Fishing Cedar Bay Park and the Erie Canal, Dewitt, NY, September 11, 2015

Every time I drove Route 481 I wondered what this area was and how to get to it, because you can't get to it from 481. There is designated parking for the Erie Canal trail on Butternut drive off of Kinne Road in Dewitt. The trail starts at the intersection of Butternut Creek and the Canal.

Butternut Creek looked really shallow but really nice. You could climb down a bank to it but I don't think you would get much without waders.

Butternut Creek

It was around 4 pm on a Friday and very busy with people walking the trails. It was very shallow in the canal up until the canal started to open up closer to Cedar Bay. I stopped and fished when I saw carp actively feeding. They did not appear interested in the worms I had to offer. I got a few panfish hits (you can tell they are panfish because the bobber just bounces while they are tugging on the worm) but the most productive thing that came out of this was a conversation with a woman who was walking the trail. She stopped to talk to me about the fish and told me her concerns about the paving that was being done to the trail from Dewitt to Fayetteville. She said many people were against it and she could feel a difference in how the pavement made it hotter for walkers since it absorbed the sun. She told me there was about to be a fireman's 5k run down the trail, so I decided to pick up my stuff and leave. I drove back down Kinne Road then up Cedar Bay Road (there are signs pointing you to that area). 

Inside the parking lot, to the right is the boat launch with picnic area including grills, to the left is the picnic area. I went to the boat launch (non-motorized). As you enter the area there is a water advisory sign. I don't know why it is there since the Erie Canal is not listed as a blue green algae infected area on the DEC webpage.

There is room for exactly two people near the shore (paths that enter up to it) and although it looks like a promising pool of water, I got exactly one bite.

Since I wasn't going to end the day without even catching just one little panfish, I thought I'd head toward the canal sections in Fayetteville. When I got there, they were being paved so I went to Green Lakes State Park (mentioned in many of my other posts). I think the fact that swimming is over for the season may have spread out the fish because I normally get a lot of panfish bites and today I got exactly one bite. Luckily it produced a smallmouth bass, my big catch of the day.