Syracuse.com - CNY Shoreline Hot Spots: The causeway on Otisco Lake (first in a series)

[HuntingNY-News]

People catch all sorts of fish there -- bass, tiger muskie, carp, bullhead, panfish, the occasional brown trout. It's also good in the spring and fall for walleye. Stephen Cannerelli/The Post-StandardThe Otisco Lake causeway is one of the more popular places in CNY to fish from shore. On Father's Day, about a dozen people were fishing on it. Day or night, the causeway at the southern end of Otisco Lake is a popular go-to spot for anglers fishing from shore.“People catch all sorts of fish there — bass, tiger muskie, carp, bullhead, panfish, the occasional brown trout. It’s also good in the spring and fall for walleye,” said David Lemon, regional fisheries manager for Region 7 of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.The causeway is an abandoned roadway that once spanned the lake. There’s a section that once had a bridge, which boaters now use to move back and forth between the southern and northern ends of the lake.The bridge was washed out by high water and wind in 1929 and never replaced, according to Tony Geiss, deputy director of the Onondaga County Water Authority. The 100-yard area where people fish is located on the western side of the lake and is accessible from West Valley Road.Stephen Cannerelli/The Post-StandardMason Thomas 18, of Lafayette was fishing the causeway on Father's Day with his brother Chute 11, his father John, and grandfather John Thomas Sr. Anglers use an unofficial dirt parking area, or park along the road. The land around the western side is owned by the water authority. The land where people fish from is owned by the state, Geiss said. There are no bathrooms or any facilities for that matter.Many anglers also launch car-top craft (canoes, kayaks, small jon boats) there, Geiss added.The fishing area was refurbished in the early 1990s following a joint effort by the state, the county and the water authority, said Gordon Ireland, a former county legislator and supervisor for the town of Spafford.Lemon noted the channel that splits the causeway, where the lake’s water flows back and forth, is a magnet for bait fish and the larger fish that pursue them.Submitted photoMark Manning caught this nice 28.5-inch, 9-pound walleye on May 7 while fishing off the causeway around midnight.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog