bass and 4 LM. FINALLY got the scale out for a 4#13oz LM. I'm now regretting trying out finesse stuff because now that it's working I just placed a tw order and I know it won't be the last.

[ww2farmer]

I fished silver for a couple hours after work both Monday and Tuesday. Nothing to report other than it sucked badly. I never caught a thing either night. I have already decided to skip the tournament this weekend. I am tired of fishing already and it's only mid June.

[bclark7b]

I'm really leaning toward going to conesus in the morning instead of the closer honeoye. I've never been there before any tips would be appreciated.

[bclark7b]

Also is there a boat ramp that is less crowded than another? I'm fine at backing the trailer in and everything I'm just the kind of person who hates to make other people wait so I always have a mini panick attack when a boat launch is crowded. (I know that might sound a little crazy).

[ww2farmer]

I'd avoid it tomorrow. Upstate Anglers has their big opening day tournament.  It will be packed.

[bclark7b]

1 minute ago, ww2farmer said:

I'd avoid it tomorrow. Upstate Anglers has their big opening day tournament.  It will be packed.

Thank you for saving me from that! 

[bclark7b]

Went to honeoye again. 6:30-9 I caught 18 bass on a wacky worm and a few on the ned rig the largest was 3.8. Then things shut off completely. I tried everything deep, shallow, docks, weeds, everything. Then I figured before I call it a day I'd try the neko rig in the weeds. From 10:30-11:30 I caught 11 more LM 2 rock bass and a pike. The largest of them being 4.3. 

[ww2farmer]

I fished the annual opening day 3 fish limit tournament on Silver today. I did OK....or should I say my partner did OK. You fish as individuals, but since we used his boat, he has terminal cancer, and has a crappy livewell with NO culling system/equipment or a way to keep our fish separate, I ran the boat, caught all the fish, and let him weigh them all in, hoping to get one last cashing for a dying old friend. Before anyone get's their panties in a wad over this saying "that's cheating" or "not fair", the guys running the tournament knew before hand I was going to do this, and take a zero under my name, and let my friend have the glory, and they were OK with it....BUT I had to agree to pay double the entree fee and take a ZERO/DQ to do it, which I did gladly.

 

Anyways...the fishing......I struggled in the morning. Then from 9am- to the end at 1pm, I caught fish pretty steady. All smallmouth, all on the stupid ned rig LOL. I ended up getting him 9.98 lbs for the best three smallmouth. All cookie cutter 3lbers and change. But..it was only good for 6th place out of 30+ guys....two spots out of the money. I feel bad I couldn't get the old timer one more run in a cashers spot, but I tried. 

[NYWayfarer]

I was able to do some bank fishing on the Hudson River this Father's Day weekend. Water was low and the temps were hot. I saw some Bass cruising but no takers on soft plastics or crankbaits.

 

I noticed the Bluegill were on beds all along the shore. I spent a few hours each day just walking and targeting bedded fish. The spawning colors were stunning.

 

[bclark7b]

Went to the quick after work spot. The erie canal at the wide waters. Caught 9 LM and 6 rock bass. Largest LM was 2.14. Flipped a black and blue jig in the grass and worked the neko rig along the bank. Also had one on a frog. Hopping this Saturday to try conesus since farmer was kind enough to give me the heads up last week about upstate anglers tournament there so I stayed away from all that traffic. 

[ww2farmer]

Fished Monday and Tuesday night after work and both nights were decent, with multiple 4+ lb fish each night and good numbers of above average keepers as well. Just kinda junk fishing around. Which is what I like to do.

Yesterday I had my opening tournament for the season of my week day single angler series on silver and conesus lakes. The first tournament was on silver, and I did well continuing the junk fishing. I placed second with 17.59lbs. I fished clean, and had two 4+ lb fish, but I couldn't get anymore upgrades to get near the win, which took 19.97lbs. But it's a good start to the year, as opposed to last season where I was struggling bad, spinning out, and not fishing hard through tuff times.