As I drove along the streets of Cooperstown last Saturday morning, lawns and cars were covered with a thin coating of frost. It was a cold morning, but the day promised to warm up and be perfect for fishing. I had been invited on a charter with Dan Kindrew from Delhi, who has a charter service on several lakes in central New York.
We soon left the boat launch and headed up the lake toward Three Mile Point. We huddled behind the windshield of his boat in an attempt to stay warm in the crisp morning breeze. As we approached the rocky point, we slowed to trolling speed so Dan and his mate, Jason Wilsey, could start putting lines and down riggers into the water.
It was amazing that there were so many fish in the water below the boat. We were in 96 feet of water and the fish finder was almost black with markings from the surface all the way to the bottom. We put out five lines with various colored Rapalas at different depths _ down to 50 feet _ and trolled up the lake at about 2 mph. Then it was a waiting game.
Suddenly the pole in front of me snapped up.
"Fish on!" Dan yelled.
I grabbed the rod and started to reel.
"Go easy," Dan explained. "That's only six-pound line."
He added that all of his poles are ultra lites and set up with four-to-six pound lines. The fine line and light equipment adds a thrill and bit of excitement to the fight.
With the drag set fairly light, I reeled for several minutes before the fish surfaced behind the boat. Dan slid the net into the water and hoisted a 7-pound walleye from the 46-degree water. It was a beautiful fish and would have made a great meal if the season for pike was open. So we took some pictures and released him back into the lake.
As we passed Five Mile Point, the fish finder screen showed far fewer fish. So we turned around and headed back down the lake.
Within a few minutes, the same pole snapped up again. I caught a nice lake trout that time, but it was just shy of the 23-inch minimum size limit.
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As we approached Three Mile Point again, we headed across the lake toward King Fisher Tower and continued trolling. I hooked into another laker just below the tower. This one was the legal size, so we put him into the live well. I wanted to take one nice fish home for dinner.
It's funny; with all the fish in the lake that were spread out from top to bottom, all of our catches to that point were at a depth of 30 feet on a silver-and-black Rapala. After turning around and heading back up the lake, the rod that was hooked to the planer board hooked up. (A planer board is a device that runs a line several yards out away from the boat.)
That lake trout again hit a silver-and-black Rapala, but it was just under the surface. He was about 8 pounds and soon replaced the one in the live well.
It was a wonderful day of fishing. I landed four fish and had seven other hits by 11 a.m. By then, the lake was like a sheet of glass as the bright sun beat down on the water. That definitely slows down the fishing.
If you'd like to have a great day of fishing, give Dan a call at 607-435-9004 or contact him on his website at reeleminfishing.org. He operates Reelem in Fishing guide service and has 20 years of experience. His boat is fully equipped with the best equipment and he is very successful catching trout, landlocks, walleyes, bass, perch and walleyes on Otsego, Canadarago, Goodyear and special trips to Owasco and Oneida Lakes.
Walleye season opens Saturday, so this might be a good time to look him up.
Rick Brockway writes a weekly outdoors column for The Daily Star. E-mail him at robrockway@hotmail.com.
