Jump to content

My 2022 fishing recap

WNYBuckHunter

By WNYBuckHunter,
in Fishing

 Share

Recommended Posts

WNYBuckHunter Experienced

WNYBuckHunter

Posted
Posted

I haven’t been posting a whole lot on here for a while, as life has been incredibly busy for me. It was a great season of fishing for me, both with tournaments and fun fishing. I started the year out trading in my old 18 1/2 ft Stratos on a 2019 Phoenix 21PHX. I loved my Stratos, but I fish a lot of bigger water, and wanted something larger that did a better job in rough water, and there are few bass boats that do that job better than the PHX series. I drove all the way to KY to score the deal that I did, and saying that I love this boat is a tremendous understatement. 
 

3E2CD500-FD02-4F95-BA2D-A179C75DEC3E.jpeg

BC15DAAD-3F0A-418A-A14E-535844DA6BB1.jpeg

99E2AD8A-BF39-49CC-866D-4AF44E178091.jpeg

18CDAB17-76F5-4709-BF18-76C65F6E86C4.jpeg

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
WNYBuckHunter Experienced

WNYBuckHunter

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Things slowed down for me a bit over the summer, due to an unexpected kitchen renovation that popped up and health issues with my mom, so I wasn’t able to get out as much as I’d have liked. My tournaments suffered, as I wasn’t able to pre-fish any of them. I ended up last on a couple, and then hung around the middle of the pack for most. I did have a 4th place finish later in the season. 

I was able to fish every tournament except 1, which I missed due to my son having a hockey tournament in PA. This past weekend was our Classic tournament, which I qualified for with my win in the first one. We ended up holding it at Silver Lake on Saturday, and it was a windy mess of super tough fishing. Half of us ended up with a skunk, and just a hair over 5lbs took the win. I was just happy to qualify for it. 
 

Now it’s on to some fall fun fishing and maybe an open or two before I put the boat to bed for its long winter nap!

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
wolc123 Grand Master

wolc123

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

Silver sort of sucks doesnt it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I haven’t been there in a few years, but we use to hammer the northern pike there in May. We also caught a few walleyes, at that time, and did ok on largemouth bass in the summer.  We took many limits of northerns, but maybe only one or two of bass.  

 I can only remember catching one smallmouth bass in that lake, but it was a real good one (maybe 5 pounds), more than 40 years ago, the first time that my uncle took me pike fishing there in May.  Of course, the season was not open yet, so we had to let it go.  I did get a picture of it.  It hit a big pike shiner, below a bobber, up near the NE corner.

My daughter and I got skunked the last time that we went there on the second Saturday in May, about 4 years ago (trying for pike).  I have not heard many good reports from there in recent years.  
 

My sister lives 5 minutes from the lake, and my next door neighbors growing up had a cottage there, so I spent many days on that Lake, probably more than any other water in the state.  
 

I bought my boat from the big marina down on the sw corner of the lake 33 years ago, and fished the spring tournament that they had for customers for several years.  
01A1A672-08AE-4ACD-8FF0-643468AA99E1.thumb.jpeg.d8e3620e9413e3956ae6231a742d3e15.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
WNYBuckHunter Experienced

WNYBuckHunter

Posted
  • Author
Posted
22 hours ago, Lawdwaz said:

Besides the boat launch and pleasure boaters, Silver Lake is great.  Lol

 

Nice job on the fishing John.  Planning on hunting much this year?

Yeah once Crossbow opens up. Still having issues with my right shoulder, which keeps me from drawing my bow properly. 
 

I’ve been out after yotes a few times already. No luck yet. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
WNYBuckHunter Experienced

WNYBuckHunter

Posted
  • Author
Posted
21 hours ago, wolc123 said:

I haven’t been there in a few years, but we use to hammer the northern pike there in May. We also caught a few walleyes, at that time, and did ok on largemouth bass in the summer.  We took many limits of northerns, but maybe only one or two of bass.  

 I can only remember catching one smallmouth bass in that lake, but it was a real good one (maybe 5 pounds), more than 40 years ago, the first time that my uncle took me pike fishing there in May.  Of course, the season was not open yet, so we had to let it go.  I did get a picture of it.  It hit a big pike shiner, below a bobber, up near the NE corner.

My daughter and I got skunked the last time that we went there on the second Saturday in May, about 4 years ago (trying for pike).  I have not heard many good reports from there in recent years.  
 

My sister lives 5 minutes from the lake, and my next door neighbors growing up had a cottage there, so I spent many days on that Lake, probably more than any other water in the state.  
 

I bought my boat from the big marina down on the sw corner of the lake 33 years ago, and fished the spring tournament that they had for customers for several years.  
01A1A672-08AE-4ACD-8FF0-643468AA99E1.thumb.jpeg.d8e3620e9413e3956ae6231a742d3e15.jpeg

There was another tournament there when we were on Saturday. Chatting with one of the guys, they had the same tournament there last year, on the same weekend, winning bag was 24lbs. I have seen lots of tournament reports this past summer that had bags in the 20-22lb range with some 6+lb fish coming in. They are there, just need to know where to find them. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
wolc123 Grand Master

wolc123

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, turkeyfeathers said:

Salt water drum are considered good eating.  Lake Erie tuna aka freshwater drum NOT so much

They are not bad, but there is very little meat on them.  That’s probably why they are such piss poor fighters, compared to comparably sized bass.  
 

A long time ago, my wife and I went down to the Dunkirk area on Lake Erie for an overnight camping/fishing trip.  The only food that we brought was a few potatoes, figuring we would catch enough fish to eat.

We couldn’t get into any bass or walleye that day.  Rather than starve, we kept what we thought was plenty of sheephead for us, and the crew back at the hunting/fishing club, that I belonged to back then.  We had done this several times previous, always catching plenty of bass, and the guys would help themselves to all that they wanted.

Fortunately, those 3 or 4 camp “regulars” all turned up their noses and went back in the cabin, when they saw us cleaning the sheepheads.  I couldn’t believe how little meat there was on those fish.  Less than half of what you would get from an equal length bass.
 

There was just enough for my wife and I, to eat all that we could, and we had kept at least (10) of them.  I kept the smaller ones, because I thought they would taste better, probably 12-14” average size.   We added a little extra garlic and cayenne pepper and they tasted just fine.  That was the only time I ever ate sheephead.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Pygmy Experienced

Pygmy

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, DoubleDose said:

Interesting.  Doesn't look anything like a salt water Sheepshead or Drum.  

Actually, as far as fins, head shape, mouth, etc. the freshwater drum has many similarities to both red drum (redfish) and black drum... They sure don't resemble the vertical black barred  salt water fish called  "sheepshead"... I don't know if they are even related...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...