Conesus Lake, NY

[Wall-nut]

Here in Upstate New york the trout and salmon fishing's great and the walleye in Lake Erie is unbeatable. However, for me it's a lot more convenient getting to Conesus Lake. In-Fisherman usually lists Conesus as a pretty solid walleye fishery. For me, it's been a dud. Over the years, I've nailed some mighty huge northern out of Conesus and plenty of bass and perch but the walleye fishing has been tough. Is there anyone out there who has some tips on upping my success ratio on this particular lake?

[eyedoktr]

I agree, Conesus has been tough the last few years. The main reason was a high population of sawbellies which is now at a manageable level. The best success has been at night, trolling black and silver stick baits either over the weeds or long lining over open water. If you don't believe there are alot of 'eyes in Conesus, head to the south end of the lake sometime in the next week or two. You will find man-made trenches full of fish up to 15#. Have you tried Honeoye Lake just to the east?Alot of 2-3 pounders with 6-8's not uncommon.

[Wall-nut]

Yeah...I'll be trekking down to the south end of Conesus this weekend to drool over those pig-sized 'eyes on their way up to spawn (and big northern, too). Come May and June...Where are they?

[Gilligan]

Never fished it but would like to try sometime. What methods have you tried? I do alot of open water trolling on Erie for suspended fish, would be curious to see if this would work there.

[eyedoktr]

NUT, have you tried anchoring at night with a lantern over the side and vertical jigging with crawlers? I have used this method on Honeoye for about 10 years with great success. The best night was 41 'eyes in 4 hours. 15-20 a night was common.I plan on trying it at Conesus this summer.

[Wall-nut]

Many moons ago, when i was just a kid, the ol' man would take me to Conesus fishing for walleyes at night. The preferred method, at the time, was something called "chugging" which was basically slow trolling with a crawler and a june bug spinner and enough weight to get it near the bottom. The rig was pumped up and down in a jigging fashion. I will give your night jigging tip a try this year and I think I'll dig out a couple of june bug spinners and give that a try, as well. Meanwhile, thanks for the reply.

[Wall-nut]

Many moons ago, when i was just a kid, the ol' man would take me to Conesus fishing for walleyes at night. The preferred method, at the time, was something called "chugging" which was basically slow trolling with a crawler and a june bug spinner and enough weight to get it near the bottom. The rig was pumped up and down in a jigging fashion. I will give your night jigging tip a try this year and I think I'll dig out a couple of june bug spinners and give that a try, as well. Meanwhile, thanks for the reply.