A week on the St Lawrence

[Boomstick]

I just got back from a week on the St Lawrence river. Not a whole lot of success fishing, but a solid trip overall.

We arrived at Cedar Point State Park in Clayton, NY on Sunday, August 1st. It rained most of the way there, quite hard at times but as soon as we arrived the rain stopped. It had rained nearly every day before for several weeks, so this was no surprise, however it did not rain again until Saturday afternoon, which passed in about a hour.

 

On Monday, we planned to go to one of the nearby bays and get out of the wind and current (we're in kayaks). We were right by the beach, so we loaded our kayaks and were ready to go, but they wouldn't let us launch next to the beach so we had to trailer them to the boat launch. At this point, it was a little late when we got out on the water so we decided to go paddle downstream to check out areas.

 

On Tuesday, we made it out with the kayaks rigged. We tried to go upstream to to Sand Bay but eventually the current was blowing me backwards faster than I could paddle so we turned around and went to Sawmill Bay, which is a small bay but fairly calm. I got a nibble or two on a ned rig which I am not sure wasn't a baitfish or some sort and my youngest son saw what he said looked like a chain pickerel, but I'm not sure any smallies were actually in the areas. We tried fishing the pier at night, but the only fish that anyone seemed to be catching was some small Gobys - although others have said they have caught smallies in the same area.

 

On Wednesday, we tried to make it to Goose Bay. The plan was to grab lunch on the way. I was going to buy some sandwiches from Price Chopper, but the lines were insanely long. I stood in line halfway down an isle for about 20 minutes and gave up, went to the Clayton supermarket, got good for the next few days but didn't end up getting out on the water due to all the time we lost.

 

On Thursday, we made it out to Goose Bay, which is sheltered from the current and winds and also fairly weedy and targeted green bass. Thursday was a pretty calm day and we were able to control our drifts and fish or anchor down and fish. We spent most of our day going along the shoreline and targeting spots with a jig most of the day. I caught two bass, my first was when I was drifting alongside a fallen log and decided to throw into the log and got a bite but missed the fish so I quickly threw out my anchor and threw back in that and a couple casts later I caught a fish. Later, I found a fallen tree on a shoal in the middle of the water with some weeds alongside it. I threw the jig right into those weeds to catch the two pounder which was probably the strongest fighting two pound green bass I have ever caught, and the next cast I threw right into those weeds and tried to pop my jig out of the weeds and what an even larger fish hit it, but I didn't have enough room for a good hookset.

 

 

 

On Friday, we returned to Goose Bay. This time, it was hotter and much windier. I caught my first on a senko alongside a dock. After that, I didn't get any bites for a while, but as the day went on the wind picked up. We had to get back to camp a little early because we had to be up on Saturday for a boat tour, but as we were starting to head in, the spinnerbait bite picked up and I caught another small Larry and a northern.

 

On Saturday, we did the Singer Island Castle tour with Uncle Sam's boat tours and on the way back toured Boldt Castle which took up most of our day. When we got back to camp, it started raining, but it only lasted a hour. At this point, I am asking myself what have I been doing with my life, when these guys had a castle as a summer home.

 

All in all, it was a good trip.

[GaryH]

Great write up. Thanks for sharing.

[TnRiver46]

Wow, sounded like a busy week. Nice job scrapping out some fish. that’s some massive waters for kayak but looks like you’ve got a very stable vessel! 

[cyclops2]

Why I always believed in low profile  boats.  They keep you in that blind deflection zone of the fish.  This year the knees under my chin position is hurting a bit. But the 15" transom& low Aluminum seat allows getting very close in shallow waters. Weeds allow me to almost step on fish. In shallow water.  Concealment & 45 to 60 # braid is a winner. Shorter casts are effective & mandatory on the big , weed wraparound fish.

 

Will you come back again ?  Pre spawn is the best time. They will attack anything then.

[Boomstick]

6 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Wow, sounded like a busy week. Nice job scrapping out some fish. that’s some massive waters for kayak but looks like you’ve got a very stable vessel! 

All of ours are definitely stable enough, not worried about flipping. But the waves were coming right over the front, pretty rough etc.

5 hours ago, cyclops2 said:

Will you come back again ?  Pre spawn is the best time. They will attack anything then.

I would not be against it but it may be a few years. Next year I plan on trying to get a site on Delta Lake on the water that I can launch from. And in April I plan to go get a cabin somewhere down south and go fishing where it's warmer next year as well. Then I might try to get out to Lake Champlain sometime as well, I caught a lot of fish shore fishing at Button Bay and that area should be good for kayaks. Brighton State Park is also on my list, in between two ponds and near several lakes I've always wanted to fish.

 

Should I return, I might try something further east either in New York or Vermont,  or stay at Kring Point and I can launch there and fish right at Goose Bay. Kring Point was booked up when I booked, so I booked Cedar Point instead. I thought the side would be private, but there were fewer trees than I thought from google maps and we were much closer to the beach than I thought - not too bad until the weekend when it was packed and there were loud people on the beach.

[Tatsu Dave]

Enjoyed reading and hearing about your trip, have you ever thought about a trip to Maine to explore some spots? Just curious, lot of good spots for kayak fishing.  Dave

[Spankey]

Great report. I want to get there before I die. Want to go fish it hard and make something happen just like you did. A bit of negative chatter on here about the St. L but I’d have to see it to totally believe it. 
 

I see some of the tourney fish and I believe I can do it also. Why not. 

[Boomstick]

@Spankey if you are on a kayak, Goose Bay is a pretty good bet to get out of the current of the main river, but you won't find any smallies there.

 

You can throw jigs in the pockets in the edges, T-Rigs in the weeds in the middle and then mix in a spinnerbait or chatterbait everywhere else.