Fishing the Mohawk

[dgriffin]

The DEC has published the 2009 Trout Stocking Schedules on the web:

www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/23303.html


I notice there are stocking locations on the Mohawk in Rome and Western.
I've never thought of trout fishing the Mohawk, usually keeping to the West Canada when I come up. Is the Mohawk any good in those areas?

[Clipper]

The Mohawk used to be a great trout fishery when I lived in Point Rock in the seventies,but I haven't fished it in years. I have caught nice trout below Delta Dam and above the route 26 bridge, in that short section of riffs. I also have fished a lot from Ava to West Leyden, and there were not an abundance of trout to be caught, but the trout you caught were not recently stocked, were of good size, and were fun to stalk and catch. I have never mastered fly fishing, but I love to cast a minnow or a worm upstream and across, and let it float down on a light line and a split shot. I learned to fish from my Dad and Grandpa, and they both could lay a fly wherever they wanted. I was never good at it, and when I got old enough to fish my myself, I abandoned the fly rod, and stuck with light and ultralight spinning gear.

If you fish above the little dam in West Leyden, you will encounter Northern Pike among other species.

Go West out of West Leyden, towards Osceola, and fish Fish Creek above the reservoir, where the creek runs under the steel bridge, you will find some monster trout. I have only walked the creek for approximately a mile north of the bridge, but have caught some monster browns in there.

There is also some great trout fishing near Point Rock where Fish Creek crosses the Cole Hill Road. Point Rock Creek is also a great little fly fishing stream, from Fish Creek upstream, and most of it can be waded and accessed with permission from landowners.

There is a lot of wonderful trout fishing to the North and West of Rome. Trout can be caught right in the city of Rome in the Mohawk River. I have seen people come up from the River, right next to the Savoy Restaurant on Dominick Street with stringers of trout.

Enjoy expanding your horizons, should you decide to explore some of these streams, and the Mohawk River. I have not fished them in years, but with few exceptions, I always caught trout. Especially when I fished Fish Creek above the Reservoir off of the Osceola Road.

Good luck my friend.

[dgriffin]

Hey, thanks for the tips. Maybe I'll spend an overnight in April or May and do them all.

[Clipper]

You might want to check with Frank before making the trip early in the season. Spring comes late to the Tug Hill Plateau, and the upper reaches of the Mohawk can still be quite swollen and fast well into April. Not conducive to wading.Hell, I have fished Lake Delta on the opening day of Walleye season in May, when the weather was far from pleasant, LOL.

I am sure I don't have to tell you to be careful wading early in the season. I fell in the West Canada, just above the Route 28 bridge at Gravesville one year in April. Even with the drawstring pulled tight on my wading pants, enough water got into my waders to make me dangerously hypothermic before I could get to my truck and get to a warm place. Thank god I always carried a wading staff when wading, or I would most likely not have been able to get back to my feet. It is not pleasant sitting on your butt with water up around your armpits, bouncing along a rocky bottom, LOL. I also lost a brand new 6 foot Diawa graphite ultra lite rod, and a gold series diawa ultra lite spinning reel. That was the least of my worries. I would have traded that 70 or 80 bucks worth of gear for dry underwear and hot coffee, had it been offered at the time, haha.

[naegele1]

Dad may not have been around for the fiching in the past few years but i've had to keep up the family tradition for a while since he left LOL

My recommendation would be to stay away from the damn dam on delta I have fished at the base of it and down stream 500 yds or so for the past 5-6 years on and off and it has never been good for trout alot of carp and few bass and such but my friends and i have fished using lures, rooster tails, minnows, worms etc on both sides down thru there and have been unsuccessful at catching a single trout and although i had grown up mainly fishing lakes for bass with dad and didn't really get a lot of trout experience i did learn quite a bit from alot of my friends who fish strictly for trout and fished streams their whole life along side of them i have had tons of luck thru-out the season catching natives, large stocks, and just all around fun fishing regardless of size.

Past few years we've had good luck right behind mazzaferro's just off black river blvd i cant remember that rd right there dad prob remembers the rd that goes around the base there maybe perimeter rd but im not sure at any rate had luck thru out that area from the bridge/overpass up stream if you park there is a path all the way back there where the mohawk comes around a bend and their as like a "y" there one side is the river and the other is a small inlet of real still water good fishing all along that bend and just down from it you can wade down thru and stop before it gets real deep pulled quite a few good size trout out of there but its only good fishing if the waters aren't raging because they tend to get fast and deep their sometimes in the spring

Also had a lot of luck just outside of sherrill on the main rd that goes past oneida ltd near that old mansion house we fished behind the ltd there quite a bit before the stream goes under the road alot of stock fish but good fun fishing catch alot of fish and be able to keep prob 3rd to half and of those prob get a few to be proud of depending on the season..

The other place i cant be real specific of the directions but its over deansboro way i think its rte 5 or 12 that goes down thru thereand you take a left if you are heading what would be south i think and its the road that brings you down into waterville, sorry i cant be more specific but its been a couple years and i always rode with people who knew where the hell we were at lol anyways that rd that winds down into waterville runs along side of a really good creek for trout fishing its pretty windy and reminds me kinda of the gorge going to boonville cuts into the hills and there are a few spots you can stop and get spring water out of the hillside and if you go about a mile mile and a half down that road thru your first couple of sharp curves there are a couple of spots off the left hand side of the road with old concrete style bridges and parking areas and such and we have pulled alot of fish out of there too...

If all else fails i've also had real good luck if you come out of rome on 49 heading north towards the damn there is this place on the left right before you get to the mohawk you gotta climb a fence to get in there but there's a shit ton of like concrete ponds in there you are bound to catch some fish i swear its like they breed the little suckers there or something they're everywhere LMAO

[dgriffin]

Hey, thanks a lot N3. I'm going to try to find some of those spots on google earth. Appreciate your advice!


And Clipper .... yes, I'remember years ago having forgotten that we were a couple of weeks ahead of your spring and arriving up at Hinckley practically before what we used to call ice-out. Didn't want to break my graphite banging a hole in the ice! Hahahaha!

[Clipper]

I mispoke in my last post. Rt 46 is the route to Delta, not 26. Uh, Andy, don't get caught climbing into that area with the concrete ponds. Dad doesn't do bail.

I have fished all of those places you mentioned at one time or another over the years, but Dave was looking for info on the Mohawk to begin with, and I took him astray to all my favorites North and West of Rome, and now you have taken him South and West of Rome. We will have him busy driving, and not doing much fishing, just to check out the spots we have mentioned.

Dave is a fly fisherman, and not terribly interested in stock trout or a "mess" for the frying pan.

Personally, I can't wait to be back in the area, at least for summers, so I can once again fish all my favorite spots, for trout, walley, bass, and bullheads. As they say, "a bad day fishing is better than the best day at work" or something along those lines. I am getting sick of clay stained lakes, and bass fishing.

[concerned]

The Mohawk is contaminated with human waste and other real bad stuff. I only fish at Price Chopper, even though I always seem to hook the manager.

[dgriffin]

Mar 22, 2009 13:26:53 GMT -5 Clipper said:

Dave is a fly fisherman, and not terribly interested in stock trout or a "mess" for the frying pan.

Actually, I'll take any fish that takes my fly. Stockers are OK,if that's all that bites. I'm not a fussy fly fisherman. I don't do dries only, natives only or all the other onlies I've heard over the years.

Concerned. When I want to eat fish, I go to Dave's in W. Schuyler for a Fish Fry on Friday night. On the stream, I always catch and release. I don't want to kill the poor little things, I just want to terrorize 'em and eat their cousins.

[Clipper]

I guess I am not a real conservationist Dave. I DO eat trout. I only take a couple of eating size and release the rest. I fish with live bait and spinning lures. I enjoy ALL kinds of fishing, but I only eat Trout, Walleye, Bullhead, Crappie, and the salt water varieties. I release all bass and most trout, along with anything I am not going to eat fresh. I don't like keeping and freezing fish. I HAVE frozen trout, whole, submerged completely in a milk carton filled with water and frozen solid, but even frozen in that manner, they still are soggy and not as fresh tasting as they are fresh from the stream.

I learned years ago, that Walleye are best frozen whole, if you want to keep them. I clean them, remove the gills and freeze them whole, and it keeps them fresher. When I thaw them, THAT is when I skin and filet them. It keeps them more moist and flaky. Say Walleye around here, and people say "What? Whazat?"

[bobbbiez]

Concerned is sooooooooo right. I wouldn't eat any fish out of the Mohawk either. Nasty!

Delta is a good lake to catch whatever your heart desires and has yielded some pretty damn big ones of all species. Frank can verify that if he ever drops his line over his party barge.
In the summer, AOK Campgrounds & Marina, has a fishing derby if anyone is interested. I'll find out the date and will let you know when it's planned for this year.

Personally, I love fishing for pickerel. They are a little bony to eat but damn good fighters in the water.
My all time favorite fish to eat is perch. A pain to fillet but nothing
more delicious or sweeter then deep fried fresh perch fillets.

[Clipper]

When I was a kid, we used to rent a camp at Bradley Brook Reservoir occasionally. Along with some lunker bass, there was an abundance of large sunfish, and decent sized perch. If we caught a lot of sunfish and small perch, by Dad and Grandfather would filet the little filets off of each side of the small fish, and thinly slice the larger perch filets. They would drop them into heavily salted water for just a few seconds until they were opague, and then stick them in a big pan of ice and cold water. That would firm them back up. We then would eat our ice cold "poor man's shrimp" with cocktail sauce, some lemonade, and my Gram's potato salad. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm!

The Mohawk is clean anywhere from Chestnut St. upstream Dave, and the trout are edible. I would be very skeptical about eating anything from Chestnut St downstream, LOL. It is like the Canal. They say you can eat the fish out of the Barge Canal but I would not even think about it. I lived in a rented house, just down from lock 20 for a while when I was single. I had my boat in the back yard, tied to a dock on the canal, and I caught some really nice bass and a few pike in the Barge Canal, but I would not even think about eating them. On a warm summer night, the smell alone would make that an easy decision to make, haha.

[dgriffin]

Here is a secret from the dark underside of fly fishing. Many of us don't really like to eat fish all that much.
Hahahahahaha!
The last time I ate trout was in a great restaurant in Pittsburgh in the late 1980's.
Like I said, Dave's in W.Schuyler.
But to me the Uptown had the greatest fish fry back when. The Grille, not Jean's.

[Clipper]

I love a good fish fry also. Haddock is my favorite fish by far, but in season, I do love walleye cooked in a cast iron skillet in butter, and accompanied by homefries with onions.

I don't fish for the food value often, but I do enjoy a fish meal once every week or two, if the fish happen to fall prey to my superior fishing skills, LOL.

Trout is a great camp breakfast with a couple of eggs, and hobo coffee. Nothing like the fresh air, fresh trout and hot coffee to make one appreciate natures goodness.

[frankcor]

When my in-laws had a place on the St. Lawrence, we found a couple of good spots for perch. If the day's fishing hadn't yielded any bounty, we'd head for one of those spots and in 30 minutes could fill a bucket with perch. We take them back to camp, fillet and par-boil them and serve with cocktail sauce. We called the Thousand Island Shrimp.