Chaumont Bay for the opener, any pointers?

[jakerfishon]

I see they do pretty good ice fishing🤔, I have it on my list for next year,We have had some luck in the past for opener but definitely had to put in the time searching an actually getting them to bite,,,typically we slow troll deep diver's and occasionally try a harness,any advice is appreciated, thanks in advanced, tight line's an keep the tip up!!! 😀

[Chas0218]

You already mentioned it the only way to be successful is to put in your time searching. The spring is becoming more and more difficult to catch fish with the amount of fish being caught through the ice. The guys that are successful year in and year out are the ones that have been on the water for years and rarely give up any good info. If something isn't working then switch it up don't keep doing the same thing. I usually only troll stickbaits off boards.

[jakerfishon]

Everything you said makes sense, thanks for the reply

[Xxx]

The literally hundreds of feamals pulled through the ice makes for thousands of fish that wont be there in years to come. Those years to come are now.

[Chas0218]

16 hours ago, Xxx said:

The literally hundreds of feamals pulled through the ice makes for thousands of fish that wont be there in years to come. Those years to come are now.

Yup, should implement a slot limit during the winter months. I won't get on my soap box but there is a lot that should be done.

[bettieanne]

Yes sir, it surely isn't helpin us open water guys but if ya cant beaten join them. We can hit the ice to. There still eyes to be had, in 20 yrs of fishing the opener it's never been a place to fill the box. There's been years that it has happened, but far and few between. The bettie Anne has also took on the title of daddy day care boat, with the future anglers on board. A few more years and I will reap the benefits, with them running the rig. There are your go to baits, keep them in the water, seems the eyes turn on and off up there like a switch. For years we would change a 10 rod spread in slow times and end up with one of our go to baits on and thats the one that they hit. Same baits with diffrent lead lengths. It's also a good idea to have many spots to hit. Weather looking decent, good luck to all. Pic loaded from portclinton trip in March, get the blood pumping! Good luck to all!!

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[Kingfisher06]

Hopefully there isn't a hurricane the night before the opener like last year. All of the floating debris and colored water made it tough. After the opening weekend the bait showed up and made the fishing extremely difficult. I am not sure what the bait was composed of, but I think it may have been ciscoes. Enormous clouds of bait and over long distances. Hard to catch a walleye that has three cisco tails hanging out of its mouth. The few times I did catch multiple fish in an outing it was away from the bait believe it or not. 

[EsoxAC3]

How is the shoreline? Heard the water is high...


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[Kingfisher06]

Its high and rising every day. Its over its mean water mark. Luckily, many of the vulnerable areas that were exposed two years ago have added infrastructure now, but nonetheless folks with property on the shoreline are worried history repeats itself. 

[EsoxAC3]

That's unfortunate for property owners and boaters. Fingers crossed things normalize soon. A positive spin is the high water is good for spawning and the fishery.


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[Chas0218]

On 4/30/2019 at 7:21 AM, Kingfisher06 said:

Its high and rising every day. Its over its mean water mark. Luckily, many of the vulnerable areas that were exposed two years ago have added infrastructure now, but nonetheless folks with property on the shoreline are worried history repeats itself. 

My father in law has been keeping me updated and has said the same. He has everything on a short lease and at a moments notice can get his stuff high and dry. We didn't even bother putting in our stuff this season yet after last years surge. 

On 4/30/2019 at 3:15 AM, EsoxAC3 said:

How is the shoreline? Heard the water is high...


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High but not un manageable yet. If you're on facebook "Chaumont Hardware" usually posts pictures and reports regarding the water levels and bay conditions.

On 4/28/2019 at 9:19 AM, bettieanne said:

Yes sir, it surely isn't helpin us open water guys but if ya cant beaten join them. We can hit the ice to. There still eyes to be had, in 20 yrs of fishing the opener it's never been a place to fill the box. There's been years that it has happened, but far and few between. The bettie Anne has also took on the title of daddy day care boat, with the future anglers on board. A few more years and I will reap the benefits, with them running the rig. There are your go to baits, keep them in the water, seems the eyes turn on and off up there like a switch. For years we would change a 10 rod spread in slow times and end up with one of our go to baits on and thats the one that they hit. Same baits with diffrent lead lengths. It's also a good idea to have many spots to hit. Weather looking decent, good luck to all. Pic loaded from portclinton trip in March, get the blood pumping! Good luck to all!!

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To a point but from the amount of people that were fishing the ice the winter there is no way that they couldn't be hurting the population. I was out the last weekend of the season and there must have been over 200 shantys. If only 1/2 of them caught 1 walleye and kept it you can't tell me that won't hurt the next 2 years offspring. From what I have heard from the locals that fish up there there wasn't many weekends that there weren't 100 shantys on the ice. I prefer the open water only because I know the fish have done there thing. Just for perspective my colleague did a trout hatching for DEC he started with 100 fry now at around 58 established fish. The DEC figures a 50% mortality rate when hatching fish and that is perfect conditions they figure a 5% max survival for any wild hatched fish and that doesn't include once they make it into the big water.

On 4/28/2019 at 9:56 AM, Kingfisher06 said:

Hopefully there isn't a hurricane the night before the opener like last year. All of the floating debris and colored water made it tough. After the opening weekend the bait showed up and made the fishing extremely difficult. I am not sure what the bait was composed of, but I think it may have been ciscoes. Enormous clouds of bait and over long distances. Hard to catch a walleye that has three cisco tails hanging out of its mouth. The few times I did catch multiple fish in an outing it was away from the bait believe it or not. 

That was nuts, we got into camp at 8pm and everything was well the sun set and all hell broke loose. We lost every dock section but 1, my boat was filled with water up to the gunnels in the back, and my 2 neighbors had their docks completely flipped over and beating against their boats. It was one heck of a surge. The bait was in the bay forever last year too. The perch fishing, walleye and even bass wasn't all that great. I can usually get into some good numbers of walleye up on the St. Lawrence but even there last year was tough.

[EsoxAC3]

The numbers of ice fishermen on chaumont bay was just insane this year.... usually you can get away from the hoards during the week but not this past year... always 75-150 guys out. And the weekends!! Forget it! 750-1000 people with nice weather. Not fun at all. Total bummer. I dont think its going to improve anytime soon. [emoji20]

 

 

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