Lake Clear Info?

[ship of fools]

My neighbor just bought a little camp on Lake Clear up near Saranac Lake.

I have looked at the contour map and species present and he has done ok in open water for perch and pike but i was hoping to get a little more detailed info if at all possible.

Anyone have any generic info / tips that would be ok on the open forum??   Or if anyone has anything worth sending via PM i would really appreciate it and i am sure we could hook up when we come up if access is an issue.

Thanks 

[Lars North]

Besides pike and perch, Lake Clear also contains populations of brown trout and landlocked salmon. DEC stocks the lake with both of these salmonid species. Their primary forage is the rainbow smelt. However, my interpretation of the baitfish regulations is that smelt are not a legal baitfish here. On the other hand ice fishing, including the use of tip-ups, is permitted. Both brown trout and salmon seasons are open all year. Here's a potentially helpful link to DEC's Franklin County ice fishing page: http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/32350.html. I'm a rookie at this, but you might receive additional responses if you post under the "Northern NY Thread".

[Creighster]

You can not buy or sell smelt as bait-fish but if you jig up you own and use them in the body of water where you are fishing without transporting them in a motor vehicle you are allowed to use them as bait. Lake clear has a lot of smelt, and some big ones. My suggestion would be to jig up some smelt and put them on tip-ups just under the surface of the ice for salmon, or just off the bottom for brown trout. If you know approximately what depth the smelt are suspended that's also a good depth to target trout and salmon. If you can't locate the smelt, use big shiners on tip-ups. I've only ice fished clear a couple times and haven't had much success outside of jigging perch and big smelt. With that said I have caught salmon and big browns in Lake Clear during the open water season so I know they are in there.

[rball]

I have been wanting to ice fish this lake for years, the parking area is never parked when I try. I have heard it can be good for perch if you move around. Do keep in mind this lake is notorious for high winds. Between parking area never plowed and high winds my plans to fish there never work out. In terms of trout and salmon only chance would be to use the smelt. When you have a large population of smelt that's all they feed on and wont really look at a shiner. Do keep an eye on storms and lunar tables. They gorge themselves during heavy feeding times and if you get there the day or two after you will have little to no luck.

[beerbellybob106]

fished clear quite a bit while i was at college. caught piles of smelt out of there never got any trout. there is also lake trout in there i seen one get caught