Erie Canal...

[Fishing4Soup]

Anyone ever fish this? My brother and I found a spot with a sunken set of tree where i caught my first 2 smallies on a rattletrap and the bottom is very rocky. There are trees hanging over the Water as well. Any tips on fishing this kind of area and the canal in general? Thanks!

[Zach_BassFisherman]

You may want to try and use a bass tube, it may work, i'd also stick with the Rat L' Trap, how deep is it there?

[Fishing4Soup]

im not sure....2-5 ft where the sunken trees are and maybe 10-20 in the middle

[pig n jig]

Don't throw those eels back when you catch them. Take a 5 gallon bucket with a locking lid to keep them in. They don't look it, but they are good eating when fixed right. P N J

[FlyRod]

This'll make you wanna spend more time on the old Ear-Eye-Eee Canal.
(Music majors gone wild. One's really cute...guess which.)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...=alan+jacyszyn
Ya' gotta love old Ed Ames...whatta voice.
F.Rod

[Fishing4Soup]

lol we had to memorize that song for social studies last year....Anyways, any other advice? Im trying to catch smallies but advice on catching any other fish would be nice too.

[bass kicker]

is this the one that goes through canada because there is some awsome bass fishing in there

[Fishing4Soup]

hmmm im not sure...probably runs into the lake before it hits canada. By the way, caught another Smallie on a firetiger colore'd rattlin rap. Got hits with a powerworm and a husky jerk....everything hit them but didnt get hooked....

[Marty]

I have fished the canal in the Rochester area very extensively since the early 90s. Unfortunately, the areas I fish have been in decline for the last six years. That certainly doesn't mean that other areas aren't good.

To give you an idea of what has happened, following are the total numbers of fish I've caught (all species, all sizes) by year from 1997-2005. This year has started off better than the last few years, but nowhere near as good as the heyday in the 90s.

256-249-320-106-47-219-92-9-25.

I used to fish with a mix of crankbaits and grubs on jigheads, but gradually the cranks got used more and more to where I now use them about 95% of the time. My three most commonly caught fish have always been smallmouth, followed by walleye and pike. I've also caught suckers, sheepshead, channel cats, an assortment of smaller fish and even two rainbows.

The areas I fish have wall-to-wall, crankbait-eating rocks, and I have saved about $300 worth of baits with a telescoping lure retriever. The fish have never seemed particularly fussy about lure brands or colors.

In the last couple of years, I've also boat-fished the Widewaters area east of Palmyra and decent largemouth fishing can be had there.

[bass kicker]

tubes work great there if it is the one i am thinking of

[Fishing4Soup]

thanks marty and kicker. Any recommended crankbaits and one of those telescopic retreiver things? I've already lost a Rapala d2-6 and some jigs in the rocks.

[FlyRod]

Originally Posted by Fishing4Soup

lol we had to memorize that song for social studies last year....Anyways, any other advice? Im trying to catch smallies but advice on catching any other fish would be nice too.

Beware of ANY Texiz basser who offers advice re the Erie Canal!
My friend Reb thinks the Erie Canal has something to do with hearing. Those crazy phonics again! (Erie...Earie...get it?)

FR

[bass kicker]

thats funny

canals are one of my fav places to fish almost anything works in them

[Marty]

Originally Posted by Fishing4Soup

thanks marty and kicker. Any recommended crankbaits and one of those telescopic retreiver things? I've already lost a Rapala d2-6 and some jigs in the rocks.

Bass Pro has one telescoping retriever, but it's not the one I have. Mine might have been discontinued.

http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catal...=SearchResults

Actually, any crankbait I've tried has caught fish. But I have to limit myself, so I do most of my fishing with #5 Shad Raps, Deep Baby Ns and Bomber 6As. I catch far more on the Shad Raps than others, but that's not necessarily because it's more productive, but out of habit that's the first lure I start with.

The first two years I fished there, I used nothing but grubs on jigheads. I did OK, but when I started using crankbaits, my total catch went up about 60-70%.

[Fishing4Soup]

ok cool. Thanks for the link and advice!

[Fishing4Soup]

marty, you fish from shore there too? Thats what im doing and i know there are big walleye where i fish because i saw someone catch them and its 30 feet deep farther out, but closer to me it gets very shallow so i dont know if i should use deep crankbaits.

[Marty]

marty, you fish from shore there too?

Yes I do. The only part of the canal that I've boat fished is the Widewaters area in Wayne County.

[Fishing4Soup]

oh, ok. I'm going to dick's tomorrow to pick some stuff up. Im getting tubes and rattlin raps and maybe some shad raps as well. Anything else you suggest?

[Marty]

Originally Posted by Fishing4Soup

oh, ok. I'm going to dick's tomorrow to pick some stuff up. Im getting tubes and rattlin raps and maybe some shad raps as well. Anything else you suggest?

There's no reason those lures shouldn't produce as long as you're on fish. I use floating-diving crankbaits, but that's just my personal preference.

[Fishing4Soup]

ya i think im just going to get a ton of rattlin raps, maybe 2-3 dt's and a couple shad raps. Mostly in firetiger. Thanks fort your help man! It's good having someone so close on this forum(i live in fairport).