Hunting and Fishing Around Rochester

[New York Hillbilly]

Hey folks! I was just wondering if anyone here could give me some input about hunting around Rochester, or fishing in the Genesee river. My wife wants to move out towards Chili, Henrietta, or Webster, to be near my daughter and son in law. I have been offered a job interview, which could make the move a real option, if we chose to act on it.

Problem here is, I have it real good right now in the hunting department and am not keen on giving that up. It would be great to be closer to my daughter though because we are a close family and want to keep it that way when grand children come along.

Any info on deer, rabbit hunting out that way or fishing the Genesee would be appreciated.

Thank you

[troutman]

Hunting can be outstanding in the Rochester area....Monroe Co. is a perennial producer of book bucks year after year. Access to land however can be a hangup. No public land in the immediate area. If you can get access to some of the surrounding private lands you wont have any problem punching deer tags.

Fishing can also be awesome. Many options. Lower Genny has seasonal trout and salmon runs and the upper river has decent fishing for warm water species. Plenty of ponds and bays along the Ontario shoreline, as well as a few smaller finger lakes less than an hour south.

Caught this one today down in the lower river....

[JFB]

The area's surrounding Rochester offer excellent hunting. Monroe county has excellent whitetail genetics, habitat, and soil to grow mature deer. Access however can be difficult as much of it is suburban.

Fishing is outstanding. I am an avid bass angler and there are endless great options within 15 minutes to an hour or so in any direction. The Genesee river is also fantastic in the fall and when the salmon run. A fair amount of bank fishing opportunities exist. Check out www.nybass.com and there are some guys who fish tributaries for trout and salmon a fair amount that can point you better than I. If you have any interest in tournament bass fishing just PM me. Good luck.

[JFB]

Troutman beat me to it while I was typing... sorry for the duplicate info.

[New York Hillbilly]

Wow what a nice fish! What is it about 22 or 24 inches? My hats off to you fishing in this cold weather. Well maybe as cold as it is I better keep my hat on. LOL! If I moved that way I would have to sell my place here and buy a house with a little land. I was thinking maybe something with 25 or so acres in a rural area around Rochester.

[New York Hillbilly]

JFB,

Thanks for the info and invite. I used to be an avid fisherman, everything from bass, pike, bullheads all night by a fire, and every trout stream for miles. Trout for me with either dug worms or my favorite, a small silver phoebe.

[pewlodar]

Although I haven't checked real estate lately, I think you would hard press to find a parcel like that in Webster. If you bow hunt, Webster does offer the opportunity for resident to hunt the Town parks. It is a well run program affording you the chance to hunt close to home. Just need an open mind and not worry about people hiking, biking right past you while hunting.

Second what others said about accessing land in general around the greater Rochester area. There are numerous public land available to hunt, just need to drive 45 min or more to get there.

Edited January 2, 2013 by pewlodar

[WNYBuckHunter]

25 acres isnt hard to find around Rochester. You might have to get out a little ways to get a good price though. Lots of good hunting, you just have to knock on alot of doors to find access, as its almost all private land, as has been said.

[MountainHunter]

Can't assist at all on the question, I wish you good luck! That rainbow is a beauty!

[troutman]

Can't assist at all on the question, I wish you good luck! That rainbow is a beauty!

Thanks guys. Going by the lettering on my rod, that fish was roughly 29-30" . Cold fishing, but hooking one of these beauties sure takes the nip out of the air...LOL

[Five Seasons]

some nice deer east west and south of the city. as mentioned getting land access will be your toughest challenge as most parcels have established permission rights. Buying it is not so easy either. What I found is that any house with at least 10acres is either $300k+ or has a shack sitting on it.

good luck!

Edited January 2, 2013 by Belo

[New York Hillbilly]

I spoke to a real estate agent today about a piece of property, and he really didn't sound very knowledgeable or interested when asked him about hunting on the parcel. He told me there was no "real woods", "just a lot of brush between cornfields", and the deer stay else where in "the bigger woods". I might have to go do a drive by when I see my daughter next week. LOL!

Oh....and Belo....the 300K for 10 acres scares me but the "shack" part might be a step up from my tent.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Real estate agents in general arent going to be very knowledgeable about hunting the properties. Just go to zillow.com and start looking at different areas. Not every property is on there, but most are. With you not being around the area, you may want to hire an agent to do the foot work for you.

[WesternNY]

This is a good place to check.

http://www.homesteadnet.com/

Good Property is out there, it just takes a bit of work to find them.

I found my farm with a good house in 2007 40 miles from Rochester.

[Lawdwaz]

I spoke to a real estate agent today about a piece of property, and he really didn't sound very knowledgeable or interested when asked him about hunting on the parcel. He told me there was no "real woods", "just a lot of brush between cornfields", and the deer stay else where in "the bigger woods". I might have to go do a drive by when I see my daughter next week. LOL!

Oh....and Belo....the 300K for 10 acres scares me but the "shack" part might be a step up from my tent.

"just a lot of brush between cornfields"? Holy cow that sounds like Lima, Rush, Mendon etc. CAN'T be any deer in that brush...........<grin>

Only place to kill deer is the "big woods"...............>>>>------------>

Just who is this Realtor?

[WNYBuckHunter]

That actually sounds like the majority of theRochester region. Not alot of what i would call big woods around here. Give me a good chunk of brush and small woods mixed with ag fields any day over the big woods anyhow.

[New York Hillbilly]

Yup....I had to smile when I heard the part about deer living i the big woods. When I pictured the in between the corn field part my eyes lit up. Sure enough, I can see it now, let everyone hike about in the woodlot looking for deer, where they are supposed to live, while the deer lay there in the brush quietly watching the hunters look for the deer where they are supposed to live, from the spot they are not supposed to be. LOL!

[growalot]

Just make sure you get the skinny on surrounding ppl and what is going on with their properties...you don't want to invest in a good parcel you can hunt now...just to find you lost the right a few years down the road to building...how far away do you want to go from Rochester....the Start of the finger lakes are just a 45-90 min drive south...You have Letchworth and Nunda area around the same time frame away as well....But watch your taxes....and zoning laws they vary widely in the area......

[Nomad]

There are giant bucks IN Rochester ! You just can't hunt them legally,the river bottom in the city holds monsters.

The guys got it pretty much covered already. 25 acres in Webster will be pricey.Now my buddy just bought 40 acres of great hunting land In Palmyra for 55K, thats about 30 minutes from my Webster home . I've done the town hunt,but don't anymore, hunted those lands years before the town owned them, so its not as good for me anymore, with guys all over it many not knowing to much what they'er doing....

I have 120 acres in Canandaigua thats about 30 minutes from the city,land around there is I guess 2,500 to 3 k an acre.A lot depends on if its ag land, has road frontage,water,sewer and so on.

The hunting and fishing is good, with some work you should find woods to hunt.

If your in the area and I'm off I'd be glad to drive you around a bit.

[New York Hillbilly]

growalot

All very good points! These were also questions I asked and got pretty iffy answers. The zoning is a real big deal. I should know as I am on our town zoning board. Some towns, I would like to think most, like ours, are reasonable and play by the rules. In the past though I have seen some real rogue groups who didn't take to "outsiders". And at one time, "I was the outsider", which is something I do not want to go through again.

[Five Seasons]

Real estate agents in general arent going to be very knowledgeable about hunting the properties. Just go to zillow.com and start looking at different areas. Not every property is on there, but most are. With you not being around the area, you may want to hire an agent to do the foot work for you.

agreed. I had this guy from Brighton and I'm out looking in the country. He'd show up in his suit with shiny shoes and I'd bring my muck boots along. I let him know first and foremost location was my biggest concern and that you're not putting me in a track. He started wearing his jeans and sneakers the second trip haha.

x2 on homestead as a good site. I used mostly zillow though and just set land filters, but be careful because there's some small acre property out there that backs up to nice parks or farmland. But dont bank on that as "huntable" ask the neighbors before you commit.

as far as $300k, what I meant by that is we found homes in tracks on .5 acre plots with neighbors on both sides and in the back in the $180 range that were very nice and modern. but a house i buy has to pass the "can i pee off my deck and not have anyone looking at me test". The same house on 10acres was generally $300k. Found an awesome piece of property on 26 acres and another on 42 but both were from the 1800s and never updated, however in the $150k range. Both needed at least 100k in upgrades and 20k of that was immediate safety/comfort needs. If my wife was patient and able to deal with that, i'd have gone that route and upgraded as we went along but she wasn't. haha.

as far as brush goes. We've killed more big bucks in the bedding/transition areas than we ever have in the hardwoods. I think there's a common misconception that the hardwoods is where it's at. And maybe so during bow season but on heavily or moderatly pressured land they avoid the hardwoods like the plague. Only downside to brush is it takes a lot of prep work to get a stand and lanes in. Plus, my 6 died in the most horrible patch of briars this year. Had to literally cut him and a trail out

Edited January 4, 2013 by Belo