1000 Islands, thousand possibilities

Largemouths, smallmouths galore at Stren Series Northern

CLAYTON, N.Y. – Name a lure, technique or way you like to catch a bass – largemouth or smallmouth – and chances are pretty good you can fish that way right now on the St. Lawrence River in Upstate New York.

Whether you like to spinnerbait, crankbait, scoot floating frogs across mats, punch milfoil tops, drop-shot, sight-fish, walk topwaters, dead-stick Senkos or even drag a Carolina rig, you can do it all at 1000 Islands, site of the second stop of the Stren Series Northern Division this week.

In fact, the hardest part of fishing these waters is narrowing down the possibilities to a few areas and techniques without getting sidetracked by the endless fishing options.

FLW Tour pros who made the trip here after a week at Lake Champlain for the last FLW Tour stop say that 1000 Islands is every bit as good as Champlain if not better.

“Champlain is awesome, but there are only two ends of that lake that are really good,” noted Kellogg’s pro Dave Lefebre. “Here almost anywhere is as good as both ends of Champlain put together. It’s a great place; I love it.”

Since Lefebre made the top 10 at the Tour event on Champlain last week and then spent a few days at home, he never even wet a line during practice for the Stren event this week.

“I’m just going fishing,” he said. “I’ll just pull up out there somewhere and start catching fish – it’s that good of a place. I might not catch big ones, but something is always biting here just about anyway you want to fish.”

The toughest decision most anglers face is the classic decision of targeting largemouths or smallmouths as the St. Lawrence Seaway and Lake Ontario support great populations of both.

For many, this decision is made for them by the wind. If it’s calm, pros can make longer runs out into the mouth of the St. Lawrence where it meets Lake Ontario and fish islands and shoals for giant smallies.

If the wind howls, then tucking into the back of a bay, picking up a flipping stick and mining thick vegetation for green fish is the way to go.

With light winds teasing anglers this morning, some were eyeing the run out into the big water on Ontario.

“I’d like to go over to Chaumont Bay and play with those smallmouths today,” said Land O Lakes pro Ott Defoe as he readied his tackle this morning. “If you can get those big brown fish to come up and eat a spook, it’s a lot of fun.”

“That’s the main reason I come up here,” quipped Iams pro Koby Kreiger. “When these smallmouths smash a topwater, there’s nothing like it.”

Logistics

Stren Series Northern Division anglers will depart French Creek Marina each morning (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) at 6:30 a.m.

Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. each afternoon.

Saturday’s final weigh-in will take place at the Walmart in Watertown, NY at 4 p.m.

Morning launches and afternoon weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

French Creek Marina is located at 250 Wahl Street, Clayton NY 13624.

And the Walmart is located at 20823 NY State Route 3 Watertown NY 13601.

Thursday’s conditions

Sunrise: 5:36 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 65 degrees

Expected high temperature: 82 degrees

Water temperature: 65 degrees

Wind: SW 10 to 15 mph

Day’s outlook: partly cloudy with possible thunderstorms