Taylor Pond & The Area

[DirtTime]

I was 12 the first time we camped at Taylor Pond. It was early May, and my sisters boyfriend wanted to go up to the area. We almost camped right along side a major road, near Franklin Falls. Then my sister and my mom made a point that there were kids ( myself and my sisters boyfriends daughter ) and it wasn't a good idea. So we started looking for better accommodations. One place we stopped at, a private camp ground on Franklin Falls Pond was disgusting. It smelled like rotting fish and the trash cans were over flowing, sorry, I do not recall the name of this place, and don't really want to. We ended up in Ausable Forks, and started driving up Silver Lake Rd. . If you have beet too or past Taylor Pond, the sign is small. The sign caught my eye and i half blurted/yelled "What about that place!?" Mainly because as a kid being in a car for close to 7 hours I was at my breaking point. LOL

We drove down in and the place was/is awesome! So we spent the weekend there. Black flies tore the hell out of us. We didn't do much fishing that trip, but did get some info on what to use on that lake and how to use it. Med Christmas Trees with a worm off the backside. We bought a bunch. Never really used them that weekend. But we made plan to go back for a week for the 4th of July. Water craft back then was a canoe with a small 2-cycle trolling motor. It wasn't flat back, they had a bracket that attached to the canoe and the motor offset on the side.

 

4th of July week, we hammered the rainbows, landlocked salmon, and even caught a few small lakers. We fished some MF'N hairy conditions too. Three foot rollers in a canoe trolling cross lake with make you ponder the meaning of life, even at 12 years old, LOL. We met a bunch of people, made friends, and just had a great time.

We went back ever year for the 4th as a group until I was 17. Back then it was a community sort of, mainly the same people every year, and we would have little pot luck get together's often. Pan fish chowders, fried bullhead and trout, venison ( sometimes ), burgers, hot dogs, a ton of food actually. 

The two people that stick out the most we met up there were Red ( I cannot for the file of me remember his real name ) and his wife Betty. They were like a TV sitcom, two of the best people I had the pleasure of knowing, I hope their souls are at peace. Red and his son even made the drive down our way ( we hunted Summit and Jefferson back then ) to deer hunt. I wasn't old enough to hunt deer, 15, but my sisters BF was adamant I get used to being on stand alone, just couldn't carry my shotsun. I was on one side of a pond and Red on the other. About an hour in I hear this odd "ss-crack". I look in Red's direction and see nothing but a huge cloud of smoke. He touched of his old flint-lock. Smoke clears and there he stands, looks over at me, spits Apple Jack juice out and yells "I missed that doe!". I couldn't help but laugh. Yeah, this part isn't about Taylor itself, but about the people I met there and a time shared that's lodged in my memory.

 

Back on track, sorry.

 

We always hammered the fish on Taylor. Did OK on the Au Sable a few times, and did OK at times on Union and Franklin Falls.

 

When I was 15, my sister and her B/F got a bigger more stable boat. So we could troll with three people, and we always limited out. On the days I didn't go out with them, I would fish from shore and catch a tom of Yellow Perch. At night, sometimes I would fish for bullhead, and usually caught a good amount of edible keepers. I would also go get me some bullfrogs, they were huge up there.

At 17, the family annual camping started to drift away. But, my mom still took me for that 4th of July week. No boat ( they hadn't started renting them back them ), for a few years. It was a tradition, and it was a family tradition then my mom or myself wanted to let slip away.

I am only going to mention one thing about being up there in my early 20's ( x-wife etc. ). My mom caught the biggest Yellow Perch of her life. I rented a rowboat, we did some trolling, I rowed. Fish were caught, but after a few hours my arms were super tired ( When I said I rented a rowboat, I rented it everyday, and I fished like a maniac ). Rowed back near the campground area, and threw the rock I made as a makeshift anchor over the side. After some time my mom yells "Holy Shit! This isn't a little one!". She gets it in and it's a pretty nice Perch, close to 10 inches. There were very few times I remember seeing my moms face light up, but this was one of them. I was proud of her, if that makes sense.

There was a gap from when I was 22 until I was 29, which was the last time I was up there. That was the last camping trip I took with my mom. Yes, I was 29 and went camping with my mother just the two of us. Haven't been back since.

 

That place, the area, the people I met, just have a special place in my heart.

 

Yeah, I'll get to the questions I have later. I need some air and a beer.

[DirtTime]

There are some other areas up there we ( or I myself ) were ever never able to find public access too. I haven't looked at a map, I think one was Mud Pond (?), Slush Pond, I will have to look up a map to be be more clear on some of them. I know some of the roads up that way are labeled Adirondack Park Reserve, they are scattered and all over the place.

Would love to read about access to the smaller lakes and ponds up in that area.

[REDNECK4LIFE32]

Mud pond is on the frankli n Clinton county border in the town of riverview it's a 2 or 3 mile trail to the actual pond. . The saranac has a special trout fishing regulation up th are artificial lures only on the river. Slush pond is on route 30 in Duane or Paul Smith's. Never fished it. But if you have a canoe and ain't afraid of a carry black pond of kees e mi lls rd in Paul Smith's loaded with windfall trout and brookies make the trip to the back pond lots of good fishing. Buck pond camp ground and lake kis saqua is another great fishery. Northern bass salmon trout walleye languish its located in onchiota.

Edited August 11, 2018 by REDNECK4LIFE32
Misspelled

[DirtTime]

Thanks for the info.

[The_Real_TCIII]

I enjoyed driving the area this morning. To me nothing beats seeing this on Waze “We don’t know where this road goes “ lol


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[The_Real_TCIII]

By the way Rob, your mom sounds awesome


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[REDNECK4LIFE32]

You must be up here cuz I see black brook l ol. Gonna be on lake Champlain tomorrow at point at Roche state park with friend in there boat. Let me know. Monday I'm free.