Indian Summer here: the Gauntlet is thrown down!!!!!

1501 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by PapaJohn, Oct 31, 2003

JOHN G

Discussion Starter · Oct 30, 2003

we are beginning a stretch of classic Indian summer....

waters have turned over......

weather will be pleasantly stable for the the current week extending into the weekend.....

so what is the Gauntlet???

here it is: IF YOUR WATER FAILS TO PRODUCE IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS, ESPECIALLY THIS WEEKEND THERE ARE ONLY TWO POSSIBILITIES:

1. YOU DONT REALLY KNOW HOW TO FISH THAT WATER AT THIS TIME OF THE YEAR!

2. YOUR WATER IS SIMPLY NOT A GOOD FALL LAKE.....

Now: examine those two possibilities......

I know scores of people from this board who are simply excellent anglers and Im sure many of the people I havent met are also....

very few will come into category number one......

category number 2 might be a sad reality for many people......

watch for the reports in the next couple of days, did you read the one Mark G just put up about Croton????

you see, this next week is a benchmark of sorts and tells you a lot about your lake....

Now: if you are convinced that you DO know your water properly and that you are fishing it correct enough or deep enough or whatever, and you are not catching many or good fish, then it is TIME TO THINK ABOUT FISHING OTHER WATERS......PERIOD.....

Mahopac, obviously would come under that category, for whatever combination of reasons it is in it's current funk......

again, a great benchmark period to use as a guide:

if you are one who thought you fished it very proper and so on, and had no results, hold your ideas until you see other reports maybe from your body of water......if you see others tilling the mill at the same time, then maybe you have to re-think what you think you know about your water! LOL.....

believe me, I come into that category for many of these local bodies of water that I have never been able to "uncork" in the mid to late fall...........

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Mark G

· #2 · Oct 31, 2003

Totally agree, John. My two home waters...Kensico and Croton, have been a tale of two lakes lately. Now, I haven't fished Kensico in a week or tow, but it was horrible for a few outings before that. Meanwhile Croton has bee steadily heating up fishing wise. I have a theory that you folks can take for what it is...but the correlation between Kensico and Mahopac, and Croton and say... Whaley leads me to one thing these palces have in common. Weeds...or lack of them.

Croton and Whaley are weedy and primarily largemouth waters. You can get smallies in Croton, but the vast majority of people who target bass get lm.

Meanwhile Kensico and Mahopac are primarily weedless and not coincidentally (in my opinion) smallmouth waters. Both have been very difficult lately.

Here's another observation I've made. In Kensico and Croton this fall I've noticed some interesting reading out over deep water. In Kensico it was gamefish following balls of bait in 60+ feet of water. They may have been mostly trout, but I bet there were smallies out there as well. Today it was huge schools of...something suspended 60-90 feet down in 85-125 feet of water! Smallies? More likely in Croton, which has trout, but not nearly as many as Kensico. It might also have been perch or the rumored landlocked stripers, but my bet is smaliies.

If it is common for smallies to school up and suspend in the fall, then those smallmouth lakes would be awfully hard to fish. I can't imagine jigging up those fish suspended off the 6th drop off from 85-125 feet! Perhaps a 2 oz. Senko jig? Anyway...just a couple thoughts...

I will try Kensico again this fall, but it's hard to leave Croton the way it's producing lately...

Mark

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JOHN G

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 31, 2003

Mark, in your journey towards becoming a thinking man's fisherman, you are steadily on the right track in the way that you are both noticing and calculating the various phenomena that you encounter on the water!!!!

your observations about the weeds may be Right on the mark.......

makes sense....

let us see what other reports filter in........

if your observation hold water, then I would expect the following waters to be much tougher now:

Swinging Bridge
Lillinonah
Mahopac
Kensico

might not apply in all cases.......

but must be a factor......

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Johnkud

· #4 · Oct 31, 2003

John , my friend , the Ashokan is a circus !! Gets insane this time of year . The hits actually HURT ! Savage , mean , bigger class of fish and 2 on a lure is common ! MANY MANY times a second smallie will try and steal the " bait" from the mouth of the first hooked fish . Quality fish with attitudes

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JOHN G

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 31, 2003

again, the combination is there John: a great fall lake and a great angler that fully knows how to exploit it.....the results: well, you know that my man!!!!!!

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MikeM

· #6 · Oct 31, 2003

john,
What do you expect ! Mark is another bio. major.........
Good job

MikeM

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PapaJohn

· #7 · Oct 31, 2003 (Edited)

I'll pick up the gauntlet...

John, I can't resist getting out in this weather. I plan to fish Saturday and Monday (took a day off

). Possibilities on the list for me include Long Pond Lake and Stissing Mountain. I'm relatively new to both of these waters, so I'm really not sure how well I know how to fish them in the Fall. Last October is when Jared's brother caught his 6+ on Long Pond though. I'll let you guys and gals know how I do.

added 11-1-2003, 11:00 pm
John G, I think I picked up the gauntlet OK, check out my report on Stissing Mountain Lake.

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