How do I catch trout and salmon on smaller inland lakes?

[Todd in NY]

I don't know where else to ask this question. It seems like it would require some similar techniques to what you use on the Finger Lakes, but there are many differences between the Finger Lakes and those smaller inland lakes in northern NY. Some of the lakes I fish are less than 500 acres and some are bigger than 1,200 acres, and all are over 70 feet deep. Some are very clear and some have brown stained water. These lakes include all or some of the following fish; lake trout, LL salmon, brown trout, rainbow and others.

 

I have tried trolling with dipsy divers and downriggers. Baits include spoons, flies, Mepps spinners, walleye worm harnesses, flashers with e-chips, glow in the dark lures and flashers, and even cowbells with spin-n-glows. I had 2 bites all summer but no hookups. I'm trolling from 1mph up to 2.8mph, changing speed and direction every so often.

 

Is there a time of year when they stop biting, go shallower, or change something? I'm still trying to figure these things out because I just started fishing for them this year. Thanks in advance.

[FishingTheFL]

Every lake is different. This my first year, I've caught a ton of fish on dipsy divers (size 0 and 1). With those two you can fish from 0-70 feet down. Keep switching lures out till you find one that works. If your looking to catch a bunch of fish try Cayuga below Sheldrake. Most of the fish have moved south. I caught one last week that was like hitting bottom but in 170fow.

Seneca they say is slow, haven't had much luck there. Only jigging.

[Todd in NY]

Thanks for the info. It's a good 3 hours drive for me to fish the Finger Lakes, but I'm planning some fishing there next year. These other lakes are less than 30 minutes drive, which makes them really attractive. I know the numbers of fish can't be all that high, but most people who fish these lakes aren't fishing for the lakers and salmon, so they might not be getting much fishing pressure like the bass are getting.

 

These smaller lakes are all natural lakes, and they are full of under water structure, to include some random boulders the size of a 2 story house. Also, the streams that feed into and out of these lakes are too small and too shallow to attract spawning fish, or at least that's my opinion. The shore line is less than 3 ft deep and full of hidden rocks around these streams, so I only fish near them when I am in my 14 ft boat.

 

These fish don't appear to have any place to go during the spawn, so will they go to a shallower rocky shoreline or go to the deepest hole in the lake. We were seeing excellent fish marks just off the bottom, so that tells me they are still there. I just don't know what they might be feeding on down there.

 

I plan on fishing again tomorrow, and I will use my 2 downriggers as well as a small size 0 or 1 dipsy out to each side to see if I can hook into something higher in the water and further from the side of the boat. I'll be using my 15hp kicker for trolling.

 

Cayuga is looking very attractive. What is the latest time of the year you fish the Finger Lakes?

[lily]

What lakes are you fishing. Could get more info if we knew where you were

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[Todd in NY]

I'm fishing Millsite, Sixberry and Bonaparte for now. Will try other lakes as I get the chance, such as Sylvia and Trout Lake.

[FishingTheFL]

Have you checked with local bait stores? They may be able to tell you if there is anyone in there are catching any trout. Main lakes I fish are stocked. I imagine stockies will hit just about anything on the right day.

[Todd in NY]

I haven't talked to any bait shops but I have talked to a few fishermen that have caught lake trout on all three lakes that I have tried. One guy caught a laker on Sixberry while ice fishing. Others have caught lakers on Millsite and Bonaparte, but not in large numbers.

[lily]

I used to fish other inland lakes in that area but more in the Adirondacks. The water is berry brackish colored. I used to use lake clear wobblers in gold colors while trolling out of a canoue and also used streamers with a 3 way swivel with some weight to get me down deeper. In the fall the salmon would move to the sand bars to eat Brown trout eggs. They would hit anything flashy out of aggression. That is what I did in lake clear lake Colby and some of the lakes out that way when I lived there. Good luck. I'd say fish the 30 to 40 foot range with small gold spoons and you should have some luck.

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[lily]

The stream inlets is where you will find the spawing going on.

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[Nautitroller]

Thanks for the info. It's a good 3 hours drive for me to fish the Finger Lakes, but I'm planning some fishing there next year. These other lakes are less than 30 minutes drive, which makes them really attractive. I know the numbers of fish can't be all that high, but most people who fish these lakes aren't fishing for the lakers and salmon, so they might not be getting much fishing pressure like the bass are getting.

These smaller lakes are all natural lakes, and they are full of under water structure, to include some random boulders the size of a 2 story house. Also, the streams that feed into and out of these lakes are too small and too shallow to attract spawning fish, or at least that's my opinion. The shore line is less than 3 ft deep and full of hidden rocks around these streams, so I only fish near them when I am in my 14 ft boat.

These fish don't appear to have any place to go during the spawn, so will they go to a shallower rocky shoreline or go to the deepest hole in the lake. We were seeing excellent fish marks just off the bottom, so that tells me they are still there. I just don't know what they might be feeding on down there.

I plan on fishing again tomorrow, and I will use my 2 downriggers as well as a small size 0 or 1 dipsy out to each side to see if I can hook into something higher in the water and further from the side of the boat. I'll be using my 15hp kicker for trolling.

Cayuga is looking very attractive. What is the latest time of the year you fish the Finger Lakes?

I try to get out every month of the year on Seneca or Cayuga. Last year was tough because it was very cold! Launches are open almost year round

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[Todd in NY]

Lily, I'll try to locate those spawning browns tomorrow near the stream inlets. I'll try a small gold spoon and other lures to figure out what might prompt a bite. I'll post my results here after the fishing trip yo let you guys know if I had any luck. I know the browns are stocked every spring, but I don't know if any of them survive to spawn in the fall.

Nautitroller, I'm looking forward to fishing Cayuga and Seneca. I'll try Cayuga first though, but I like to keep my options open.

[Salmo slayar]

Have you tried still fishing  minnows near bottom, or at the depths where you are marking fish. Might want to give that a try? Sometimes it takes the real thing to make em cooperate.

 

good luck!

[Gill-T]

For Lakers try a low-tech approach with a three-way swivel a heavy drop weight and bounce bottom trolling below 2 mph.

[FishnChef]

I have good success using Lake clear wobblers trolled pretty much at any speed up to 3 miles an hour most days it doesn't really seem to matter. depends on where I am and what I'm targeting but usually fishing the middle of the water column this time of year when there's still a solid thermocline in placeseems to work better than fishing bottom.I haven't really found time of day to matter that much either when fishing in northern New York

[Todd in NY]

Thanks for the new information since my last post. I went back to Bonaparte yesterday and tried many different drifting and trolling setups. What ended up working was trolling with a size 0 dipsy 30ft deep with a silver and blue spoon, at 1.6 to 1.8 mph. I landed 1 fish that I think is a brown trout. We lost 4 or 5 others because I was trying to teach my son's friend how to fish (they are both 17). He had never been fishing before and had no clue how to properly set the hook, keep the line tight and keep the rod tip up. He had a fish 20 feet from the boat, stopped reeling and pointed the rod tip at the fish, and that fish said "See ya".

 

The trout we caught was 16" long and we had nothing to put him in except the livewell. He was floating within minutes after putting him in the livewell, which we just filled after we boated him. I didn't know that brown trout had such pink meat because I have only caught 1 brought trout 7 years ago on Lake Ontario and I don't remember what the meat looked like. He had great color when I caught him but I didn't take a picture of him until I got home 7 or 8 hours later.

 

I'm trying to attach a picture of the trout but I haven't figured out how to attach pictures on this forum yet.



Edited September 21, 2015 by ballistics04

[lily]

Good deal on the fish you caught. Those inland lakes can hold booth small and large fish. I would stick with the smaller spoons in natural colors. Also the fish maybe boat shy. Try some planer boards too. Also keeping your speed down probably helped a lot. I wouldn't be afraid to drop your leaders down to Like 8 to 10 lb fluro maybe even lighter. To help if fish are line shy.

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[lily]

Don't forget the bait fish in those lakes are going to be small. So keeping spoon small will look more realistic to them.

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[Todd in NY]

Thanks Lily. We tried a copper daredevil spoon on our #2 rod, as well as blue/silver cowbells with a white spin-n-glow, Chartreuse spoon with orange dots, can't remember what else, but we changed it up a bunch on the #2 rod just to experiment. We left the #1 rod with the silver/blue spoon on because it kept working. I ended up trying a little cleo silver/blue spoon on the #2 rod and it didn't get a hit. The longer narrow silver/blue spoon got all the action. We tried yellow bird planers along the shore line and had no luck with various lures. We also drifted with various lures, baits and presentations, to include worm harnesses and never lost a worm. They might have been a little boat shy, which is probably why they were hitting the #0 dipsy rather than the #1 dipsy. We could get the #0 dipsy further from the boat, and it was the only #0 I had on the boat. I usually have 2 of each size dipsy, but not yesterday for some unknown reason. We ran the #1 dipsy out to the right on the #3 setting so we could run the same depth without having it close to the boat, but it never got a hit. We used the #0 dipsy with the O-ring and the #1 dipsy without the O-ring.

 

There's a bunch more stuff I could have thrown at them but 6 or 7 hours on the water was long enough for me. Before my next trip I'll be getting another #0 and #1 dipsy divers and silver/blue spoons just like the one that got all the action.

[FishingTheFL]

I run a couple different setups with dipsy 0 and 1. Usually 1 set to 70fow and the 0 on setting #3 with 300 ft of line out. Its not quite 40 ft. This is my salmon setup with a copper chicken wing from dream weaver. Lakers I've been doing well on a Spin Doctorer and blue green G fly. Chicken wing up top and spin doc and fly deep. I also run 4 rods. Two out the sides two down the shoot. Rough days I run two to the sides and one down the chute. If your looking for a stealthy approach I've been told lead core with 20ft leader is the way to go. Problem with leadcore is it only goes 50ft down after 10 colors(300ft of line). I'm going to try it this weekend with a planner board.

Keep in mind this is my first year, Les showed me a bunch different rigs and now I kill the fish. Have you tried jigging? It's fun once you find out how to get them on, which is basically timing unless you got one these fancy trollers that hold you in one spot.

[quality time]

Try using lighter leaders on the riggers.  Also planer boards might help to get the lure away from the boat!  Wes

[Todd in NY]

Thanks for the info and tips FishingTheFL and Wes! I have lots of "new" things to try for my next bunch of fishing trips. I plan to fish as late into the year as possible. I hope winter holds off until Christmas Eve this year... or January... or February. Okay, I know that's pushing my luck, but I can dream, right?

 

Todd

[Sk8man]

All good tips and the suggestion of small spoons is potentially critical.I would try to find a baitshop in the general area and phone them and ask what bait is actually in those lakes (and what they sell) and then try to match up spoons and sizes to whatever bait is there and at this time of the season.  I know that for a longtime acid rain has been a huge problem with many lakes up there for years and it has really colored up the water a lot and that may have impact on the level of bait and trout especially as they are PH sensitive  living in  those lakes and the color of the water may either change or obscure the color of the lures or ability to see them from a distance. In many places there is little to no boat traffic for the fish to get used to  so stealth in your approach may be more important than elsewhere too. The suggestion of planer boards is a good thing to try (e.g. Walleye in-lines) with small spoons trolled at varying speeds and distances with careful but frequent turns. If you have an electric trolling motor that might be also worth trying instead of the noise of a gas trolling motor. I know you mentioned using worm harnesses but if the lake contains rainbows or browns I wouldn't give up on that right away either. Try using both natural night crawlers and also plastic worms about 4-5 inches in blue/purplish color or the "motor oil" ones sprayed with shad scent trolled way behind the boat or off the boards. You may want to try both Colorado blades and willow leaf because they cut through the water differently and sometimes one type will work better than the other.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Sk8man

[Todd in NY]

Sk8man, good point about the willow leaf vs the colorado blades. My buddy has had more luck with the willow leaf blades on a lake that he fishes up here. He likes them so much that he makes his own worm harnesses with willow blades. Lake Bonaparte sees more recreational boaters than most other lakes I've ever seen, and most of them are pulling tubes or skiers. Then there are all of the PWC's zooming around all over the place. Trolling there on a busy weekend requires everyone to keep their head on a swivel to make sure someone isn't going to get run over. That's when we hit the smaller lakes that have a 10hp motor limit, and I use my 13 footer with the 3.3hp motor.

 

I was hoping to find a bait fish in the belly of the fish that I caught but no such luck. I would love to get back out there this Saturday but I will be out of town this week, Thursday-Friday, then Sunday-Wednesday. Saturday will be a busy day, at least up until noon or 1pm with yard chores, then unpacking from the first road trip so I can pack again for the 2nd road trip.

[Sk8man]

You sure don't want to use the boards on Bonaparte with that traffic

[quality time]

Hit the water early before the pleasure boaters are out. I have done some trolling with my kayak and done well. I did one trip on Cayuga in the middle of the winter and had a blast with browns and landlocks. I used leadcore on one pole and 4lb mono flatline on the other. Both took fish but the ultralight was a blast when I got a brown around 7lbs. Not sure on the weight because I released them. The guides at the turn of the century used row boats and I am sure those methods would still work today. Stealth is key in shallow water.