Fishing Butternut Creek: One Week before Opening Day, March 26, 2018

No news, is news. Today we fished the year round section of Butternut Creek in Lafayette, New York North of Route 20.

Last year at this time, these areas were stocked. You could see fish everywhere. Today, I had on the polarized sunglasses and didn't see fish anywhere. Another major difference between this time last year and now is more snow had melted. So the water was higher. 

Just in case there was a fish hiding somewhere, I rigged two ultra light poles. One with a small Panther Martin spinner and the other with a Prichard Baits Mayfly Nymph. I walked the bank at the location on Route 20 then went to the Weller Road location. Both areas were barren. Look for a (hopefully) more exciting opening day post.

Winter Trout Fishing on Butternut Creek, January 19, 2017

There are portions of Butternut Creek, Limestone Creek, and Chittenango Creek that are open year round for trout fishing (on Chittenango Creek be aware of the catch and release only zone). To me, real trout fishing comes in the Fall/Winter. It can be frustrating but the fish there have survived being dumped from the hatchery in the Spring and all the fishers that tried to take them from that time. They are smart. During off season, I usually start right at the Southern most point of Butternut that you can fish, where Route 20 and Apulia Road meet. Today was the first time I saw another fisherman in the winter and he was just as surprised to see me. He was fly fishing.

In the Winter, trout don't expend a lot of energy, so they hold in deeper, slower moving waters near breaks where food (if they are interested in it all) nicely flows down in front of them. Below is a good picture of a break where trout can hold as the water flows around the bend near them.

Whatever you are presenting to them, has to look either really appealing or really irritating and right in front of their face. I used a red, fly fishing worm that I sunk with a split shot to float by them and be low enough to where they don't have to make much effort to go to the surface for it. I use an ultralight spinning combo with 4 lb line.

Given that it was Winter, there was more of an opportunity to reach the spots you can't reach when foliage is in full bloom. Winter stream fishing has a beautiful peacefulness to it. I didn't get any hits at this location but saw an interesting little stream that was an offshoot from a beaver dam.

Next we tried the Weller Road location. Again, there were two fishers coming in and out of there. Two more than I would have expected this time of year. We got hits at this location and they were pretty substantial but the fish were leery. I used a Prichard Baits pink worm with a split shot. After a few hits, the fish lost interest.  One very cool find though was a ravaged deer carcass that we collected fur from to make flies for fly fishing.

Fishing in Brewerton at Lighthouse Park, September 28, 2016

We would normally fish the docks off Brewerton Road but this time we went across the Oneida River to Lighthouse Park. Be forewarned, there are A LOT of gobies here. It is very annoying. The only good thing about it is if you toss them on the grass, you might get a chance to see a blue heron swoop down and get it like we did. But, if you can fish around them, you have a good chance at some perch, rock bass, and even pickerel.

On this night, something pretty funny happened. I kept catching gobies (not funny) and on one of the swings up I felt a very heavy tug. Before reeling it in, the line broke. So we knew something big was in there. About thirty minutes later, the person I was with, brought up a huge pickerel. What was funny about it was when she picked it up for a photo, it spit out a dead goby that had my hook in its mouth! I must have hooked a goby and pickerel came by and grabbed the goby I had hooked and that's what broke my line.

I caught a rock bass in the weeds under the dock before it got dark and we left.

Fishing the Verona Beach Area at Night, September 24, 2016

We went up to Sylvan Beach to see if there were any early walleye and there was a huge boat show going on so we decided to go back to the Verona Beach area. We always drove route 13 to Sylvan Beach but never stopped near the Verona Beach Park. We drove up to an abandoned lot on Lakeshore Drive and were surprised to see that other people had fished there also. Throughout the night more and more people showed up all seemingly equally surprised that they weren't the only ones who thought of going to this spot.

We caught a couple rock bass and had the promise of other bites but no other hook ups. The night was absolutely beautiful though.

Salmon River Fishing, Pulaski, September 23, 2016

We headed to the Salmon River to do some early salmon run fishing. We went directly to the town pool because we heard most other areas were pretty full. When we got there around 7:30 am, there was still plenty of room near the bridge.

There were many hook ups around us, yells of "fish on" and actual fish caught. I got two really hard hits while I was there on the standard egg sac set up with 20 lb line. Most everyone knew what they were doing except for the woman next to me that I had to keep watching for. She showed up in sneakers and jeans and kept getting wound around me and other people. This is the one place I would do research for before attempting to go. It is too dangerous to just show up and think you will wing it. I managed to get a decent video of the guy across from me catching a salmon. He let it play a lot longer than other people and chased it a lot farther so I doubt all this was fully necessary but it was fun to watch.

Early Salmon River Fishing in Pulaski, August 27, 2016

I've had good luck, mostly with perch, at the Salmon River before the big run starts. We started at the town pool where there is really good shore access. There was only one or two guys in waders hoping for early salmon.

We only caught some small bass but it was still fun to be there. 

Before leaving this area I collected some shale from it. I found a fossil imprint of a mollusk that fascinated me. I looked it up when I got home and it turned out to be a preservation of an extinct mollusk from 300 million years ago that is unique to Pulaski. 

Next we went to Church Street and Forest Drive. It was a beautiful walk through the water but no hits here. 

From here we headed home we went to the handicap accessible platform at route 13 and 3 and caught some perch.

Fishing for Rainbow Trout at Green Lakes, June 16, 2016

I have fished Green Lakes a lot but only caught panfish and bass. We came here on the 15th and watched a guy pull in rainbows. He told us what rig he had. He had four pound line, with a weighted foam float up about seven feet, two large split shot a foot below that, a swivel below that and six feet of line between that and his #8 hook with a worm on it. The next day we came back with that rig. It was hard to cast because of the long lead but it cast really far with the weighted float. It didn't take long to bring a some smallish rainbows. The long light lead makes it so they can't feel the line when they bite and their bite is soft and subtle. I have several more posts about Green Lakes on this blog if you want to learn more about it.