This past weekend was my 4th annual Trip to Western NY in search of jumbo bass on Lake Erie and Lake Chautauqua. I really look forward to this trip and as usual the lakes and the fish did not disappoint.
Here are some pics from our adventure...
The Dunkirk Harbour on Lake Erie is always our first stop, depending on weather we either fish fish the harbour and more secluded spots, but if weather (meaning wind) permits we venture out in the big lake in search of big fish.
(Kenny's Smallie)
Unfortunately this year, a sick co-angler and a drained battery meant we were spending most of our time in the Harbour.. with that said the fish were plentiful and who can complain about catching dozens of smallies ready to fight.
Erie is loaded with beautiful fish, the above pic is my fish official bass of the 2015 Season
Chautauqua Lake is one of my favourite fishing spots I have ever had a chance to wet a line. An abundance of large largemouth and smallmouth bass as well as Walleye (that I have yet to catch), Musky, Crappie, Perch, MudCats, and more. This Lake is a fisherman's dream
Kenny and I partnered up on day 1 at Chautauqua, and as usual we started off by flipping docks. This was the first fish of the day, and a sign of good things to come.
Although we didn't smack the numbers we had in previous years, we did manage a good number of fish, most pulled out from under docks with some sort of secondary cover near by. The carp have been cutting up the shorelines and if enough weed clung to the side of the dock, you would usually find a fish under it.
The morning bite was off, so we quickly ran through the docks, and returned in the afternoon, hoping the sun would push some fish into cover. We did manage more fish in the afternoon, but still not the bite we were looking for.
This Molix Craw was one of my hot baits on this tip. It allowed me to use a large wide profile while still sliding easily through cover (Texas rigged). Typically I would have fished a jig in this situation, but the Molix craw was a nice alternative.
Check out the secondary cover all around this dock.. stop looking at the fish... this is what we looked for all afternoon in order to find dock fish.
Smallies were not in abundance on Chautauqua but this little guy fell victim to a spinnerbait while fishing a secluded weeded around by rock piles. I wish I could have found his bigger brother.
Whats a trip without a little food porn. The last two seasons I have been the chef for this outing and as always I made sure the BBQ got in on the action.. now back to the fish.
On Day 2 at Chatauqua I was parked up with Brian, he and I have a blast on the water and were able to find some pretty solid fish. We started on the North/East end of the lake, but high winds made the conditions tough. By moving the west end the water was more manageable and the fishing picked up. This is Brian with a nice 4lber.
Brain really had the hot stick in the afternoon, added more and more weight to our imaginary tournament bag. It was nice to see those fish under 2lbs quickly get erased from our rappel scale.
I too contributed to our bag with this 4.29lb largemouth pull our from a windblown dock. Later on this day I was surprised by a Musky pulled out from nearly the exact same cover.
After watching the Chautauqua Lake Major League Fishing Episode we decided to treat the day like a tournament, above is what Brian and my final bag would have looked like at the end of the day. A very respectable 18.12lbs for 5 fish. Just need that one big kicker
Day 3 poured rain and the temps dropped by 20 degrees, so needless to say the fishing was tough and the camera stayed tucked away. We did manage some fish, the best being Ricks 4+ lb smallmouth, and the oddest catch goes to the mud cat I caught while spinnerbait fishing some timber
This is the fun pic from the trip, after a wet day one of the boys not naming any names (Kenny) took the time to dry out his tackle on the back of the toilet using the shower fan.. only time will tell if it actually worked
Weapons of Choice:
Dobyns DX746 - Daiwa Tatula - Elite Tungsten - Molix Craw
Dobyns DX744 - Daiwa Zillion - War Eagle Spinnerbait
Dobyns 734C - Daiwa Tatula Type R - Gann's Jigs
Dobyns 735C - Daiwa Lexa - Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper
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