Did you know we live in one of the top three bass fishing states in country? Yep…it’s true; New York’s fabulous bass waters include Lake Erie, eastern Lake Ontario, any of the eleven Finger Lakes, Lake Champlain, Oneida Lake, not to mention the St. Lawrence River, and those are just the headliners. There are hundreds of other lakes and rivers in the state that hold plenty of large and smallmouth bass.
Just to hit that point home, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced a brand-new state record for smallmouth bass was set on June 15, opening day of bass season. Thomas Russell Jr., of Albion, reeled in an eight-pound, six-ounce Godzilla smallmouth bass out of Cayuga Lake in Seneca County. Russell’s bass surpassed the previous record by two ounces, a tie between fish caught on Lake Erie in 1995, and in the St. Lawrence River in 2016. This is the second state record set this year. On May 8, the state record for channel catfish was broken when Bailey Williams, of Watertown, reeled in a 35-pound, 12-ounce channel catfish from the Black River in Jefferson County.
More testimonial on how great New York’s bass waters are… this summer the Bassmaster tournament trail northern open division tournament was on Oneida Lake on July 7 through 9 and the top dogs, the Bassmaster Elite tournament, is on the St. Lawrence River out of the town of Clayton July 14 through 17.
If you ever have a chance to visit one of these tournament weigh-ins, I suggest you do. They have a festival-like atmosphere. A lot can be learned at these weigh-ins where you can observe the best bass fishermen in the world. The size of bass that they bring in each day and what baits they are using to catch those bass is tremendous intel for anyone who fishes that lake.
These days the Bass Pro’s hot lures of choice on most northern lakes are soft plastic with the Ned rig, and the drop shot rigs their favorite. A Ned rig is a jig with a flat top on the jig head and a three or four-inch cigar shaped soft plastic body. The flat top to the jig head allows it to stand straight up when resting on the bottom. The technique is simple. Cast the jig out and let it hit bottom and sit for a minute or so. If nothing bites, retrieve slowly, dragging the bottom. Watching a Ned rig in the water you would swear it has no fish attracting action at all as the cigar shape body doesn’t move, but bass love it; especially the smallmouth bass that do most of their feeding off the bottom. The drop shot rig is just a sinker on the bottom with a hook tied directly to the line about 15 inches up from the sinker. Hook a small plastic worm or something similar on the nose of the hook. Both the Ned rig and the drop shot and how to tie and fish them are best learned on YouTube where there are tons of videos on these rigs. One fact I have learned is these baits must have bottom contact.
On this year’s opening day, we were rigged with both the Ned rig and drop shot, trying to trick the smallmouth of Chaumont Bay. The beautiful bay is off the northeast corner of Lake Ontario, in Jefferson County not far from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Our plan was to launch the boat in the bay and motor into Lake Ontario where the big five- and six-pound smallmouth bass live, but the strong northeast winds that were blowing were upsetting Lake Ontario and her four-foot waves would not permit us to fish out on her without some treacherous rocking and rolling. We chose the somewhat sheltered Chaumont Bay.
A cold front had blown in with those northeast winds that huffed both Saturday and Sunday and the high, bright, clear skies and cool temperatures in the 60s made the fishing extra tough. A cold front causes bass to hug the bottom and most are unwilling to chase any fast-moving baits. Even in the bay, the winds were so strong we had to deploy a drift sock to slow our boat down enough to keep our rigs dragging bottom. We found that if we lost contact with the bottom, we stopped catching fish. The drift sock slowed us enough to keep our baits on the bottom. For those that don’t know, a drift sock is a large cone shaped canvas bag you deploy in the water off the side of the boat. As the sock fills with water, it causes drag and slows the boat down. With the help of the drift sock, we managed to boat a couple dozen nice smallies and salvage a windy two days of fishing.
We here in Western New York are living in one of the top bass fishing states this side of infinity and beyond (sorry, too much time with the grandkids) and most all the best lakes are within a day’s drive of us. So, my fellow bass anglers, nothing else needs to be said! Go grab some bass!
