camper4lyfe

We hit the outlet last night, and it was all but dead.  I may have seen 2 bluegills in there (they were schooled up a couple weeks ago).  We  must be in "tween" season right now.

I saw a post on Facebook that said the numbers were down a bit this year.

1 minute ago, Gill-T said:

They breed multiple times per year. Extremely prolific. If you are seeing them in one place, they are probably everywhere.  I will say that they don’t leave the cover of the bottom so if you get your bait up a little, you shouldn’t have trouble with them.  

This is why I love drop shot rigs.  Get the bait up 12-18" off the bottom and it significantly reduces goby hookups.  It's not 100% foolproof, but it definitely helps.

49 minutes ago, fishmaster13184 said:

I think that the swamp turns to solid weeds this time of year is probably why no one fishes it

That’s quite possible. I’ve never looked too far into it later in the year so I wasn’t sure if it was realistic or not. 

Yeah, the bluegill spawn at the north end, pike, walleye, bullhead, and rudd spawn at the south.

I don't have much of the pike making it over the dam, but I have a few of the staging below, and trying to get over.

I've been down to the inlet several times to watch the spawning runs, and I'm always drawn to the swampy area above the spillway.  Has anyone ever fished it, obviously in a canoe or kayak, and is it even worth it?  

I’m planning to take my oldest fishing (he’ll be at at that time) out on either Hemlock or Canadice Lake. I’m going to be borrowing a canoe to do it, so we can expand the fishing area a bit beyond just shore fishing. That said, trolling for trout and the like isn’t an option on those lakes. Of the two, which do you think is the better of the two to canoe fish on, and what tips do you have to give him the best opportunity to catch anything (and I mean anything, he’s still at the stage he’s content catching panfish)

20 minutes ago, dremarquis said:

Is this the first year in a long time they are stocking Hemlock with rainbows? I thought it had been all natural reproduction for many years....

I was talking to my cousin about this, and this is the first rainbow stocking in a while.  I guess they were pushing for browns recently, and they've been fighting it, so he was happy to hear they will be raonbows that are going in.

Only 3000? That seems pretty low for a lake that size. Springwater Creek is getting 4000 rainbows next month. 

I'm seeing reports that pike are starting to run now.  Walleye will run after the pike, but the walleye just hang out below the spillway while the pike will jump the spillway.

I'd contact a local marina.  That may at least give you a starting point.  I can't remember how we found our guy (up in Clayton), but we started by working through the Clayton Marina.

Doc’s Tackle in Honeoye is a solid shop, though out of the way a bit for Conesus

That sounds about right

I’m pretty sure it’s state law that you have to wear a PFD in the spring. I can’t recall the exact dates, but they’re definitely required right now, for this very reason. 

September to mid December is good
 

April 1st is best for the rainbows but fall is better for browns not many in Hemlock but Naples creek gets good numbers

As you stated, the creek is unusually low right now. The trout run up the creek from the lake to spawn, and then return to the lake. They have pretty much done that. Very few if any left in the creek at this point. The small fish that you are catching were born the previous spring and will move to the lake later in the year. Those fish are the future of the fishery, so I try to avoid them. You might want to try Naples creek. There may be a few more fish that haven't returned to the lake. Good luck.

I'm not entirely sure of my dad's obsession with fishing Springwater Creek, but it's a nice way to spend some time with my dad.  That said, I'm hoping to get some help.  I know very little about stream/creek fishing, and even less about trout.  I typically fish the St. Lawrence for smallmouth, so this is a huge changeup for me.
 

We've been going to the creek around mid-April for the past few years, and I've only started catching fish the last 2 times, but they've all been dinky rainbows (I don't entirely mind, as at least it's something), but I really don't have an understanding of what the trout are looking for, or where We should be looking for them.

Tackle-wise, I've been using spinners (I've had my best luck with a small silver spinner), and my dad has been married to salmon eggs.  I keep trying to get him to switch to spinners, but I haven't had any luck on that yet, but I keep trying.  Unless he knows something I don't, I just don't think that's going to work for him.

Initially, we were parking on Kellogg Rd and heading North on the creek toward the lake.  The first couple years, we tried here with no luck, and barely even saw anything.  Only when we pushed farther toward the lake, after parking along 15A and bushwacking in to the creek did we start having any luck, and like I said, they've all been pretty small.

Questions:

This year has been tough with the low water, and most likely abnormally warm water, but one of my biggest questions is what are the trout doing in the Spring?  Are they heading up the creek for the summer, are they going up the creek to spawn and then head back to the lake?  What's their movement, and how would/does water temperature potentially effect that?  Does the trout fishing in the stream drop off as the season progresses, or does it move one way or another?

I feel like a spinner is the way to go, and on the small size due to the small size of the creek.  Is that the best way to go?  Should I be pressing my dad more to move on from the eggs and switch to a lure of some sort?

In the end, I'm just trying to up our odds of having some success, and definitely trying to get my dad to land his first trout.  If you'd rather private message me with details so your secrets don't end up broadcast over the internet, that's fine by me.  Any little bit will help, in all honesty, as we're complete novices at this.

There’s even less water than last week. At this point, I wouldn’t bother making the drive this year.


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There’s even less water than last week. At this point, I wouldn’t bother making the drive this year.


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The water's pretty low this year, and I'm hearing they're not running like normal.  i may take a trip down in the next day or two to check it out.

They must just be starting. There wasn’t anything this past weekend.


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We were there on Monday evening, and not a fish was to be found.

4 minutes ago, BSmaster said:

Best all around experience is first nice day in early to middle of April.  Birds, fish, etc...  Bring polarized sun glasses and you won't have to look hard.  I loved taking my family but haven't done it in a while - teenagers.

My oldest (7) is already talking about "that time we went to see the fish" and wants to go back.  The kid loves fishing, and would go every day if I took him.

I just dug through my pictures from last year, and I have pictures of pike running April 1.  We also saw walleye in the side streams around that time too.

I can't for the life of my remember the order that they run.  I THINK it's walleye first, then pike, but it could very well be the other way around.