Tupper Lake 8-16 to 8-19 / Oneida 8-19 / Otisco 8/19 to 8/20

[justtracytrolling]

Well we had a great time on our annual Adirondack trip for my son's birthday, he's 21 now.  Tupper lake is absolutely breathtaking.  The views are amazing and there are few boats on the water.  As for the fishing....After we check in at Blue Jay Campground I inquire to the owner "hows the walleye fishing lately?"  He replies "its the worst year in the 18 years we've been open, and its worse this month than last!"  Great! I tell him I love a challenge.  Wow did we get our butts kicked!  There were 4 other boats fishing for walleyes, all seasonal campers who have been there for years,  and from Friday night to Monday morning 2 walleyes were caught a 30 and a 27.  I lost a walleye Saturday morn and had 2 solid shots well after dark that we apparently didn't get to in time. Walleyes were very deep, always 40 to 50 down minimum and reef runners with 1-2 ounce clip weights got us there.  We tried everything I had, but needed more purple or uv.  The water is very dark and the water is high in iron.  Had to go with narrow cone on my graph and took a while to get it adjusted properly.  When we snagged bottom we brought up chunks of iron crusted mud when we didn't break off.  We caught 1 very average pike 32" that fought harder than any tiger from otisco.  Hooked the fish on outside starboard rod and fought the fish under the core chute rod and he went around my outside port rod.  Needless to say we had a little mess...he crossed 8 lines, but I kept him out of 7.  The highlight of the trip was a rare landlocked salmon that went 6+ lbs, one guy has been up there 17 years and it was the first he'd seen though they are stocked.  I gave up on the lake trout as they were glued to the bottom and I lost a bunch of tackle.  I tried spoons, sticks, flasher fly, sd fly, cowbells, and dodgers off riggers, core, dipseys and only managed the 1 salmon and that was on the boards purple crystal reef runner.  That lure took 4 shots, natural perch tdd11 took 3 smb and tdd9 in foil perch took the pike.  Lost 2 other eriedescent reef runners to big pike I would guess...wicked strikes and cut clean.  We decided to shut off all phones for the trip so I still have to load the pics from the camera, but Ill add some pics then.  We hiked Ampersand mountain, and 6 miles made it tough to stay awake that night trolling!  Monday we left to take the boat back to otisco, and decided to stop at Oneida for a real quick troll along shackleton shoals.  Matt wanted to catch a big perch and I wanted to see if I knew what a walleye looked like.  Of course I was running my mouth how easy Oneida was, but Oneida didn't disappoint.  I dropped in just before the bouy line at 119 4pm  and before I could turn west we had an 18" walleye off the rigger.  Floating weeds made boards ineffective and I didn't have time to look for clear water.  The waves immediately whipped up and we stuck it out 30 min till matt got his perch on the other rigger, and had the boat going down the road by 6.  Launched the boat at Otisco and had lines down by 8.  Caught a 24 and a 26 first pass and that was it.  Fish started moving up in the column and then in to shore and we couldn't  stay on em.  We tried casting sticks and matt missed 1 fish.  Picked up 1 more in the morn and had 2 drops.  There's no place like home...Tupper won round 1, but ill be back next year as I cant give up empty handed.  The family that owns and operates the Blue Jay Campground were fantastic and keyed me in on color and was a pleasure to talk fishing with, and even helped me out with some heat shrink tubing to repair my transducer cable. Ill be back out tomorrow night or Saturday morn and hopefully hit Otisco hard.

justin

 

[Sk8man]

Cool report Justin! Good luck now that you're back on your "home territory" Les

[Fish Hunter]

We've fished in the Upper Saranac, and I know what your saying about the lakers being non-coperative.

Tossed everything at them, but could get 'em to move, being pasted to the bottom.

What we have caught up there, were some BIG smb.

Matter if fact caught one once that was 26"!!

I do not know what the state record was/is but that fish taped just at 26".

Knowing that it was old, we tried to revieve it after being in the live well just long enough to show it off, but after a big effort, it did die.

Sounds like you guys had a large time up there!

The Tupper Lake area is nice!

[mhtrapper]

A friend of mine knows a guy from tupper that does very well on the walleyes through the ice I will have to ask him if he fishes it much in the summer. I think he grew up in that area ,that whole area is amazing. It is a outdoorsman dream place, would love to live up that way.

[Kevin J Legg]

Great report. I'm doing my gramps thing for a few more days then back home and hit the salmon and walleyes.

[fbg14619]

Glad you are back. Missed the reports. It was so quiet around here, you could hear the crickets chirpin

[BSmaster]

We just got back from Old Forge this week.  No fishing.  Wife said no. but she liked the scenery so much I talked her into doing a full week of Adirondack exploring next summer (with boat in tow).  I told her we could stay a day or two and then drive to the next spot. We even talked about making our summer home up there when (if) we retire.  I do like the lifestyle up there.  If I don't move to Maine it will probably be the ADKs. 

 

Justin, as usual, excellent report.

 

Joe

[justtracytrolling]

Joe,

You have the right idea. I built a second home near stillwater for my dad, but with gas prices where they are its cheaper and easier to camp and keep the boat on the water than haul even from somewhere central. I did the adirondacks for years with a canoe making several trips per season, but you really can soak it in on a boat where you dont have to work to cover water, and you can bring so much more gear. I like the primitive sites best but is not always easy to find ones suitable to drag your boat up...we found 1 at tupper after we had been pay camping with a slip a full day and didnt want to relocate for 32 dollar a night savings...nice to have showers and a camp store too.

Justin

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