Nice clint!!! Ive freed up some time finally and hit douglaston this evening with my son. Managed to hook two steelies on a pink worm. Let my son try to reel in the first and he lost it. The second one was a brief hook up. My son managed a small mouth on a rapala and i caught a chub. Quite a few fish were doing aerial assaults chasing the salmon smolts in which two of them were clearly atlantics... wish i had the fly rod and some streamers as i probably wouldve done better, but a good time was had....relaxxing for sure. Apparently the morning bite has been the best. Maybe before they close on may 14th i'll get a chance. Im hoping for a cooler rain evenet to spice things up a little and maybe make one last hurrah for the steelhead season... tight lines guys and happy summer!!!

 


The eye was just under 16  but the Bass were HOGS  one almost 20 and the other almost 21

Those are very nice Bass,don't see them that size around here too often.

Nice smallies Clint.  Some of the reservoirs in the area have them, some getting up to seven pounds, waldo's too.  Need a row boat to fish those impoundments since no motors allowed, electric or gas.  The other draw back is that you have to leave the boat at that particular body of water, no transporting from reservoir to reservoir.  There are over a dozen such reservoirs in Westchester and Putnam counties so you can go broke if you put a boat on each one.  The way to go is to purchase confiscated boats at auction.  Every year the DEP/NYC auctions off boats that they have removed because their registration with the agency has expired.     

Jack-It has always been that way for as long as I can remember with the NYC Reservoir system.  Once you find a reservoir you would like to fish you have to find an area to place the boat as some reservoirs are at capacity.  Once you find an open spot you must bring your boat to a DEP Maintenance area had have it pressure washed before you can store it at the location/reservoir you chose.  The boat has to remain at the same fishing area for the remainder of the season.  If you remove it before seasons end to take on vacation you have to repeat the process. 
In 2004 I bid on and won three two boat lots with the intention of putting five of the six boats on the reservoir and register the last to use wherever I so chose.  The lots consisted of three jon boats (12-14' Grumman & Starcraft) and three semi v-hull (12-14' Grumman & Starcraft).  What I found out after the fact was the boats were being auctioned as salvage without clear title and bill of sale.  After a couple of years of trying to find ways to get the boats properly registered I gave up.  All the above boats had HIN's (Hull Identification Numbers) and my concern was that the previous owner would report the boat as stolen thereby making me in possession of stolen property.  I finally sold the boats to a guy who has made a handsome living buying the same boats over and over again at auction from the DEP.  Not worth the hassle as far as I'm concerned.

L13- you are right about that.  Its water quality first and foremost, fishing is an ancillary benefit.  The great thing about the system is the diversity it offers.  Lake Trout, Brown Trout, Rainbows, Landlocks,  Walleye, Large & Small Mouth Bass, Chain Pickerel, Crappie and Perch just to name a few.

Good luck HT.   The place that put my Tire Rack tires on broke the valve stem.   I bought the parts from NAPA to rebuild it as it is a Tire pressure monitor car and of course those parts were wrong and to boot when I tried to put it on  to the tire pressure monitor  sensor got wrecked so it is off to the dealer to get the sensor and the tires remounted.

FIrst I would have to catch one!
 
L13

Stoked for Friday. Headed up with my buddy to do a little walleye fishing with gottum.  First time going up like this so hopefully we will land some big eyes and maybe a brown or twq. Hope everyone is having a great spring.  Will keep you posted on how we make out.
 
CP

CP-It looks as if the Eye fishing has been real good.  Good Luck.

Clint I hope you have a great vacation and your hands covered in fish slime.

Thanks John, I will not mess around with Oneida  with alot wind  (or any other body of water for that matter).   If the wind stays this bad I will stay put.   I was going to try to the east a little by the  hazard  bouys in the shallow  water towards the evening.   I do not have alot of experience on Oneida, especially on that end,   so it is all trial and error right now.     I was also thinking of Greenpoint  (Sandy pond)   or even the res. for perch

Went out of Godfrey this am.  I had the nephew with me and he was slow gettin' moving so did not leave the house until 730.    2 stops at bait stores looking for minnows and we were on the water  before  900.  There were a few boats there and they were all drifting so we did the same.     Wind was mild at first, but steadily picked up until the whitecaps  started coming.   Drift was so fast we had to drag the mushroom to slow down.  I got a few perch, lost a nice bass at the boat.   No eyes today, but this was the first time out in my boat this year, and with my nephew with me and the wind we stayed close to Godfrey.  Those we talked to had similar luck.   Had a OH CRAP moment about an hour in we are motoring  for another drift and the engine loses power, got that feeling in my gut,   looks like we are paddling.   Engine quit...............
 
After a quick peak the gas line had come loose.   Whew.    Winds were bad and had driven most of t he boats, and us off the lake by 100

Great Holiday meal!!:)

 

We pretty much stayed near the shoal (bueys)  just east of the launch.   We drifted  10, 15 and  30 feet and then started again.   Just tried to cover alot of ground.    Dropped a nice one in the deeper water that was probably an eye.    May try to put off the south shore state launch and hit shackleton next weekend if the wind is better.   Trying to learn.