Anyone on this board like to fish?

[Jolly Blue Giant]

I am just getting back to fishing in a big way. I live alongside the beautiful Tioughnioga river and live just a few miles from a big reservoir teaming with walleye, bass, and tiger muskies. Also, I like fishing Oneida Lake which is a premier walleye lake in the country because it has a sand bottom and shallow (about 20' on average which also makes it treacherous when wind picks up) for drifting with Jixie spinners or jiggin, as well as it has the largest Walleye hatchery in the world on its shoreline that dumps 150 million Walleye fry in the lake each year. The hatchery also stocks lakes from here to Minnesota with Walleye. I'm close to the Finger Lakes (17 miles from Cayuga Lake, 14 miles from Skaneateles Lake), but rarely fish them, although I used to go at night to Owasco Lake for smelting, but haven't done that in 40 years. For fly-fishing for trout, it's about a 40-mile jaunt to the West Branch of the Delaware, and if I want to travel for another hour, I can fish the Beaverkill or Willowemoc near Rosco, NY (the best trout fishing in the world). I used to fish for Salmon on Lake Ontario when my father-in-law had a big boat up there, but he no longer does, so my buddy and I go up to Pulaski or Oswego with our noodle rods and fish the Salmon River or Oswego River

Anyway, there are two things in my arsenal that are changing:

First, I've picked up two bait casting reels along with a light and a medium rod (thinking bass with these). I've never cast a bait casting reel, so this is new to me

Secondly, I've re-lined most of my spinning rods (I have 9 set-ups) with braided line instead of Monofilament (stronger, no twisting or line memory, etc.). I have discovered that braided line is really a bitch to work with when tying off and especially getting knots to keep from slipping. Some articles insist you put a drop of superglue on the knot... Now, instead of my old faithful clinch knot, I'm learning how to tie the vaulted Palomar knot

I'm a catch and release guy except for Walleye and Perch, which are downright delicious. And in the rare occasion that I actually reel in a Salmon...I eat it!

So...any advice on bait casting reels and dealing with braided line would be much appreciated. I hope to show some nice catches on here before winter sets in

[Sem]

Hi Ric. Since I moved out west in 2013 I really haven't fished, other than taking the grandkids to a nearby lake to introduce them to the sport. In that case my role is mainly taking off the 5 or 6" smallmouths off their line  . Back in NY I used to fish some of our local waters such as the Susquehanna River, usually at Goudy Station or west of there in Campville. I used to take my son to the Tioughnioga River at the bridge in Whitney Point. Spring time I'd fish for trout in the Owego Creek, Catherine Creek, Genegantslet Creek, and maybe a couple others I'm forgetting.

My favorite fishing though was on the St Lawrence River. My family owned a cottage for years right on Wellesley Island, and we had an 18ft tri-hull docked there. I'd drive up most Fridays after work and spend weekends during the summers, but also vacation there a week or two at a time. I caught dozens, probably hundreds, of Northern Pike, smallmouth, and largemouth over the years. Once caught a dogfish, (bowfin), and had to look it up since I'd never seen one before. Never landed a Musky up there though.

Also fished several lakes up in Canada. Caught my biggest largemouth ever up there on Lake Charleston when I was 12 - a 6 pounder. But my most memorable Canadian lake fishing trip was on Lac Kipawa in Quebec. A friend and I took our sons, each around 12, and stayed at a fishing camp only accessible by boat. The four of us each caught several nice walleyes every day which we had for dinners. Other than that I am/was a catch and release only.

Sorry I'm not much help on rod/reel. For years I was a Mitchell 300 guy, owned several of them. But now all I have a Shimano reel and an Ugly Stick rod. Both sit unused for the past few years.

Question - back in NY, when using live bait, I'd always buy and have great luck with stonies and dobson, but I can't imagine anybody sells those anymore. Do you know any place that has them? Have you ever used them?

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Morning Steve - I never gave it much thought, but it doesn't seem to me that there's much fishing in California, unless you charter a boat to fish in the Pacific. That area you used to fish in Whitney Point is usually pretty good because it's where the Otselic River empties into the Tioughnioga...hence the name "Point" added to Eli Whitney's settlement. Likewise, when the Tioughnioga empties into the Chenango River in Chenango Forks, and then of course where the Chenango joins the Susquehanna River in Binghamton, and no surprise, before Bingham purchased thousands of acres in land speculation and renamed the area Binghamton, the place was called Chenango Point...or the old native name, Otsiningo Point. Usually good fishing wherever two rivers converge

Funny you mentioned catching a bowfin in the Thousand Islands and had to look it up because I did the exact same thing when I caught one up there...LOL. I had never seen a fish like it and I had no idea what I caught. Dittos for me, I never caught a Muskie on the St. Lawrence, but that was always one of me dream gets. We have tiger muskies around here, but they're not the same thing. My friends have caught quite a few tigers, but I never caught one

Also funny you mention that you caught your biggest largemouth in Canada as that's the same story for me. My Dad and I took a small boat out on a lake where we used to camp each year. I put a frog in a harness and it took about a minute before the bass struck. I thought I had a snag because it just held still and I couldn't reel. Then all of a sudden it took off and I realized I had the real thing. It was an interesting day because an otter swam up to the boat and stuck his head in to look at us. Kinda scared us, but then it dropped back off and swam away. Only time in my life I've ever seen an otter in the wild

As a kid growing up, I too had a Mitchell 300. I spent a summer mowing lawns and working for neighbors and got enough money to buy a Mitchel 410 (the 300 with a 5.0:1 faster gear ratio). I still have it somewhere, but reels are so much better today that I don't use Garcia anymore. I favor Pflueger now and have 4 of them, all different sizes. I have a couple Shimanos, and I recently bought a Cadence Vigor-3000 spinning reel which seems nice so far, etc. And I pretty much use Ugly Stick for all my rods except fly fishing, in  which I stick to Orvis

I'm giving up on braided line after trying it out yesterday. I hit the river while it was overcast and a light mist that turned into a sprinkle then back to a mist...perfect for fishing. I had nothing but trouble with the braided line hanging up on the guides and catching on things. Going back to monofilament even though I get line twist and line memory. At least I know what I'm doing and I can tie knots that I know work

[Sem]

Actually near where I am there are a few lakes that are stocked with trout and also have bass in them, but you really need a boat to find them. A guy I used to work with has a boat with a depth/fish finder and goes searching for crappies in those lakes. When he finds a school of them he'll catch a few dozen in an hour. But fishing for crappies is not really my thing, plus without a boat I have little desire to fish locally. However, the streams around the Sierras (~7 hrs east of me) are loaded with trout, and fly fishing, something I've never done before, is something I plan to look into. I'm also waiting for my grandson in Minnesota to come out here for a visit, he's 11 and obsessed with fishing, (he just sent me a picture of a 14" smallmouth he caught yesterday). He wants to go out on a charter for halibut. Now that's one fish I certainly wouldn't release. 

[Jolly Blue Giant]

If your grandson is from Minnesota, it's ubiquitous to fish...LOL. First time I've gotten use the term "ubiquitous", which I only know from watching The Big Bang Theory, after discovering that Sheldon Cooper knows football better than most coaches. When asked how he knew so much about football, he said, "I'm from Texas, it's ubiquitous to know football"...lol

I've pondered getting a boat, but the problem is what to do with it during the winter.  I can pick up a 14 ft rowboat with a 10 hp engine on a trailer for under a thousand dollars all day long around here - especially in autumn just before the snow falls. If I had one, I could fish the Whitney Point Reservoir, as they don't allow boats that have over 10HP...except when they have their annual boat races. It's a good lake to fish, and it's really close (under 10-minute drive) to where I live. On the other hand, my favorite lake in the world to fish is Oneida, but being such a wide lake (compared to the finger lakes) and being very shallow (avg 20 ft deep), it's like an inch of water in a bathtub and when the wind comes up, it can become treacherous in a matter of minutes. Lot of people have drowned there because of it. You need a boat with a deep hull and a much bigger motor than 10 HP. What is so great about the lake is that it has a sand bottom (no snags) so you can drift (dragging bait -usually with a jixie spinner - along the bottom) and jig, and my favorite kind of fishing is jigging, and my favorite fish is a walleye and there's no better place to catch walleyes. I went with some friends years ago and we all put five dollars on the floor and all cast at the same time in 6 different directions. The first to bring in a fish got the pot. All six of us had a walleye on at the same time on our first cast, so we were cranking it in as fast as possible to get the money. We caught our limit in a couple of hours and only kept the bigger ones. We had a fish fry that evening that was incredible. Only time I've ever eaten a fish better than that, was when my friend pulled in a huge flounder when we were camping on Assateague Island. We filleted it, slapped some butter on it, wrapped in aluminum foil and cooked it over our campfire. Better than any fish (white flake fish anyway) that I've ever gotten in a fine restaurant or at Wegmans. Unbelievable

Funny story, he also caught a skate (just casting offshore) that was so disgusting looking, he (nor any of us) wanted to take the hook out of its mouth so he just cut the line and let it go. I'm told that a lot of scallops at restaurants are actually skates that have round punches through their wings. Don't know if that's true or not 

[Philosophers]

I am just getting back to fishing in a big way. I live alongside the beautiful Tioughnioga river and live just a few miles from a big reservoir teaming with walleye, bass, and tiger muskies. Also, I like fishing Oneida Lake which is a premier walleye lake in the country because it has a sand bottom and shallow (about 20' on average which also makes it treacherous when wind picks up) for drifting with Jixie spinners or jiggin, as well as it has the largest Walleye hatchery in the world on its shoreline that dumps 150 million Walleye fry in the lake each year. The hatchery also stocks lakes from here to Minnesota with Walleye. I'm close to the Finger Lakes (17 miles from Cayuga Lake, 14 miles from Skaneateles Lake), but rarely fish them, although I used to go at night to Owasco Lake for smelting, but haven't done that in 40 years. For fly-fishing for trout, it's about a 40-mile jaunt to the West Branch of the Delaware, and if I want to travel for another hour, I can fish the Beaverkill or Willowemoc near Rosco, NY (the best trout fishing in the world). I used to fish for Salmon on Lake Ontario when my father-in-law had a big boat up there, but he no longer does, so my buddy and I go up to Pulaski or Oswego with our noodle rods and fish the Salmon River or Oswego River

Anyway, there are two things in my arsenal that are changing:

First, I've picked up two bait casting reels along with a light and a medium rod (thinking bass with these). I've never cast a bait casting reel, so this is new to me

Secondly, I've re-lined most of my spinning rods (I have 9 set-ups) with braided line instead of Monofilament (stronger, no twisting or line memory, etc.). I have discovered that braided line is really a bitch to work with when tying off and especially getting knots to keep from slipping. Some articles insist you put a drop of superglue on the knot... Now, instead of my old faithful clinch knot, I'm learning how to tie the vaulted Palomar knot

I'm a catch and release guy except for Walleye and Perch, which are downright delicious. And in the rare occasion that I actually reel in a Salmon...I eat it!

So...any advice on bait casting reels and dealing with braided line would be much appreciated. I hope to show some nice catches on here before winter sets in

I just returned from a tarpon fishing trip in the Florida Keys.  My friend and I each one about 40 pounds.  Bigger ones leave by August to head north.  Super fun.  3x fishing with same captain out of Islamorada.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

I just returned from a tarpon fishing trip in the Florida Keys.  My friend and I each one about 40 pounds.  Bigger ones leave by August to head north.  Super fun.  3x fishing with same captain out of Islamorada.

I always wanted to go fishing for Tarpon. Probably because they're know for fighting and aerial displays. Must have been fun