Re: Any tips for fishing the 1000 islands.
Thank you all! Very much appreciation for the replies, I was afraid this thread was dead without any tips. I gave it some thought and since the 1000 islands is pretty obviously a rocky bottom I want to target small mouth.
I usually can only get small mouth here in rochester by trolling because the Goby problem is so bad on lake Ontario. I have had luck in Lake George floating soft shell crabs a foot or so off the bottom.
Does anyone know if trolling, or livebait fishing is likely a better option? Are there Gobies in this area? I won't have a trolling motor so jigging and finesse fishing techniques might not work well if the fish get spooked.
For Bass a purple rubber worm rigged texas style (google it). Is pretty deadly casting into the shoreline and reeling in real slow.
Senco rubber worms are very popular too.
Also, trolling as slow as your motor will allow with a live worm in a trolling harness. This is just 3 hooks in a straight line with usually a spinner or a few small flashers built into the front of the harness. I pinch on a couple of small round pinch weights a few feet ahead of the bait. brings it down deeper where they are in the warm weather.
This method works anywhere and will get the agressive fish to bite any time of the day. Fun part is you never know what species will grab that worm. You could slam into a Musky, ya never know. The St Lawrence is famous for them.
Although, you can spot many fish over the deepest part of the river and yet they are only hanging out about 10 feet down. Most fish like a certain water temperature.
Fishings usually best real early in the AM or in the evening hours. Guess fish are like us where they like to eat at Breakfast and Dinner time.
We were on a lake last week and it was 90 degrees out and it was around 1pm. The deepest section of the lake was around 50 feet and the fishfinder showed the Rainbow Trout that we were after were hanging out over the deepest part, but they were only around 10-18 feet down.
Your best bet is to pop into the local bait/fishing shop and ask them whats working. They can set you up with a few lures and colors too that the smallies are hitting on this time of year. And show you where on the river they are hitting. A good local shop wants you to be successful, so you will pass their name onto other vacationers.
I don't know if their are big boxs stores up there like Dicks, Gander etc but I find their fishing dept's are always run by kids or no nothing about fishing sales clerks. Go to a local shop!
Have a great trip. Check back in and let us know how it went. I'd be interested in the rental cabin as to how clean it was and if you felt it was a value for the money.
Like I said before I've been wanting to do the same vacation you're doing!
but I have fished some areas back in the day. Mostly family trips when the kids were small.
