Chautauqua Lake

Posted by Leo Cancilla in Cancilla's Fishing Blog on June 9, 2009

For years I have looked for a lake that is full of big smallies besides lake erie. After fishing most of the lakes in Western PA I have found the lake I have been looking for just across the border in New York. Jon and I spent this weekend practicing for an upcoming tournament on Chautauqua Lake.

On Saturday we set out to fish the spots on the north end of the lake that I had found a couple weeks prior to see if the fish were still in those areas. We weren’t sure if the bass were still going to be on beds or even in the shallows, but once we started fishing we found that there were still a few on beds, but in the morning the big smallies were crusing the shallows feeding. We each caught multiple 3 – 4 1/2 pound smallies. Keeping panfish off of your line in that lake truly is impossible as we caught a ton of rock bass and perch. After we called it a day we headed to Chautauqua Heights Campground. For all of you campers out there this might have been the nicest campground I have ever stayed at. The wood campsites had enough room to park the bass boat and set a tent. These were well groomed sites with a perfect amount of privacy. The bathroom facilities were also some of the nicest that I have came across. It was a steal for $28 per night with electric and water hook-ups.

Sunday we decided to head to the South end of the lake and search for new water. We were able to catch more largemouth in the south, but they didn’t match the size of the smallies from the day before. Jon did manage a couple real nice smallies on sunday, but they came from one little spot. Once again we found that the only thing we could get smallies to hit were small soft plastics. The largemouth were caught on a wide range of lures.

If you have a family or are just looking to head to a lake to catch a bunch of fish and want a chance to catch a big healthy smallmouth bass I highly recommend heading to Chautauqua Lake in New York. Camping at Chautauqua Heights is affordable and relaxing. Let’s not forget about the beautiful water of the lake. I know I can’t wait to get back up there.

Chautauqua Heights Campground, Chautauqua Lake, largemouth bass, Smallmouth Bass, Soft Plastics

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Memorial Day Weekend

Posted by Leo Cancilla in Cancilla's Fishing Blog on May 26, 2009

This year memorial day weekend was a truly special weekend for me. Not only because I spent an amazing weekend at Chautauqua Lake in New York, but because it was my 1 year aniversery with my wife Jessica. About 2 months ago I had asked Jess what she wanted to do for our aniversery and she told me she wanted to go somewhere and camp that we had never been to. Since I am fishing the bassmaster weekend series this year in New York we decided that we should go spend a weekend at one of those lakes. What guy gets to spend his entire aniversery weekend on the water. The kind that marries someone that loves the outdoors as much as him.

It didn’t take us long to find some nice fish morning on saturday. Since we had never been to the lake we decided to just use the trolling motor in the morning and try to find some kind of pattern. What we had discovered was there there really was no pattern. We caught fish in the prespawn, spawn, and post spawn cycles. If you were going to target the spawning fish the only time your were truly able to do so was before 11 am. The boat traffic was at a minimum, and the sun was perfect for help you see the fish. Typically in the middle of the day we were hanging out at the campsite, but we would head back out for the evening and fish for post spawn fish with jerkbaits, soft and hard, and chatterbaits. Dock fishing did work, but after saturday it was harder to get fish off of the docks because of the boats coming in and out of them.

Monday morning was the best day for me out there. Obviously it should have been because I had never been to the lake before this weekend, but my expectation were low because of the fishing and boating pressure of a holiday weekend. I decided to start fishing by running to a spot that I had located a couple of spawning smallmouth bass. The night before I had seen about 3 or 4 nice smallmouth bass on a stretch of water and when I went back the next morning, there were about 30 nice smallies on beds. You could say that I had hit the jackpot. I spent all morning working these fish and managed 11 nice smallies and 3 of them broke the 4lb mark and most were over 3lbs. I lost about 5 more of these monsters, but that is bed fishing for you.

My recommendations for Chautauqua is that everyone should go there at some point in their life. It is a beautiful lake and everyone up there is happy and very nice. The fish are big and the water is awesome. The boat traffic can be overwelming, but don’t let that discourage you. I would try fishing green pumpkin lures and baitfish colored lures. Hard and soft jerkbaits worked well matching the shad color. Long casts are extremely important in the super clear water.

Overall it was a great weekend and I can’t wait to get back.

boat traffic, buzzbait, Chatterbaits, Chautauqua Lake, docks, flukes, Jerkbaits, largemouth bass, rocks, Smallmouth Bass, weeds, worms