Shore Fishing the Seneca River at Onondaga Lake Park, July 22, 2015

This evening we started out at 6 pm. We went to Onondaga Lake Park off of Cold Springs Road. There is a ton of shore access in this large park but we went to the area near the Wegman's Good Dog Park (circled below). We wanted to go to Willow Bay because it was listed online as a great place to fish at the mouth of the Seneca River and Onondaga Lake but apparently there was a politician swimming event there tonight!

One of the many things I like about this park is the set up of picnic tables with grills near the fishing areas. 

This first fish I caught I didn't even know I had. I reeled it in and went to cast and thought "why does my worm look so big?". Its because I caught a round goby. I have never seen one before and they are the same color as the weeds and very small. They are an invasive fish originating from Russia believed to have been brought over on international boats. We had read that some people catch them to use as bass bait so we tried using it as bait with no interest from the bass. 

After catching a couple of these nuisances, I caught a rock bass. I used a weedless jig with a worm and threw it past the heavily weeded shore and let it drift to the edge of the weeds. 

8"- 9" Rock Bass

Weedless jig I found on ebay

I prefer to use a jig in this situation even though I don't use it like a jig and just let it drift because it is heavy and shiny so it attracts attention in the weeds and goes deep enough to where the fish are. I also use a split shot about 12 inches above to add a little weight to the cast. 

The next rock bass I caught was close to 12 inches. 

We had a family with kids walk by and get excited when they saw me pulling in this rock bass. We talked to them about it while it swam in our bucket.  We ended the evening at about 9 pm having caught three rock bass.