Cohocton River Western NY Any One Fished It?

[fadeaway263]

Has anyone fished this river? It flows from the finger lakes through Bath NY into the Chemung River. My sister has a home on Lake Canandaigua which is near the River's headwaters. When I visit her I drive along sections of the river and it looks like a nice spot to fish.
Canandaigua Lake Chapter, Trout Unlimited is compelling me to take time off from fishing Lake Canandaigua and try the Cohocton.

http://www.canandaigualaketu.org/images/cohoctonguide.pdf

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/pfrcohoctriv.pdf

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear fade,

I fished it a few times when I lived up that way. The upper end around Atlanta has some wild brook trout but depending on the time of year, as in early May after a typical Winter, the land around the stream is rather swampy and home to hordes of vicious swarming mosquitoes.

Down closer to Avoca it is a large to very large trout stream for the Eastern US. I've fished some down there too but I never really caught a good hatch, mostly because I was fishing when I should have been working and I'd grab an hour of fishing here and there. I did OK on the lower river on streamers though.

It's a nice stream though and well worth exploring.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[fadeaway263]

Thanks Tim. Sitting in a boat fishing for smallies is way too boring. Plus you have to deal with all that bottom grass fouling your hook.

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear fade,

If you call smallie fishing boring you're not doing it right! ;-)

The smallmouth fishing in the Southern Tier on NY is world's better than anything PA has to offer, with the possible exception of Lake Erie.

I did much better in the Susquehanna drainage than I did in the Chemung drainage though. The fish tended to run much larger in the Susky drainage though the numbers caught were similar.

The Cohocton is a nice stream and when I lived up there from 1990 to 2001 it was not fished very much at all. If I encountered another fisherman they were usually a kid with a can of worms.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[afishinado]

fadeaway263 wrote:
Thanks Tim. Sitting in a boat fishing for smallies is way too boring. Plus you have to deal with all that bottom grass fouling your hook.

Put away the nightcrawlers and minnies and fish them on flies.....boring!?.....sheesh!

 

[boychick]

Fished it once in Bath near the VA, it was OK, nothing to write home about.

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear fade,

The key to the Cohocton is remembering that it's a big wide creek draining an equally big and wide valley. A lot of your success depends on precipitation or the lack thereof. It can be high and muddy or low and cobble strewn.

Keep in mind when it is low that it has many tributaries with wild trout in them. Find them and fish below them in warm low water periods and you will do better.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂