Hudson River Fishing Report – Thursday, October 29, 2009
After last Saturday’s monsoon rainstorm it’s
easy to see why some anglers would be very wary about coming back to fish the Hudson River this weekend. After a Saturday
of fairly mild rain the river valley got pounded for over two hours with a truly torrential rain. It was the first time I
had actually been on the NYS Thruway and witnessed all traffic voluntarily slow down to 40 – 45 mph.
Anyway,
the nice clean waters of the Hudson and its tributaries suffered the after effects of all that rain. By first light on Sunday
morning 80 percent of the fishable water had turned to mud… and THEN the accompanying cold front finished passing through
to apply the final “coup de grace.” Even though it was a complete disaster for most of the fishermen participating
in the Rip Van Winkle Bassmasters tournament there always is someone who does well. The first place limit catch(7 bass) weighed
in at 20+ lbs, and second place was 18+ (the RIVER BASIN TEAM of John Imbesi and Steve Daley). I don’t know the exact
number but I do know that there were very few limits caught. Whenever you see a winning weight average out to less than 3
pounds per bass you know that it was a tough day on the water.
Then, as if to add fuel to the fire (or - more water
to the river) yesterday’s storm proved far more intense than originally anticipated – it dumped 2 inches of rain
throughout most of the river valley… and here in Catskill it blessed us with an 3 additional inches. Presently all
the tributary creeks are running muddy again.
Hopefully by this weekend the creeks should all be fishable once
more but there is no doubt that the Hudson itself will still be muddy. This morning the reports from the river were of a water
temperature running around 51 degrees. Just now I went down for a look-see and the muddy water clarity was a maximum of 6
inches - certainly not ideal.
If you are planning to fish the Orange County Bassmasters Open Partners Tournament
here in Catskill this Sunday, good luck. The best plan would probably be to stick to the creeks, or anywhere you can find
some cleaner water. But, if you’re going to fish in the murk itself throwing some larger, slower running but noisy crankbaits
might be a good idea. That’s what the second place team did last Sunday. If you do want to drag the bottom - some larger
profile offerings could just be the ticket (you might consider poking a rattle of two into them). There will be tournament
registration at the Catskill ramp on Sunday morning, probably starting at around 5:30 a.m.
The next 3 weeks will
see the river’s water temp dip down into the low 40’s. In the river the fall contingent of stripers will disappear
during the next couple of weeks. In the Catskill Creek the smallies will continue to arrive and congregate, joined in a few
weeks by a few of the earlier migrating walleyes. Open-water fishing will still be with us for weeks to come.
Here
on our Hudson River the NY bass season officially closes at the end of November - but for the heartiest anglers the new state
regulations allow “catch and release” fishing for bass on waters other than the river, all the way thru until
the 3rd Saturday next June when the regular season once again opens.
With the conclusion of the Orange County
Bassmasters event we here will also be slacking off with our weekly reports. If something noteworthy happens prior to the
start of next year’s striper run we’ll post it here so be sure to check back every once in a while. We anticipate
starting to take entries into our striper contest sometime in mid-February.
Good fishing - Tom G
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Hudson River Fishing Report – Thursday, October 22, 2009
Here’s a description of what’s
presently happening on the river -
This past Tuesday morning the 7 a.m. river temperature was tickling the 52 degree
mark on my Eagle sonar as a friend and I decided to get in a couple of hours of fishing before work. Nippy outside? In the
low 40’s at that hour. But even though we hadn’t even wet a line yet we knew that the fish would be real active
and the present discomfort would be well worth it.
The tide was about an hour into the fall when my partner and
I made our first stop at an inundated rock pile. After about half a dozen casts my 3/8 ounce white with a single gold Colorado
blade spinnerbait located the rocks I’d been looking for, and then a 2 pound smallie exploded from the water 3 times
before coming to the boat. Four casts later a three pounder, a real beaut with belly bulging from eating copious amounts of
shad and herring minnows, also made it to the net. A great start!
Our next stop was a scattered row of rocks just
starting to uncover. On the very first cast, as the spinnerbait reached the end of the rocks, it was inhaled by a four pound
largemouth. Again, belly just bulging! After a few more casts to the shallower rocks we switched to grubs to get deeper and
hooked a hefty fish that immediately decided to wrap around some submerged structure... and stay there.
Moving
further along we came to a “sweep”. This is what we call an out-jutting of land being swept by a moving tide.
The “sweep” can be the up current side of a point but does NOT necessarily have to be on a point, and that was
the situation there. My partner switched to a weighted dark colored tube and I went to a weighted wacky rigged Senko. We had
a blast. 7 smallies came from that sweep, three of which were in the 3 pound class and one which was even bigger. Those fish
were all fat and obviously feeding heavily.
The outflow from a “suckhole” was the next spot fished
and produced 4 nice smallies, all around 16 inches. Here we were using a Norman Deep Little N and a Lewis Rat-L-trap.
Our last stop was a section of rip-rap shoreline just down from some larger weed flats. The smallmouths there were also
ravenous. We were forced to stop after catching 6 there, the largest over 18” long. All these came on the Senko and
the tube. Then it was time to get back to Catskill and open the River Basin for the day. What a great morning!
Now,
don’t get me wrong – you won’t have action like this all the time but the odds of it happening are the best
RIGHT NOW. The river fish are fattening up for the winter and you are liable to catch them on anything you have in your tackle
box - the lures mentioned above just happen to be among my favorites.
The water temperature will probably drop
down to about 50 degrees or less by this coming Sunday as a cold front passes through on Saturday. The fishing success ratio
for the contestants in this Sunday’s Rip Van Winkle Bassmasters Open Partners tournament out of Catskill will probably
suffer because of this. But, it certainly will not diminish the enthusiasm of the fishermen competing.
Not only
is the main river still producing nice fish but now the tributary creeks are seeing an goodly influx of larger fish. With
the copious numbers of big bass we heard about being caught this morning, the word about creek fishing is best described as
WOW! It should be a great tournament and you can still participate since the late registration fee of $125 can be paid at
the launch ramp at Catskill Sunday morning prior to the “safe light” start. Good luck. Tom G
***************************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report - Thurs, Oct 15, 2009
Absolutely fantastic… that’s what last weekend’s
word on black bass fishing in the Hudson River was. The smallmouth bite was on BIG TIME and though the largemouth catch appeared
to be about normal for this time of year I did see a big 6 pounder anchoring Greene County Bassmasters’ John Imbesi’s
17+ pound limit bag. This Bassmasters group also set a record for themselves last weekend when ALL members of the club weighed
in a limit catch. Those 5 fish limit weights ranged from 11 pounds all the way up to 17 ½.
From talking
with the group it appeared that the most productive lures used were Norman’s crankbaits, jigs, Gulp baits, and spinnerbaits.
Other than some of the fish that might have come out of creeks, most of the catch came off main river hard structure. A side
bonus for them was finding the fall run of stripers to now be in our section of the river - several of the group reported
catching linesiders up to about 30 inches in length
For all practical intents and purposes the chestnut beds in
our central section of the tidewater Hudson are gone, perhaps a few plants might still be holding on by their now-withered
stems. That’s the reason the largemouth bass are holding on hard structure – no weeds to relate to. The creeks
are also experiencing some good fish movement and should not be overlooked by anybody looking for some easier action away
from the full tidal flow. The main river temperature had dropped to about 57 degrees last weekend but will probably be a few
degrees cooler than that by this Saturday.
This Sunday was supposed to see the First Bassmasters of Sullivan County
holding an open partners tournament out of Catskill but I really can’t be sure of that. Their website lists it…
but there is no information posted that we can see regarding details for entry. Calling their contact number resulted in no
answer and our inquiry to their E-mail address never received a reply.
This is in stark contrast to the Rip VanWinkle
Bassmasters group which will definitely be holding their annual open partners tournament here the following Sunday, October
25. Not only was my inquiry promptly answered but I was contacted by 2 different club members more than willing to reply to
any questions I had. The Rips are guaranteeing a minimum payback of $1,500 for first place and have a payback schedule for
the top 6 boats as well as lunker. There will be early registration at the Catskill launch ramp site the morning of the Rip’s
event, starting at 5 a.m. The registration fee at the ramp is $125 and includes the lunker fee.
The following Sunday,
November 1, will see the Orange County Bassmasters here for their annual partners open contest. Late registration will be
available for that event in the morning prior to its start. Tom G
************************************************
Hudson River Update, Friday p.m., October 16, 2009
We just received word from the 1st Bassmasters of Sullivan
County group regarding their Sunday tournament at Catskill. Although their registration fee and payback schedule are still
unknown their message is as follows:
"The event is Sunday October 18th from 7:00AM-3:00PM
We
are opening registration at 5:30AM at the launch (Dutchman's Landing)
We will do a draw at 6:30 AM, anyone
coming after will receive a boat # on a first come first serve basis."
********************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Thursday, October 15, 2009
Absolutely fantastic… that’s
what last weekend’s word on black bass fishing in the Hudson River was. The smallmouth bite was on BIG TIME and though
the largemouth catch appeared to be about normal for this time of year I did see a big 6 pounder anchoring Greene County Bassmasters’
John Imbesi’s 17+ pound limit bag. Smallmouth bass weighing in at over 3 lbs. each were plentiful in the group's catch.
This Bassmasters group also set a record for themselves last weekend when ALL members of the club weighed in a limit
catch. Those 5 fish limit weights ranged from 11 pounds all the way up to 17 ½.
From talking with the group
it appeared that the most productive lures used were Norman’s crankbaits, jigs, Gulp baits, and spinnerbaits. Other
than some of the fish that might have come out of creeks, most of the catch came off main river hard structure. A side bonus
for them was finding the fall run of stripers to now be in our section of the river - several of the group reported catching
linesiders up to about 30 inches in length
For all practical intents and purposes the chestnut beds in our central
section of the tidewater Hudson are gone, perhaps a few plants might still be holding on by their now-withered stems. That’s
the reason the largemouth bass are holding on hard structure – no weeds to relate to. The creeks are also experiencing
some good fish movement and should not be overlooked by anybody looking for some easier action away from the full tidal flow.
The main river temperature had dropped to about 57 degrees last weekend but will probably be a few degrees cooler than that
by this Saturday.
This Sunday was supposed to see the First Bassmasters of Sullivan County holding an open partners
tournament out of Catskill but I really can’t be sure of that. Their website lists it… but there is no information
posted that we can see regarding details for entry. Calling their contact number resulted in no answer and our inquiry to
their E-mail address never received a reply.
This is in stark contrast to the Rip VanWinkle Bassmasters group
which will definitely be holding their annual open partners tournament here the following Sunday, October 25. Not only was
my inquiry promptly answered but I was contacted by 2 different club members more than willing to reply to any questions I
had. The Rips are guaranteeing a minimum payback of $1,500 for first place and have a payback schedule for the top 6 boats
as well as lunker. There will be early registration at the Catskill launch ramp site the morning of the Rip’s event,
starting at 5 a.m. The registration fee at the ramp is $125 and includes the lunker fee.
The following Sunday,
November 1, will see the Orange County Bassmasters here for their annual partners open contest. Late registration will be
available for that event in the morning prior to its start. Tom G
**********************************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Wednesday, October 07, 2009
(We created this report on Wednesday but were
unable to post it til today due to high winds knocking out our cable internet)
The Hudson River is continuing to
provide excellent black bass fishing right now. You can expect to find the water temperature around the 60 degree mark at
first light, warming up about three degrees by early afternoon. If colder weather does get here by the weekend you could expect
to see a drop of another couple of degrees.
The water clarity has been somewhat off lately but nowhere has it been
bad. Earlier this week the Troy area was reported to be somewhat dingier than the almost crystal clear water we usually expect
from up there… perhaps upriver dredging going on? Down in the Bethlehem area we found a see-thru visibility of almost
2 feet, Coxsackie was a hair less than that. Catskill appeared to be about 1 ½ feet and similar conditions, 1 ½
to 2 ½ feet, existed all the way downriver to Norrie Point. River debris was minimal but we did spot a couple of floating
logs mixed in with the copious amounts of dying-off water chestnut and eelgrass mats.
Last Sunday saw quite a bit
of boat traffic in the afternoon, mostly from cruiser type boats, but even this was a far cry less than the hustle and bustle
of a normally busy weekend. But that’s in the past – this upcoming Columbus Day weekend traditionally sees a lot
of the larger cruiser boats traveling down river to their home ports so you can expect to have some pretty choppy boating
out there.
Good largemouth fishing is still to be had at the harder structures adjacent to the now-disappearing
weedbeds. Additionally, there have been reports of groupings of bass staging close to the mouths of the main feeder streams,
both large and smallmouths. What’s more, some largemouths up to about 4 ½ lbs are now up in the feeder creeks
- but you might have to wade through a passel of smaller fish to grab one of them. Crankbaits have produced extremely well,
but so have spinnerbaits, grubs and smaller worms and Senkos.
Smallmouths are finally starting to get into the
chunky size – the River Basin boat took first place in last Sunday’s Greene County Bassmasters’ Hudson River
tournament with over 15 pounds of smallmouths, and the 2nd place finisher came in at just a hair under 15 pounds with his
5 smallmouth bass limit. We’re talking 3 pound average smallmouth bass weight, something we don’t usually see
during most of the year. And as a crowning touch, when we were out on the Hudson on Monday, mixed in with the 3 pound largemouths
and smallmouths we took was a smallie that tipped our scale at 4 ¼ pounds. The structures we fished on Monday were
just gravel points and sweeps; lures used were mainly 3 and 4 inch Senkos and small Gulp minnows.
As a bonus for
some of you fishermen out there – presently there are some fall run stripers in our mid-Hudson region. Up this far in
the river we generally don’t find any over three feet long but 24 to 29 inchers are a definite possibility at any of
the outflowing suckholes.
We anticipate the excellent main river black bass fishing to continue at least until
the water temperature drops down into the low 50’s, at which time most of the action will switch into the creeks. It’s
been a terrific past month of fishing and you really should try to take advantage of it before the season ends.
There
are three “open partners” contests still coming up this fall, all out of Catskill. You can sign up for them at
the ramp prior to their morning start but make sure you have your entry fee and boat insurance certificate along with you.
This weekend’s Greene County Bassmasters event is a closed, club only, contest but the three yet to come “opens”
are as follows:
October 18 – Sullivan County Bassmasters partners open
October 25 – Rip Van Winkle
Bassmasters partners open
November 1 – Orange County Bassmasters partners open
This Sunday’s tides
at Catskill: high – 9 a.m; low – 3:20 p.m. Tom G.
*******************************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Saturday, October 03, 2009
The Hudson River is well into its excellent fall
transition mode as is evidenced by the results of last week’s Bergen Bassmasters Hudson River Challenge tournament.
The results posted below are from their news release. The river is presently running in the mid-60 degree range with water
clarity ranging from 2 to 4 feet. Since the water still is quite warm the larger smallmouths, the 3 ½ to 4 ½
pounders, have yet to make a real strong appearance but good sized largemouths have been around for several weeks now.
The 6.18 pound largemouth caught last Sunday (see below) is an extremely exceptional bass for the river and of a size
that only seems to turn up in the fall. The heaviest river largemouth we here at the River Basin have ever seen, and certified,
was a 6 lb 12 oz fish caught in a national Bassmasters tournament back on October 2, 1986 by Harold Allen of Mississippi.
Allen took that fish on a buzz bait.
Cash Pay Outs to first 8 places - Non Cash Pay Outs from 9th to 24th
Place
Largemouth Lunker JJ Ziolkowski / Craig Henry 6.18
Smallmouth Lunker Gary Menchen / Wayne Mahood 2.98
Teams
Fished 45
Total Fish Weighed 177
Total Fish Released 177 (100%)
Total Fish Weight 466.87
Hours Fished
8 (7 to 3)
Average Fish weight 2.64
Average # Fish per Team 3.93
Average Weight per Team 10.15
Weather:
Mid sixties, cloudy with occasional drizzle and light breeze from south (perfect fishing weather)
Water temps: Mid sixties
Notes:
No doubt threat of bad weather turned off some fair weather fishermen - too bad, they missed out on a
great day. Even with a 15 inch minimum, the fishing was above average.
Over half the field (24 of 45 Teams) received
cash or a prize pay out!
The TBF c/o Robert Cartridge provided their professional 38 foot weigh-in trailer complete
with stage, sound system, software program and staff of three.
Joe Sancho arriving from a Top Ten Stren Series
finish at Lake Gaston picked up Tom Joyce Jr and started the tournament slightly late – They still placed.
Pete Gluszek arriving at noon met with Mike de Avila and cameraman and started the tournament very late. Duo still caught
some fish and successfully filmed a LUNKERVILLE WFN TV episode (date TBA)
Due to a surprise bachelor party, Mike
Iaconelli had to cancel and sent everyone his regards. We appreciate the fact that he promoted the Hudson River Challenge
on his website.
Revenue collected for the USO (Raffle plus Tournament) = Approx $7,500
The top
16 finishers are as listed below:
9/27/09 Results
Place Boater / Rider # Bass Weight
1 JJ Ziolkowski
Jr / Craig Henry 6 24.40
2 Bill Pitt / Bryan Bracket 6 21.40
3 Lance Calhoon / Scott Mitchell 6 20.71
4 Mike
Czaplinski / William Albright 6 20.45
5 Daniel McGrarry / Marc Goldberg 6 16.57
6 Mark Condron / Joe Neumuller 6
16.06
7 Jason Mordhorst / Andy Karcich 6 15.87
8 Eric Solecky / Peter Solecky 6 15.70
9 Mark Mahar / Mike Fastert
6 15.68
10 Bobby Urhig / Jim Mayberry 6 15.56
11 Patrick Melville / Ace Legoff 6 14.84
12 Ted Peck / Ed Klepis
6 14.61
13 Chris Panetta / Dave Juttan 6 14.40
14 Gary Menchen / Wayne Mahood 6 14.15
15 Randy Phelan / Rick
Hoist 6 13.93
16 John Imbesi / Steve Daley 5 13.74
The River Basin was closed most of this past week to allow
us to attend a sporting goods show down in Atlantic City. Most of the purchases we made there were in preparation for next
year’s striped bass run. After the exceptional 2009 year striped bass season, which set new shop records for us as far
as business goes and also for participation in our annual striped bass contest, we bought lots of stuff for next spring’s
event.
This 100% pay-back striper contest resulted in over $11,400 in cash prizes being distributed with the first
place angler winning $5,730. More than 500 anglers entered the event in 2009 and we’re expecting even greater participation
in 2010. Pre-registration is mandatory and must be accomplished before mid-April 2010. Entry forms will be available at the
shop starting sometime in mid-February 2010.
We’ll be participating in the Greene County Bassmasters club
tournament on the river this Sunday so we’ll be able to give you the full scoop on what’s happening on the river
in next week’s report. Tom G
***************************************************
A note on this
Sunday's tournament -
Among the better known fishing pros participating will be Pete Gluszek (boat #2) and Mike
Iaconelli (boat #14). Among local anglers participating are Randy Phelan, John Imbesi, Steve Daley, Jon Rath, Jonny Rath,
Mark Mahar and Mike Fastert.
Should be a great event. Early reports from the river are that the fishing is excellent...
lots of fish! Take off will be after 6:30 a.m. on Sunday morning and the weigh-in will probably start after 2:30 p.m. (I'm
guessing at these times) Tom G, 5 p.m., Friday, September 25, 2009
*******************************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Thursday, September
24, 2009
The river was beautiful this morning. Sure, when I arrived at the Catskill ramp at first light, due to
the fog, the visibility was only about 100 feet but I figured I’d limp into the Catskill Creek and just fish the banks
and any structures there. However, in the 10 minutes it took for me to eat my donut and drink my coffee and prepare the boat
for launch the fog had lifted enough for me to see all the way upriver to the power-line crossing just south of Athens. So
– off I went.
In the scant two hours which I had to fish before going to work I hit three different spots,
and all of them produced something. The first stop, with the tide still rising, was at a submerged rock pile where I started
with a 5” Senko. Somehow I blew my first 2 hits and so decided to try a smaller bait – a 3 incher, which gave
me a 12 inch smallie. Switching over to a 4” Gulp minnow I landed a couple more bronzebacks – a 14 incher and
then a gorgeous 17 ½ incher that had taken up position right under my boat.
The next spot was a bulkhead
about 70 yards or so long. Staying with the 4” Gulp I again blew my first 2 hits so I decided to try a tandem rig –
the 4” high up on the line with a 3” trailing about 18” behind. Fishing this TIGHT ON THE BULKHEAD, about
4 feet deep, I took 4 more fish – 9”, 15”, and 17” smallmouths and then a 16” channel catfish.
At this point the tide had gone slack high, a terrible time for smallmouth fishing, and the sun was starting to burn
through the fog which had become a cloud seemingly hovering just a few hundred feet above my head. Although the situation
was not proper for such a location I went to a “sweep” (current flow on the upper side of a point) and scored
my last fish of the morning – a 12 inch smallie.
8:30 a.m., fishing over, time to go to the shop…
a beautiful morning!
The Hudson is producing quality fishing at this present time. The smallmouths have been moving
shallower and starting to group up and the largemouths are now meandering all over the place, having abandoned their permanent
summer time hiding spots in preparation for the move to their wintering locations. At this time there is a possibility of
catching bass just about everywhere. Still, it is the harder, more distinctive structures which will produce the best in the
long run.
From talking to members of the Greene County Bassmasters who had a tournament on the river last weekend
it seemed that crankbaits were to bait of choice for most of the group and they produced real well. More specifically, the
Norman’s Deep Baby N and Deep Little N in the sparkle blue gel finish appeared to be the most productive. Still, the
winner of the event scored most of his fish on a spinnerbait and over half to catch of the second place finisher came on the
same type lure. Lots of bass were caught by the whole group.
Even though there’ll be a change in the weather
to considerably more fall-type conditions for this weekend we at the River Basin Sports Shop expect the fishing to remain
excellent, and perhaps get even better yet. This morning’s water temperature was approximately 67 degrees and the water
clarity was really good – the least see-thru visibility I saw was about 2 ½ feet and 3 to 4 feet appeared the
norm in most locations.
Suggestions for spots to try this weekend are the same as you’ll see suggested in
the past 3 fishing reports. Nothing adverse has happened out there and the fishing has just gotten even better.
Of
course this weekend, on Sunday, the Bergen Bassmasters are holding the HUDSON RIVER CHALLENGE open partners bass tournament
out of Catskill. The event, which will have a 6 bass per boat limit, is a benefit tournament for the USO and worthy of your
participation if bass tournaments are your bag. It’s not too late yet to sign up since late entries will be taken at
the Catskill ramp on Saturday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. as well as at the ramp on Sunday morning from 4:30 to 6:30 a.m. The entry
fee is $200 per boat and should be accompanied by a copy of your boat’s insurance certificate or policy. Tom G
*********************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Thursday, September 17, 2009
The Hudson appears in great shape for bass fishing right now. You can expect to find first-light water temperatures
in the 67 – 68 degree range, rising to 69 – 70 by mid-afternoon. Water clarity is just about ideal for river fishing,
ranging from about 3 feet on the down-current side of weed flats to about 1 - 1½ feet in most other locations. Floating
hazards appear to be relatively few.
Boat traffic has been slack but might see an increase this coming weekend
since the weather forecast appears to be quite nice. Additionally, the Greene County Bassmasters will be holding a small club
tournament on Sunday and we’re expecting to see anglers pre-fishing for the HUDSON RIVER CHALLENGE open – partners
tournament next weekend.
This is the time of the year when the bass start to enter the Hudson’s feeder creeks.
Although present reports are of a plentiful number of smaller bass therein, not the “hawgs” that tournament angles
are looking for, such locations offer a welcome escape from the main river if the wind out there really kicks up. Furthermore,
even though the smaller fish do dominate you had better believe that there also are larger fish – try deeper, maybe
the 10 to 15 foot levels.
Presently the largemouth fishing around creek mouth structures is continuing to produce
decent action, as are harder structures close by to weed beds. Additionally, the better weedbeds will continue to produce
bass right into the month of October so do not ignore them. The whole gamut of lures to be found in your tackle box is liable
to work right now but loose floating weeds might prohibit the use of some at certain locations. The firetiger patterns in
crankbaits become very popular at this time of year.
Smallmouth fishing continues to be excellent but the real
big fish are still missing. Those 3½ to 4 pound bronzebacks have yet to make their appearance. When the water temperature
drops an additional 6 to 8 degrees they should start to show up. Crankbaits, spinnerbaits, grubs, poppers – all should
work now. Do not ignore the river’s “suckholes” and surrounding rip-rap. Tom G
******************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Presently we are finding the Hudson’s
black bass population right smack-dab in the middle of their fall transition period. I know that the word “middle”
really isn’t accurate here since the change over from summer to winter habitats will still be going on for another 6
to 8 weeks before completion, still it shows that the fish have started to move around and have entered their fall-feeding
phase.
As of this past Monday the river’s temperature was in the 70 to 71 degree range, a great level for
bass activity.
The water clarity was something else though and was entirely dependent upon what section of the
waterway you were on – it was running at just slightly under a foot at Athens and Hudson, about 2 feet at Bethlehem,
3 feet by the chestnut beds at Cementon (Smith’s Landing) and 2 feet at the Saddlebags weed beds. We’ve had a
lot of silt deposited on our shorelines by the excessive rains of the past two months and the wakes from passing watercraft,
particularly at lower tide times, can temporarily drop the see-thru visibility down to mere inches.
Even though
we haven’t had any appreciable rain now for the past 3 weeks there still are some mean looking chunks of wood floating
around out there in the channel. Keep alert.
From this time on there will be less pleasure boat traffic on the
river so fishing conditions during the afternoons should improve. Actually the only time the traffic becomes a real pain is
on the weekends, during weekdays there will only be an occasional pleasure craft to be seen. This situation should last right
thru Columbus Day, a traditional time for the larger pleasure boaters to start packing it in for the year.
Our
observations these past few days were of largemouths hanging around harder rock structures adjacent to weed beds. Even though
it’s possible to catch good largemouths out of any remaining chestnut beds right into the middle of October, the couple
of beds we fished this weekend only seemed to hold a scant number of fish. The hard structures were the better producers.
Lures to try – weedless spoons, frogs and other creatures on the ‘nuts; worms, spinnerbaits and crankbaits on
the hard stuff. The Norman’s Deep Baby N and Deep Little N have been extremely productive.
Smallmouths seem
to be feeding quite strongly on gravel points but the groupings of larger fish have not yet started to appear. Look for the
following characteristics in the better smallie fishing locations – 1) CURRENT (essential), 2) gravel bottom, 3) drop-off
from 4-5 feet into deeper water. Even though you may hope to, don’t expect to find a school of fish on any such location
– most holding spots will have but ONE fish there. Multiple fish are a bonus! Our best smallie producers this past week
were Rebel Pop-r, Norman’s crankbaits, white spinnerbait (gold Colorado blade), Senkos, and Gulp minno.
Your
main feeder creeks to the river are running clear but, surprisingly, a few of the minor creeks such as the Normanskill and
the Vlomankill were observed to be running muddy. These smaller creeks won’t really be affecting the river as a whole,
but they will have a definite effect on the fishing in their immediate down-current side. The way it appears now by this coming
weekend the river should be in great shape for fishing.
The early registration for the upcoming “Hudson River
Challenge” open partners bass tournament out of Catskill on September 27 ends this Thursday (entries must be received
by then) but there will be late registration the morning of the event at the ramp. The late registration will be $200 per
boat, in cash only, and must be accompanied by a copy of the boater’s insurance policy. The pre-tournament boat check
will take place between 5 and 6:30 a.m. at the ramp. The event has a six bass per boat limit. Registration forms are available
at the River Basin Sports shop but must be mailed to Nick Albano at PO Box 674, Union City, N.J. 07087. For additional details
call him at (201) 751-5190 or Bob Murphy at (201) 803-4828. The fishing should be prime for this event. Tom G
****************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Tuesday, September 01, 2009
I don’t know what happened to last
week’s river fishing report, it appears to have gotten lost out there somewhere in the vast reaches of the internet.
Sorry.
As we start the month of September we once more find the Hudson’s waters all murked up due to the
heavy rains of the prior week. The last hurricane did a nice job at that, and with yet another couple of storms brewing in
the Atlantic at the present time who knows what the water will be like next week.
In the meantime the Catskill
Creek has once more returned to normal - if you saw it a mere 3 days ago you would have sworn it would be muddy for the rest
of the year. I’m fairly confident that all the other Hudson feeder streams are now also clean.
The water
temperature has dropped to a much more tolerable level also. 1 to 2 weeks ago it had reached up all the way to the 79 - 80
degree mark, a level at which smallmouths in a livewell stress real bad. However, that danger has now passed and when I was
on the water this past Sunday I was pleased to see my Eagle sonar displaying a 74 degree reading.
The drop in water
temperature at this time of year is also an indication of an upcoming turn-around in the river’s fishing conditions.
Usually the most immediate noticeable effect of this will be in the form of a fog-enshrouded waterway in the early morning.
AUTUMNAL HAZZARD - It’s kind of strange – if you get to the launch ramp immediately prior to it getting
light in the morning there usually won’t be any fog. But – just as day starts to break and it gets light enough
to consider heading out on the water a fog often starts to rise, quickly becoming all enveloping. If you wish to avoid this
scenario plan your excursion in advance by checking the predicted dew point temperature on the national NOAA weather site.
The dew point determines at what temperature fog will form.
Although at times the river’s fog formation will
fake you out usually you can expect fog when the water and air temperature are either the same or within a degree of each
other. This is at the dew-point reading. Clear nights with little wind are very favorable for the formation of fog.
One “foggy” characteristic of the river is spotty fog. For instance – the section of the river between
the power lines south of Hudson and “Four Mile Point” to the north will often become independently fogged up.
This is obviously due to whatever upwelling of the tidal sub-surface water occurs there. Heading north from Catskill the sun
can be brightly shining but if you can see that giant fog cloud up ahead you’d better be darn sure of what you’re
doing before you enter it.
Another type of river fog is actually a “moving” fog which usually occurs
with a change of tide. As the tidal flow changes from one direction to the other it’s possible for the air and water
temperatures to achieve parity and you can actually observe the fog following the moving tidal break. This can be quite a
startling occurrence at times since if you’re concentrating on fishing you might not even be aware of it taking place.
When you look up – BAM! All is white and you can’t even see where you are.
BACK TO THE PRESENT –
Right now the main Hudson is running muddy, but not quite as dirty as it was a scant few weeks ago. In some locations you
will have visibility of as much as a foot or more. We’d have to rate it “fishable and improving but off-color”
as far as black bass fishing goes.
Prior to the last muddying rains the largemouths were definitely active in the
water chestnut beds and on the hard structures immediately adjacent. Smallmouths were similarly active on the many “suckholes”
and current swept gravel points. I saw a nice 16 ½ pound limit of bigmouths taken, as well as another nice 5 ½
pounder that came from the Saddlebags area. I myself put a good 14 pound limit of smallies in the boat. Weedless spoons, tubes,
and rats were good on the ‘nuts and Norman’s crankbaits, spinnerbaits and Gulp minnows worked well on the points.
If you plan on being on the river this weekend try doing it early on whatever day so as to avoid the holiday crowd.
Other than that – enjoy the end of summer. Tom G
******************************************
Hudson River
Fishing Report – Saturday, August 22, 2009
At this past mid-week the Hudson’s waters were at just about
normal summertime conditions. Water clarity ranged from one to two feet depending on the immediate shoreline configuration,
but up to 6 feet or more of depth could be discerned on the down-current side of larger weed beds.
The water temperature
had gained three degrees and was reading all the way up to 79 degrees this past Thursday. Although the amount of floating
hazards (trees, branches, railroad ties, etc,) was quite diminished there still remained a bit more than normal.
River traffic last Sunday was a zoo due to the local annual “Wacky Raft Race” from Athens to Catskill. This
weekend the threat of rain should diminish the number of pleasure craft. Additionally, the Catskill, Coxsackie and Athens
boat ramps should once again become usable… but that is not 100% certain at any time since the powers-that-be seem
to ignore the fact that boaters have no option but to launch their boats at a ramp.
Closing such river access is a great
disservice to not only locals users but also to other visiting boaters who may have driven long distances to drop some money
on our local economy - and then find that they really aren’t welcome here at all. Yeah, “think BIG.”
Friday and Saturday (happening yet today) saw some torrential downpours occur along the mid-river valley region and
this morning the Catskill Creek was running high and very muddy. I have to assume that most other creeks are also experiencing
a similar result from all that rain. Still, the Hudson should remain fishable – just avoid the “down-tide”
side of any creek inlet. That is where you’ll encounter any of that dirty flow.
Prior to the rains we found
that the river’s chestnut beds were producing some decent largemouths and, surprisingly, some good smallmouths along
their outer edges. We fished the “nuts” by dragging a tube over the sparser growth along their edges and then
switched to Pop-r’s to check out the adjoining 5 feet of open water. An occasional fish or two were also taken on spinnerbaits
fished along the outer edge of the weeds.
The showers that have been forecast for this weekend should keep the
hoards off our river and let you enjoy a great day of fishing out there this weekend. I know I’m planning to be out
there. Tom G
***************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Saturday, August
15, 2009
At long last we are seeing a noticeable improvement in the water color of the Hudson’s flow. A week
and a half ago you could barely see down 3 to 4 inches but at the present time the visibility, in most locations, is 1 ½
to 2 feet. Of course it’s a different story out there near the shorelines when you have lower tides – the wakes
from the boats stir up the shallower silt deposited from the atrocious muddy waters of the past two months, cutting the visibility
way down.
The water temperature is also finally starting to get into more of what we’d consider to be summertime
range. At the start of last week it was barely at the 73 degree level but going into this weekend we were seeing 76 degree
readings.
Floating navigational hazards such as logs are always a possibility. Be particularly wary of those loose
floating mats of water chestnuts which start to appear on the waterway each August. These mats tend to gather around, and
stick to, floating wood. The other floating hazards to beware of are jet-skis and any cruiser-boat that throws a wake of more
than 1 ½ feet.
Largemouths are starting to finally get more active and I’m aware of catches with fish
up to 5 pounds in weight being caught this past week. Most such successful catches came from chestnut beds or hard rock structures
immediately adjacent to such beds. These were taken on Norman Deep Little N “gel” crankbaits, jigs, frogs or tubes.
Some smallmouths, surprisingly, were caught around what we usually consider to be largemouth structure such as the
edge of the chestnut beds but, as usual, the suckholes and gravel points produced the best luck. I personally creamed a couple
of beauts on a ¼ ounce Rebel Pop-r this week.
We anticipate good fishing to continue for at least the next
week or so. However, with a couple of hurricanes on the far horizon it’s kind of hard to predict what might happen after
that. Tom G
*****************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Tuesday, August
5, 2009
The Hudson’s waters continue to run extremely muddy at the present time with a see-thru clarity of
about 3 inches. Even though this situation will be slightly improving each day you still have to figure on at least a 2 week
period before there’s a chance of them returning to normal summertime conditions. And… that’s figuring
that there will be no more of those torrential thunder/rain storms moving through our watershed area during the same period.
The water temperature out there this past Monday was running between 72 and 73 degrees, actually quite a nice temperature
for fish activity. With the warmer weather that has finally arrived here it will probably rise a few degrees by this weekend.
Plenty of junk floating down the river at the present time so keep your eyes peeled out.
It’s hard to make
any specific recommendations as far as which lures to use under these conditions. Last weekend I used a spinnerbait to catch
3 gorgeous keeper smallies out there, along with another 6 or 7 fish that didn’t quite come up the river’s 15
inch minimum length. However, I’ve been fishing the river for quite a few years and I hit only my premium spots. Even
so I didn’t get bit for the first five hours of the day and when I finally found some receptive bass they were all in
just 2 separate locations. That makes for a real long day.
Fishing in the same contest as me last Sunday was Tannersville’s
Kevin Clarke. Kevin spent most of the day fishing rip-rap adjacent to a large water chestnut bed and caught a couple of real
beauties – a 5 lb largemouth and a 3 lb smallie. Under the tough conditions out there this was a real feat and earned
Kevin second place in that Greene County Bassmasters event. The top 4 finishers were 1) Gentalen, 2) Clarke, 3) Daley, and
4) Paccione. This same B.A.S.S. group will be out there this Sunday with the 4th event in their 9 tournament schedule. Tom
G
*********************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Friday, July 31, 2009
Well, at the start of this past week the Hudson River’s waters were finally starting to clear up. Just the Friday
before the see-thru visibility at Catskill had been about a foot, but the reports from up in the Albany area had been of clean
water up there. By Monday the cleaner waters had started to arrive here and the water visibility had increased to at least
2 feet – the river fishing was back on!
Then came the torrential rainstorms of Wednesday and Thursday. Many
low-lying districts in the Albany area were flooded, as were many sections here around Catskill and Hudson – a complete
reversal of the improving water conditions took place. Presently there are new flash flood warnings posted here and the NOAA
radar screen shows what appears to be the apocalypse heading straight for us.
Everything considered the best fishing
for all you bass guys for this weekend would be in a nice placid lake somewhere. For any of you with a motor boat the closest
to us here is Copake Lake in Columbia County. I’ve always liked that lake and have caught some hefty largemouths and
smallmouths from there in the past. The only hitch is the fairly steep launch fee that the marina there charges, but then
again – somebody has to pay for the service provided. This is not really a valid gripe.
Shore bound anglers
have several area waters to consider. There’s Green Lake just to the north of Leeds, and up on the mountain top there’s
CD Lane Park in Maplecrest, Colgate Lake in East Jewett and North/South Lake at Haines Falls. For those of you with the necessary
permits – remember the local reservoirs. There’s the Coxsackie Reservoir in Medway, the Potic (Catskill) and Athens
Reservoirs off Schoharie Turnpike in the Earlton area, and the big water up at the far northwest corner of the county –
the Schoharie (Prattsville) Reservoir. Additionally, don’t forget that there are small quarry holes and farm ponds located
all throughout the area.
So there are a few options for local anglers other than the river. Of course I, along
with another handful of bass nuts from the Greene County Bassmasters, have chosen to go out on the big muddy Hudson for a
club tournament this Sunday. Boy, are we going to have fun! Tom G
*****************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Friday, July 24, 2009
Presently the Hudson’s waters are running
at just about the 76-77 degree range, a nice temperature but the river here is still off color with visibility at perhaps
just a little better than a foot. However, the see-thru visibility should be improving fairly quickly as the waters above
Albany have cleared and that cleaner flow will be showing up here pretty soon.
There still is quite a bit of floating
debris out there so vigilance is necessary. Weekend pleasure boaters abound.
The largemouths are finally starting
to establish themselves in the water chestnut beds but the bite has been fairly slow, probably due to the off color water.
Frogs, rats and spoons dragged over the chestnut points and openings should produce some action.
Smallies appear
to be plentiful but the larger (15 inch plus) fish have already become scarce. Try grubs, Senkos and crankbaits along points
that have a reasonable current flow. You should be able to score with some of these little ole’ brown fish. Tom G
*************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Friday, July 17, 2009
As sad as it is to report- the Hudson River in the Catskill vicinity was still running off-color and in the 73 degree range
as of this morning. The dingy waters have been with us for more than two weeks now, much to the consternation of the black
bass fishermen who already had been having a real rough time participating in a sport on waters with the strictest rules in
the state.
The Hudson was always a tough fishery on which to catch a five bass tournament limit but with the imposition
of an onerous 15 inch length requirement about three years ago the outlook for the fishermen changed from one of hopeful expectation
to one of abject surrender. For the majority of anglers the hope of bringing back 5 fish to a weigh-in plummeted to just a
weak prayer that at least one keeper would grace their live well. This adverse state of affairs is now readily illustrated
by the number of fishermen NOT coming to fish this water, as well as by facts such as last weekend’s ABA tournament
on the river having NO limits brought back to the scales.
For almost twenty-five years great efforts were made
to publicize and promote the river as a bass fishery. And, to a great degree, these efforts succeeded. The largest, most prestigious,
bass fishing circuits in the whole nation made the Hudson River a “must” stop on their yearly circuits. These,
in turn, brought the smaller tournaments in to sample the same waters which big-name “pros” were fishing. The
river was alive with fishing boats throughout the summer and fall, and our local motels and eateries, as well as other businesses
up and down the waterway were all benefitting.
Then, a few years ago, the plug was pulled and all those tournaments,
and fishermen, and economic benefits to the area, were sucked down the drain - a 15 inch bass limit was imposed! In our shop
the “bass pros” were no longer to be seen.
Although a non-competitive angler really wouldn’t
understand what a 3 inch increase in the minimum size of a keeper bass means to the tournament fisherman there is one statistic
that fully illustrates the point, one that shows they don’t like it and therefore will fish other waters where they
are not thusly handicapped. PRIOR to the imposition of the 15 inch limit our river was hosting an average of 18 to 20 bass
fishing events at Catskill each year. THIS YEAR there are/will-be only five. We’ve lost 75% of the tournaments coming
here. And, from the look of things and what I’ve been hearing, it appears that next year will be even worse. This state
of affairs really sucks, but the "powers that be" have declared it to be so -come what may. Unfortunately it doesn’t
appear it’s going to change soon. Sorry for the rant – Tom G
*******************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Wednesday, July 08, 2009
The rains of the past couple of weeks have
left all area waters at full level and the forecast of potential thunderstorms during this next week or so probably means
they’ll stay that way. Of course to those trout fishermen who use live worms as bait it seems like this should be a
great time - rain usually triggers a strong feeding reaction in these fish.
Area lakes seem to be producing good
fishing action and access to Green Lake, Colgate Lake, CD Lane Park lake and North South Lake is easy to come by. The same
can be said for area reservoirs such as the Schoharie, Coxsackie, Athens and Catskill. Keep in mind though that fishing these
reservoirs requires obtaining additional reservoir permits from the municipalities that own them.
The Hudson River
at Catskill is presently running at about 72 – 73 degrees, a nice temperature for fishing action. However, the flowage
is extremely muddy with see-thru visibility of just about a couple of inches. This means that the ABA of Pa. & N.J. bass
tournament participants this weekend will probably have a tough time of it. On the bright side though – unless we get
some additional heavy downpours all of the feeder creeks into the river should be entirely fishable this weekend.
As we head into the final few days of the River Basin Sports black bass contest we see the father and son combo of Mike
Sr. and Mike Jr. Proper holding the lead in both the lunker and the five fish categories of the event. Mike Sr.’s 21
¾ inch largemouth is top fish there so far and Mike Jr.’s 5 bass total length of 91 ¾ inches has yet to
be topped. This event ends Saturday at noon. Tom G
********************************
Hudson River Fishing Report
– Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The River Basin will have these special hours for this 4th of July weekend (Tom
IS married): Sat.,July 4 - 8 to 10:15 a.m. (morning only); Sunday, July 5 - closed; Monday, July 6 - 8:30 to 12 (noon). After
this we resume our normal schedule.
Local waters still remain on the cool side for this July 4th weekend, mostly
in the low 70’s. Although our black bass are in a post-spawn situation you still may find a scattered few in spawn.
All of our waters are at full level and a few streams may be found to be overflowing their banks after passing thunderstorms.
The best producing trout waters during the past few weeks have been lakes- Green Lake (Leeds Athens), Colgate Lake (East Jewett),
and CD Lane Park lake (Maplecrest).
This morning the Catskill Creek at Catskill was running very muddy, a condition
which could correct itself by this weekend if we don’t receive any additional heavy rain (not that likely). Area ponds,
quarries and lakes are in great shape and the fishing action appears to be excellent. Weedy conditions can be overcome by
using weedless frogs or other such creature baits, but your general arsenal of bass lures should serve to produce well under
most conditions.
The Hudson River is in pretty good shape with a see-thru visibility of about 1½ feet. It
might not seem like a lot but it’s almost ideal for fishing the largemouths on this large tidal river. Those largemouths
out there are still hanging around hard structures located close to their spawning areas. The great thing at this time of
year is that these fish are concentrated, albeit loosely, in such locations so if you catch one be sure to check out the immediate
area carefully.
The local Greene County Bassmasters fishing club held a “5-bass limit” fun partners
tournament on the river last Sunday and found the fish to be quite cooperative. The winning weight consisted of all largemouths,
16.21 lbs., and was brought in by the team of Casscles and Gentalen. It included the event’s 4.29 lb. lunker. Second
place went to “Team Imbesi” who had a mixed bag of smallies and bigmouths weighing 15.86 lbs.
The winning
team used just two different lures en-route to winning the event – Berkley Gulp minnows and Yamamoto Senkos.
Athens’ Sleepy Hollow Lake held their annual member’s bass tournament this past weekend and we heard that the
winning team was Beckman and Travels with 13 lbs 6 oz. Second place went to Crown and Conway with 12 lb. 15 oz.
Sleepy
Hollow Lake is, of course, the home location of the New York State record white crappie caught back in 2001 by Jim Weinberg.
The fish weighed in at 3 lbs. 13 oz. and measured 18 inches. Interestingly, the following year, 2002, angler Ron Daniels caught
another huge crappie that actually measured in at ¼ inch longer than Weinberg’s fish. However, even though this
lunker was longer it only weighed in at 3 lbs. 2 oz. - 11 ounces less than the state record, which is monitored by weight.
Sunday, July 12, will see the “American Bass Association of Pennsylvania and New Jersey” (ABA Pa &
NJ) in Catskill for one of their tournament events. They are a partners trail that requires membership in the group as well
as individual sign up fees. If you wish to participate in this contest you MUST be registered by this Thursday, July 2. The
only way to do it at this late date is on-line at “aba-of-eastern-pa-nj” dot com. Memberships are $50 per angler
and the boat sign-up for each event is $150 plus $10 lunker fee. They will not accept late registrations.
The weekend
is going to be kind of a zoo out on the river especially when you consider the potential number of boaters going out on this
4th of July weekend, the first without any prediction of rain (as of this moment). I suggest first light until about 11 a.m.
for your only decent fishing time out there if you want to avoid the weekend “yahoos”.
However, if
you choose to target a particular species here’s what we recommend as the best times(Catskill area): catfish –
any time or tide; largemouths – from daybreak till about 11 a.m.; smallmouths – 11:30 a.m. till about 4:30 p.m.
Tom G
******************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Wednesday, June
24, 2009
As our 2009 black bass season got underway here in the Catskill area we found that the cooler than normal
weather during the past 3 weeks created some great bass fishing conditions. Most of our ponds, lakes and streams had bass
in all three stages of springtime activity – pre-spawn, spawn and post-spawn. We saw some hefty largemouths being caught
that still were sporting huge bellies.
The hottest public water for largemouths so far this year, at least for
the shore bound fishermen, has been Hollister Lake, also known as the Athens Reservoir. Having been off- limits since 9/11
those bass in there grew fat, sassy and HUGE. There are far more six pounders to be found there at the present time than in
most other waters. You do need an Athens Reservoir permit to fish there. Get it at the village offices.
The Hudson
River got walloped by heavy rainstorms just in time for last weekend. On Sunday when the Greene County Bassmasters hit the
river for their first tournament of 2009 they were greeted by the sight of all feeder creeks pouring in heavily muddied water.
Still, the rain ceased by early morning, the water temperature rose from 66 to 70 by noon, and some of that group managed
to find enough clean water to catch fish. Their top six finishers were as follows: 1) Gentalen 2) Imbesi 3) Daley 4) Clarke
5) Rath 6) Paccione.
This upcoming weekend should present some decent bass fishing on the river, particularly since
the feeder creeks will be fishable again. Those should still provide plenty of action. In the main river look for points of
land that have a current sweeping over a gravel bottom, at least if you want to try for smallies. For bucketmouths, right
now we’d have to recommend trying the creek mouth areas and chestnut bed points in the river's big bays. The see-thru
water visibility should be about 1 ½ feet in most locations.
If you just want to relax and do some bottom
fishing try anchoring up where you find a river eddy and dunk some worms for perch or catfish. It’s a great way to spend
a couple of hours just concentrating on keeping your line in the water. Personally, for this type of fishing I’ve stopped
using nightcrawlers for catfish bait – it just got to be too messy. Now I’ll take a dozen medium shiners out with
me and fish just a half-shiner on the hook. It works great and avoids all the worm dirt. And, oh yes – I do love to
eat those channel catfish. Pop those fillets in a pan, fry to a golden brown… and just gulp them down. Tom G
********************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Our 2009 striped bass run is now finished so this past week, in preparing for Saturday's June 20 official opening of New
York’s black bass season, we checked out the tidal Hudson River from Albany to Kingston and found the water conditions
to be fairly uniform and favorble for the bass anglers.
At the start of last week the water temperature at Albany
was at the 69 degree mark. By this upcoming weekend it should have climbed to 70 or better. From Catskill to Kingston the
main river temp was at 70 degrees but we did find a few spots of upwelling where it was a couple of degrees cooler.
The water clarity here at Catskill a couple of weeks ago was perfect for largemouth bass fishing with a see-thru visibility
of about 1 ½ feet but by the start of this week it seemed to have increased by about a foot, making it even better
for the smallmouth fishermen since those fish are more of a visual feeder. Albany appeared just about normal last week with
light penetration in most locations of about 4 feet.
This year’s water color was a matter of some discussion
among local anglers a few weeks ago. Even though we had not had any significant rain the river’s see-thru visibility
was rather poor - a foot at the most, and rather greenish like the color of some mid-summer algae lakes. Some were blaming
this situation on the start of the dredging that was taking place almost 100 miles further upriver.
Conceivably,
I guess that could have been the reason. But when we went up to Albany and saw that the water up there was much clearer than
that here in the mid-tidal river area that thought was dismissed. Since then we heard that the dredging up there had to be
put on hold for a while due to too much water flow volume. That closure period could have accounted for the cleaner water
at Albany while ours was still reaping the “benefit” of all that silt being stirred up by their clamshell dredges.
We’ll see.
Hazardous floating debris on the water is relatively sparse at the present time but you will encounter
a potentially damaging log every once in a while – keep alert.
Boat traffic this year has still been minimal,
probably due to the cooler than expected weather so far. As we progress into July and the real summer begins you can expect
the regular “yahoos” to start making their appearance on weekend afternoons. If you want to fish in peace on the
weekend - do it between sunrise and noon.
From our own observations and other fishing reports received at the beginning
of this week we know that largemouths can still be found at or close to their spawning areas. These locations are either in
the backs of sheltered main river coves where gravel bottoms can be found or in the tributary creeks. In addition to the gravel,
there must be protection from the full flow of the river’s tidal currents in these areas.
Since locations
that are suitable for spawning bass are scarce on the river you will probably eventually find that most of the river’s
bass are actually spawned in the tributary creeks or even much further upstream in ponds and swamps that overflow during springtime
floods. For just such a reason you will find lots of early season bass to still inhabit the tidal feeder creeks. These bass,
the larger ones in particular, will slowly transition themselves down into the main river as the waters warm, leaving mostly
small bass in the creeks from mid-July on. If you don’t know where to start fishing this weekend, try the creeks.
There’s so much to learn about bass fishing on our beautiful river that it would take volumes of writing to
cover it all. But there’s a much better way than reading to find out about it and that’s by actually going out
and giving it a try – each time out will be a separate, new learning experience for you. I know I’ll be out there
this weekend - hope to see you there too. Tom G
****************************************
Even
though the reports of striped bass activity continue to be excellent for the seemingly vast numbers of smaller stripers presently
in our mid-Hudson section of the river... our contest is over. If you still want to give it a try either chunk bait or live
is working real well, but live herring are becoming harder to catch each day. Most of the fish now being caught are under
32 inches in length.
The following is a press release regarding our 2009 striper contest -
LOCAL FISHING
EVENT DRAWS RECORD 564 ANGLERS
CATSKILL - What started out in 1988 as a gathering of 27 local anglers looking for
some friendly competition has certainly changed in scope during the 22 years leading up to the present. In 2009 Catskill’s
River Basin Sport Shop’s 22nd Annual Striped Bass Contest saw that now-seemingly paltry original number of enthusiasts
swell to a record 564 anglers from all over the northeast. They converged on our area to enjoy the almost 2 month long annual
migratory run of striped bass up the Hudson River and to vie in a competition to catch the longest striped bass during that
time.
The annual contest that the River Basin Sports Shop has been sponsoring and administering throughout the
years has almost become a social affair with new participants always being welcomed by the old veterans. And to add to the
excitement created by the competition, two years ago the Greene County Tourism promotion department, under the direction of
Daniella Marino, stepped in to provide additional sponsorship. Presently the allure of this event to fishermen is unmatched
anywhere else on the tidal river.
According to shop owner Tom Gentalen the contest has the largest following of
any such event on the river all the way from West Point to the head of tidewater at Troy. By paying back awards amounting
to even more than the registration fees collected the event has grown larger and drawn more people each year since its inception.
This year saw a total cash payback of $11,460.00 with first place paying winner Peter Longo of Kingston $5,730.00. Longo was
fishing in the Cheviot Malden area of the Hudson River when he hooked and landed the winning 46 ¾ inch long striped
bass.
“The real payback from this contest is actually to our mid-Hudson Valley area” said Gentalen.
“Even though the River Basin does not keep a penny of the money taken in from the registration fees, the economic return
from the hundreds of people who come here to sign up and participate makes it all worth while. We have become a “fishing
destination!” Even locals who used to go elsewhere during the spring now stay here to enjoy the world class fishing
we have.”
This year’s winners, the length of their fish and the prizes they won are as follows:
1) Peter Longo, Kingston, N.Y. - 46 ¾”, $5,730.00
2) Kim Doyle, Chichester, N.Y. – 46 ½”,
$$1,948.20
3 & 4) TIE – Gerard Uhrik, Tannersville, N.Y.
Walt Weglinski, Budd Lake, N.J.
46”,
split $2,521.20
5) Steve Hopf, Saugerties, N.Y. - 45”, $687.00
6) TIE – Dan Fitzgerald, Olive Bridge,
N.Y.
Pat Dutkiewicz, Port Ewen, N.Y.
44 ½”, split $573, 00
The year 2009 competition, which
ran for six weeks, ended on Saturday, May 30. Entry applications for next year’s contest will start to be accepted at
the River Basin Sport Shop early next February right through mid-April, a time calculated to be just slightly earlier than
the arrival of those first big striped bass into our waters.
END
*********************************************
2009 STRIPER CONTEST STANDINGS - FINAL RESULTS
1) $5,730.00 46 3/4" Pete Longo - May 15, 2009
2) $1,948.20 46 1/2" Kim Doyle -- May 8, 2009
3) $1,489.80 46" Gerard Uhrik ---- April
25, 2009 - TIE,collects $1260.60
---$1,031.40 46" Walt Weglinski - May 12, 2009 - TIE,collects $1260.60
5) $ 687.60 45" Steve Hopf ------- May 7, 2009
6) $ 573.00 44.5" Dan Fitzgerald -- May 13, 2009 -
TIE,collects $286.50
-------------- 44.5" Pat Dutkiewicz – May 18, 2009 - TIE,collects $286.50
***********************************************************
Hudson River Striper Update – Wednesday, May
27, 2009
As of this morning the striper action has continued to be excellent all the way from Coxsackie down south
to Norrie Point. True, since May 18 when Patrick Dutkiewicz tied for sixth place in our contest with his 44 ½ inch
striper, we have not measured any other fish for the competition but the overall striper action has been on the upswing for
about two weeks. As a sample of what’s been happening, two seasoned striped bass anglers who came off the river at about
10 o’clock this morning told me that today was the very best action they have ever had with doubles being hooked and
then having yet a third rod go off at the same time!
Other than being a witness to the act itself, such frenzied
action is the best indication of an ongoing spawn. Last year at this same time the spawn was also in full swing but the major
difference between then and now was that 2008’s fish were larger – we were seeing stripers in the 41 to 43 inch
range then rather than the multitude of 22 to 37 inch fish that are around right now. We are in the last few days of the best
fishing of the run. If you can’t partake of it… you might as well start getting your gear ready for next year.
As I am sure most of the 564 people entered in our contest know, our 22nd annual striped bass event will come
to a conclusion at 12 noon this Saturday (May 30). But with the abundance of fish yet in the river the contest standings are
liable to change right up to the last minute. If you do catch a fish on Saturday just remember the following part of the rules
– “Any fish brought in after 12 noon Saturday, May 30, 2009 will be deemed ineligible and will not be considered
for contest ranking.” We will post a final standings result here as soon as possible after the conclusion of the event.
The award winners, with the exception of the Number One angler, may stop through the River Basin Sports Shop any time
after the conclusion to collect their prizes. Winners, please remember that we will need your driver’s license and social
security number before we can conclude the winning transaction. The top man, who at the present time appears to be Pete Longo
with his 46 ¾ inch striper, should contact us for details regarding his payback. Tom G
2009 STRIPER CONTEST
STANDINGS - May 27, 2009
1) $5,730.00 46 3/4" Pete Longo - May 15, 2009
2) $1,948.20 46
1/2" Kim Doyle -- May 8, 2009
3) $1,489.80 46" Gerard Uhrik ---- April 25, 2009 - TIE,collects $1260.60
---$1,031.40 46" Walt Weglinski - May 12, 2009 - TIE,collects $1260.60
5) $ 687.60 45" Steve Hopf -------
May 7, 2009
6) $ 573.00 44.5" Dan Fitzgerald -- May 13, 2009 - TIE,collects $286.50
--- 44.5"
Pat Dutkiewicz – May 18, 2009 - TIE,collects $286.50
****************************************
Hudson River striper update – Friday, May 22, 2009
With the exception of the Troy to Castleton area the
striped bass reports from the tidewater Hudson continue to come in with ratings of good to excellent. If you are heading north
on the river the action starts to slow as you get to the Ravena Coeymans area and just bogs down from there on up. Oh, herring
appear to be plentiful… it’s just the numbers and, in particular, the quality of the stripers that’s reported
to be missing.
Meanwhile, in the section from Norrie Point on up to Coxsackie most of the catch reports are of
multiple smaller fish – say 8 to 18 pounds, or mostly from 22 to 33 inches. We did see a 41 incher yesterday morning
that was caught from shore here in Catskill but right now that size fish appears to be an exception to the rule with the fish
topping out at about 36 inches.
Sporadic spawns are reported from areas up and down the river but we’ve yet
to hear of any mass spawn. Lots of harvested fish still have green roe, an indication that there are still some days to go
before they head on back to the Atlantic. However, looking at our past records we see that most of the instances we’ve
noted of mass spawns (stripers churning up multiple surface acres of water with their spawning activity) have occurred approximately
between May 17 and May 26. If you get on the water these next few days, particularly in the mornings, you just might bear
witness to such an event.
On multiple occasions we’ve been asked about the lack of better stripers in the
Albany area during these past two striper runs. The consensus among the savvier anglers around here is that we really have
no answer as to why they’ve slacked off in that section. However, although there appears to be a reticence among certain
groups to admit it a similar, although not quite as bad, situation has also existed in the Kingston area during the past two
runs.
Personally, without any proof, I feel this could be some sort of a short-term cyclical thing. When we look
at the herring situation over the past couple of years we see a kind of similar patterning, at least down here in the mid-Hudson
area. For a half dozen years or so, say starting at around year 2000, we saw a definite diminution in the number of herring
arriving here in the general Catskill area (although they just stacked up in the waters off Albany). Then, without any apparent
reason, last year was a far better herring run for us here. And now this year has proven to be even better yet, actually a
bonanza! Again for no reason overly apparent to us.
Our herring upswing does seemingly correlate with the weakening
of the striper fishing in the Kingston and Albany areas but there appear to be too many loose ends for us to be able to tie
together. For instance, the number of herring in Albany this year was simply outstanding but yet the stripers were lacking.
So our thought on it is - if it is cyclical it’s just a matter of waiting it out.
Of course, waiting it out
just might not matter too much since the gods that watch over the Hudson River fishery have stated their intention to do away
with all river herring fishing by the year 2012 (CHOKE!). I can’t help but to wonder if this isn’t the justification
for to the patently erroneous information given out last year which stated that 2008’s population of herring in the
river was down. In reality it was readily apparent to anybody actually out there that the numbers were way up over 2007. I
can hardly wait to see how they rate this year which saw fishermen with even more copious supplies of this baitfish. We’ll
be hearing much more of all this in the months to come.
Additionally, we’ve always felt that the striper
population was also cyclical but it has been extremely difficult to predict the exact years of the tops and bottoms of such
cycles. Judging from the records we keep here at the River Basin I was anticipating the upturn from years of steady decline
here in the “Malden, Catskill, and Coxsackie” area to occur 4 years ago, back in 2006. It didn’t happen
then nor, disappointingly, did it come about in 2007. But 2008 was a different story and we bore witness to what was more
than twice the rate of catch of the year before. This year, 2009, has again seen at least a definite doubling of last year’s
success if not even greater. It appears that this cycle has at last reversed.
There has been no change in the striped
bass contest standings as of this date. Summer starts this weekend – get out and enjoy our beautiful river. Tom G
***********************************************
Hudson River striper update – Monday, May 18, 2009
Reports from tidewater Hudson striped bass fishermen continue to be of good to excellent action from most sections.
Weaker areas seem to be around Newburgh where most fish are reported to be smaller, and from the Albany area which this year
never got the sizes or numbers of stripers we saw there a couple of years ago. Poughkeepsie appears to be a “black hole”
from where we never receive any data.
From Norrie Point north to the Kingston Rhinecliff Bridge the action appears
to have been very good as far as numbers of fish go… but we only have two fish logged into our TOP SIX from there –
Kim Doyle with a 46 ½” and, as of this morning, Pat Dutkiewicz of Port Ewen.
Pat is one of those guys
fishing the river who lays to rest the tale of big fish not being caught while trolling -and the proof of that is the 44 ½”
striper he measured in. It was yesterday afternoon, while trolling a Rapala in the Esopus Meadows section of the river, that
he hooked and landed the fish which would tie him with Dan Fitzgerald for sixth place in our striped bass contest. Pat’s
was a great looking fish and since it felt particularly heavy we threw it on our scale where the numbers topped out at 48
lbs 4 oz (there were still some transportation ice cubes down the fish’s gullet at that time).
Pete Longo’s
46 ¾” fish from the Malden area is presently this year’s longest fish to be brought in. That Malden section
of the river has consistently produced some big fish year after year, and is the location where our shop record 48 ½”
striped bass was caught by Jeremy Phillips two years ago.
Out of curiosity to see where most of this year’s
bigger fish were coming from we took a look at the catch locales of the top 24 stripers measured at the River Basin. For this
purpose we divided the river into 5 separate regions: 1) Norrie, Black Creek, Esopus Meadows; 2) Kingston, Rhinecliff, Glasco,
Saugerties; 3) Malden, Cheviot, Catskill; 4) Hudson, Stockport, Coxsackie; 5) north of Coxsackie. The results of this patterning
were thus:
Area 1, Esopus Meadows, had 12.5% of the fish
Area 2, Rhinecliff, had 25%
Area 3, Catskill
had 37.5%
Area 4, Hudson, had 20.75%
Area 5, Coxsackie north, 4%
We then took a look at where the 7 striped
bass leading our contest standings as of May 18, 2009 came from. We found that the three main locations, Esopus Meadows, Rhinecliff,
and Catskill all tied each other with 28.6% of the leaders. Hudson had none and there was one caught to the north of Coxsackie.
From personal observation it seems that the earliest of the big fish arriving tend to be caught from the Catskill
area and then, about mid-May, the southern section around Esopus Meadows starts to produce better. You may interpret the above
statistics in any manner you wish.
Anyhow – there is a real strong bite going on out in the river right now
– very indicative of spawning behavior about to happen or going on. One spawn was reported right out from the Catskill
launch ramp a couple of days ago. Lots of smaller male fish are being reported along with some stripers in the 20 to 30 lb.
class. This action, which really got underway this past weekend, extends all the way from Kingston to Coxsackie.
Most anglers are managing to boat multiple fish each outing. Reports from further downriver to the effect that good size
schools of large stripers are still entering our mid-Hudson waters indicate that although the best fishing in some areas may
come to an end soon, there will be plenty of late-arrival lunkers out there to pursue. Tom G
***************************************
Hudson River striper update – Friday, May 15, 2009
At approximately 8 a.m. this morning Pete Longo was
sitting in his boat. It was a great morning to be on the Hudson, particularly there in the vicinity of Malden where he had
decided to fish for stripers today.
A tap on the rod! A run on his new reel (purchased from the River Basin a
week previous, of course)... and then a hefty hook set. The ensuing battle was no problem for this experienced striped bass
fisherman and soon a 46 3/4" striper was in his boat, awaiting the ride to the contest measuring site at Catskill.
With about a half-dozen excited people looking on Pete was declared the new leader in the River Basin striped bass
contest, an event that will pay more than $5,700 to the first place fish.
Of course, the contest still has two
weeks to run before a winner can be declared. And, with the spawn still not having concluded, the possibility of bigger fish
being caught still looms strong.
The RIVER BASIN will remain open 7 days a week right up to the end of the contest
period of 12 noon on May 30th. After that the shop will be closed on Sundays and Mondays.
To get in the contest
money now you must have a 44 1/2 incher. Tom G
**************************************
Hudson River striper
update – Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Big fish continue to come in – this time it was Dan Fitzgerald of
Olive Bridge, N.Y. who landed a great striper.
Dan was fishing a live herring in the vicinity of Malden this afternoon
when the striper inhaled his bait. The striper measured in at 44 ½ inches and boosted the angler up into sole possession
of fifth place in our striped bass contest. Brian Bishop and Cindy Leonard are now in a tie for sixth place.
Reports
are of good action from all sections of the river but the Albany Troy section seems to be somewhat slow. Tom G
2009
STRIPER CONTEST STANDINGS - May 13, 2009
1) $5,730.00 46 1/2" Kim Doyle - May 8, 2009
2) $1,948.20
46" Gerard Uhrik - April 25, 2009
3) $1,031.40 46" Walt Weglinski - May 12, 2009
4) $1,489.80 45"
Steve Hopf - May 7, 2009
5) $ 687.60 44.5" Dan Fitzgerald - May 13, 2009
6) $ 573.00 44"
Brian Bishop – tie April 26, 2009
-------------- 44" Cindy Leonard – tie April 27, 2009
********************************************
Hudson River striper update – Tuesday, May 12, 2009
SECOND PLACE NOW TIED IN STRIPER CONTEST
Reports
from this past weekend show that the striped bass spawn is definitely underway. Down in the Wappingers area the action was
excellent and smaller males were following hooked females to the boat. He also reported lots of surface splashing from early
light until about 8 a.m. when boat traffic seems to have put the fish down. Most of the fish were less than 39 inches.
To further demonstrate the spawn being underway we have a prime example. Walt Weglinski of Budd Lake, N.J. has now
tied for second place in our striped bass contest with a 46 inch fish that was quite obviously already spawned out. Walt was
fishing a live herring in the Saddlebags section of the river when the fish hit. With this catch Peter Rogers Jr. and Dane
Anderson have been knocked out of the running, and Cindy Leonard and Brian Bishop are tied for 5th/6th place.
This
is the peak week of the run coming up - try to take advantage of it if you can. Tom G
****************************************
Hudson River striper update – Monday, May 11, 2009
I was just talking to a fellow who had spent the
weekend fishing the Newburgh area for stripers. He reported some fish being taken there but said that those were rather meager
compared to what we’ve seen here in our area where 3 foot long stripers are being looked on as “small”.
Of course, the better fish which they are looking to catch down the line are missing from there right now – they’re
up here in our mid-Hudson section for the spawn. Don’t get me wrong – I know some of our locals are also getting
skunked out here but, over all, it has been a much better than average year for quality striped bass.
The best
reports we’ve been getting in the past day or so have been coming in from between Cheviot and Coxsackie. We’ve
heard of numerous stripers between 34 and 40 inches and have seen and measured others up to 43.
We can’t
really report too much about the Kingston area since reports from there have been few and far between. Even though it’s
been surprisingly quiet we know that traditionally some good fish are taken from those waters during this, the second week
of May.
The Rhinecliff area, where there had been a good bite going on a few days ago, supposedly has slowed down
but is still producing some fish. The Rip Van Winkle tournament that went out of Saugerties this past weekend was supposedly
won with a 39” fish but not too many fish were measured in.
The action from Cheviot to the north continues
to be good to excellent. The shore bound fishermen along the east shore railroad tracks (especially in the Greendale area
across from Catskill) have been getting a good share of the action. Many of those guys are fishing live or chunk herring relatively
close to shore, only about 40 feet out.
This morning the real good bite of the past couple of days at the Rip
Van Winkle Bridge area at Catskill was continuing with stripers reported up to 40 inches. First light conditions still are
the best time to be on the water if you want to catch fish.
This year the Hudson city area seems to have really
been discovered by the striper guys and we’ve been getting good reports about the eastern channel edge all the way from
the power lines (south of Hudson) north to lighthouse #140. On the other side of the river, starting at Four Mile Point/ Stockport
and running north to Coxsackie, this early morning’s action was said to have been excellent with multiple catches being
reported.
Further north the action has been somewhat laid-back this year. Dennis, one of our reliable sources up
there, reports that a Castleton/ Bethlehem area 135 boat derby this past weekend was won with a 24 pounder (probably around
38”), and second place tipped the scales at 21. The Troy derby, which had about 300 fishermen, was won with a 21 ¼
pound fish (probably around 36”). There seem to be lots of herring available for bait in that upper section of water
but the better stripers, so far, appear to be absent. Still in all, Dennis says that the overall fishing from Ravena to Albany
is “fair.”
The river’s water temperature here at Catskill has been holding at just about the
same level for the past 3-4 days. Actually we were surprised to find that it was still hovering at just a touch below 60 degrees
on our thermal indicator – I was expecting to find it closer to 62 but the cooler weather and accompanying winds of
the past couple of days managed to keep it down (thank you).
We’ve received our first report of this year’s
spawn activity starting to take place. It was from the Coeymans area on Friday (May 8). Captain Steve there reports netting
a hooked striper and then discovering two fish in his net. That, along with a water temperature around 60 degrees, is a sure
sign of the start of spawn. We’ve received yet other reports of a few boated females already running eggs and also of
milt-laden males. Additionally, the herring have started strongly beating the shores in their spawning ritual.
We
know that this week, as the water warms another couple of degrees, will probably see us going into the peak of the run and
good fishing should explode all over the place. THIS next seven days or so is when the fishing should be the best. Let us
know if you witness any spawning activity.
Even though the spawn might really get going this week it does not
affect all of the fish in the river system at the same time. Generally we’ll have “spot” spawns reported
at different times and different days all the way from Wappingers up to Troy. “Mass” spawns are something else
to see and will generally just “blow your mind” as possibly acres of surface water are just covered with thrashing
fish.
Keep in mind that since not all fish spawn at the same time it is possible for you to still have decent striper
fishing occurring several weeks after the main spawn has occurred. This is probably due to some stripers entering the river
system late so their roe would require additional maturation time prior to being released. We often receive reports of stripers
still having “green” roe, even in the beginning of the month of June. Still other stripers seem to leisurely hang
around for a while after their procreational duties have been completed.
Good luck - Tom G
*****************************************
Hudson River striper update – Saturday, May 9, 2009, 4:30 p.m.
The nicer size stripers continue to
roll in. We just had Dane Anderson of Claverack measure in a 43 1/4 inch linesider. This fish puts Dane into a tie for sixth
place in our striped bass contest with Pete Rogers Jr. who just brought his fish in this morning. Dane was fishing a live
herring in the river in the vicinity of the City of Hudson. Tom G
2009 STRIPER CONTEST STANDINGS - 3rd update May
9, 2009
1) $5,730.00 46 1/2" Kim Doyle - May 8, 2009
2) $1,948.20 46" Gerard Uhrik - April 25,
2009
3) $1,489.80 45" Steve Hopf - May 7, 2009
4) $1,031.40 44" Brian Bishop – tie April 26, 2009
4) $ 687.60 44" Cindy Leonard – tie April 27, 2009
6) $ 573.00 43 1/4" Peter Rogers Jr –tie May
9, 2009
-------------- 43 1/4" Dane Anderson - tie May 9, 2009
*********************************************
Hudson River striper update – Saturday, May 9, 2009, 10 a.m.
Our striped bass contest now has a new sixth
place fish. Hudson's Peter Rogers measured in a 43 1/4 incher this morning and knocked our 4-way-tie of 43 inchers out of
the money. Pete was fishing the Hudson section of the river when he caught his fish.
2009 STRIPER CONTEST STANDINGS
- 2nd update May 9, 2009
1) $5,730.00 46 1/2" Kim Doyle - May 8, 2009
2) $1,948.20 46" Gerard Uhrik
- April 25, 2009
3) $1,489.80 45" Steve Hopf - May 7, 2009
4) $1,031.40 44" Brian Bishop – tie
April 26, 2009
4) $ 687.60 44" Cindy Leonard – tie April 27, 2009
6) $ 573.00 43 1/4" Peter Rogers
Jr – May 9, 2009
**********************************************
Hudson River striper update –
Friday, May 8, 2009, 5 P.M.
A NEW LEADER - The standings shown below have been updated and a new striped bass leader
has been measured. It's Chichester's Kim Doyle who now holds the lead with a 46 1/2 inch bruiser striped bass. Kim was fishing
the Esopus Meadows section of the river with a live herring when the big fish hit.
The list below has been updated
to reflect the new standings. Tom G
*********************************************
2009 STRIPER CONTEST
STANDINGS - updated May 9, 2009, a.m.
1) $5,730.00 46 1/2" Kim Doyle - May 8, 2009
2) $1,948.20 46"
Gerard Uhrik - April 25, 2009
3) $1,489.80 45" Steve Hopf - May 7, 2009
4) $1,031.40 44" Brian Bishop
– tie April 26, 2009
4) $ 687.60 44" Cindy Leonard – tie April 27, 2009
6) $ 573.00 43" Bill
Baldwin – tie April 25, 2009
-------------- 43" Randy Phalan–tie May 3, 2009
-------------- 43"
John Jones –- tie May 3, 2009
-------------- 43" Brian Law –-- tie May 4, 2009
* in the event
of a tie for any position the total of the monies involved will be equally split between all tied contestants.
****************************************
Hudson River striper update – Friday, May 8, 2009
GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS – As we enter this, the
second week of May, and look back at what’s been happening on the river scene so far this year a few good things jump
out at us. The main one was the early arrival of the big stripers. True, the first of this year’s linesiders didn’t
actually make it to Catskill very early - it was caught in the Catskill Creek on April 15. This was the latest arrival we
had logged in the past 10 years (April 18 in 1999). But… the quality of the fish arriving during the second week of
the run was fantastic.
Starting with Brian Bishop’s 40 ½ incher on April 20, and peaking with Gerard
Uhrik’s 46 incher we saw over a dozen striped bass of greater than 40 inches caught during this second week. In the
immediate past week or so though, the larger fish appeared to have moved out of our area. We’re pretty sure that they
didn’t all make an “en-mass” movement to the north, where there were but few reports of fish over 40 inches.
Even so there appear to be plentiful herring and smaller stripers in that Capital District area. By the way, the Albany launch
ramp is once again open.
The reports from the Kingston section have been of some big fish (as well as plenty of
smaller ones) but we have yet to see any of those. Since we do have over 560 anglers participating in our striper contest
it would seem that at least a few larger fish should have been brought in.
Other good news this year has been the
fact that the main river has not been muddy. Additionally the feeder creeks, at worse, only got stained for a day or two from
passing rain storms. The rest of the good news here is “anticipated” and is that the upcoming 10 days generally
sees some big cows coming upriver. Judging by what we’ve seen from yesterday evening’s catch, that appears to
be happening
CONTEST STANDINGS CHANGE - Yesterday afternoon it was Hillsdale’s Jamie Robinson who brought
in a large striper that just missed getting into the top six by less than a ¼ inch. Jamie was fishing a live herring
in the vicinity of West Camp when he caught the 42 ¾ inch bruiser.
Also late yesterday afternoon Steve Hopf
of Saugerties was fishing in that same magic triangle area that Robinson was in. This is a section of the river that runs
from Malden to Germantown to Catskill - it has always been known to produce giant stripers (our shop record striped bass was
caught from this area). At about 7 p.m. his line started zinging of his reel and he set the hook. At about 7:30 there was
a huge striper resting in the bottom of his boat as he was heading back to shore in order to get ice for the huge cooler.
That cooler would hold the fish overnight until an official contest measurement at the RIVER BASIN could take place.
On the official measuring board Steve’s fish hit the mark at 45 inches and catapulted him into second place in our
contest. The end result of this measurement drops the 3rd through 6th slot contest award payments by one position, but still
does not eliminate any of those stripers measuring 43 inches or greater from the competition. We now have a two way tie for
third, and a four way tie for 5th.
Now for a bit of bad news – the river’s water temperature here
at Catskill has hit 60 degrees. That’s very nice for the stripers, and a harbinger of the best striper fishing of the
year yet to come. But, it also is a reminder that this year’s striped bass run will not extend forever. The next few
degrees of water temperature warmth will inevitably bring spawn time. It’s getting closer and closer.
The
60 degree water reading here at Catskill would indicate that the stripers are in an immediate PRE-SPAWN CONDITION. The spawn
may be delayed somewhat by any showery, cloudy weather coming in but it IS right around the corner. Again, the best striper
fishing of the year, here in the Catskill area, is in the immediate future!
One of the signs of an ongoing spawn
is seeing smaller stripers following a hooked fish to the boat. Sometimes multiple fish are netted in the attempt to net the
hooked striper. Another sure sign is seeing smaller male stripers chasing a larger female in tight circles at the surface
of the water. Quite often this will tend to be a mass ritual where an acre or more of water seems to be covered with thrashing
fish. This will usually take place in the slightly slower flow of side coves but can occur right in the middle of the main
river channel itself, either at night or in the daytime. If you observe this - do NOT drive your boat into the middle of the
fracas - these fish are just about oblivious to any external danger and you will definitely cause damage and death to multiple
fish with your motor.
Fishing such areas of spawn can pay off. Even though the fish that are engrossed in the actual
act of spawning will not bite, there usually is a whole bunch of other ones in the water below the spawning fish which are
more than willing to strike a bait.
We have not had any reports as of yet of either of the two above mentioned
events occurring. If you witness either please send us a report of it to “tomgriver at yahoo.com” and include
the date, time of day, location and water temp (if possible). But, whatever you do – try to get out on the river during
this next week or two. Tom G
****************************************
Hudson River striper update -
Tuesday May 5, 2009
Today was rather disappointing as far as the striper catch in our area was concerned. We had
a few reports of fish up to 38 inches being caught but the larger fish which we thought would be in our area never showed
up. Maybe tomorrow.
However, "JROD" from Kingston did report the catch of a 51 1/2 pounder down there
yesterday. He said that it was caught trolling a Rapala. Fantastic fish... maybe it's older brother will make it to Catskill
tomorrow. Tom G
2009 STRIPER CONTEST - PRESENT STANDINGS - May 5, 2009
1) $5,730.00 46" Gerard
Uhrik April 25, 2009
2) $1,948.20 44" Brian Bishop – tie April 26, 2009
3) $1489.80 44" Cindy Leonard
– tie April 27, 2009
4) $1031.40 43" Bill Baldwin – tie April 25, 2009
5) $ 687.60 43" Randy
Phalan – tie May 3, 2009
6) $ 573.00 43" John Jones – tie May 3, 2009
-------------- 43" Brian
Law – tie May 4, 2009
* in the event of a tie for any position the total of the monies involved (ie: 4th
place presently involves the money for places 4, 5, and 6) will be equally split between all tied contestants.
*****************************************
Hudson River striper update – Monday May 4, 2009
As a new surge of stripers made it's way upriver
yesterday (Sunday) the action to the south of Catskill started to turn on. Although most of those fish appear to be in the
28 to 34 inch range there also are some real "hogs" to be found. From that grouping of fish, some of which had made
their way up past Germantown by yesterday afternoon, we've seen several over 40 inches.
With that grouping of fish
having arrived we now have a 4 way tie for 4th place in our River Basin Striper Contest. The magic length of all these fish
is 43 inches... and that's what you need at the present if your fish is to be among the top six longest sizes entered.
The first of the 43 inchers that were brought in was taken back on April 25 by Bill Baldwin. Bill's fish was just
tied yesterday by Randy Phelan (fishing Germantown with herring) who, in turn, was tied by John Jones (fishing Norrie / Esopus
Meadows with chunk) who, in turn, was tied by Brian Law (fishing Rhinecliff with herring).
As this striper school
moves further upriver we expect to hear about many more nice fish being caught. Already the action in most river locations
is reportedly very good and it should get even better this week. Present water temperature in the MAIN Hudson River at Catskill
is in the 57 to 58 degree range. We estimate the main striper spawn in this area to be 1 1/2 to 2 weeks away - but this estimate
is entirely contingent upon the water temperature during the same time period. Hoping for a cooling trend - Tom G
*******************************************
Hudson River striper update – Sunday May 3, 2009
Although the striper action for larger fish turned somewhat spotty this weekend still there were reports of "over 40
inch" coming in from the area. Most of the better fish we heard about came from the area between Germantown and Coxsackie,
but we received plenty of reports of smaller fish from the entire section between Esopus Meadows and Bethlehem. From that
area to the south things were strangely quiet.
We did get a new fish into our standings today - Randy Phelan, fishing
the Germantown area with live herring, hooked and landed a 43 inch linesider which tied him for 4th place with Bill Baldwin.
This knocks Ed Rivenburg's fish out of the cash payback status and puts Jake Watts into sixth. We'll have a picture of Randy's
fish up tomorrow (hopefully). Tom G.
Top 10 fish - RIVER BASIN STRIPER CONTEST - 2 p.m.-May 3
1st........
$5,730.00- 46.00-- Uhrik, Gerard- April 25,
2nd...TIE $1,948.20- 44.00-- Bishop, Brian- April 26,
3rd...TIE $1,489.80-
44.00-- Leonard,Cindy- April 27,
4th....TIE $1,031.40- 43.00-- Baldwin, Bill--- April 25,
5th..... TIE$ 687.60-
43.00-- Phelan, Randy- May 3,
6th......... $ 573.00- 42.75-- Watts, Jake--- April 23,
7th......................
42.50-- Ed Rivenburg-- April 29,
7th....................... 41.75-- Schram,Paul,Jr April 22,
8th.......................
40.75-- Spaeth, Bill--- April 22,
9th....................... 40.75-- Finn, Joe------ April 26,
10th.....................
40.50-- Bishop, Brian- April 20,
Tom G
********************************************
Hudson River striper update – Thursday, April 30, 2009 7 a.m.
A goodly movement of stripers ranging up to more than 42 inches in length moved into our area late yesterday afternoon.
These fish were located all the way from the Kingston Rhinecliff Bridge to Coxsackie and will probably make it to Bethlehem
very quickly. The water temp at Catskill is running at around 57 degrees and the fishing is very good in the area around the
Rip Van Winkle Bridge.
We have a new sixth place contender in our striper contest - Ed Rivenburg, who measured
in a 42 1/2 inch fish this morning. He took his by the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. Paul Schram's 41 3/4 incher, which he caught
by the K-R Bridge, was the 7th largest contest fish which we measured this year.
Top 10 fish - RIVER BASIN STRIPER
CONTEST - 8 a.m.-Apr.30
1st........ $5,730.00- 46.00-- Uhrik, Gerard- April 25,
2nd...TIE $1,948.20- 44.00--
Bishop, Brian- April 26,
3rd...TIE $1,489.80- 44.00-- Leonard,Cindy- April 27,
4th....... $1,031.40- 43.00-- Baldwin,
Bill--- April 25,
5th......... $ 687.60- 42.75-- Watts, Jake--- April 23,
6th..........$ 573.00- 42.50-- Ed Rivenburg--
April 29,
7th....................... 41.75-- Schram,Paul,Jr April 22,
8th....................... 40.75-- Spaeth,
Bill--- April 22,
9th....................... 40.75-- Finn, Joe------ April 26,
10th..................... 40.50--
Bishop, Brian- April 20,
Tom G
**********************************************
Hudson River
striper update – Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The striper action from Catskill north to Athens' Four Mile Point
was excellent this morning with numerous catches being reported here at Catskill and at Athens. The largest fish we measured
in so far today was a 40 1/4 incher taken by Alberto Rivera at the mouth of the Catskill Creek (see pictures page).
This schooling of fish appears to be moving upriver and should be in the vicinity of Albany in just a couple of days at
the most, if not there already. Activity at Coeymans and Bethlehem has been on the upswing - a regular reported a real big
striper being caught up there (nope, we didn't see it), and this is where Cindy caught her 44 inch monster to tie for second
in our contest. Looks like it should be real good this weekend. Tom G
****************************************
Top 10 fish - RIVER BASIN SPORTS STRIPER CONTEST 2009
1st.. $5,730.00- 46.00-- Uhrik, Gerard- April 25,
2nd..TIE $1,948.20- 44.00-- Bishop, Brian- April 26,
3rd..TIE $1,489.80- 44.00-- Leonard,Cindy- April 27,
4th.. $1,031.40- 43.00-- Baldwin, Bill- April 25,
5th.. $ 687.60- 42.75-- Watts, Jake--- April 23,
6th.. $ 573.00-
40.75-- Spaeth, Bill--- April 22,
7th................ 40.75" Finn, Joe------ April 26,
8th................
40.50" Bishop, Brian- April 20,
9th................ 40.50" Schram,Paul,Jr- April 25,
10th...............
40.00" Scherer, Jason- April 23
***********************************
Hudson River notes - Monday,
April 27, 2009
We've received several notes and warnings about the Albany Corning Park launch ramp being unusable
due to a film being shot there - although the ramp may be usable there is no parking. Recomendation is to perhaps use the
Rennselear ramp (although not launchable at low tide) or drive down to the Bethlehem launch. Either way this coming weekend
will be a mess at any Albany area ramps. Expect this to continue for the next two weeks.
In Catskill a new floating
"fishing dock" has been installed at the Dutchmen's Landing Park, but still the best shorebound striper fishing
conditions exist at the Catskill Point Park.
Most fish we heard about today, from Albany to Saugerties, were in
the 28 to 36 inch range. Lots of short hits on live and chunk bait. Some trolling success on 10 foot running plugs such as
Rapala 18's, Bomber 17a's and Rebels. This action would have to be rated as fair. Water temperature in the main river around
Catskill is around 56 degrees and is not expected to drop in the next few days... perhaps will even increase. Large schools
of herring passed through the Catskill area this morning and most locations are reporting plentifull supplies of this species.
Tom G
*********************************
More changes today - Sunday, April 26, 2009
Brian
Bishop back up to 2nd and Joe Finn enters the top 9.
Top 9 fish - RIVER BASIN SPORTS STRIPER CONTEST 2009
1st.. $5,730.00- 46.00-- Uhrik, Gerard- April 25,
2nd.. $1,948.20- 44.00-- Bishop, Brian- April 26,
3rd.. $1,489.80-
43.00-- Baldwin, Bill- April 25,
4th.. $1,031.40- 42.75-- Watts, Jake--- April 23,
5th.. $ 687.60- 42.00-- Spaeth,
Bill--- April 22,
6th.. $ 573.00- 40.75-- Finn, Joe------ April 26,
7th.. - 40.50" Bishop, Brian- April 20,
8th.. - 40.50" Schram,Paul,Jr- April 25,
9th.. - 40.00" Scherer, Jason- April 23,
********************************************
Hudson River striper update – Saturday, April 25, 2009 5pm
We’ve been trying to update this
website all day but just haven’t had a long enough contiguous time period open to accomplish this. Business has been
great, thanks to all of you.
OK – another big shakeup in our striped bass contest standings.
Early
this morning on the main Hudson River Catskill “bridge run” the boat “Le Chef” was anchored up at
one of its favorite locations. It was still rather cool on the water and the father and son team of Gerard and Marc Uhric
were just relaxing, fishing “chunk” herring, waiting for that “morning bite” to turn on. Gerard’s
rod twitched a couple of times so he picked it up just as a small run took place. He set the hook on what he figured had to
be an eel, judging from the type of bite he was getting. Wrong!
When the ensuing fight was over and the netting
done, a 46 inch striper was lying on the bottom of the boat. This fish was 2 ½ inches longer than the 43 ½ inch
fish Gerard had caught to win our 2007 contest when the first prize was $2,000 less than this year’s. That’s right,
this man’s 46 incher is now in first place in the race for the top prize of $5,730.
Of course the second
place award of $1,948 wouldn’t be too bad to win either. The leader for that spot at the present also caught his fish
yesterday morning. It was Bill Baldwin, fishing a live herring in the Athens vicinity, who boated a 43 inch linesider and
now holds second.
This standings upheaval moves Jake Watts, who we didn’t even have enough time to post here
previously, into third place ($1,489) with his 42 ¾ incher. Bill Spaeth’s 42 incher drops to 4th ($1,031), Brian
Bishop goes to 5th and is in a tie with Paul Schram Jr.’s 40 ½ incher. Jason Scherer’s 40 incher now becomes
an “also ran.” If you’re fishing JUST for our contest we urge you to release any fish that are smaller than
this, but if you enjoy a nice striper steak (as much as I do) I have no qualms about your taking one home for the pan.
River action seems to be excellent in the Cheviot Germantown area but those fish are not the bruisers we’ve
been seeing from Catskill. Also top ranked at present would have to be the 4 Mile Point, Stockport, and Coxsackie stretch
of the river. Although we have received reports of some action around New Baltimore, Coeymans and Bethlehem, and from usually
reliable sources, we have also received reports of “no fish” from the same locations. Our conclusion – some
fish are around but are widely scattered up there. This action should start to pick up this week. Thank you all for your reports,
they are very important. Tom G
*************************************************
River Basin Striper
update - Saturday, April 25, 2009 6:30 am
There is a new leader in the contest this morning - 46 inches from Catskill
area. Picture soon. Tom G
**********************************************
Hudson River striper
update - Friday, April 24,2009 5:15 pm
Just a quick note about a change in standings - Third place has just been
tied as Paul Schram Jr. of Red Hook measured in a 40 1/2" striped bass. Paul caught the fish on live herring while fishing
in the Tivoli area. Tom G
*****************************************
Hudson River striper update –
Friday, April 24, 2009
The striper bite has definitely been on for the past two days. Not only are there nice fish
being caught, up to 42”, but there seems to be a plentiful amount of fish ranging up to about 39 inches.
The
Kingston area has been rather quiet insofar as the reports we’ve had, but some fish up to 38 inches are being caught.
Glasco / Saugerties is reporting about the same type of action and we’d have to rate that area as fair to good. North
of Saugerties, from Malden to Catskill, the action has been good. At Catskill the creek has been producing a few fish but
we’d have to rate it as fair only. The shoreline fishing from Catskill Point Park has been fair but the early morning
bite up at the Rip VanWinkle Bridge has been very good.
A little further upriver, at the 4 Mile Point / Stockport
area, the action has been very good to excellent with the stripers seemingly more plentiful than the herring. Live herring
fished a little bit further north at the Coxsackie cliffs have been producing some real nice fish.
New Baltimore
and Coeymans have suddenly received a plethora of stripers and the fishing at those locations presently is very good to excellent.
The main problem has been in obtaining bait but using a “stoolie” seems to supply enough herring for a good time.
Bethlehem is also getting some of the early stripers and this weekend’s fishing there should be good. Additionally,
now there are stripers all the way up to the Troy dam area but still not as many as there will be next week.
Don’t
be afraid to wet your line this weekend and take advantage of what appears to be the best start to the striper run that we’ve
had in the last 8 years. We're anticipating seeing several more large entries in our striped bass contest. Live herring, chunk
herring and bloodworms - have all been reported as working well. Don’t forget your sunscreen this weekend! Tom G
******************************
Hudson River striper update – Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Striper
action in the river has continued at a better than normal pace for this early in the run. It seems that most of the fish have
been running inn the 26 to 36 inch range for the past couple of days. Both chunk and live herring have been producing for
those with the patience to wait for the action to come to themb but bloodworms have also been effective. The best area so
far appears to be in the Stockport / 4 Mile Point region where the schools of herring have been reported as numerous.
A few stripers have been caught as far up as Albany but the main influx should start to show up there during this next week.
The river temperature this morning was running at just a smidgen above 50 degrees.
As is apparent from the above
picture the lead in our striper contest has been transferred to Bill Spath of Elizaville. Bill took his fish on a live herring
in the vicinity of Malden. Tom G
****************************************
Hudson River striper update
– Sunday, April 19, 2009
As you can see by the top of this page our striped bass contest went off with a
record number of contestants and a record high payback for all six top positions. I believe that our total number of entrants,
564, makes this the largest fishing event on the entire Hudson River. Welcome to all our anglers new to striped bass fishing
– I hope that your experience is a pleasant one.
Fishing reports up and down our waterway continue to come
in of action such as we’ve been reporting. Shoreline fishermen have been doing well fishing the rip-rap rocks on the
eastern shore of the river. Boating action has been somewhat spotty due, I think, to a desire to move around to new spots.
The main key to successful anglers so far seems to be… patience! Wait long enough, endure short runs and catch enough
catfish – then you’ll get your striper. Most of the success we’ve heard about has been on chunk bait.
Catskill Creek has produced several fish today that have ranged up to 34 inches. We heard about one larger fish, purportedly
around 42 inches, being caught in the Stockport area but did not see it. Herring are around but have tended to be rather spotty.
From Coxsackie to the south there are striped bass and herring in evidence. Most of these stripers are running between 20
and 28 inches in length.
From Coxsackie to the north the pickings become somewhat slim. The boys at New Baltimore
and Bethlehem haven’t been having much luck but we did get a report of some herring being spotted up at the Postenkill.
Things are picking up and so far we’d have to rate the start of the run as “fair.”
We should
start to see some bigger fish turn up later this week. Tom G
********************************************
Striper update - Friday, April 17, 2009, evening
Smaller stripers appear to have moved into our area in good
number, most being in the 22 to 28 inch range. Such reports come all the way from south of Kingston, thru Glasco, Saugerties,
Malden, Cheviot, Germantown, Greenport and Catskill. We're lacking any data between Catskill and Ravena but New Baltimore,
Ravena, Bethlehem and Albany all reported a lack of action so far. The herring should be getting to the New Baqltimore area
in short order.
Chunk bait appears to have been the ticket for these fish so far but some reports of salt water
sandworms being used have produced smaller stripers. Watch out for "phoney" herring being sold - these things smell
bad to start with and are just about impossible to keep on a hook. Get local stuff!
Going into the final day of
registration for our striper contest we see all kinds of records being broken. Here's the payback starting as of Saturday
(18th) morning: 1 - $5,182.00; 2 - $1,702.00; 3 - $1,347.00; 4 - $932.00; 5 - $621.00; 6 - $518.00. These figures will increase
even more since we will be accepting registrations all day on Saturday. Tom G.
*****************************************
Hudson River striper update – Thursday, April 16, 2009
This whole past week was very spotty for the
herring fishermen here in the Catskill area. Most certainly the herring were here but most of those striper guys trying for
them had to spend several hours just to grab one or two. The most productive method so far has been to “stoolie”
them in and then net ‘em (or just buy some chunk from the River Basin). Reports from the Roe-Jan Creek have been of
similar conditions but the New Baltimore contingent of anglers have reported a lack of herring as of yet. Saugerties reports
were of the herring having moved in last night.
Regardless of how hard the herring might be to catch the fact
of the matter is that the first STRIPED BASS of the year have now been caught at Catskill. Late yesterday afternoon one striper
was taken from the Catskill Creek and this morning a shore bound fisherman at the Catskill Point Park, using fresh herring
chunk, pulled in a chunky two foot linesider. These may be our first stripers of the year but certainly won’t be the
last. As the water continues to warm up more stripers will wend their way upriver and the fishing will continue to improve.
This morning the river at Catskill was in the 47 – 48 degree range. By this weekend we should see more stripers arriving.
Not only will there be more but they should also be BIGGER.
Our RIVER BASIN SPORT SHOP 22ND ANNUAL STRIPED BASS
CONTEST has already taken in enough entry fees to have broken its all time payback record. As of this morning at 9 a.m. the
cash individual payback for the top six fish was: 1- $4,620; 2- $1,579; 3- $1,201; 4- $831; 5- $554; 6- $462.
But, of
course, we still have 2 days of registration left. Since the event pays back 100% of all money taken in you can be assured
that the total payback amounts will be higher than they are now. Remember that the registration deadline for the event is
this Saturday and that the contest starts on Sunday April 19th and ends on May 30. Good luck. Tom G
***********************************************
Hudson River update – Saturday, April 11, 2009
The Catskill Creek ospreys made their appearance in
the middle of this past week – a true sign that there were herring in the vicinity. Then, on Friday, the word from downriver
was that a larger concentration of herring was on its way upriver. Some of those fish arrived in the Catskill area late Saturday.
The RIVER BASIN now has this year’s crop of fresh caught, commercially packaged, legal Hudson River herring
available. This is a brand new fresh batch and is available in bags of three, either frozen or unfrozen. Additionally, these
fish are salted to enhance the flavor (and to stay on the right side of the law).
We know of no stripers being
caught in the Catskill area as of yet but since the herring are here the linesiders are bound to be right along. Today’s
report from one of the Saugerties marinas was of no stripers there yet, but we are aware that there have been a few taken
at Kingston. Those fish will be here at any time… if they are not here already. Tom G
*******************************************
Hudson River update – Friday, April 10, 2009
Reports of more herring moving into the area have been
on the rise since yesterday (Thursday). Gill netters have been taking some but down a little bit deeper than normal. Stoolies
have been luring other herring into the shallows but that action still has been slower than what we’d like to see. It
appears that the action for these bait-fish should be really picking up by this weekend, especially since the water has warmed
somewhat and we’ve received reports of larger schools of them moving upriver past the Kingston area.
In
the Catskill Creek the action has been good for yellow perch and channel catfish but no reports of any stripers here yet.
We expect their arrival any day now. Tom G
****************************************
Hudson River update
– Wednesday, April 08, 2009
REPORTS - Even though the first herring of the year did make their appearance
here at Catskill last Friday, that preliminary foray seems to have been rebuffed by Mother Nature. No sooner had the herring
arrived when, that same night, our area got nailed by some real heavy rains. Saturday morning saw the Catskill Creek running
high and “mud red” (which actually is a step above “mud brown”). Then, as a crowning touch, the weather
turned much colder once more and the herring pretty much disappeared. When I took the river temperature this morning I saw
that it had dropped two degrees from 5 days earlier. It is now running at 43 degrees. Additionally, yesterday morning there
were snow showers all throughout our area. Not nice!
Still, I am aware of a couple of herring that were “stoolied”
from the Catskill Creek and then fished… without any sign of molestation or being frightened whatsoever. Additionally,
there were unsubstantiated reports of some smaller stripers having arrived at Kingston, and even one tale of a small striper
in the Stockport area. There definitely have been a few herring seen all the way up to and a little bit past the Stockport
Creek area.
So where does this leave all the striper fishermen that are chomping at the bit to wet their lines?
Well, if you are down in the Kingston area you might have a go at it – but as of yet I’d stay in the Rondout itself
rather than head for the Esopus Meadows or the middle flats around the KR Bridge. At Saugerties you might try to get some
early herring up the Esopus, but as of this time right now I think your chances of getting a striper bite are quite slim.
At Catskill it still appears that we’re going to need a couple of days of warmer weather to start things popping, but
make no mistake - things could start popping any day now. The Stockport situation seems to be a mirror image of Catskill’s.
Further upriver from New Baltimore to Albany you’ve still probably got at least one to two weeks to wait, but
in some years those early fish HAVE whizzed right on upriver to your area. I’d have to say that it appears you are on
quite a normal timing pattern up there.
BAIT - As of this morning we still haven’t received any of this year’s
herring for bait use. However, if anyone really wants to give it a try we do still have some of last year’s legal salted/frozen
local herring bait available. As soon as more of this year’s herring arrive here in our area we expect to have the bait
available. As most of you are probably aware – it is illegal to transport live or dead herring by motor vehicle unless
it has been commercially prepared, packaged and labeled for bait use. It’s a dumb rule, but one we must abide by.
EQUIPMENT SALES - The striped bass rod/reel combo we put on special last week sold out in just 3 days and is no longer
available. One of the other great deals we presently still have available though is the Okuma reel and Pinnacle Coastal Power
rod combo, our overall best seller. If purchased separately these two items would cost you $155.98, but as the combo special
we have them priced at $116.99 – that’s a saving of $40.00! The rod is rated for up 40 lb. test line and the reel
is a size 65 with a rated spool capacity of 320 yards of 20 lb. test. If you want even more line capacity we will substitute
the size 90 Okuma reel (availability permitting) at the same price – that one has a capacity of 520 years of 20 lb.
test.
If you do purchase one of these combos let us suggest you have them shop-wound with line here at the River
Basin. Get 20, 25 or 30 pound test. It’s done with premium Trilene XL or Big Game line and actually turns out to be
less expensive than buying the line separately. Not only is it cheaper, it’s definitely much quicker and easier. Tom
G
****************************************
Update - Friday p.m., April 3, 2009
For any of
you who might have been experiencing problems accessing our web site - we have been told that the company hosting RIVER BASIN
SPORTS has been under a "denial of access attack". For the main part this has been taken care of now but there supposedly
might be some of you that are having problems. They are trying to correct the situation as quickly as possible. Tom G
***********************************
Hudson River update – Friday a.m., April 3, 2009
When I
arrived at work this morning and saw the blue 5 gallon bucket sitting on my doorstep I thought I knew what was up…
and I was right. I peered into the pail and there it was… a real live, genuine 2009 run herring, the first of the year
at Catskill. The fish HAVE arrived and the season has started.
The herring and three of its buddies were captured
at the mouth of the Catskill Creek early this a.m. by Mike Aguiar of Riverview Marine Services in Catskill. If events follow
the pattern of a normal year we can now anticipate the capture of the first local striped bass in the next 3 to 7 days.
Still, you shouldn’t get overly excited – the first couple of weeks of the run are always slow. The population
of fish will grow as more and more of them enter the waterway. But… you must start to get ready now.
We’ve
received several reports of anglers having trouble accessing our website. It appears that they have all been Roadrunner subscribers.
Not that there’s anything we can do anything about it but we’d like to know if you encounter similar problems.
TOMGRIVER@YAHOO.COM
By the way, we have decided to start our striped bass season extended hours of operation as
of this weekend. From now thru the end of May we will be open 7 days a week – Monday thru Saturday from 9:30 to 5 p.m.
and Sundays from 9:30 to 1 p.m. Tom G
**************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report
– Thursday, April 02, 2009
SOON - Things are really starting to shape up now, at least as far as this year’s
striped bass run up the Hudson River is concerned. Some reports, and some rumors, are already going around that the run has
started. We know for a fact that some herring have already been spotted in the Kingston vicinity. We have also received a
couple of reports of a couple of small stripers (largest 22”) being caught a week ago just to the south of Saugerties…
but those two reports were so identical it was as if they were being read off the same page.
Although it’s
still about a week or so early, anytime from now on you can expect to see signs of the start here in the in the Saugerties
– Catskill – Stockport area. When we took the water temperature this morning we found the Catskill Creek to be
running at 44 degrees, a very good sign! An even better sign was when we took the temperature of the main Hudson River flowage
and found that it was now equal to that of the creek – 44 degrees. These temperatures are two degrees warmer than what
we had at the same time last year. With the warmer nights we’ve been having and the forecast of warmer weather to come
during the next week it seems that we are poised right at the front edge of all the action to come.
Still, just
to curb your enthusiasm a wee bit, remember that any fish (stripers, herring or shad) up here this early will be very few
and very scattered. As the next 3 weeks progress their numbers will grow until, probably by the last week of April, the fishing
will actually start to get good.
Generally speaking the final week of April and the first two of May are the prime
fishing weeks for stripers here in the Catskill area. Last year (2008) saw a huge surge of activity during the second week
of May when a grouping of larger bass moved upriver. Then as the month was drawing to a close, a time that traditionally sees
the fishing action really slow down, we had yet another surge of big stripers enter our water. With the improvement in the
quality of last year’s run it will really be of interest to see what 2009 will bring us, maybe some more 4 foot long
giants will arrive.
Even though none of our annual contest winning fish in 2008 measured close to the 48 inch mark,
through the years we have seen a half dozen such. The lucky anglers to have taken those giants were as follows – 2003
Dean Krissler 48”; 2001 Charles Graham 48”; 1997 Bob Koziol 48”; 2006 James Provoncha 48.25”; 2004
John Repko 48.25”; 2007 Jeremy Phillips 48.5”. Out of these 6 anglers three were actually fishing from shore but
only one of the whole bunch, Dean Krissler, was entered in our contest.
FISHING REPORTS - From this point on we’ll
also start regularly checking for your submitted striped bass reports to our E-Mail address, TOMGRIVER@ YAHOO.COM. A great
many of you like to come to this web site to check the river reports and it would be great if you would also contribute to
the store of information available. The only stipulations to having you send us reports are that you should NOT expect any
reply from us (an impossibility since we get dozens of reports on some days, but we do usually manage to acknowledge receipt
of your input) and secondly - you should not use this address to pose questions, since you will not receive a reply and will
therefore feel insulted.
What we’d like to get from you is any kind of pertinent up-to-date data –
for instance, size and number of fish caught, location, bait, amount of time fishing, time of day and tide, number of other
boats fishing and how they appeared to be doing, and anything else you might have to contribute. We’ll consolidate all
this input and post it here. What we’ve found is that individual piece-meal reports just don’t tell the true story
of what’s going on, but when one sees the input from many different sources an entirely different picture often appears
and that’s what we’d like to give you here. We’ll keep you posted as data comes in.
MISSED BITES
– There’s nothing more frustrating than having a striper pick up and run with your herring only to have you miss
the hook-up. Often this happens when a smaller fish just can’t fit the entire morsel into its mouth. Unfortunately the
miss can also come when the hook fails to find a purchase in the mouth of a larger striper. There is something you can try
which, from reports we’ve received, seems to aid tremendously in curing this situation - a sliding double-hook rig.
Basically it’s a hook on a leader… with yet a second hook on a very short leader that is slip-tied to
the leader of the first hook. The first hook is impaled to the front of your baitfish as normal. Then the attaching knot of
the leader of the second hook is slid down the first leader just far enough so that you can hook your bait a second time,
somewhere close to the tail. Although there are no guarantees that go with this set-up, based on personal experience as well
as other angler’s reports, this seems to help out with the “misses” quite a bit. You might give it a try.
STRIPER COMBO SPECIAL – Most of our striper fishermen know that the only type of spinning reel to be used for
bait fishing is a “baitrunner”, and most of them already have one (or in some cases two or three). If you think
you need a backup striper outfit but don’t want to shell out the real big bucks, here’s a deal for you.
The TICA fishing company has put out a limited run of baitrunner reels they call their “STRIPER COLLECTOR SERIES”.
Only 1,500 of them were built and the suggested list price PER REEL was around $99. Here at the shop we have them priced at
$89.99, but we just made up a super-special rod and reel COMBO with them priced at $99.99 (if purchased separately this combo
would run you $160.00). This is a heck of a good deal… if you need a backup outfit. Only a limited supply available-
obviously.
STRIPER CONTEST – Sign-ups for our RIVER BASIN 22nd ANNUAL STRIPED BASS CONTEST are coming in
at a good clip. It seems that they’re running at just about a normal rate so we anticipate an even greater event payback
than we had last year. The final two weeks of the registration period will tell the tale.
The registration fee
is $15 per angler and you must be registered by 5 p.m. on April 18th. The 100% payback contest itself runs from April 19th
through noon on May 30th. Full rules for the event are on the receipt portion of the registration form. Our event has become
the largest one to be held here on the upper tidewater Hudson with over 460 people participating in 2008 when the top prize
paid back $3,797 to Walt Chudkosky of Wappingers Falls. Total prize money awarded last year was $7,690. This year we will
be paying back to the top 6 anglers. Tom G
***********************************
Hudson River Fishing Report
– Friday, March 27, 2009
SHINER SHORTAGE - If you are a minnow fisherman you are undoubtedly aware
of the present lack of availability of these baits in the northeast. Due to certain misunderstandings (?) of the bait certification
laws the supply line providing shiners has been shut down for approximately a month now. We here at the River Basin have just
now managed to find another source for the “certified bait” and have three different sizes of shiners available
– small, medium and heavy medium. Come get ‘em.
STRIPERS SOON - One week closer to the time of arrival
of this year’s herring, shad and striped bass run – that’s where we stand right now. It really is impossible
to precisely pick the day of their arrival but experience from years past does tell us that sometime soon, probably one to
two weeks from today, the first herring of 2009 will be spotted here in the Catskill area.
This past week did nothing
to hasten the arrival of any of the aforementioned species – the night time air temps were cold and the day time temps
were either below or just barely average. As of a matter of fact the water temperature hadn’t improved at all –
the main Hudson River at Catskill was running at 39 degrees this morning (same as last week) and the Catskill Creek was at
42 (actually a one degree drop from last week). Past experience tells us that the river temperature all the way from Albany
to Catskill is fairly consistent at this time of year so you can expect that to be running around 39.
As we pointed
out last week we really don’t expect the arrival of the stripers here until after the river water rises above 42 / 43
degrees. The stripers will be following the first of the herring on their northward migration. The very first of those herring
to arrive are rather hard, if not impossible, to spot since they will tend to stay out on the deeper channel edge until the
waters warm another 5 degrees or so. When the water temp gets to be in the high 40’s they move shallower and become
much easier to spot - especially in the feeder creeks.
Last year (2008) our first confirmed reports of herring
in the Catskill Creek came on April 6 (Sunday) when the river’s water temp had jumped up to 45 degrees. That was the
start of a warming trend which saw the creek’s water hit 51 the following Sunday, April 11… and that’s
when the first stripers made their appearance in Catskill (the river was still in the mid-40’s).
Today we
heard some unconfirmed reports of a few stripers in the Rondout Creek at Kingston. That waterway meanders its way around Ulster
County for quite a bit and tends to warm up much quicker than the streams 30 miles further north. All indications are that
we will be seeing the start of the run here at Catskill in the next week or two. Remember that this will just be the start
of the run - you could call those early fish “scouts”. There aren’t many of them. The main contingent of
fish will be arriving a little at the time, building up their numbers until the end of April, at which time the fishing will
finally become “good”.
STRIPER CONTEST SIGNUPS - Signups for our 22nd Annual Striped Bass Contest are
also continuing to build in number. As of right now the total 6 position payback exceeds $4,000, but $3,000 of that is already
allocated as a minimum guarantee to the first place winner. The event, which pays back 100% of all entry monies, has a registration
fee of $15 which must be paid by April 18th at the latest. It’ll be interesting to see what the final pot will be in
just about two weeks from now.
It was finally pointed out to us by an astute angler that our contest entry forms
do have a typo in one location, where last year’s dates are given as the contest time-line. Not to worry – the
paragraph after that shows the correct time span in LARGE BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS so we don’t really expect anyone to bring
a fish in for measurement… over a year late!
FISHING RULE CHANGES – As of what we are aware of right
now there have been no changes in fishing regulations for any of the spring migratory species - stripers, herring or shad.
Everything appears to be the same as it was in 2008.
BOAT LAUNCH – The first of the floating docks at the
Catskill launch ramp was installed today. Although the total installation still has quite a bit of work to be done it now
is possible to launch and load boats with ease.
Looks like a gorgeous weekend coming up. Although we are still
officially on our winter schedule here at the River Basin, closed on Sundays and Mondays, it looks like we’ll probably
open the shop this Sunday and part of the day on Monday. If you need any supplies but don’t want to make a worthless
trip, just give a call first. The shop number is (518) 943-2111. Tom G
*******************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report – Thursday, March 19, 2009
Time marches on… and the time of arrival
of this year’s striped bass run up the Hudson River is getting closer and closer. We had the air temperature hit 65
degrees one day this past week and are anticipating the water in the creek and river to follow this lead. Since the creek
ice just went out barely a week ago we’ve seen that temperature climb all the way to 43 degrees (as of today) and the
main Hudson’s temp hovering around the 38 – 39 degree mark.
Generally the stripers will arrive here
in the Catskill area when the river gets to 42 – 43 degrees. We have seen them arrive a little bit earlier in years
when the water temp had fluctuated due to dramatic shifts in short-term weather conditions but generally their arrival will
be at 42 degrees or warmer. Of course, the stripers will arrive at locations to our south a little bit earlier than here but
this is usually just a matter of a few days at the most. Actually, there have been a couple of occasions when we’ve
received verifiable reports of stripers up in Albany… even before any were spotted here, 35 miles further to the south.
The motivation for the stripers to move upriver, other than the spawning urge brought on by the temperature rise (and
longer daylight hours), is the arrival of their food source. True, stripers are more than happy to gobble up anything that
happens to swim in front of them but their preferred menu item is HERRING. Once these fish (alewives, herring and shad) enter
and move up the river on their own spawning run… the stripers follow.
We the fishermen, in pursuit of the
stripers, will use whatever bait is available (or legal) to catch those migrating linesiders. It used to be, a few decades
ago, that just about all we used for this purpose was artificial baits – we’d troll Rebels, Bombers, Rat-l-traps,
Roadrunners, bucktail jigs, etc. Then things changed as a much easier bait was discovered – the herring! It was a major
change in striper fishing on the river.
It didn’t take too long for the fishing fraternity to embrace the
use of herring as a striper bait. Sure, the artificial lures that had been in use up till that time still worked but using
them effectively became just about impossible since now bait fishermen would be anchoring or drift-fishing on the old trolling
runs, clogging them up. What’s more, using herring was a far easier way to fish… and usually produced bigger
fish.
From that time on the main problem for the anglers was in figuring out how to catch the herring for bait.
Sometimes it was possible to find somebody selling them creek side but this got to be real expensive so other methods developed.
First among these was fishing with smaller shad darts which the herring would strike. Then it was discovered that the herring/smelt
rigs (Sabikis) were an even a better bet at catching the bait, sometimes even producing 4 or 5 at a time.
Somewhere
along that time an angler saw that river herring were following his striper lure back to the shore. The lure he was using
was a 9 inch rubber fish meant to imitate a herring. It wasn’t too long afterward that those herring following the phony
fish in were getting netted to be used as bait and the rubber fish derived the nickname “stoolie”, short for stool
pigeon. By the way, our most popular “stoolie” (silver flake with black stripes) appears to be going the way of
the Edsel – the company we had making them for us is folding. What we have left in stock is all there is.
Anyway,
at this stage, as the demand for herring seemed to dramatically increase and the supply seemed to wane, various netting methods
came into use. Regular scoop nets, seine nets, scap nets, cast nets and gill nets became the easiest way to procure the needed
bait. Even though the initial monetary outlay for such equipment, and the hassle involved in licensing some of it, was a real
pain it seemed to be well worth it.
Of course, we here at the River Basin Sports Shop do sell all these goodies.
If you want to try some of them out keep in mind that gill nets require you to obtain a commercial license from ENCON (not
expensive) but the scap nets and other stuff we sell do not require any special permit (if an exception occurs we’ll
let you know). The 4 foot scap nets which we were sold out of last week are back in stock again (no special license required
if you’re getting bait for your own personal use).
Ever since the practice of using live herring for striped
bass bait here on the upper tidal Hudson River caught on in the mid 1980’s one perplexing problem has remained for our
anglers – how to keep such an extremely fragile bait alive and spunky, readily available for use. Oh sure, just before
going out fishing you can try to “hook and line” some, maybe even net them, and even easier yet … just
buy a few from some guy that’s hawking them down on the dock. But all these methods are very iffy and you can’t
ever be sure that the herring will be available for you when YOU’RE ready to go out fishing.
Enter the era
of “herring pens,” basically large floating net-covered boxes (cages) in which to keep herring alive – maybe
even for days after you’ve obtained them! These bait pens are usually the property of those boaters who keep their vessels
docked at marinas during the striped bass run, but they can be utilized by anyone who has access to a location with deeper
water wherein to sink the pen. At the marinas these pens are usually relegated to the back side of floats, into spaces which
are not suitable for mooring, or else are tied off in the same slip as the fisherman’s boat (space allowing).
So, the fisherman obtains his bait in advance, keeping it alive and spunky in his holding pen until he’s ready to
wet a line. Sounds perfect but certain problems can and do arise.
The primary bugaboo is… would you believe
it - theft! Yup! You’ve got a cage of live herring and the guy further down the dock has none, can’t catch any,
and is determined to go fishing. Unless there are other anglers around to act as deterrent witnesses there’s a chance
that YOUR herring will mysteriously disappear. This is the reason you see locked covers on a lot of the herring pens that
are left at marina docks.
Another problem with the pens is the practice of two or more anglers sharing a pen. All
too often the later-arriving angler finds the cage to be empty or just containing one or 2 bait. That kind of shoots the thought
of an all day fishing trip.
Pens also make enemies very easily – your sometime fishing buddy asks to “borrow”
a few herring. Bad move on his part - probably ain’t gonna happen and bam! instant enemy.
Even cages with
locked covers are known to lose herring – snapping turtles have been known to chew through the mesh while attempting
to reach a dead herring lying on the bottom of the pen, and at other times holes of unknown origin appear, seemingly as mysteriously
as crop circles in some farmer’s field.
Another problem with these enclosures is the after effect of a heavy
rainstorm. If the water becomes silted up for any kind of prolonged period the herring will usually die.
The best
story we’ve heard of missing bait came in a few years ago from one of the Catskill marinas. It seems that bait had been
disappearing on a fairly regular basis from a grouping of bait pens in one section of the docks. Those striper fishermen were
rather perplexed and couldn’t figure out what was going on, so they laid a trap – they posted an all-night watch
to see who was “borrowing” their baits. One Friday night three shifts of watch were laid out – the thought
being that Saturday was the most likely day for the bait to be missing. Then three stalwart anglers each took turns waiting
inside a cabin cruiser moored just a few slips away.
No action was to be seen by the first two watchers, and with
the first trace of dawn on the horizon the third one’s shift was also drawing to an end with no sign of anybody prowling
the dock. It seemed that the night had been wasted. And just then… a subdued splash was heard from the direction of
the pens. Yet there was nobody on the dock at all… just a splashing fish perhaps? A few seconds later another splash
was to be heard and movement was seen at one of the pens… and then with the dawning of the day the mystery of the disappearing
herring was solved - a full-sized river otter emerged from one of the pens, clutching a still wiggling herring in its jaws.
Yup – this is the kind of stuff that makes fishing interesting.
Of course, we ARE selling herring pens here
at the RIVER BASIN – in five different sizes. The smallest is an 18 inch pen with a drawstring top and is perfect if
you are going to keep just a few alive to hang over the side of the boat. These cost $44.99. The next size is a 24 incher
which might work to keeping a few herring overnight, for a trip the next morning… or to hang over the side of the boat
if you’re going to catch bait and fish stripers at the same time. These smaller cages cost $59.99.
The next
size is a 30 inch pen which really is the minimum size to have if you plan to try to keep any number of bait alive. This size
pen jumps up in price and costs $109.99. For use at a boat dock though, you really should have at least a 36 inch pen. This
size is adequate for keeping up to several dozen baits alive at a time, all swimming merrily around. This 3 footer does have
a lift-up top which can be relatively easily adapted so as to be locked against bait theft. The cost here is $114.99.
The largest pen we carry is a 48 incher, the herring fisherman’s dream. It’s big enough to keep alive sufficient
bait for several fishermen and, like the 36 incher, the lift-top can be adapted fairly easily so as to be locked. These 4
foot pens are just about impossible to come by – you wouldn’t believe the hassle we had in obtaining these. The
big cages cost $129.99. Expensive yes, but oh, so nice and handy.
If you’re at all serious about this striper
fishing stuff you probably have already thought of getting a herring pen, or already have one. We have ALL FIVE SIZES at the
shop, stop in and take a look. Those herring will be here in two to three weeks, with the stripers right behind, so you had
better be ready.
Presently the River Basin is still on its winter schedule: closed Sundays and Mondays but open
the rest of the week from 9:30 to 5. The cut-off date for registering in our 22nd ANNUAL STRIPED BASS CONTEST is Saturday,
April 18th (at 5 p.m.). From that point on we will be open 7 days a week through May 30th (Sundays only from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
and then we’ll be closing Sundays and Mondays once more.
The contest itself pays back 100% of all money taken
in. We’re guaranteeing a minimum prize of $3,000 for first place and are paying back to the top six fish brought in.
If you’re going to be out there on the river, between the Troy Dam and West Point, you might just as well throw your
$15 into the pot – you never know what might turn up at the end of your line.
If you live in the Albany area
you can pick up an entry form for our striped bass contest at the Outdoor Expo being held this weekend at the EGG. There will
be some available at the GREENE COUNTY TOURISM booth but they will have to be returned to the shop along with the entry fee
(no credit cards). Tom G
****************************************************
Hudson River Fishing Report
– Thursday, March 12, 2009
The ice-out on Catskill Creek has occurred and open waters once more rule the
tidal Hudson River flowage. The departure of the ice was rather anti-climatic this year as we could see the ice weakening
during the preceding week until finally, late last Saturday (March 7, 2009) with the aid of some warmer rain run-off; the
creek became navigable once more. This date lies pretty much in keeping with the trend of the past 7 years where we’ve
seen an ice-out in March. Since 1980 this has happened in January five times (counting the two years we didn’t have
enough ice to get rid of so as to consider it a genuine ice-out) and in February 8 times.
The day the ice was breaking
up the first boat-angler of the year hit the creek. Late that afternoon he discovered there was already enough open water
to make a few trolling passes. His reward for that early effort – a couple of nice chunky walleyes in the boat. Since
last weekend the creek has been flowing off-color and fast but this has not deterred anglers from trying their luck. The reports
from shore bound fishermen have just been of some nice hefty catfish and a few perch – no walleye reports from there.
Keep in mind that the final day to fish for walleye will be this Sunday (March 15). After that we go into a closed season
for them until the first Saturday in May.
There is no doubt that striper fishermen are all psyched-up and raring
to go this year. We’ve seen plenty of them, all fired up, come through the shop already. Most of the interest so far
has been in the many different “baitrunner” reels of a size for stripers. Despite the dour economic forecast for
this coming year we’ve gone ahead and stocked a full assortment of these “bad boys” – as of a matter
of fact, even more than ever before. Right now we have 19 different striped bass size reels in stock, many of them available
even further discounted if purchased as a rod/reel combo. And, as usual, we have a full stock of all striper gear waiting
for you – rigs, hooks, slides, floats, heavy duty swivels, sinkers, landing nets, gill nets, scap nets, herring pens,
striper rods, line, etc.
Although we always do a lot of bulk-spooling of line for anglers it surprises us when
some regular customer seems to finally “discover” that this service is available. This is particularly noticeable
with the striper fishermen who require heavier lines for their equipment. Generally speaking, the total cost of having us
re-spool a spinning reel with 20, 25 or 30 pound Berkley Trilene XL or Big Game monofilament (up to 200 yards) is $8 plus
tax. This is all PREMIUM line and winds up costing less than if you purchased the line separately. You’ll have no left-over
yardage of line that goes to waste and you won’t have to wonder and ponder if you wound-off the new spool in the proper
direction so as to avoid line twist.
As we approach the middle of March and look at our past records we see that
even though the herring usually tend to make their first appearance in our area in the second week of April there were a few
years when they arrived as early as the end of March. The weather during the next couple of weeks will be the determining
factor in that. And then, a few days after the herring, the first of the stripers will make their appearance. They tend to
be few in number at the start but that number will continue to grow throughout the month. The final week of April usually
sees a goodly number of big stripers around. As of a matter of fact our annual striped bass contest has been won four times
with fish caught during that week.
Our observations here at the shop lead to the conclusion that the striper run
of 2008 produced the best striper fishing, in both size and number, we’ve had in the past 4 or 5 years. From reading
a recent Hudson River Fisheries Unit report I see that their statistics mirror this same conclusion. Where they seem to differ
is in the amount of “herring catch” which to us, from all reports of anglers and commercial netters, appeared
to be really good last year. The Fisheries Unit’s figures, for some reason, seem to be lacking in this regard.
As far as changes in the striper or herring regulations for this coming year – there are none as of this time. However,
apparently this could change on a moment’s notice depending upon the whim or whimsy of some individual. Look at what
they did to the Hudson River black bass fishery by instituting a ridiculous 15 inch limit on the river’s bass, a bass
that just about nobody was keeping anyhow. They killed the number of river tournaments by a good 75% - and along with that
death comes a decline of millions of dollars in associated revenue to Hudson River Valley merchants and inn keepers. Just
great!
Anyway, our striped bass contest sign-ups appear to be going about normal. This year’s entry fee is
$15, 100% of which will be paid back to the participants. We are absolutely guaranteeing a payback of $3,000 for the top fish
caught and will be paying back for the longest 6 fish brought in by entrants. Last year Walt Chudkosky’s 46 inch striper
paid him $3,797.00. The total contest pay back was $7,690. The entry deadline is 5 p.m. on April 18th and the contest runs
from April 19th thru noon on May 30th. For anybody coming to the area and needing accommodations or other information you
can call the Greene County Tourism department at (518) 943-3223. Those folks will be glad to help. Tom G.
*************************************
River Basin Sports Update – Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Brrrr!
It’s been a cold winter but that’s all changing now. March is traditionally a month of great transition here in
our area of the Hudson Valley, a transition which can be seen to have already started at the end of February. Here in the
Village of Catskill lots of land is snow free and the creek has some large pockets of open water - over the shallower areas
it’s true but somewhat earlier in development than in a normal cold year.
The Hudson River, where it passes
by the mouth of the Catskill Creek, is free flowing. This “free-flow” of the river is a rite of spring which must
occur before the ice in the creek itself can depart. Even though we considered the previous winter (2007 – 2008) to
be just about ice free (not thick enough to support an ice fisherman) this certainly is not the case this time around. We
figure that the ice will depart sometime in the next 2 to 3 weeks, perhaps even sooner if we get a few days of warm rain as
is liable to happen any time from now on.
Yet another sign of the winter to spring transition has occurred right
here in the shop – we have started accepting entries into our 22nd ANNUAL RIVER BASIN STRIPED BASS CONTEST. Entry forms
and contest rules are available here at the store and must be filled out and returned by the end of business on April 18.
The entry fee per contestant is $15. Since the event pays back 100% of all entry monies NO charge cards (which take a percentage
of the money involved) will be accepted for registration.
Last year was a banner year for this event and, thanks
to some assistance from the Greene County Promotion Department, we paid back a total of $7,690.00 to the top finishers. First
place itself paid a whopping $3,797.00 to Walt Chudkosky for his winning 46 inch striper. A total of 469 anglers participated.
This year we will be paying back awards for the top 6 striped bass to be entered. They must be caught from the waters
of the Hudson between West Point and the Federal Lock at Troy, N.Y., either from a boat or from shore, by the registered angler.
The contest starts on April 19th and ends at 12 noon on May 30th. Full contest rules are on the entry forms.
Here
at the shop we are also hastily preparing for the striper run. Already we have live herring tanks available, as well as the
mesh herring live-pens. The herring gill nets have arrived (although they still are not unboxed) and scap nets are in the
process of being assembled. Thirteen different “baitrunner” striper reels are presently in stock as well as the
rods to go with them.
We have brought in over HALF A TON of different types and sizes of striper sinkers and dozens
of different striper catching rigs. Many of the cases of new tackle in the back room have overflowed into the main shop space
itself. More and more equipment is being unpacked and put out for sale each day but it is a tedious drawn-out process. This
is all specialty stuff for the stripers, the best selection you’ll find anywhere and we’re working hard to get
it ready for you as soon as possible. Hope to see you soon. Tom G
