Ice-fishing was mostly finished for the season, but weather was still cold, so ice was still fished, said Jeff from FISH307.com in Lake George. This weekend will probably be the final for ice-fishing on George. But this morning was 17 degrees, and anglers still headed to fish the lake on the ice. Many anglers fished ice farther north on lakes. This was one of the best ice-fishing seasons in 20 years. Conditions were excellent, and Jeff appreciates all the anglers who showed up for the fishing. Some ice-fishing baits are no longer available. But the store is still carrying the standard baits including fatheads, three sizes of shiners, grubs that were just re-stocked, and nightcrawlers. The shop’s got the baits to fish the ice. Much of the ice tackle and gear that was on clearance sale sold out. But some is still available, including Striker ice-fishing suits for 50 percent off. Telephone for them. A few sleds are left, but only at the physical store. The shop is being readied for spring, and that includes introducing some new lures. Sign up for the shop’s email list to be kept informed about sales regularly. FISH307.com is both an online store and a brick-and-mortar one, located near the south entrance to the Adirondacks.

Salmon River and Western New York Streams

It’s turning into spring fishing, said Jay Peck from Jay Peck Guide Service. The water was cold, but water levels were good for fishing on rivers and streams or creeks. Salmon River ran at 335 cubic feet per second during the weekend and since was raised to 750. That’s a good level for fishing for the river’s steelheads. Runoff from melting snow was yet to affect the water level, but it will. No steelheads anywhere were spawning in the region yet, really. Lots of the fish swam the upper Salmon. Whenever the river rises, steelheads will swim the lower. Those are fish entering the Salmon from Lake Ontario. Many steelheads are holding in the pools of the upper river. They’re crabby in the low water temperatures, but are grabbing flies fished well. Jay and his guides are catching the steelheads on a variety of stoneflies. On warmer, sunnier days, many stones are around. A size-10 stone with flash and black, rubber legs worked well for Jay and his guides. “Hot” stoneflies, a stone with a spot of bright color like chartreuse or pink, worked. On days when the water is up, egg flies will probably be fished. Two hours to the east in upstate New York, near Rochester, creeks and Oak Orchard River fished for brown and rainbow trout and steelheads. The creeks were sometimes slushy in mornings and gave up the trout on natural-colored egg flies and sometimes white Zonker streamers or wooly buggers. In the Oak, steelheads were scattered about, swiping egg flies or maybe a small, white Zonker. Anglers just needed to cover water, and plenty of the fish were around. When weather warms for the season, all of this fishing will change. Jay specializes in fly-fishing and catch-and-release, and books trips that fish with conventional tackle with his other guides.