? for the Guys up North East??

[Jtelarkin08]

I will be going to New York again in a few weeks and fishing lake canadegua.. Its one of the finger lakes.. Last year i killed them on a frog and caught a few on my fs shad.. Well this year i am only taking swimbaits and want to catch a giant.. Weather it be a smallie or lm i dont care.. I have looked and looked for individual lake records and cant find them anywhere.. Last year i caught LM up to 5.5 pounds and had a smallie about 3.5 come off.. I never caught any tiny fish.. All the fish seemed really healthy and 2 pounds plus.. So my question is what would be a good size fish out of this lake?? I want to ideally go and catch a big fish but not sure what big is for this body of water?? Any ideas?

[Primus]

I live in Michigan but can't imagine our fishing is much differrent than NY. In our part of the country 5lbers are big fish with 6 & 7 lbers being caught on occasion. Legitimate 8 plus are rare. 6" soft swimbaits & topwater hard baits should be a good option along with Bluegill style baits. Perch & Bluegill colors should get you bit.

[Jtelarkin08]

Thanks.. Thats kinda what i was figuring but i was suprised last year when i caught like 3 fish over 4 and one was like 5.5! My goal is a 6.5 plus this year.. I feel like i have one area there that will hold a fish of that size if anywhere..

[SPEEDBEAD]

I'll say over 6 is a really good fish up here. By "up here" I mean anything PA and up.

 

In PA there are one or two caught every year that are 10lbs, but they are rare. 8s and 9s are a definite possibility in NY and a 6lb SM is not out of the question either.

 

That frog is tough to beat up here this time of year, especially in the weed choked lakes like the Fingers can get. Champlain is another place that has ridiculous weed mats this time of year.

 

Good luck.

[Jtelarkin08]

Ya the spot that i was catching them really good last year was a bank that had matted grass about 10 ft off the bank and the bank was super steep.. It went from bank to 15 ft deep in no time.> There are also a bunch of water willows and a dock there creating shade.. I am going to throw my wake jr and fs trout around the edge of the matted grass and a minnow and weedless hudd in the grass and then also probably a rising son too.. I also found a few trees that were in the water that had some good fish in them.. It almost seemed anywhere there was shade you could catch fish..

[SPEEDBEAD]

If you are able, try skipping a 6" Weedless Hudd or a Mission Fish up under those willows.

 

I can't skip a baitcaster worth a ish, so I usually opt for a spinning rod and a fluke. Same thing, just a bit bigger bait if you can use the swimmies.

[smalliebigs]

Havent' fished in NY, but when I was up north these would be my "conversions" for the south (or at least much of the south):

 

For smallies

3's were just another quality fish, (I kept moving if they weren't at least this big)

4's were "good" and convert to like 5-7 LM in south/cali

5+ smallies convert to 7-10's (caught some every year)

6+ I'd convert to a 10+ (only ever got one of those)

A 7+ was like a teener (never got one of those).

 

Large mouth were about the same, but the top of the range is a little heavier, 5-6's a little more common (than smallies) and 3-4's a little less.