Perch Search

Again, here we go.

2005-08-16T03:28:00.000-04:00

OK, I was too busy fishing this past 4 days to do much. However if you are looking here you're in the wrong spot- visit the new site much improved, the Cayuga Fisher, and if you tried to follow the link below to the reports, I'm sorry it's broken, but this one works from now on. Good luck.

here we go.

2005-08-06T04:34:00.000-04:00

Okay, the Cayuga Fisher is now up and crawling along. Not much to look at yet, but the reports section is active and I'll be updating that regulary instead of this site. This will stay here for archival purposes... please check out the new reports!

No luck today.

2005-08-03T21:47:00.000-04:00

Well I went out for a few hours in the kayak to try and jig up some lakers. Nothing doing as it was noon and windy... why I didn't take the boat. I'll be out tomorrow morning early with the boat though...

One of the reasons I'm moving this is the new-for-your-convenience feature of posting images... it automatically uploads them to the Blogger server! There's no way around it. Blogger (Google of course) steals your pictures!! So a big thumbs down to those guys. I'll be moving it soon. Page construction is underway on the new server. (thanks Chris!)(also of course I hope you'll add in when you get a chance...)

Bad news on the weather front. No rain and hot conditions have left streams far below average. Fall Creek spent 3 days at or above average last month... and it's headed for a record low by tomorrow afternoon. Rain! Please?

ps. I fixed the almost-very-mortifying typo.

fish and details

2005-07-31T10:33:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, (if there's anyone out there), things have been going well in the park. I've managed at least one laker every time out. Saturday I tried all morning with only one fish- the least productive so far... one fish in 5 hours. other times I've been going 1-2 lakers per hour which is a lot more fun!

Chris and I went out friday night in the boat at Taughannock for fun and fish. We messed around trying to catch lakers for a while but it was breezy and we were drifting too fast. Tried bass for a few minutes before pulling ashore and hanging out in some cool rocks. Wish I had a picture of that. Chris went swimming while I fished bass. Back out a little later I caught one before we headed in to Steve's party...

Beautiful afternoon on the water!

Other things: Seeing as this has become more or less just me I'm going to be switching it over shortly to another page. Keep checking here until I let you all know. New site will have lots of information, links, opinion, and photographs... and be a little more fun. Happy fishing everyone...

More lakers

2005-07-28T14:59:00.000-04:00

Started off the day by catching some bait. Thet're still in at Taughannock but activit y is slowing. Still got a dozen or so alewives which I eventually froze. First light I headed out and around the point. After drifting a while through different depths I caught a medium sized smallmouth. At this point I trolled out a little further in hopes of more lake trout. Found some! First bite came just after I yelled to another boat. Turned up a nice female (she had eggs) around 26". Good sized fish for me still. Drifting around I caught a few more small ones over the next hour and a half or so. Jigging for these fish seems to be incredibly productive! It's also a lot cheaper than buying downriggers and it can be done in the rowboat... anyone want to go?

Just a big lake trout.

2005-07-24T23:15:00.000-04:00

Well. I don't really know what to say here. After a great Grassroots festival dancing all night, breakfast at the Falls at 7:00, a nap and an unexpected fishing trip all add up to this absolutely huge lake trout.

I finally got out with John Gaulke, expert fisherman and local guide. He showed me what I should be doing out there! Basically what I have been doing, but with two important things. Actually only one of them is really important: confidence. That sums it all up. Know the fish are there and catch them. Of course we were using quality gear and he showed me some tricks and good lake and general fishing info... it was great to say the least.

We headed out into the lake around 3:30 and were fishing by four. A few minutes later I had my first hits, and then one that I lost. After a few more tries we moved slightly. It took a while to get used to it, feeling it on bottom and feeling the fish...

They really do bite lightly, so that's the hard part, but after getting a few takes you figure it out and start catching fish. I landed two smaller ones which I kept before hooking this one. 34" on a quick measure, maybe we could have squeezed a few more out of it by closing the mouth and making sure it was perfectly straight, but who cares! Monster laker! This fish DID NOT want to give up. A huge fight, it took a loooong time to land this fish.

This was the first fish in my life I couldn't move if I wanted to. Actually I spent 5 minutes trying to get it to budge before getting 10 feet on it... it was like fighting a drunken, sunken log. Any time I got it near the warmer water it headed straight down and I couldn't stop it! The rod was bent it two, drag cranked down, man was that awesome!!! I could go on and on about the whole trip, it was fantastic. John, thanks, excellent trip. Fish, thanks. Big fella- I hope you made it. A little trouble reviving that fish but I think it'll make it. That's all for now, over and out.

Pop's good old days

2005-07-19T11:04:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, this one's for my grandfather. While at his burial last weekend I found an old collage of photos of him. Here's a few of my favorites. The little girl is my mother! These didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, so you can't see the big grin on his face when he caught that fish...

Just a great man, none of you readers have met him so I don't want to bore you all, but he was a special figure in my life, especially as a child- we'd go visit for weeks at a time in the summers and he'd take us golfing and fishing, waterskiing and more. Always had a joke and a smile, and usually a silly hat on too.

In other matters I did some fishing myself, caught a handful of bass on my spinning gear and another handful of sunnies with my fly rod. It's a bit sad... the water quality in Peach Lake has been deteriorating and they recently introduced triploid grass carp to help control the weeds. Really they should be addressing the pollution problem instead. Anyway, I put the dock in to fish off of. It was great to be able to escape the madness and go fishing for a while. Good weekend all around with fishing, a burial and a wedding all tossed in the mix.

Bass, too.

2005-07-08T11:38:00.000-04:00

After a little while of fishing for lakers this morning I switched to bass and managed this smallmouth, 19" and 3+? pounds. This bass fought better than the big lake trout. I never understood the huge popularity of bass fishing but maybe I understand, I thought I would lose it a few times. It's probably my biggest so far. I found out today landing a hard fighting bass with one hand is not easy. Felt great especially since there were a lot of bass boats cruising the area without success. Fish are fun.

Chris and I also put the boat in Cayuta Lake Wednesday night and cruised the weeds looking for fish. We each got a sunny but that was it, great small lake I forgot about. Next time I look for walleye I'll go there instead of Whitney Point. It's nicer and closer. Hopefully Chris got some good shots of the pink and orange sunset over the distant hills and water, very pretty. We had ice fished there in March (archives) but hadn't been back until now. Good luck out there.

Lake trout in the park.

2005-07-06T09:17:00.000-04:00

Hi folks, it was an interesting morning. Started off at 3:00 dropping my mom's car battery off at home (I had taken it to use in the boat) and heading to Taughannock. Pretty surprised to see lanterns burning, oars creaking, and things going bump in the night. I had run into the only commercial fishing operation around here! They were after the same sawbellies- at night they really come in thick.
This crew was using a rowboat and big ol' net, a what, gillnet? seine net? they took it out in the boat and hauled it in from shore. I set up my little operation- a smelt net- and got three right off the bat. This impressed the other guys but I lost steam and didn't get any more. I think they felt bad about netting over 100 pounds of sawbellies and tried to fill my bucket.
After they left I was alone for about half an hour before a few guys showed up, one I knew. We had fun getting more bait- I didn't really try very hard as I had enough but Sam got some. It's great being able to go out there and work your way up the food chain! As it started getting lighter I set up my rods, trusty old Pete and my spanking new rod from Pop, I just wish I had gotten into fishing while he still was. Looking at all his old fishing gear made me nostalgic for times that never were. Guess there's enough of him around though, his old rod and Mitchell C.A.P. reel (a french classic from 1954-56) were up to the task and I landed my first lake trout today!

This photo came out surprisingly well considering I was holding the fish in one hand and the camera in the other. I took it for the hell of it but it came out great. 25 inches and change with a football belly, this fatty had four other sawbellies in it's stomach! Just.. one... more...
They don't put up a hell of a fight but the hookup is pretty exciting. Lakers love to grab bait and run before stopping to eat. When fishing live bait this means you throw your line out, open the bail, and wait. It might be ten minutes or it might be ten hours but without warning your rod tip bucks an inch or two as line peels off your reel and disappears into the lake. This one took almost all of my line (150 yards if not more, I just spooled it last night) in about 10 seconds and I was getting low so I set the hook. Found out later it was hooked out the stomach and into the liver.
Anyway, it was a great morning all around. Thanks Pop, you were one of the funniest guys I ever met and a hell of a golfer. Must have been a good fisherman, too, all I needed was a little help from your rod. Thanks Gram, for thinking of me. And special thanks to the fish demons for letting me land one today after choosing all the wrong days and losing the few I've had on. Chris and I should be out later as well...

New Ride!

2005-07-02T16:39:00.000-04:00

It's a small boat for a big lake, but as long as the winds are low it's just fine... I've been out twice now, once for fishing and once for fireworks. Got out two days ago at dawn for 3 hours, had a few hits, lost one and had a great time. I was jigging for lake trout, a new technique (for me) I've been learning about. This was the first outing and while I didn't land any I was pleased with the hits I had! I should've got the one, I guess I didn't set the hook hard enough. Out tomorrow for sure...

Saw the fireworks show with Debbie from the boat as well; that was last night and it was great. There were also distant thunderstorms adding to the show and hundreds of flares and boats. Wonderful!

A major cold front came through last night, I hope it doesn't screw up the fishing too much. I'd love to get out, things have made it tough but I expect good fishing stories from now on. A small boat in this lake is a sketchy idea! Anyone wants to go out let me know...

Another TI fishing adventure

2005-06-27T20:17:00.000-04:00

I know I'm a day late but I wanted ot make sure I got this fishing trip up. Two weekends ago, my pops and I went out on the Saint Lawrence for the opening weekend of bass season. Before we set out we checked the TI bait shop fishing report. Perch off of Maple Island was the best tip we got. We pulled them in left and right with nightcrawlers. After a while thi got old so we went back to Rusho bay. Grandpa Finger took us there a few times when we were younger and I remember it being a productive sopt for bass. Today it wasn't. I had a few biteds I was sure weren't perch but I couldn't set the hook. I pulled up a few perch here and my dad gets the prize for the most variety, he caught a sunfish along with a few perch. As it got a late we went back to the narrows, again a place we knew to be good from a previous trip with Phil Berg, but nothing happening there. I was tryign for pike at this time but weeds were the olny thing I reeled in. Like always it was a great day regardless of our luck, and I hope to get out with my dad again soon, I think he got in to the idea of doing nothing while doing something. Unfortunately no pictures this time. I'll have to get my video camera out again soon. It's been too nice ot spend any time sittign inside doing production work but now we're on the other side of the summer where its too hot to do anything but sit around.

Blaine's good-bye fish-a-thon

2005-06-23T00:26:00.000-04:00

My good friend Blaine is relocating to Kentucky tomorrow morning, at his request we spent a lot of time fishing in the past few days. Too bad there were only a few fish caught! I got a 14" bt, another small one, a perch, and that's about it. True, we were trying new fish and new water so that makes it tough, but I wish he'd have caught some. Give him a little time down there and I'll visit, he can show me what's up on the Ohio! BIG catfish among other things.

We hit up the Whitney Point resevoir for walleye, but the spot we chose left something to be desired. It's a great spot and I've been there before ice fishing but this time there were radio-blasting beer-drinking bums causing a ruckus. Too far and too dark to move so we stuck it out. Eventually they left and it was quiet with a great full moon. Which probably had something to do with the lack of walleye...

A few of the other usual spots as well and Salmon Creek. I wish I got up there more often but it's all the way around the lake. I want the old ferry back! that would be great, especially if you could fish off of it. That was nice, Trevor's family had a picnic going on and we had a little grub as well. Hopefully things will pick up soon, a combination of bad weather, cool temps and... well I'm sure there's a lot of excuses, but the fishing has been slow for most.

Drum!

2005-06-15T22:54:00.000-04:00



Well I caught this drum, or sheephead, today! It was pretty exciting, I was fishing for catfish and got this beautiful beastly thing. They can get much bigger, the state record is over 24 lbs, but this one was 9-12 and put up a great fight.  Most are smaller, Someone told me 3-5 is about normal depending on where you are.  I have a feeling they will become larger and happier as a whole in the lake... these fish love Zebra mussels!  A lot of people think they are low class but any fish that fights and eats those darn things is alright with me.

I spent a lot of Saturday fishing with Chris, as he wrote about so nicely below.



Here's the newt, crawling around on the moss. This place was quite beautiful and unlike anywhere I've been in New York before. Great day!

I did a lot of fishing this weekend since I couldn't work on our project. Spent all of Sunday in search of lake trout at Taughannock. I did learn how to catch my own alewives for bait which saves me 3-5 bucks every time. It's also a good way to pass the time while waiting to get slammed by a laker. Other folks caught fish but not me! I did have one take, he ran, I set, we fought, in close and hung up! The line just stopped dead about 20 ft offshore. Darn thing must have found something to wrap around, eventually I broke it off. Most fish ranged from 5-8 lbs, although one Toronto gentleman caught a 12 lb 9 oz Brown off the point.

Monday I targeted trout for a while first in the lake, then in some streams. The recent rain has helped the stream fishing tremendously around here! Lots of fish, some creek lunkers (a few, not lots) 15"+. I used both the fly and spin rods depending on how much room I had. Later in the day I fished catfish, caught a few small carp. That's not true. I caught two large goldfish, each about 2 lbs. One was bright orange, the other cream with deep orange fins and tail. The Englishman who fishes carp is moving to Burlington, but he was a nice guy and may be back sometime. I'll post that story and pictures soon-

Fished my wish

2005-06-12T21:53:00.000-04:00

We went out early, Alec even earlier, on Saturday morning. For my birthday I just wanted to catch some fish and starting early seemed like a good idea. Our first stop was a a place I would reccommend for wandering along a beautiful gorge but not fishing. At the Cayuta lake outlet, off of County Road 6 the Finger Lakes Trail runs along Cayuta creek at the waters edge while two ridges rise on either side. We didn't find any fish but we startled a heron and a deer who were chilling in the creek bed. More exciting were the number of gigantic trilliums and jack in the pulpit and possibly some wild ginger (a plant I've never seen before) along the trail.

But back to the fishing. The next stop was a creek somewhere along 228 (?) on the east side of 13. I forget what it was called but it was a nice place. With an Altoids tin full of worms I caught two brown trout. I was casting towards trees and other stuff across the river and it seemed to work. There were two other fish that kept biting my line. I even gave one my last two worms and some wierd bug (Alec ID'd it as a stonefly based on my description of big and nasty with black and white wings) that floated by. This stupid fish would bite every time I brought my hook past it, about five feet from where I was freaking standing but I could never set the hook. I even tried putting on a brand new Norwegian trout hook. Nothing. I spent a good half hour trying to catch that fish and after it took that last worm I was pretty much done. Alec caught a fish but it managed to get away before he could do anything with it, like one of the others I caught today. Those fish are slippery.

Around 1:00 we packed up and made our way home. We didn't bring a camera for the fish but Alec got some pictures of couple red efts we saw.

Coming Back Soon!

2005-06-09T12:17:00.000-04:00

Hey, sorry for not posting anything recently.
I had a slight problem or two... there was a helluva thunderstorm the other day that wiped out my computer. It's in the shop and I should get it back tomorrow. I hope the hard drive is ok... lots of pictures and stuff, not to mention the web site Chris and I were designing for Cornell' ag people. So we'll just have to wait until I get back online. There are a fwe stories to tell, including one of a 32 lb carp. Ha! I didn't catch it but got photos. Sorry to keep it short but I've got to go, look for pictures and more tomorrow night...

Ithaca Festival from Treman

2005-06-06T22:13:00.000-04:00

Yesterday evening, after a great weekend in Rochester, Alec and I went fishing at the Treman Marine Park for a little while. Since it was across from Stewart Park we could hear the last bands of the Ithaca festival across the water. I reeled in two rock bass, one jumped on my line while I was just bobbing my mister twister along the shore. Even though I was hoping to catch something more interesting than rock bass, it was a good time out.

2005-05-24T10:56:00.000-04:00

So I spent a lot of time this weekend practicing with the fly rod. In the yard and in the water. Sometimes I feel like I've got the rhythm and sometimes I don't... I know what it should look like and occasionally it does. I've caught a few fish- one small rock bass, a handful of baby rainbows from 3-7 inches, and this pretty brown this morning up in the creek.

So far it's the biggest trout on a fly. You can see the bead-head nymph used in the corner of it's mouth. This fly was given to me by a nice fisherman the other day, who in turn was given a selection of nymphs a few days ago... Most people I meet out there are really friendly. It was raining and I was working a deep pool with no visible activity. Later I saw the same trout surface once. That was it as far as sightings go. Swallows were working one pool that must have had insects but I didn't see any. My arm is tired and so am I, so that's all for now. See you out there.

Obsession...

2005-05-20T21:50:00.000-04:00

I was going to wait until I thought I knew everything about spinfishing to get a fly rod but I got offered a fantastic deal (almost new 5/6 rod)... it's a story I'm sure you've heard before. It's classic- spent 2 hours with fish rising all around me and no bites... I decided to at least look at rods and ran into someone with a used one. At least now when I don't catch fish I can't blame it on not being able to float flies!
Not too much to report except for another few fishless hours of casting practice, but I need it, only 1 in 6 or 7 was really any good. Also had leader knots from my lack of skill, and a lot of casts seemed to start off o.k. but ended up falling in a pile 20 feet out with the fly on top- that's no way to catch fish! Great sunset, no camera. I'll keep it with me at all times from now on. The walleye didn't work out, I was way too tired after work and went to bed before dark. We'll see what the weekend has in store...

A few visuals

2005-05-17T18:15:00.000-04:00

Chris explained it all pretty well... Here's a few pictures I took.

This is Twin Island, quite a beautiful little spot someone has there. A little drizzly that day!

An Osprey nest Chris knew of. There are thousands and thousands of trees around, but they choose to nest here year after year despite repeated attempts to stop them. Thankfully that's no longer true and the Osprey have a nice place on a great little island.

Here's lookin' at you! This mama Robin is sitting on a few blind and featherless babies. No pictures of the perch caught, the weather often prevented photography. We'll all just have to wait to hear stories of big fish caught. Plans include walleye fishing thursday night and hitting the wall again this weekend. See you all out there.

You'd be better off with a boat

2005-05-16T23:02:00.000-04:00

I got home too late last night to post this, its late now too but I haven't been fishing all day.

The fishing weekend started on Friday night at the Thousand Islands Bait Store. We picked up some minnows, worms and lures along with some advice, "you'd be better off with a boat". My parent's boat wasn't in the water so as we crossed the bridge to Wellseley Island we were possibly looking at a whole weekend of fishing from shore.

Saturday morning we went down to the rocks in front of Bathhouse Shoal with some worms and almost immediately started catching perch left and right. Deanne caught a bunch, Alec pulled some in and I managed to get a couple out of the water. Even if they were small I was psyched to catch anything at all after weeks of nothing. We went out a few more times throughout the day, we tried the main dock and a dock across from Goose island. At the main dock we were able to entice perch to come out from behind the pilings. Productive but not much of a challenge.

After the sun set the three of us tried to catch some walleye in South Bay. Deanne fished with worms, I fished with minnows and Alec used this crazy worm harness (like this except with a real worm) We tried two different docks before heading back without any fish. During the day it was OK that it was gray and drizzly but at night the wind picked up and it was just plain shitty.

On Sunday morning the clouds broke, the sun came out and we couldn't stay on shore any longer. After some discussion we decided to "borrow" the neighbor's paddle boat and launched from the rocks. Our first destination was bathhouse shoal where we stood on the rocks for a while. Alec caught a perch or two there. From the shoal we cruised around Crystal bay and headed in to wait for Monk. Monk puts the boats in the water and had told us yesterday that he might get to the boat if Jimmy brought the battery from Syracuse, his attitude at the time was surly and we weren't quite sure whether or when he'd come but we didn't want to miss him. A little after noon, Monk pulled up in his bright white GMC Jimmy. Fifteen minutes later we were scouting bays and marshes for fishing sites.

After chasing a freighter past Clayton we fished Rusho Bay on the northeast side of Grindstone Island. Our main goal was to catch a Northern Pike. After an entire afternoon we had thrown in everything we could think of in every direction, drifted around most of the bay and had one perch to show for it and would have been happy to catch anything else. But we didn't.

So we found some perch this weekend and we found a lot of other things (a snapping turtle, tons of great blue herons, a kingfisher, an osprey, a pair of baltimore orioles a muskrat, gold finches, cormorants, rose breasted grosbeak) but were unable to land a fish they'd hang a picture of in the TI Bait Store.

Reports and the real Perch Search

2005-05-13T05:25:00.000-04:00

Here's a few reports from around town. The rainbows are still in the Inlet, as Trevor and Blaine have been practicing catch and mostly release the past few days. One 20+ and a few other relatively large ones. I think that action will probably die soon, I'm surprised the run is still going. But thinking about it, we've had a relatively cool spring. Even right now as I'm writing this it's 28 degrees. Brrr. Two days ago it was 82!!
In the lake, trolling black/white or blue/white sticks is hot for browns, other sticks and spoons are picking up some salmon and the occasional smallmouth. Lake trout action is picking up fast, the fish are beginning to rise. I heard an incredible story from a good source... He's out jigging for lakers in 120' feet o water. Marks fish ON BOTTOM with his fishfinder. Drops jig in... it's falling for 5 seconds and the fish on the bottom goes straight up and hits the jig at 70'!! That's fabulous... as he said, it's amazing to think about. (many thanks for Toby (not you TT!) from the board for sharing his info on laker jigging.... Boy do I need a boat now!)
As for Chris and myself, we're off to the 1000 Islands to go on a Perch Search, with maybe some walleye fishing thown in. The weather looks a little unstable but what the heck it's beautiful up there. We'll keep ya posted!
P.S. You guys had me busting a gut with your comments. "strippers" Ha!

Rainbows in the Creek

2005-05-08T12:07:00.000-04:00

Blaine and I took advantage of the sunny weekend and went out early this morning. I know sun isn't the best for fishing, but it makes it more pleasant anyway. So one of my favorite holes has a honking big tree right in the middle of it due to the spring flooding. I'm thinking of taking a handsaw down there sometime to cut of some of the branches. It really is a problem, but I'm sure the fish love it. We had a decent start on the day, it must have been 7:30 when we got out there. Not the crack of dawn these days but it was Sunday after all.

I caught a small rainbow first, but saw a jump a little downstream. Circled around and actually managed to catch it! This gorgeous 18" rainbow took a little mayfly spinner. Blaine is resolved to catch some more fish, he's been unlucky recently but I'm sure he'll get some soon, as will everyone else trying. Good luck everyone!

Deanne's Fall Creek Fish

2005-05-05T22:30:00.000-04:00

After dinner tonight Deanne and I went to Fall Creek for a little while. It was sunny, somewhere around 65 and the setting sun made the falls a very cool pink orange color. Deanne caught this beauty with a a juicy nightcrawler on her first or second cast at the base of the falls.

Big Brown

2005-04-27T08:59:00.000-04:00

Hey folks, it's been a few days so I had to go fishing this morning. Up before dawn, down to my favorite spot by first light. We had a good blow yesterday but it had died overnight, so I thought it might be worthwhile.

I was just getting ready to give up when this Brown hit. I only had 4 lb. line on and it was quite a fight! I ended up jumping in with my net to get him out.

Here's the tape... 25 1/2 inches. I don't have a scale but I think I should get one now. I held a gallon of water in one hand and the fish in the other- I think the trout weighs more! To be safe I'll call it 8 pounds. Hooray for spring!

Oh, I'd also like to say to anyone watching feel free to leave comments, positive feedback will only encourage Chris and me to blunder about in the water. Hopefully we'll have a few guests on soon. We're also sponsoring the first annual "Take a Hippie Fishing" Day, in support of cheap, sustainable living. The Finger Lakes are one of the cleanest places in the Country to catch fish for consumption. So help us out and spread the word... it's also a great excuse to spend some time in beautiful locations- go get 'em!

Bullhead for a Change

2005-04-22T19:05:00.000-04:00

Well I thought I'd like to try something new so Blaine and I went to the Farmer's Market a day early and caught fresh fish for free! This bullhead has toothmarks on both sides about halfway up, a big pike(?) must have taken a whack. The jpeg washed them out in this photo, it's the lumpy bent part in the middle. I also caught a sucker, a 4" perch and a shiner. Blaine caught a very cute redear.

The shiner was interesting. I had a tug, so I set and started reeling. But there wasn't much resistance... and out came a foul-hooked shiner! Right through it's butt, basically. No pics of that one, but I wish I had. I think a bass probably took a pass at the worm and spit. My hook got caught on and stole the last meal the bass ate.

Salmon Time!

2005-04-20T07:02:00.000-04:00

Well we decided to go for the big leagues yesterday and went out to the lighthouse. After a little while, I caught a Salmon! A nice 21" meal for four. And a closer up:

Chris had a bite and saw it, but no takers. My first Salmon, pretty exciting. We had to borrow a net to get it out of the water, and then got tangled with the lure! Thought I'd have to replace the net but Chris got it out. It was only 3" above the legal limit here but perfect for eating.

Soaking up the sunny weekend 2

2005-04-18T23:30:00.000-04:00

On Sunday afternoon I went to Upper Treman State Park to fish in the creek. I don't know the name of the creek but its along the Finger Lakes Trail. There was one pool with a few fish but I couldn't catch any of them this time. Fishing with worms and random larvae found under rocks didn't seem to be apetizing enough. It was a nice sunny day to be out and warm enough for me to think about swimming. There was a plaque that said this area was a CCC camp in the 1930s.

Soaking up the sunny weekend

2005-04-18T08:48:00.000-04:00

On Saturday we traveled to find the fish. Not far though, just in a wide circle around Ithaca. It was sunny and in the upper sixties in the afternoon and was a perfect day for tromping around in creeks. The day started near the lake with no luck. After a stop at Dick's for a pair of waders, we moved to Upper Fall Creek where we fished for three hours or so. Who really knows. Alec caught the brown trout below sometime between one hour and another hour. We left to get snacks and drinks and made our way towards Shindagin Hollow to find upper Six Mile Creek. In the swamp we found to fish in Blaine caught a few small fish we thought might be trout fry. On the way out we went to find a creek South of Buttermilk State Park. When we got there we got out looked around and went home. It was four or so and it had been a good day out.

These pictures are from Fall Creek.
The fish is a brown trout.
The plant is a skunk cabbage.

2005-04-15T08:10:00.000-04:00

Buttermilk Falls

After work yesterday I went to Taughannock to try for Salmon off the point. There were a few folks there but I saw no fish. The bait pods are just forming and they're still offshore. Just keep these sunny days coming and things will shape up in a hurry. This weekend will be in the 60's and the good weather keeps coming...
So I decided I should go find some dinner and went down to Buttermilk. No problem there, I tried two new lures I thought might be good. I caught one Brown on each, 12" and 10". Good enough! Great day, the sun on my back was a nice contrast to the rocky air flowing down the gorge. A few folks about, surprised to hear I thought there were fish in there. This weenend I'm going for a lake run Salmon or Rainbow down at the lighthouse. We'll see.

What to do once you catch a Trout:

2005-04-11T22:10:00.000-04:00

Here's a few things to try. I've cooked Brown Trout three different ways in the past few days, and they were all good.

Pan fried.

What I did was pretty simple. Mix flour, salt and pepper together on plate. Roll the fish in this mixture and place it in a sizzling hot frying pan (cast iron if you can) with oil and butter. Cook 2-4 minutes on each side and golden brown. Eat happily. For more of a breading, dip fish in an egg/milk mixture and roll in a flour and breadcrumb mix. Repeat if you want. Fry.

Grilled.

Stuff them with something if you want. We used lemon slices, butter and garlic. Get a hot bed of coals going. Coat the trout with olive oil if you haven't already. Grill! Adding fresh rosemary to the coals at this point is a good idea. Or anything else that might smell good when burnt. I don't like using dried herbs here. Get fancy and use apple wood to make your coals, it definately adds a unique flavor to the fish.

Roasted.

This didn't work out to well, but that was my fault. I added a little water to the "dish" and I think that made things a little soggy. I've done it before and it can be delicious. Take your fish and make a tray out of tinfoil. Add things like lemon, garlic, maybe some carrots (big chunks) and some interesting herbs. A little olive oil helps. Wrap it all up with another tinfoil piece and bury it in red-hot coals. It won't take long...

I went back to Treman today with Blaine and experimented with a few lures. brightly colored spinners worked pretty well, yellow and a black/orange. Unfortunately I left my phone in the car and missed Chris' call. But now that things are in swing we'll be out again soon...

Finally!

2005-04-10T16:52:00.000-04:00

Our luck as well as the weather has changed! Yesterday Chris and I had a blast throwing worms into Enfield Glen. I wish I didn't have to go places like this to catch trout...

The spray from the waterfall was pretty intense, but no matter, we ate up seven trout roasted over a backyard grill pit. Boy did that meal make it all worthwhile! It's hard to beat fresh trout.

Opening Day!

2005-04-01T06:59:00.000-05:00

Not that I'm TOO excited, it's been raining and melting and, well, in a nutshell the fishing conditions suck! I went out this morning, being the first day of Trout season, but only for two hours... I've got class and it's too wet. Unfortunately we have another Flood Watch this weekend.
Positive news, Yasz and I are going down to Jersey Saturday to pick up his new fishing boat! It's all set up, 2 downriggers, lifejackets, full tackle boxes(!), gosh I can't remember it all. Sounds like a good spring. I just have to be patient and wait for the rain to stop, which it will in November when it turns to snow. Those fish are out there and we're gonna get them someday!

p.s. This is interesting, you can track local stream flows. Surf Your Watershed!

Where are the fish? 2

2005-03-21T12:09:00.000-05:00

I guess Alec and I are asking ourselves the same question, I made this last night. It was a nice day, anyway. I may not be catching fish but I don't need to look any harder than a Saturday afternoon fishing on the lake for reasons I'm glad I didn't stay in New York City.

Click here to Watch.

Where are the fish?

2005-03-21T09:22:00.000-05:00

Saturday, March 19th. The last day of winter.

We don't know, but they aren't where we are. Of course, I feel like I'm just trying the same thing over and over again. "You fool me once, shame on you, you fool me twice...

But there isn't much to do until the weather changes or I get a boat... that's the next project! Of course Trout season opens on April 1st, and then we can try something else.

Here's Chris, wondering what we should do next. And a pretty standard picture of what it's like here most of the time...

Another Beautiful Day...

2005-03-18T18:58:00.000-05:00

Today I broke ranks and went fishing with someone other than Chris. This time, I knew what I was doing. I enlisted a local old-timer to take me out on Cayuga with his canoe in search of salmon and trout. Yay! Beautiful day (it's all relative) in the upper 30's with some sun and a light breeze. After lunch we launch, steaming out the inlet. It's a beautiful day, like I said, but naturally this light breeze had a forty mile fetch and was throwing up small whitecaps. Not too good for a canoe. Summertime you'd say, 'what the hell, it's only water!' but today we said 'Not a chance!" and turned around after nosing the breakwater.
We go to Taughannock, my old favorite spot to not catch fish. Luckily, that's what we were doing today (good thing I had the old-timer!) and kept right on not catching fish. After a while we thought it best to maybe go for a little drive and see if the fish we biting somewhere else. Like Miliken Station! Vroom vroom... I did see a nice sunset, and it was beautiful again. This time we waded out off the point and cast everything we could think of into the water, including Yasz' 6 oz bluefish lure and little spinning flies. We did hear of someone catching a fish. Well, there's always next time...

How we fish

2005-03-13T19:32:00.000-05:00

Cayuta Lake

2005-03-13T18:32:00.000-05:00

The Walleye season is ending soon so we thought it would be a good idea to buy some huge minnows and try our luck. We headed out to Cayuta Lake and trekked to the middle. It was a mild afternoon, in the twenties and cloudy. By five we had two possible bites, but no fish. On our way out we passed a group of people fishing closer to shore but we thought we knew what we were doing so we walked right on by. When they left we decided we'd try their holes for a bit. Almost immediately Alec had his minnow, hook and sinkers bit clean off. A second, hastily retied offering was also clipped from his line. After that quick bit of excitement we were back to what we started with, nothing. I even wore my lucky fishing hat and everything. Next time.

Alec fishing

2005-03-13T18:22:00.000-05:00

Tryin' again...

2005-03-10T15:00:00.000-05:00

Not much to report, it was fairly calm and in the twenties today. Spent an hour and a half up at the park. Still Zero fish, the lake hasn't changed. I thought maybe the offshore wind would have helped, but it had come around to the North and was blowing down the lake. Oh well. Just keep checking...

Tried to photograph the geese and ducks, but left memory card at home. I'll remember next time, I imagine I could get a few good ones of ducks on water and ice, etc. A few hawks were out.

I tried from the shore...

2005-03-08T15:06:00.000-05:00

Seeing as yesterday was one of the warmest in the past, oh, four months, I skipped class and went fishing! Beautiful day at the lake, it warmed quickly into the fourties and briefly passed fifty in the afternoon. Sun, blue sky, the works. A fresh SW breeze heralded the blowing snow and single-digit temperatures today!
However, the lake level is low and the water off Taughannock is still pretty cold- I'd guess 35 or so. I did not catch a single fish, but neither did anyone else. Except for the fella in the boat who came in and had a great morning with a gorgeous 6-7 pound salmon and a pair of good size browns! Nice fish, fella in the boat.

On Saturday February 26, 2005

2005-03-02T02:40:00.000-05:00

At 11:30 AM (;after breakfast at Bistro Q) we walked on to Cayuga Lake from Stewart Park. It was 20 degrees, very windy and their were large clouds on the sky. We fished with mousies, I think Alec used a lure for a little while. The number of fish we caught is not important, it was a nice day.

There were people on the ice with snowboards and giant kites.

On Sunday, February 27, 2005

2005-03-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

At 10:30 AM we arrived at Dryden lake. It was 25 degrees, windy and their were large clouds on the sky. We fished with minnows and mousies. The number of fish we caught is not important, it was a nice day.
At 2:00 PM we drove to Whitney Point Resivoir in Whitney Point. It was 35 degrees, no wind and the sky was blue. We fished with minnows and mousies. The number of fish we caught is not important, it was a nice day.