Canistear NWCDC

[tonyr]

If it was the way Clinton was on Sunday at Noon, there would have been some P-O;d people trying to park or turn around.

[metaliczombi]

Hit Canistear today with a buddy for a few hours drifting and trolling crawlers and plastics.  Over all landed 2 walleyes, too many large sunnies, small bass and a big pickeral.  Largest smb went about 2.5lbs and LMB went about 2lbs.  First walleye measured 18.25" and the second one 25.25"and weighed 5 3/4lbs.

[metaliczombi]

Was out again this morning trolling and drifting.  Ended up with only 1 walleye 16.5" and a few bass.  I missed way to many light bites that I am sure were 'eyes since the one I caught barely hit it.  Largest lmb went about 2.5 and smb went about 2lbs.  I lost a smb that was a bit bigger at the boat.  Caught the walleye trolling spinner rigs in 13ft of water.  The 2.5lb LMB hit a spinner rig in open water.  It was suspended about 16ft down over 28ft of water.  I catch quite a few lmb over open water up here.  Last year I hit a 4.5lber in about the same area.  In another area I found a dense school of herring that appeared to be, on my crappy finder, from top to bottom, 10-16ft deep and it produced quite a few small bass(10-12") and the 2lb smb.  After a while the school broke up and the bite died there.  A lot of boats but everyone else was banging the shoreline almost creating a whirlpool...........

[metaliczombi]

I guess no one else fishes Canistear huh?  Well anyways, I was out this morning 6-12:00pm and the tournament scheduled for Oakridge was moved to Canistear because Oakridge was closed this morning for some reason.  This meant a lot of boats floating around creating another whirlpool.  Most of the tourny guys weren't catching.  I ended up catching a few smb, a pickeral and 1 walleye.  The walleye weighed 7lbs 11oz.  I caught it by drifting in the high winds dragging a nightcrawler along the bottom in 15ft of water @ about 9:30am.  It had some nice runs before I was able to net it.  I caught a couple smb suspended on a jig/shad body in schools of bait.  I can get used to that method.  It takes a while to find a school but the bites are rather quick if the smallies are there.

[kuz]

Oak Ridge is closed due to the water levels. They are going to be working on the bridge on Clinton Rd., so they haven't been able to open the gates to let water into Oak Ridge, so its gettin low. That's what the security guard told me over at Echo. There were a ton of boats there too. Not much action. But the winds weren't bad, I'm surprised it was real windy at Canistear, it was dead calm at Echo.

[metaliczombi]

It is interesting that a couple of years ago during the drought the water level was a lot lower at Oakridge and it was still open and this year it's at normal pool for july and it's already closed. 

The wind was coming from the west-southwest so maybe it was blocked by the mountains at Echo today.  I also chased 2 kayakers off of Canistear today.  I had to grab something from my truck after being on the lake for a while and as I was walking up they were walking down the launch.  When I came back they were in the water getting started so i explained that they can't do that here and when I told them I noticed neither of their 2 cars had stickers they said they thought the permits were only for fishing.  They left after I explained that I pay $35 to fish here and I am not going to stand by and let them kayak for free.  When I was leaving I couldn't get in fast enough to talk to the guard who was pulling out of the driveway about the kayakers and the ATVs that are always buzzing around up there.

[projoe]

a few years back i ran into the same thing with kayakers at echo and they didnt even speak english it was like they were speacking russian but any way how long do u think oak ridge will be unfishable for

[kuz]

haha kayakers... i got that one beat.  at echo one day a guy and his girl rowed out in an inflateable life raft boat... not a float tube or pontoon, one of those ones that you put in your pool for the kids. those yellow ones. all inflateables are not allowed in the watershed, otherwise I'd have my pontoon out there. but this little love cruise was ridiculous.  no permits. nothing. ridiculous. they've been having a lot of problems especially this year with non-permit holders and atv's and whatnot. its hard to patrol when you only got 1, sometimes 2 guards. that's why the permit holders got to chip in. jeez they make it cheap enough... just get the permit.

[metaliczombi]

Water level was going down at Canistear this weekend.  Funny thing at that level launching is easier since the deeper area is closer to the edge of the water.  No walleyes this weekend landed.  I lost two on Sun on 2 different rigs, gulp and crawlers.  One seemed big but didn't get a look at it.  Took my 13yr old nephew out on sat and played guide all day, he doesn't fish but wanted to stay out for 7hrs fishing with me.  It was nice to see his face not blocked by a PSP or cell phone texting.  He landed a 13in LMB that put up a fight for him on my UL.  In his eyes it was huge and that is all that matters.  He even let me troll for a while and I know that can get old real quick since I even get bored trolling somedays.  My largest that day was only a 12in smallie.(yup, beat by a 13yr old non-fisherman)  Not a big fish nor numbers weekend with the NW/NE winds blowing all day Sat/Sun.

[Scientist]

The lake is still open to launch boats?

[metaliczombi]

It was only down a foot or so as of Sun evening.  I certainly hope it's open since during the drought it was down a lot further than this.

[tonyr]

Yeah, down like 20 fow during the drought. It's almost the end of July, so it could go down a bit at a time or or not at all depending on rainfall.

[projoe]

in august dont they almost always take a little bit of water out of all the lakes

[Scientist]

Depends who is managing it this year.  A few years back someone took the approach of draining each lake by maximum amount and then draining the next lake successive lake. One year Clinton was drained to only 15 feet deep while Oak Ridge and Echo were almost full. The past three years they did a decent job on managing the water levels.

[projoe]

me personally have better success wen they drain the lakes