Otisco 10/11/13

[CaptainEyes]

Fished last night went all the way down to the restaurant and made my way back and didnt catch a thing.  I think I saw Justin touring along the causeway I was gonna stop and chat but I was realy prepared for how cold it was and wanted to get to shore. I noticed the lights on the causeway were not working does, anyone know if this is part of the government shutdown....

[justtracytrolling]

Brent,

We were working some different areas last night, and really struggled.  Had 1 tiger or walleye take my f18 bend the rod and cut me off, casted 1 off like an idiot, lost a fish, missed 3, and caught 1 little 21".  The only highlight was a bonus 7 lb largemouth that we released.  I saw you head out to the restaurant for a bit...anything working at all.  We had very little chasing splashing etc that I normally see on a good night.  Ill let tim tell you himself about his night, but let just say last night was not good.  We talked after fishing and both felt it was too calm and bright for the eyes to come in and feed...shoulda trolled, but casting is what im working on right  now.

justin

[rnsurfnturf]

Got out with the toon bout 7 worked the east shore with my dad and a buddy.....I did land a 20" eye on a perfect 10 rogue right by the boat. Thought I would put it on the stringer instead of putting it in the "red cooler of death" Mistake! Fish gone with the clip.! We did make a couplepasses on the pond side with my dad getting a hit and miss. Gave up about 1030. Nice night ...just not for fishing

Tim

[CaptainEyes]

Justin, I didn't even catch a SMB. I launch from the pond side maybe I should try that sometime I just have a hard time fishing it for eyes but they do catch some. It would be nice if the water got a little cooler as well. I'm prob taking the night off.

[justtracytrolling]

62 last night....figured it would've dropped....Im fishing hard Monday then pulling the boat...gotta start the rebuild...and im shifting to hunting...full moon is coming and its time for me to relax in a tree....spend most of my time at camp from then on...Ill still come up to fish with tim a time or two probably.  My theory is that if its bright and dead flat the eyes that Im hunting will be in deeper water.  I shoulda trolled last night, but I had to quit by 11 and once I have lines down I have a hard time quitting.  Casting I get tired eventually....trolling I can do for days.  Besides my freezer has the 50 lbs of walleye ill need to make it to may.  Id like a bit more for my parents, but I need a few deer more!!  The pond side is an untapped resource for sure.  Ill get an occasional fishing fix in the suquehanna as its almost time, but we don't eat walleyes from the river so its hard to get to excited about that.  I know they are probably fine, but Tracy has put her foot down on that issue.  Tim will have to provide the reports for us.

justin

Justin

[CaptainEyes]

I would like to see the water temp in the low to mid 50's.  I do fish the pond side alot but more for crappie and silver bass I did catch my persoanl biggest Nor Lunge on the pond side.  I wonder if the eyes go to the other end of the pond or just stay around the causeway... I am still at least a week a way from starting to bow hunt espcially with the full moon this week so I will periodically get out on the lake to see if I can get lucky..  I dont know much about the susquehanna eyes are they full of toxins? I know Steve Piatt from the Outdoor News fishes for them there and keeps em...

[justtracytrolling]

Tracy has lived and worked along the river for over 20 years and seen and smelled to much too change her mind. Our sewage treatment plant has been damaged numerous times in floods and during these floods the river is full of raw sewage, and I personally have called sewage in to the DEC many times when fishing goudy which is below the plant. 2 years ago it was so bad that eventually the dec said to me after a dozen call the the plant was running on a special allowance and they were doing their best and they couldn't do anything. Fish swimming in sewage yummy! As a contractor I have been in many flood houses and if you cut yourself anywhere its infected...the bacteria in a flood is unreal...I had 2 employees hospitalized from it...doesn't matter what any expert says she will not eat those fish.

justin

[CaptainEyes]

I would say that's a pretty good reason not to eat them.

[BSmaster]

I would say that's a pretty good reason not to eat them.

I agree.

 

That's why I don't eat tilapia.

 

I remember that smell in Corning when I was a kid  .  Farmers, Industry, Municipilaties - they were all guilty.  Rivers never cleared up - even in the summer.  Now, they can run as clear as the finger lakes.  I know very little about the East side.  I wanted to come down to Vestal and try some fishing.  It sounds like I may be disappointed.

Joe

[Xxx]

Now that I have the perfect setup as far as $hit fish, I was told by a person ( don't want to reveal his identity) told me that is the mid 90's there was a flood on the Black River and a farmer further up stream had pasture cows and a lot of them and piled tons of cow manure to be spred on the fields but the storm came before he had times to do anything about and so the rains came and so did the flooding it was bad I remember it in TV. like the flood here in PA. on the Susquehanna River. anyway all this manure came down the Black River and out in the bay killing all sorts of species of fish, but most important is the walleye were wiped out, not only in numbers but the manure settled on the floor of the bay and the walleye will not lay their eggs in $hit and don't blame them, so over a 10 to 15 year period it's slowly coming back and I can see it through the river eyes I catch 1 usually measure them weight them look'em  over like I know what I'm look for, and put them back. Another 10 years with no catastrophic happenings we should be back to close to were we want to be .It will never be like it was, so the old saying goes $hit and shoved in it.

[EYE SPY]

The spill happened in '05, a holding tank wall collapsed, spilling liquid manure into the river. Definitely killed a bunch of fish, but it was mostly far upstream of Dexter. Supposedly it had little to no impact on the bay as it was largely dilluted by the time it reached the lake. Still not good for the fish or the environment, but I never noticed the difference. I fished there before and after the spill and that place is still a fish factory in the spring, as far as walleyes go

Sent from my C771 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[walleyemagic]

I have to agree with eye spy. See no shortage of eyes just need to adapt to changes and locations of the eyes.

Sent from my XT907 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[Xxx]

I understand what you guys are saying you have to change tactics to catch walleyes, but in the mid 80's it was much better fishing, there where 5 guys at my house just talking about how it used to be, when the limit was 3 and it was nothing to catch your limit drifting around the buoys with 4-6# average. Here is what the officials didn't want the Water Town folks to know. In August 10 2005 they claimed a holding lagoon holding 3 million gallons of liquid manure blew out. The truth is the amount of manure was 8 million gallons. Two days later the toxic sludge traveled 20 miles from it's starting point at Lowville and made it's way into Lake Ontario and into the Black River Bay. Experts are estimating millions of trout, bass, pickerel, pike, and walleye, were killed before it was all over. It was roughly 1/4 the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. once the manure got into the water it sapped the water of oxygen and poisoned the fish with ammonia, hours later fish began to bloat and float to the surface. It was the biggest fish kill ever seen by Frank Flauk, regional fish manager. Pike 20# and 10-20 years old were floating and it will be years before the river completely recovers. Conservationist were testing for ecoli levels in the Black River Basin and finding levels extremely high. The Canadian officials were keeping track of the plumes path and hoping it would dilute by the time it reached Kingston and other Ontario communities. I'm not trying to be a smart a$$ but I fished lake Ontario for years, and seen many changes, and to change is hard especially when you been so successful before and now not, I would like to learn from you guys EyeSpy, Walleyemagic, Fleet Tracker, I think we all are in the BRCG and it would be nice to get together and go fishing.   PAP

[justtracytrolling]

We have a place 15 miles southeast of Lowville near the Black River On the Independence and I have extensively attempted to fish 30 miles of river from Carthage upstream to the dam from a canoe and its literally the worst fishing I have ever seen on a perfect looking river. In the 90's we never caught a decent fish, but the last time I floated it in 2011 we at least got a few bass but though the signs say there are eyes I never caught one. I figured it was the acid rain coming outta the Adirondacks that wiped it out but sounds to me the manure must have had an effect.

justin

[Xxx]

We have a place 15 miles southeast of Lowville near the Black River On the Independence and I have extensively attempted to fish 30 miles of river from Carthage upstream to the dam from a canoe and its literally the worst fishing I have ever seen on a perfect looking river. In the 90's we never caught a decent fish, but the last time I floated it in 2011 we at least got a few bass but though the signs say there are eyes I never caught one. I figured it was the acid rain coming outta the Adirondacks that wiped it out but sounds to me the manure must have had an effect.

justin

The townspeople didn't want the town folks to know what the real effect of this tragic happening, I had access to more info than most, can't explain why just did, and that definitely changed the fishing of the Black River Basin to what it is now, I remember a guy up the Perch river who had a supposedly bullhead catfish netting license which he would set in the spring where the perch and the bay meet, but towards the Black more, there is a big mud flat there, were many boats a year get hung up. you have to go down the north shore quite a ways before you can cut over to the buoys and on that flat is where the walleye spawn and this is where he would set his "catfish" nets. It was grandfathered to him, he lost his license in 93. I remember drifting in to cat tails and casting stick baits and nailing nice walleye and little ones also 4-5 inch also, the females we left go but the jacks 18" and up we kept, that's when we had property on the perch river, we sold the property and put  camper in the BRCG, before Allen and his Laura owned it, I forget their names. If the winds blew south west for a day it was phenomenal fishing, but the netter messes that area up by taking all the fish perch, walleye females, jacks whatever, that time frame is when the walleye started to go downhill and the stocking of the Black stopped. The lake was green in color which the zebra's cleaned up so I don't think the numbers of walleye spawn there like they once did. At one time in the mid to late 80's you didn't need to go past the last buoy to limit out on the walleye. The younger Gen. doesn't know how it used to be, but are knowledgeable about the new stealthy ways to catch walleyes. Yes the golden crescent is a walleye haven, but nothing like it was, so change is the name of the game!!