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Bass Fishing Attempts: Sandy and Irondequoit


57pirate

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Let me just set the record straight. The south side of the Lake in the rochester area is not "dead" as it relates to smallmouth. As the ecosystem has changed, so have the bass. As a kid, my old man and myself, like so many others used to go to Hedges, without electronics, drifting with bass minnows and worms and crush Smallies one after another. You'd just join the middle of the pack and drift until you found them. Unfortunately the bass do not school up in this area like the used to. Blame the zebra mussels, gobies, global warming, whatever they simple do not school up in any one spot like they once did. They are spread out. 

 

I have a special place in my heart for smallmouth bass. Maybe it's the memories of fishing at hedges as a kid with my old man....I don't know....Either way I have landed two beautiful fish in the last two trips....that works out to 1 fish every two hours. You just have to have patience and get lucky. The trolling is probably the best bet but unfortunately I'm not really set up for it, simply because you cover more water. But on a day that has a good drift working it's almost the same. 

 

To answer your question Krux, I've been bouncing power baits off the bottom, with a jig head and spinner and tipped with a minnow.

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Thats's good to hear. Think I'm going to try launching out of Bear Creek next go round. This weekend is going to consist of tree stand work and the Flour City Brewfest tomorrow. Hopefully early next week I'll give it a shot farther east.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm guessing from the posts above that most of the folks experiencing better fishing are east, from Sodus and perhaps beyond. It also sounds like the fish are still relatively shallow. We used to fish Wautoma, but it's been a while, but I'd love to hit it again if the fishing improves. The past couple times were a complete bust.

There are still some bass at watoma. My buddy and I fish out of Sandy creek (hamlin) a few times a week. We did really good a few weeks ago in 6 fow when the lake flipped and landed 10 in just under 2 hrs most over 3 lbs and one 5 lbs. Lately we haven't had much luck out there. Also we have been catching a few at the pump station just west of Sandy anywhere from 6 to 24 fow all on swim baits and tubes. Bass are in the area you just have to look and move around a lot.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Lake Ontario United mobile app

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  • 10 months later...

the fish are still here guys. tackle and technique are a big thing you need to look at and be willing to change, the lake is definitely changing every year so the fish must transition along with it. keep in mind the water is much more clear than it was a few years ago which is a advantage for the fish. they can see and smell much better.  i do agree that numbers are not as good as they used to be but i dont think they are as bad as people think.  i would also like to ad that i see a huge number of people keeping large numbers of illegal fish, such as fish way under size, out of season especially spawning season, and limits. i was fishing a spot this past spring early april and there was 2 guys next to me who had 2 buckets full of smallies i would say at least 40 fish and not 1 of them was close to legal size, not that it even mattered considering it was april.  now days it seems any where i go there is always at least 1 person with illegal size or limits of fish. we could definitely benefit from having much more dec officers to be able to assist with this problem. i have called many times about people doing **** like this and from what i gather we just dont have the number of officers we should or the resources to help. not the dec officers fault but the greedy higher ups that would rather put the $$ in there pockets. same problem in the fall with the salmon, in the fall you can check just about any stream or river and there are people snagging fish and large numbers of them. i rarely fall fish anymore just cause i cant stand tosee whats happening. i encourage everyone to take a walk down to the genesee river lower falls this september or october and look how many people are snagging or keeping more than their limit. i can promise you need more than 2 hands!!

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Decent smallmouth action for me so far this year, and I'm surprised how many are still hanging around inside the bays. Could be the cooler temps overall this summer? I'm not exactly sure though, but I'm not complaining. 

 

Looking back to my years of fishing the lake as a young kid, I do remember days where we would just get one after another all day. However, I never remember breaking the 3lb mark by much. Now when I'm out there, it may not be one after another, but it's definitely quality over quantity. 4lb smallies have become the norm, and finding them over 4/5lbs isn't uncommon. Whether this is due solely to being much more experienced fishing now vs 20 years ago is one thing, but I do think overall the fish have changed and learned to gorge themselves on gobies.

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