took a couple of clients out on fri. the 24th for a full day and decided to go with the lead line and snap weights; what a good decision it turned out too be. We ended up catching anywhere from 70 – 80 saugers and walleyes with over half of the eyes being legals. The mix was about 70% saugers and 30% eyes but whos complaining. All the fish except for 3 eyes and 6 saugers came from the hudson channel and the area below the hudson bridge(94). We ended up going down to the Kinni narrows just to get a break from the carpal tunnel syndrome that we were developing and ended up turning fish there also. The water is considerably colder at the narrows so i figure the bite should only get better. I found that the fish liked a speed of 2.2 miles an hour up river and 3.5 to 3.7 down river. The bait of choice were shad raps in the # 7 and # 9 sizes and anything with a nickel, chrome plating too it. The perch pattern also caught fish as did the discontinued now brought back, chartruese pattern. I cant tell you how many times we had four lines doubled over with fish on them. Whats nice is you dont catch any sheepies or very few silvers, just suagers and eyes. The trolling bite will only get better with the ewarm weather. Look for the fish to move out of the neck down areas as the water levels drop and it warms up. The fish will fall back to the basin araes and adjoining flats to start looking for the schools of forage that are now starting to show up on the graphs.See ya on the river!!!
May 28, 2002 at 9:04 pm
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