Open Water Reports - 2006

[CNY Tim]

Alright boys what are we catching? Use this area to post open water reports

[Fishingking]

NOt catching anything yet the ice is still holding out here (unsafe but still there) Trout opens on saturday thinking about heading out 3 am or so for some big browns before the sun comes up. Its going to be a long day

[tank]

Billy W and I are going out to the west branch of the owego creek tomorrow and help stock 5000 browns.

[RTF]

I posted an open water report the other day on my blog. Most likely we will go out for some crappie and rock bass tomorrow in the boat if all at possible.

[CNY Tim]

That's great Tank! You and CNY Bruce have been involved with the stocking programs for a fw years now. You stock browns and Bruce I think does the landlocks. I am not a big trout guy now but did enjoy catching and releasing trout back in the day. I use to use a 7' ultralight spinning rod 4lb. test and a 1/8 oz. gold blade yellow and black dot Panther Martin., but early season I would go to Lansingkill and dunk salted minnows in the stumps. I have the draft coming up for softball and I still have to put away 2/3rds of my ice gear yet

[BigJohnnyIce]

Well, I got out fishing out of a boat for the first time this year. Hooked up with the Wizard's Charter Service. LOL

We hit some of his spots yesterday at a local WNY Lake in search of some perch. Fishing wasn't too bad, but it wasn't as good as some previous reports a few days earlier. We got enough for a few meals though!!! All fish were mostly caught using jigs tipped with plastic artificials in depths from 24 to 12 FOW.

It was an awesome day out there weather wise, and it felt great to be out again on the soft H2O

I wanted to thank the Wizard again for the awesome time to go along with some laughs!

Here are a few pics from yesterday's outing:

The Wizard showing off a few of the 13"+ pigs caught yesterday.

I guess smallies bite perch rigs sometimes!! Huge smallie caught and realeased after snapping this pic.

Me with a pig caught on almost my last cast of the day.

[CNY Tim]

Nice work buddy! Excellent perch and a dandy smally, nice pics John!

[PikeBayCommanche]

Nice fish guys!!!

[Dan Thiem]

Wow guys way to go! Awesome fish! How long has the ice been gone on that lake?

[BigJohnnyIce]

Dan,

This particular lake didn't have safe ice this year at all. In fact, most of this lake was open all year and it does support an outstanding winter bass fishing.

In fact, black bass season on this lake is the 3rd Saturday in June through March 15, with a daily limit of 5 (12" minumum length) if you desire to keep them. Plus, there is a special season from the first Saturday in May thru the Friday before the third Saturday in June, Catch and Release fishing is allowed.

[CNYFrank]

With that smallie starring at me, I may have to drag the boat out of storage early and work the jigs in the deep edges!! So Johnny . . . you can only use the phrase:" Honey this is the first time out for the season!" only a couple of times.

[BigJohnnyIce]

Frank,

Thanks a lot, buddy, that was funny!!

Actually, she is a little upset with me because I was a little later than she thought. I pulled in the driveway around 10:30pm, because after fishing all day, my buddy the Wizard and I checked out a local stream for the spring smelt run. Heck, I only left the house at 5am....so I was gone 15 1/2 hours? Had to clean the fish afterwards, too.

Plus, I told her that this is the first time out 'early spring' fishing, so I still have mid-early, late-early, post-late early, then early summer, mid-early summer, etc. So I should be good to go at least three to four times each of those seasons, right!!

How is open water fishing on the big C after ice out?

[CNY Tim]

Well the fall fishing wasn't to bad for the eyes if your name is "Z". I imagine Tuzzy and I will split it up between Canadarago and Delta all season. Tuzzy is still getting his new Tracker Deep V 16C together and it won't be long to her maiden voyage. I will christen her "Dink Perch" in honor of Tuzzy I would suspect a couple of trips in the barge canal here in Rome are also on the list.

Check your home email Johnny, good news from the TA email.

Doing some honey do stuff around the house now until we can hit the open water, working 20 min. a day on the stationary bike getting in shape for slow-pitch too.

Anybody hitting the opener for trout besides Tank and FishingKing?

[hanson]

I'm still darn impressed with the consistent size of those perch you guys are catching! Man! I know, I know... they are just perch but you can suddenly change your opinion when you are talking trophy caliber perch.

The smallie is a dandy as well. Did ya get a length measurement on that one? Looks like a 17" maybe?

[RTF]

Nice smallie ! I love it ! I am starting my open water season today. Boat is all ready to go, but I am not settled on a particular spot yet. The river maybe a good choice as lack of precip and the fact the snow melt is gone has keeped the river tame. This is very uncommon this time of the year. Usually you cant expect to get onto the river until late May early June.

I just dont know if the fish have headed up into her from the lake it feed's into. Still maybe too cold for migration.

[north shore]

Nice pics of some dandy fish. Hope all did well on the trout opener. May put the kayak in the canal and search for a school of perch. The eyes are in the riffer.So many like to fish the backsets off fish creek but according to the DEC it is a nono. I guess that I will stick to the canal. Waiting for the ice to leave the Redfield res then its crappie time. All have a great weekend even if your not fishing.

[tank]

Fished a small creek out of ithaca today.Caught 7 browns kept 4 for supper tonight.They were delicious.The biggest only being 13.5 in.It felt good to be out for the first time this trout season.

[RTF]

As reported on Cooperstownbassfishing.com

Quote:

---

It was the first day of statewide trout season within NY. We did not run into that many people. We got a late start due to some equipment issues. Turns out our brand new battery charger from Vector , went belly up after just 1 charge. We must re-charge our trolling battery after each use. So an early morning trip to the Oneonta Wal-Mart for new battery charger put us behind on getting to the water. After we got back home, the cold front arrived with wind and rain and we waited it out.

Our plan was to travel to Three Mile Point on Otsego Lake and check out the action. On the way up the rain did not let up. So we made a pit stop at a local coffee rest and waited it out. Once at the lake we learned it had all iced out. There is no ice on Otsego Lake and the trolling boats where out in search of trout. Down riggers and side planes could be seen on one boat as it trolled north on the lake, passing Three Mile Point where we stood.

There where two other fishermen on shore besides us. Also another set of guys where just offshore in their johnboat . The fish where just not biting as none where caught.

We packed it up. The other two fishermen on shore also decided it was time to go . We gave them some good information on Arnolds Lake and they told us that is where they where heading next. My side kick and I headed to one of our crappie ponds. No luck there either. The dang cold front shut down the fishing for sure as the air temps dropped 15 degree’s in just a few hours.

Yet another stop for some crappie at another location closer to home also yielded us absolutely zero in the fish catch department.

Oh well, it was a fun day for us just to get out. Water temperatures are still in the low 40’s for the most part. Sunday, April 2nd is another day and we will report the action if we get out.

Oh ya don’t forget to set your clocks ahead 1 hour . It’s that time of year again.

---

[CNYFrank]

I'm still going with the under bet . . . Tim you ready to pay me now??

[CNY Tim]

Go easy Frank. Big Johnny has a nice check coming in and half is mine No sense rocking the boat till I'm paid.

BJI nothing yet on the hi-speed but he could be doing tests and evals with engineering on the new stuff or on vacation? I'm waiting on North Shores new DCS 100 too. When I hear something I will let you know.

Way to go Tank nice report on the natives there. Still busy on the honey do list here and softball coaches/draft meeting for Amanda's team tomorrow. Putting new toilet in tomorrow, next new bathroom tile. Talked to Dark Cloud last night he has info now to get with Rick and get his account straightened out. Looking forward to his ribbing and reports. Catch ya later.

[tank]

Jay and I fished 6 mile creek out of ithaca yesterday.Each caught a dozen brown trout.The largest being 15 in.We had a trout lunch yesterday with 6 of them .It was another great morning to be out.

[CNY Tim]

Way to go Tank and Dark Cloud! Ordered some plastics yesterday, tube jigs and lead and some more of that P Line CX Premium. Internet's be down at the office all day.

[Fishingking]

WEnt brown trout fishing for a total of 4 hours in 2 days and got one nice 21" brown. Went rainbow fishing for an hour and got 2 nice 12" bows and have been Brookie fishing a little bit but biggest brookie so far is only 8" all trout were caught in smaller streams in my area. I m just passing time untill Walleye opens back up and the pannies start moving around more

[CNY Tim]

Tuzzy went down to Lock 22 and fished Saturday. Fishing was slow as the wind was pretty rough in the canal. He was getting ready to leave when he decided to throw alast cast and he did with one of his own 1/8 oz. homemade brown bucktails and whammo a nice 18" smallmouth. Fishing along the wall without a net Tuzzy tried to slowly bring him up the 9' or so he needed to retrieve the fish at the wall. He got the smally about 1/2 way up and the 4lb. test snapped. At least he got out fishing. I was plumbing Saturday after the draft. Sunday was laundry and watched the Masters and NASCAR. Tyler and I feasted on venison spedies. Thanks Tank and Dark Cloud!

We start practicing softball next Saturday which is also equipment pick-up day. With only a 10 game season it will go pretty quick. Keep up the fishing boys!

[cny fshr]

Timmy, you have got to get off that couch and go fishing. the big perch are beginning to turn on in most of the Lake Ontario bays and along the big river up north.

I have been using plastics with good results, but there are times when they only want live bait. Bring both.