chautauqua

[flybuster]

have any of you guys made the run? if so how did you do where did you go? I have been down 4 times out of mayville handfull of crappie some decent mostley smallish 8 or so. looking for some eyes any help would be great... thanx and good luck in advance

[windburn]

Buster,we've made the 2 hour run down 3 times this season. Out of Maple Springs fished from 37' to 47'. Always brought home a bunch of perch. Limited once. Last saturday struggled while my buddy 10' away limited and my brother near limited. 8-10's and not too many 10's. Emeralds, spikes, mousies, Tip-downs working most of the time. A worthwhile drive. Haven't fished 'eyes or crappies, always focus on perch. Check out the iceshanty site.

[BlueEye]

Fly -

My friends over at Happy Hooker Bait Shop post ice fishing reports about Chautauqua. You should check out their reports as well. Hope this helps!

Chad

[flybuster]

thanks guys. the shanty guys treat that lake like a small trib sometimes. i am going to try pendergast wed morning, get there about four try to get some cruzing eyes or crappie then go deep for the day. i will post when i get back

[flybuster]

fished 6 am till 2pm 1 eye 21" lost 1 at the hole had one "big fish" on a tip up never seen it. saw a muskey on the cam ended up with a dozen 10-12 " perch threw a whole bunch of dinks back, will post some pics when i download them.......going back in the AM

[BlueEye]

Nice fly! Can't wait to see the pics....

[windburn]

Buster, how much snow on the ice? Good job on the 'eye. Maybe I'll have to target them a bit more and let the tip downs get the perch. Probably going friday.

[Dynamic35]

Hi Guys i am new to perch fishing, I Have always fished for pike with tip ups,But I am going to Buy some tip Downs and a Jigging Rod For Perch,Can you tell me how to fish with tip downs? What size and How Much Line would you Reccomend? is it Best to Keep the Tip Downs real Close to you unlike Tip downs for pike where you can Spread them out? What do you use for Hooks on tip downs,I Heard some guys put a Jig and Minnow on them?Is that a Good Choice?How Deep Usually should you fish?Any Help would be Appreciated!

Thanks.

[jimski2]

Chautauqua Lake is hot for small perch now. Minnows on a dead stick, marmooskas with 3 mousies, pimples with a perch eye are good bets. 10 inches or better ice but the snow is sinking the ice causing slush under the snow. High property taxes cause many homeowners to be unfriendly to non taxpayers so park at the public state parks like Long Point, Midway, Prendergast Hatchery Ramp or Mayville. Fish are within a couple hundred yards off shore. Snowmobiles work and ATV's are struggling now in the snow and slush. Keep the perch over 9 inches, scale them as they have soft scales and you will have nice filets for dinner. Take your kids, they will not be bored.

The TV shows schools of perch at times of up to a dozen together. At dark the shrimp are dancing on the screen and the perch eyes glow from LED lamp on the camera. The walleyes are available at dawn and dusk with a #7 jigging rapala and half a minnow on the treble. You can not take too many perch as the rest will get bigger with the culling going on. More information is available on

http://WWW.iceshanty.com

Look under New York fishing reports

[bosco]

Dynamics35, I've private messaged you a link to the tipdowns that I use. I bought 2 last year to try them and after one day out I bought 3 more to make a complete set. EXCELLENT for perch, crappie, and walleye. The set up I use on these particular tipdowns is 4 lb. Berkley FireLine Micro Ice Crystal (a 50 yard spool fits on the reel just fine but may be overkill) with a 6lb fluorocarbon leader, #8 red trebles and a very small split shot. Admittedly, I don't have experience with other tip-downs but I do love these things. They're wicked sensitive and you can really see the fish work with them. And they pack up and travel/store real neat and tight.

[flybuster]

dynamic , mayville has more perch than you imagine, alot of small ones but some decent.fairly close to shore 8-10 FOW.if you go you will cath some,and some nice gills.

Most of the big perch i get are on the tipups i dont have or own "downs" .For the eyes I use a single hook and a splitshot about a foot up on a 2 foot 8 lb leader. With a big fat emerald shiner 3.5/ 4 inches. This is my "eye" rig but the big perch eat them up.

I didnt make it this morning but when i left yesterday there was a good ten inches of snow, im sure they got a couple more. i may take my kids on friday also, PM me if your going. If the wind is decent we will be going to pendergast early for the eyes. if the perch are slow i will take them to mayville for a couple hours after that

[crazy ivan]

My G/F and I did good there last weekend. Everything out of Mayville was small. Pendergast was by far better for larger fish. We mixed it up a bit but smaller set ups seemed to catch more. Did real well with small jigs and the smallest minnows in the bucket...good luck to all.

[jimski2]

Yesterday the lake was a zoo, everybody was there. Including the DEC Police. Licenses and bait receipts please and one guy walked off in cuffs. Tons of perch, 8 and a half to 10 inches, were taken. Parking lots were jammed. Tops has perch for sale, $16 a pound. Perch are gold now, not yellow.

[jimski2]

Sunday with four of us, bluebird sky, northeast wind, we still ended up with 200 keepers. Fish were suspended @ 32 feet down, 8 feet thick schools. Pimple with eyes, mousies were best. Minnows worked when we went into 32 foot bottom on tipdowns with a split shot and gold hook.

[crazy ivan]

jimski2- nice catch. How far off the bottom can you see those perch sitting at times? I've caught a number of fish a few feet off the bottom but do they float up higher?

[jimski2]

The perch are suspended about 32 foot down. Oxygen depleted water below them. 32 foot is good, do not set up near anybody as then you all share the same fish. It is best to get away from everybody. The gangs af anglers near the convenient access points have cleaned out all the bigger perch so take a hike or ride away where there are no holes. You will know right away if your spot is good. A flasher will show fish 8 foot deep in the water column if you are on a good spot. If the fish are suspended raise your lures to tease them. There are miles of unfished water this year. I would suggest between the Bell Tower and Prendergast Hatchery for larger fish.

[crazy ivan]

Great, thanks for all the info. Good luck

[flybuster]

I was at mayville with the kids saturday as said before small fish mass crowds dec sheriffs and a couple hundred snowmobiles Hit pendergast 2am sunday looking for more eyes and calicos couldent find them but to my suprise as soon a daylight broke i found myself in the middle of my best perch bite all season took 50 with a 9.5-10 average. I was in 6 FOW on a big green weed bed. I could sight fish through the hole "THAT WAS COOL" off the launch turn right head towards the creek. 200 yards. If i can find the cord for my camera i will post some pics"from the last trip also"

[crazy ivan]

awesome

[jimski2]

Snow and slush problems are hampering travel, especially if you are pulling a hut.

[crazy ivan]

Thanks for the info Jimski, I was wondering how things were there. I went out by home today. I made it half way out then turned around and went home. I would say the ice travel is nothing short of miserable by foot.

[jimski2]

My so went out with his 4 wheeler yesterday, had to use a shovel to get through drifts that were hip high. Lots of fish, too much snow. Best wait for the snow to melt this week.

[jimski2]

Four of us picked up a 5 gallon bucket of perch yesterday. Bluebird sky and North breeze shut down a lot of guys, but the ultralite rods and Vexilars paid off for the Hard Core Perch Fanatics. Small pimples with mousies and a minnow and split shot on the bottom would tease the perch off the bottom into striking when the perch showed up. You really need the flasher to show when the schools of perch came by. Some schools were 15 feet solid. 2# test helped with the minnows. That is where the ultralite tip poles are needed. We released half the fish caught trying for size. This is good for next year as there are several good class years available here. The average size of the keepers this year was 9 and 1/2 inches, up an inch from last year. Let us hope next year they will be 10 and 1/2 inchers.

Weather guys are predicting warm rain and a thaw this week, it could be over shortly. Next Saturday is the Cuba Lake Tourney, we have all the fish we need now, but fishing the Cuba Lake thing is good. Last year we lost in three categories by an 1/8 inch in length for Northern Pike, Walleye and Perch.

[crazy ivan]

Wow good weekend. As for next year it would seem that there will be plenty of decent size fish, it's definetely good to look forward to. Good luck if you make it to Cuba. I'm assuming it's an ice tourney...hope the ice holds up for you all.