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Anyone fish off of Long Point or out of the State boat launch? What kind of fish do ya catch there? I usually to the North end but lookin to mix it up a bit.
That is area is one of the last places to freeze good on this lake. 25+ years ago, I used to get many a jumbo perch out there jigging in about 50 feet of water. They used to smash a pimple with a perch eye. When pulling them up, their stomachs would bloat out of their mouths spilling baby sawbellies everywhere. Good times. Sadly, now Conesus Lake perch fishing is just an "old time" memory that I tell my teenage son.
I remember fishing Conesus in the mid 1970's and 1980's too. On a nice weekend day, there were likely a 1000+ people on that entire lake ice fishing. No lie! I remember finding alewives frozen in the clear ice in the early 1980's and that's when the perch fishing really went downhill - FAST. The pike, walleye and perch that came out of there during the Annual Conesus Lake Ice Fishing Contest used to be very impressive. I'll see if I can go to my mom's and pick up some old photos my Dad took back then. My Dad used to sharpen the old Swedish spoon augers for Bob's Baitshop in Lakeville as well as Jay-Ve's in Rochester back in the 1960's, 1970's & 1980's. Brings back some good memories. Old school fishing - no electronics, no shanty, no heater, rods and reels that held line and you handlined the fish in, sitting on a bucket with your back to the wind, big parka on, and wearing Army/Navy surplus stuff from Korea/Vietanm era, and freezing your butt off but your feet were warm with Mickey Mouse Boots . We are so spoiled now.
Absolutely true. I have about 20 yrs on you two guys and Conesus was great for a lot of different fish. You wouldn't believe the size of the gills we got there too. What a shame.
What do you think happened? over fished? over managed by DEC? I know DEC had something to do with the demise of Honeoye
My father speaks often of what this fishery once was. "Over Managed" by DEC? I don't believe that to be the case with any of our Finger Lakes fisheries. In fact they have done next to nothing to manage our fisheries in my opinion. I haven't seen a net survey done since the mid 2000's for Conesus. Supposedly a study is in place now with the walleye population which is down and possibly dwindling. They take no action until after the fact. Kind of like Law Enforcement most of the time. That's what they've mostly become, ticket enforcement agents. It's a shame, but its all I've seen in my lifetime. I'm a young angler and I shudder to think of what my fisheries will be in another 10-20 years. Same thing with hunting. Wish I was born in the 50's and could have seen what my father had.
I had a number of spoon augers sharpened by dropping them off at Jay-Vees, so your dad did a really nice job. We also went to Hollow Grinder to get them done-not sure your dad got those?? Those Spoon Augers were great when sharp-I won a number of bets by cutting threw 12" of ice in 10 sec.-of course anything over 12" was a lot tougher as the shavings started to bind the blade up and you then had to scoop them out-and back then Oneida had up to 30" of ice at times-ahh the good old days!!! Memories Hunyeraws, memories!! Thanks..
Mike, My Dad had a real talent for putting an edge on a spoon auger. He used to sharpen them after work in our garage. He used to be a tool grinder and put new edges on worn cutting tools and millbits for a living. He never sharpened augers for Hollow Grinder, they did it themselves...often guys that took blades to Hollow Grinder to get "sharpened" ended up getting their blades over to Jay-Ve to have my Dad put the edge on the right way. You were right, they used to cut really fast...as long as it didn't get too thick and then like you said, you would have to scoop out the shavings. But was really nice is that you usually ended up with a really cool "core" of ice which was fun to chuck down the lake and watch it skip and slide for what seemed "forever" along smooth glass ice. Ah, good memories once again.
In the late 1960's and early 1970's, the DEC tried stocking rainbows into the lake. They really didn't take and they ceased the practice. Likely during that time or in the late 1970's, someone may have used sawbellies as baitfish and dumped some into the lake...that was the rest of the story...walleye and perch population plummeted. I remember as a kid before sawbellies took hold in the 1980's, when you caught perch in water over 25 feet, their bellies would come out of their mouths from their air bladders and they would spit up noting but scuds, daphnia and copepods that were living near the bottom. The alewives ate many of the invertebrates as well as the perch and walleye fry - there goes the fishery. Tiger Muskies were introduced to help control the alewife population. Personally, I have always thought that Conesus would be a prime lake for the introduction of hybrid striped bass (white bass x striped bass) rather than tiger musky. They "wipers" school, suspend and would chow down suspended schooled alewives. They wouldn't really compete with the native perch, bass, pike, pickerel, and walleye that much and since they they tend to use open water more readily. Wipers are sterile and with an 8 or 10 year lifespan, once they stopped stocking, they would eventually go away. In addition, it would produce an incredible trophy fishery for wipers. The NYSDEC did stock then in a few lakes back in the 1980's but I don't that they do anymore. I can only dream...
still a lot of big fish in that lake
Alewives are the culprit. Do some research on Alewive numbers and their affects on perch populations. When Alewive numbers are up, perch numbers are down. I'm all for them stocking what ever they need to get the alewives out of Conesus. I have fished Conesus hard on the ice since 2004. It is an awesome lake but it is not the lake from the past. My buddy that lives on the lake has a couple pike mounted in the mid 20# range (caught in the early 80's). Now you are hard pressed to find a 40" plus fish from this lake.
I guestion alewives hurting the perch population lake Ontario and Lake Erie both have great populations of perch and yet have large amounts of alewives
Comparing Conesus to Ontario is like comparing apples to oranges. The DEC stocked rainbows, then stocked alewives for food..... end of perch, end of story.
Yeah, I've heard a lot of theories over the years and maybe it's true. Shiners and rudd I can see, but but how many bait stores sell alewives for bait? We always bought shiners or suckers. Anyway the lake is def overloaded with them, in the spring they boil on the surface at night as far as you can see and you hook them accidentally on almost every cast!Also the suspended walleye get REAL fat on those alewives! Good luck everyone.
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Topic: Conesus Lake (Read 8711 times)
