Jomat

I would recommend Ted Kessler. Late October is probably kings in devils hole….or bass.

In my experience, if you’re looking for fillets the most consistent is Onieda. BRB and Chaumont are both really inconsistent IMO….fish are there/then gone. Most of the fish I catch out of both bays are big spawners id rather not eat. Very rewarding when you do find them and make them bite tho. Of the two BRB is the more consistent for the time period you listed….just my opinion.

Ted Kessler is a great fisherman and a great teacher. He’ll put you on the best fishing whether upper river, lower river, or buffalo harbor area.

Some decent weights this year. Might have to get back in it next year….kinda miss it.

Not trying to argue with you but here’s some bass tourney results….. https://www.wired2fish.com/news/avena-wins-bass-pro-tour-on-cayuga-lake These guys are filling bags with 5lb plus average fish. Those are St Lawrence and Lake Erie numbers which are World Class smallmouth fisheries. If you think that gobies are bad for bass fishing I really don’t know what to tell you. I can’t speak to sunfish but gobies have turned our bass and walleye fisheries in NY into destinations.

I just think as fisherman it’s easy to complain about how “it’s not like it used to be”…the reality is though it’s kinda our job to adapt to keep putting fish on the bank. The environment isn’t going to quit changing regardless if you think global warming is a hoax. And the fishing in NY is absolutely incredible right now….and I think on a whole getting better.

I think the state record bass was just caught in Cayuga again. There are lots of bass in Cayuga. I know guys that travel some distance to crush large panfish up on the north end in the weeds. If you’re fishing off a rock on the shore in Ithaca , then I could absolutely see why u catch less fish than 20 years ago. Water is clearer and the fish are deeper. Cayuga is def not devoid of life, its fishing better than I can ever remember.

It was like 53 out there yesterday. Few degrees higher than in the lake.

fwiw I have a garmin gt54 transducer on the transom of my boat and after playing around with the adjustment angle I was able to mark fish/bottom at 20+mph with the scroll speed turned up. (They just look like yellow dots). Think I just had to move it one click on the bracket….just can’t remember if it was up or down.

Actually I came away from the experiment thinking scent matters even less. The fact that the yellow perch and white bass didn’t eat them to me says those bycatch species are keying on the worm. The fact that the walleyes didn’t seem to know the difference to me says they’re keying on the blade. This is confirmed I think by the fact that only a couple different blades were working….several blades wouldn’t get touched in what I would consider a “wide open” bite. Of course these triggering factors can and do change….this pattern was consistent over a week.

Got these some solid runtime last week so wanted to give a review for u guys that run blades/harnesses. They def keep bycatch down. IMO this is the biggest drawback of using real crawlers. Sheep’s, White bass and yellow perch did not eat them….walleyes did. In addition way more durable, caught several fish on the same one. When ur done throw them back in the gulp nasty snot water and fish them again the next day. Colors are awesome…highly recommend the “smelt”. Much easier to rig on the boat in waves than a regular crawler and much more consistent presentation. That flat/thin tail has a great action in the water. In a head to head comparison the fish prolly still seemed to prefer real by a slight edge but I caught plenty of fish on them. I think they’ll really shine for guys that burn willow harnesses behind divers in the summer. Will give the 4”ers a spin on Onieda the week of the 4th on a mix of small harnesses and slow death….will let u know how those fish like them.