Syracuse.com - CNY shoreline hot spot: The Baldwinsville bridge over the Seneca River (10th in a series)

[HuntingNY-News]

"You guys have a scale? I caught a carp out of here once that weighed 41 pounds, and this one is definitely bigger than that," he said.

On warm summer nights there can be a shoulder-to-shoulder fishermen here. For good reason. The bridge that spans the Seneca River in Baldwinsville is definitely a fishing hot spot.

The river splits around Paper Mill Island. There's a lock on the southern side of the islands. The anglers gravitate to the bridge on the northern side.

The reason is simple. There's a dam and two hydro plant turbines on either side, which grind up small fish and whatever else passes through. That produces a near endless supply of food for the fish that gather near the dam, down to the bridge and slightly beyond.

"I try to get here every day. I've been here ever since I learned to fish. You see all sorts of people," said Dustin Gardner, 18, of Baldwinsville, who was casting a white marabou jig Monday evening.

"I've caught carp, bullhead, rock bass, sunfish, large and smallmouth bass ... and two gar pike in my lifetime," he said.

The anglers exhibit all levels of fishing expertise and techniques. One recent evening, a man was casting out a net from the bridge, hoping to catch fish. The technique is illegal.

Monday evening, Bizimana Gabriel, 45, was using plain dough balls on a hook, with a small plastic bag full of small rocks as a sinker. He had three spinning rods at various locations on the bridge. One had 80-pound test, braided line.

Gabriel said he began fishing off the bridge this past June and initially caught "a lot of fish using worms." He works as a "houseman" cleaning up rooms and changing sheets and towels at a local hotel. He said he comes to the bridge to fish every Monday and Tuesday, which are his days off.

"The big fish (carp) only hit the dough balls," he said, noting that he has to keep putting a new one on every 10 minutes or so because the water dissolves them.

What's he do with the carp he catches?

"I eat them. I fry them with oil, adding onion, salt and tomatoes," he said, noting the ones he usually catches average about 10 to 15 pounds.

As he was talking, one of his three poles started bobbing, indicating he had a fish on. He played it for about five minutes, but lost it when the line got tangled with something underneath the bridge.

At first, Rana Tek, a native of Bhutan, thought he had a fish but soon realized his fishing line was snagged in the Seneca River while fishing from the Baldwinsville bridge Sunday evening. Mike Greenlar | [email protected] 

Gardner said as the summer progresses the crowds that fish off the bridge will grow. Sometimes they'll be so many anglers it's difficult to cast, he said.

Monday night he caught about a 3-pound sheepshead (drum), which he gave to Gabriel, who tossed it into a cooler in the back of his SUV.

At the far end of the bridge, Jacob Neely, a passerby, had noticed that Gabriel's unattended rod with the 80-pound test line was about to get pulled over the bridge's railing. "You got a big fish on," he yelled as he grabbed the rod and and began reeling the fish in.

Gabriel's friend, Lemi Nsengiyumva, ran to Neely's side, while Gabriel ran back to his SUV to fetch a primitive net - a wash tub with a hole in the bottom that allows it to sink and a rope tied to its handle to its handle.

Nseengiyumva lowered the wash tub from the bridge into the river. "Try to get it near its head," said an excited Neely as the fish, a huge carp, put up a good fight.

Neeley holds up the big carp he reeled in and landed on Gabriel's pole.David Figura | [email protected] 

After repeated failed tries of attempting to lift the carp out of the water with the wash tub, Neely went to Plan B. He handed the rod to Gabriel and hopped over a fence at the bridge's end, grabbed on to a pipe and slid down a 12-foot high wall. Gabriel then handed him the rod once he was down. Neeley walked along a ledge underneath the bridge and disappeared for a couple of minutes.

The shirtless, 23-year-old Baldwinsville resident soon emerged on the other side of the street, holding Gabriel's rod and the huge carp by the gills - a fish that he estimated weighed more than 40 pounds.

"You guys have a scale? I caught a carp out of here once that weighed 41 pounds, and this one is definitely bigger than that," he said.

After pictures were taken with Neely holding the fish, Gabriel took the carp and walked it back to his vehicle. Neeley stood, shaking his head in disbelief.

"You see what those guys are using for sinkers? Rocks wrapped in a small plastic bag. Unbelievable," he said. "To think I just stepped out here to smoke a cigarette. That made my night."

SUGGESTIONS NEEDED:

I've profiled 10 CNY shoreline hot spots since beginning this series last summer? Do you have a suggestion for a location I should visit and write about? Send your ideas to me at [email protected]

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog