Hooray! The Memorial Day weekend descended upon us and the price of gasoline did not escalate to $5.00 per gallon. I am not trying to provoke the oil price powers that be, but I for one am thankful gas prices are holding and dropping, if ever so s-l-o-w-l-y.
The unusually warm spring weather reportedly has impacted nature, from increasing water temperatures to dropped water levels to speeding up spawning times on numerous fish species. By the first Saturday in May, walleye anglers who were ready for the night time ritual of long line trolling, cashed in on lots of spawning yellow pike. By the third weekend, most of the nocturnal activity was done and the moss was everywhere on the traditional spawning sites. Now comes the post-spawn sequel, where anglers try to figure out where the post-spawn fish will be and what do they want to hit this year?
Don Einhouse, my contact at the Department of Environmental Conservation Fisheries station in Dunkirk, reports that the creel census personnel are seeing increased numbers of walleyes showing up in coolers of anglers fishing out of Barcelona Harbor. That is to be expected. The question is where will these Western Basin migrating fish be when the Southtowns Walleye Inc. annual tournament begins on Saturday, June 9? Last year's winner was taken out of Barcelona, but with everything in fast fry mode, where will they be in two weeks?
Article Photos
OBSERVER Photo by Gene Pauszek
Lee Weber displays a popular “floating” landing net outside his bait & tackle store located near Derby.
Local yellow perch fishing has been hit and miss. Those anglers sitting on a hot school are doing very well while others are wishing for fishing. The 45- to 55-foot mark has been producing and anglers have been favoring the area east of the outer buoy. Local walleye trolling has been slow, but one angler did report scratching up a few keepers off the bottom in 60 feet of water using dipsey divers.
Rick Miller in Irving reports that the perch fishing has been decent out of the "Cat" in 50 to 60 feet. My buddy Lee Weber from Weber's Bait & Tackle reports that the hottest fishing item so far this year is a floating landing net, the S2 made by EGO company that sells for around $80. Weber claims he has had to re-order three times already this year. The bass fishing in the Dunkirk harbor has cooled off a bit with anglers moving further down the lake in pursuit of bronze backs. There sure were a lot of sleek, expensive-looking bass rigs in town for awhile. See you again next year.
Calendar:
Our local chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, The Lakeshore Longbeards, will meet Tuesday, June 12 at 7:30 p.m., at Liberty Vineyards Winery located on Route 20, in Sheridan. Agenda is planing the JAKES Day Event. The meeting is open to the public. JAKES Day will be July 21 at the Westfield Fish & Game Club.
The Bear Lake Rod & Gun Club will host a 3-D shoot June 3 and June 17 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The date for the Northern Chautauqua Conservation Club's Take-A-Kid-Fishing Day is June 9. Application forms are available at the Con Club. The deadline to sign up is June 1.
The 19th Annual Lew Mead Memorial Kids Fishing Tournament is scheduled for June 23 at the DEC Boat launch on Cassadaga Lake in Lilly Dale. Free sign up starts at 7 a.m. at the launch.
