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Archive for the ‘Reports’ Category

Salmon Season Is Here

Posted in Reports, tagged , , , , , , on September 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »

A tell tale sign salmon season has started is when you see the guys “fishing” from the route 3 bridge. They have been there for around a week now so you know it’s time.

The majority of the fish are still staging in the lake from the shore line to 100 feet of water. The lake fishing has been on fire most days. There are new fish entering the Salmon River each day and it won’t be long before the big pushes of fish start.

My salmon season is fully booked with the exception of a couple week days I could do evening trips. If you are looking for a week day trip from 4 to 10 give me a call and we will try to get you on the water. I do know a few guides who still have some day time trips available. I will gladly set you up with one of them if you would like.

Steelhead season is getting booked up quick so if you want a 2022 steelhead date you need to call as soon as possible.

I am starting to book ice fishing dates as well. I will be offering perch and pike trips as well as walleye trips this year. All equipment is provided.

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Small Stream Raft Trip

Posted in Reports, Stories, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »

I have been trying for a while to float this stream and make sure it was still a viable guiding option. The conditions were never right when I had the time. Today it all worked out.

There are a few new challenges but nothing myself and the raft couldn’t handle. My biggest concern on these floats is the customers don’t have to help get around obstacles. The fishing needs to be good as well.

The fishing was nothing short of fantastic with a combination of small mouth bass, brown trout and some big fall fish. One fall fish may very well have broken the state record. We had thoughts of filling the cooler with water and getting it weighed when we were done. The 90 degree heat and lack of scale on the raft to get an estimated weight ended those thoughts. It seemed like a lot of hassel for a maybe.

If you would like to book one of these trips give me a call to set it up. The cost is $400 for one or two anglers and can be fly or spin fishing.

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Salmom Fishing Report 10/17/21

Posted in Reports, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 17, 2021| 1 Comment »

Fish fish fish. There are fish everywhere. With the massive amount of rain that has fallen the last two days this will include all the small streams.

Up until today the larger rivers held all the fish. That is unless you wanted to chase a few around with their backs out of the water. Some unethical anglers have been doing exactly that but they won’t be able to now. Every stream in the area is running at good levels to support fish and fishing.

This season has had its ups and downs but the cold rain over the last two days is exactly what we needed. The water temps should be dropping after a warmer than normal start to the season. This will get the kings snapping. It will also draw steelhead and brown trout in from the lake.

With good numbers of salmon still in the river there is plenty time to get in on the action. If you want to fish small streams now is the time. Dont miss out on fresh fish and good water.

If you are looking for steelhead I would concentrate on the lower half of the river. I do have steelhead dates open in December. December is my favorite month to fish for steelhead as the crowds finally start to thin.

Here are a few pictures from this season

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Cayuga and Oneida Lake

Posted in Reports, Stories, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on July 13, 2021| Leave a Comment »

If you follow this blog or my social media sites you know I am always fishing different bodies of water. This week is no exception.

Sunday I hauled the Lund down to Cayuga Lake to fish with my friends Mark and Jamie. While the fishing wasn’t what we had hoped for it was still good. Mark caught his first ever lake trout and reminded me that catching seven trout and missing a few others isn’t a bad day.

Today I had a charter on Oneida Lake. I was hoping to send Bob, Eric and John home with a limit of walleye but mother nature had other plans. After 2 passes trolling we had 7 in the boat and needed just 2 more. As we were setting the lines for the third pass we noticed a storm moving along the south shore. Checking the radar we realized we better keep a close eye on it. As we were discussing our plan the first bolts of lightening were seen and the scramble to pull lines and get to the launch begain. We made it back before the storm hit and it was very clear we made the right move. A big thanks to Mike from Full Tank Charters for backing my truck in and speeding up the take out process as everyone was trying to get off the water at the same time.

If you are looking to get out for trout, salmon, or walleye give me a call.

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What a season..

Posted in Reports, Stories, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 26, 2020| 1 Comment »

Salmon season has come to an end and what a season it was. With a horribly dry summer we found ourselves facing very low water conditions. How’s that old saying go? When life gives you lemons make bull frogs or something like that.

I have to give a huge thank you to all my awesome customers. You are the reason I do what I do. In less than ideal conditions everyone was more than willing to change things up which equalled smiling faces and fish in the net. Some days where better than others but everyone was happy.

Another thank you to those who have already booked next year’s trips or steelhead trips. It’s a great feeling having most of your next season booked as this season is ending. That being said if you want to salmon fish with me next year I wouldn’t wait too long to start planning.

With the low water I never fished the Salmon River this fall. I stayed on the lake as much as possible and fished other locations when I couldn’t get on the lake. Next weekend that changes and I will be steelheading on the Salmon River come hell or low water. The reservoir is slowly filling and I expect 335 cfs base flow to return in the near future as long as it keeps raining. My Smithfly raft floats no problem at 185 cfs so I am not concerned either way.

Steelhead season is looking like it is going to be a good one. Some very nice steelhead have been caught already along with some impressive brown trout. I do have a couple December dates open that I would like to fill if anyone is interested give me a call.

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Cayuga Lake Fishing Trip

Posted in Reports, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 30, 2020| Leave a Comment »

This weekend I had 3 trips on Cauyga lake. I decided I would camp near the lake rather then drive back and forth each day.

I stayed at Sned-Acres Family Campground. If you are looking for a campground in the Finger Lakes region I would recommend this one. It is a family run clean quiet campground. The owners are very nice and accommodating

The fishing was not easy this weekend. We had to work hard for what we got. The weather was not in our favor as it was far from stable. Friday I took Adam and Chrissy out for a four hour afternoon charter. We trolled a variety of depths and baits looking for silver fish. We no luck after 2 hours I switch baits around and we managed to land four lake trout before their trip was over.

Saturday morning Walt and Brooks joined me. We started where I had found the lakers the day before. Only to find they were not willing to bite. Weather was nasty at times but we fished through it trolling north. We found one good laker that wanted to play. They were fishing with me the next day and staying at the same campground so I offered to take a break and go back out in the afternoon. They decided that sounded like a good idea.

We headed back out in the afternoon and caught another laker and two rainbows in about 2 hours of fishing in some less than desirable weather. We probably could’ve caught more but the steaks back at the campground were calling our names.

Sunday morning the weather was supposed to be good and we found a good pile of fish and bait the night before. We were excited to get back out in the morning. Well the weather man was wrong and the fish had moved. We worked very hard fishing everywhere from 60 to 325 feet of water. We found 3 atlantics and one big lake trout that wanted to play before it was time to go.

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Oneida Lake Walleye Fishing 8/19/20

Posted in Reports, tagged , , , , on August 19, 2020| Leave a Comment »

This afternoon I had the pleasure of taking Ken and Gerry out on Onieda Lake walleye fishing. Ken won the trip I donated for the Redfield Fish and Game Club kids fishing derby raffle.

When we launched the boat it looked like it might be a little bumpy out in the deeper water. That turned out to be an understatement. When we got out to the area I wanted to fish we had 3 to 4 foot waves. We were there so we set up and trolled with them. I was hoping it was going to lay down but the waves coming over the back of the boat as we trolled didn’t give me much confidence. The marks on the fish finder gave me plenty of confidence we were going to catch fish though.

We finished one pass landing three keeper walleye. I gave them the choice of running back west and making another pass or giving it a try another afternoon. They decided it was time to head back to the dock and I didn’t blame them as the waves were not letting up and actually still building.

All things considered it was a good hour on Oneida Lake. Hopefully next time we will have calmer water. I have some date available for October walleye fishing before I put the boat away for the winter. Book them now as it’s also salmon season so dates are filling quickly.

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Northwest Connection – Nolan Davis

Posted in Product Reviews, Reports, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 17, 2020| Leave a Comment »

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of flying to Oregon for two days of steelhead fishing on the Siletz River. Fishing on the west coast is something I have wanted to do for a long time so when a friend called and asked me to go I had to jump on the offer. He told me we would be fishing with an awesome guide and he wasn’t lying. Originally I was going to write a story about my trip. As I tried to write it I realized I needed it to be two parts. Part one a review of our guide. Part two, which will come at a later date, the entire story of the trip. Our guide was Nolan Davis who owns and operates Northwest Connection Sportfishing.Day one we had high but fishable beautiful green water. The night before Nolan had told us the water was dropping but still on the high side but would have great color. We arrived at the boat launch to see he was spot on. We rigged our rods and launched the boat. As soon as we left the launch Nolan was telling us where to cast and how to run our drifts. We weren’t on the water 20 minutes and Craig was hooked up with a gorgeous hatchery fish which ended up in the net.As we drifted down stream and motored around some of the pools Nolan would tell us to cast to this spot, move the float over to this spot, reel in and recast. The entire time he is talking about slots, buckets, and troughs. I am listening and doing my best to hit the spots he is calling out. It wasn’t long before I was hooked up too but the whole time I am thinking what is this guy talking about? I can’t see any structure everything looks the same in this water. I kept hooking fish though and ended up hooking 6 before the day was over with a couple others that I felt just long enough to know it was a fish that made the bobber drop.Nolan is a lot like me in the fact he doesn’t like to fish around other people and boats if he can help it. There were a good number of boats on the river the first day and he did a great job to make sure we didn’t have to fish around many of them. He told us he liked to fish small spots others don’t know or just don’t bother to fish. Again with the water conditions everything looked the same to me. We managed to hook fish in multiple places after others had fished them though. This told me we were doing exactly that, hitting the little overlooked pockets.Day two the water had dropped about a half a foot. What a difference that made for me. Now as Nolan called out the spots I could see them. It was amazing that the day before I was fishing these same spots but couldn’t see them. Nolan knows this river so well he had Craig and I casting to micro spots all based on memory. Day two absolutely proved to me we were with the right guide.There were even more boats on the river the second day as it was at a level more people are comfortable floating it. Nolan knew that would be the case and decided to pull a somewhat secret move of his. I am not going to elaborate on what that was but I will just say we fished the first part of the day in water that no one else had fished yet and the rest of the day behind the fleet of drift boats.We only saw two boats on the river all day. One was a raft we saw at the launch which we motored up past and proceeded to catch a nice wild steelhead out of the hole they had just been fishing and the second was one of Nolan’s friends at the take out. Day 2 Craig and I hooked and landed 7 steelhead. I also caught my first and second cutthroat trout. Craig caught one or two cutthroat as well. Overall it was an awesome day on the river where we didn’t have to fish around other boats. Nolan might have been second guessing his move in the morning but by the end of the day it was very clear he had made the right call.If you want to head to Oregon and fish the Siletz, I highly recommend doing so, get a hold of Nolan Davis with Northwest Connection Sportfishing. His knowledge of the Siletz River and it’s steelhead is second to none. He is by far one of the best guides I have ever fished with. His boat is clean and comfortable. His gear is top notch as he works closely with some great manufactures. I learned a lot in my two days on the river with him and I know you will too.www.nwcfishing.com

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That’s a wrap

Posted in Reports, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 1, 2019| Leave a Comment »

That’s it I am done. Yesterday was my last steelhead trip for the season. My season is over but your doesn’t have to be. There are still a lot of fish in the river. They are dropping back to the lake but the lower parts of the river should fish well for at least the next 2 weeks if not longer.

Yesterday there were still plenty of fish to be caught from Altmar to Pineville but not as many as I saw on Sunday. The water bump definitely spread them out.  That being said those fish still have 14 miles of river to go before the enter Lake Ontario.  If you want to catch a steelhead there is still time on the Salmon River.  Covering water finding the pods of drop backs will be key. This time of year one of my favorite techniques is throwing spinners for them.  This allows you to cover water while not requiring you to carry a lot of gear.

Now that I am done with steelhead it is time to move onto walleye. The next two weeks I’ll be chasing Lake Ontario Walleye from the Oswego to the Black River.  These are trophy size fish averaging 6 to 8 pounds with some tipping the scale at over 10 pounds. If trophy walleye fishing interests you I still have a couple week nights available. These trips are 6 pm to midnight.

After walleye the focus changes to trout and bass. I will be fishing all over the Tug Hill region for rainbow, brown, and brook trout.  These trips are either wading or from my Smith Fly raft. This raft allows me float streams that no one else is floating. It gives my guests the chance to cast to fish that have seen very few if any other anglers.  I will be floating the raft for smallmouth and largemouth bass as well. Smallmouth on the Salmon River and Tug Hill Region streams. Largemouth on back country ponds.

I will also be offering Oneida Lake walleye charters all summer long. Either with myself or my good friend Mike Tankersly of Full Tank Charters.  Last summer when everyone was saying the walleye bite had slowed and was tough Mike was still getting limits. He has spent more time on Oneida Lake than anyone I know.

If any of these trips interest you give me a call @ 315-529-3886 to set up a trip you won’t forget.

Shelby’s first great lakes steelhead fishing on the Salmon River

Pavati drift boat

Bobby with his first Salmon River steelhead

This one crushed a Maglip 2.5

Louie’s first ever steelhead fishing the Salmon River

Louie senior with his first Salmon River steelhead

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Salmon River Fishing Report 11/10/18

Posted in Reports, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 10, 2018| 1 Comment »

Leaves, leaves, leaves, and more leaves. Everyone we talked to today had something to say about the leaves. The leaf hatch is in full swing for sure. With high winds and some snow hopefully it won’t be long before they are all off the trees and washed down stream.

Even with all the leaves we had a great day. It wasn’t tons of bites at each stop. It was actually only 8 fish hooked all day. However, out of those 8 we landed 3 and they were all very good fish. One was actually the personal best for the Pavati and possibly for any guided trip I have done. We didn’t get a weight on him just a quick picture and he was released to fight another day.

Today it was strictly a bead bite for us while we were float fishing. We also tried egg sacks but they wanted nothing to do with them. Our hot bead was a Great Lake Steelhead Company bead that I had doctored up a bit. We also took one fish on a chrome hotshot while back trolling one hole. That same hot shot took a good rip after that but didn’t hook up. Due to high winds we didn’t do much plug fishing today.

It is not lights out fishing but it there are plenty of fish around and most of the fish we saw were big. I have some open dates in December if anyone wants to get in on the action. I will also be offering $50 off for the Months of January and February.

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