New York State Fishing

This past Saturday while I was up in New York, I ventured out onto Chautaqua Lake near Jamestown NY to see how the ice fisherman were doing.  It was sunny and about 30 degrees and it seemed like everybody was catching a lot of bluegills.  I stopped and talked to a fisherman who had about 30 big bluegills on the ice and one whopper crappie.  While I stood there for a few minutes I saw quite a few fish being pulled out of the holes.  It must have been a great day to be out fishing or Chautaqua Lake is an excellent place to ice fish. 

Next year I am going to buy a New York license and fish Chautaqua for a few days.  A couple words of advice, though.  The ice on Chautaqua does not look like good ice.  It is very thick (14 inches or so) but the top 8-10  inches are snowpack ice.  Snowpack ice melts quickly so I would be very careful venturing out after a warm front comes in.  Good Luck fishing!