chautauqua lake

[pennyankees]

I'll be visitng a friend here this summer and we plan on doing some fishing. What are some good strategies and lures here?

thanks!

[Matt Kremers]

Haven't fished it, but I have visited it. Water is much dirtier than most NE lakes. There are a TON of weeds, so make sure you can fish weedless. With the way it is positioned you can almost always find places with optimal wind/sunlight/wave action. Not sure of any specific POIs though

[dead eye]

Penny, I fish there every year, August- What woks well for me are tubes skiped under boat docks, an 1/8 ounce or 3/16 ounce wht or chart./wht colorado spinner bait on shady sides of docks slow rolled. You can fish there a week and never hit the same docks twice Rig 3 1/2 bass pro tender tube with a 2/0 Gamakatsu skip gap tube hook 1/16 ounce wgt. pegged. This will get it well back under the docks, then hold on 4 & 5 pound fish are not uncommon. watermelon&chart. color # T3595-92 my favorit. Good Luck Best luck on south end.

[TimJ]

I believe that BASS was there in the last few yrs. maybe you can check their archives

[AFISHN]

Penny:I've fished it maybe 10 times inthe past 15 years.Usually in JulyI always fish the docks.

Try a large floating worm in a bright color.Skip far back under a dock and twitch it back as slow as you can stand it.This techmique is usually good for a couple of large fish.

Tom

[Ben Lipiec]

i live in erie, pa and chautauqua is my favorite lake in the universe.  as stated before, you can fish docks all day and have a great time. its been called a "dock fishermans paradise".  that is one of my favorite ways to fish, and its not uncommon to catch 4 and 5 lbers with 2 and 3's being the norm.   if your looking for the real hogs youre going to have to probe the 10 million acres of weeds.  basically, dont count anything out.  fish everywhere.  outside weedlines, inside weedlines, and right in the middle.  some of the biggest fish in the lake are hanging right in the middle of those weedbeds.

[jaymc]

i live in erie, pa and chautauqua is my favorite lake in the universe. as stated before, you can fish docks all day and have a great time. its been called a "dock fishermans paradise". that is one of my favorite ways to fish, and its not uncommon to catch 4 and 5 lbers with 2 and 3's being the norm. if your looking for the real hogs youre going to have to probe the 10 million acres of weeds. basically, dont count anything out. fish everywhere. outside weedlines, inside weedlines, and right in the middle. some of the biggest fish in the lake are hanging right in the middle of those weedbeds.

You can say the same for any largemouth lake in NYS.  One thing.  Look for the greenest weeds.  THey produce more oxygen and more fish.

[Lucky Craft Man]

i live in erie, pa and chautauqua is my favorite lake in the universe. as stated before, you can fish docks all day and have a great time. its been called a "dock fishermans paradise". that is one of my favorite ways to fish, and its not uncommon to catch 4 and 5 lbers with 2 and 3's being the norm. if your looking for the real hogs youre going to have to probe the 10 million acres of weeds. basically, dont count anything out. fish everywhere. outside weedlines, inside weedlines, and right in the middle. some of the biggest fish in the lake are hanging right in the middle of those weedbeds.

Lake Erie and Chautauqua are two of the greatest lakes on the planet (though, I haven't visited all the lakes on the planet, so I could be wrong)

[bassnleo]

Also a suggestion.....

Chautauqua has a very strong population of perch, musky, walleye, crappie. My largest crappie to date came while flippin weeds for bass! Give the other species a whirl also, you won't be disappointed.

The bassin is almost as good as it gets!

There is NOTHING like setting the hook on a 5+ pound smallie in the weeds there. I've had them nearly pull the rod from my hands. The big largemouth population seems to be getting better every year also!

[rowyourboat]

the docks sound great. The friend im going to visit said we would be hitting a lot of docks and also throwing some cranks around the large bridge