Adventures in the ADKS: Part III

Pike ambush from Saranac R. vegetation.

Throughout the fall of 2007 I fished the Saranac River almost exclusively from a canoe or kayak by myself.  Each outting I would cover a new section in order to uncover what fish were holding in each area.  The river's beauty was unlike any river I had fished before.  The rivers of connecticut are typically strewn with granite or quartz gravel and host very different types of vegetation than the saranac river.  The Saranac has a mix of boulders on occasion, but most of the upper portion for the first seven miles has a sandy/silt covered bottom as it is not a very fast moving river.  It makes a cut through cedar and grass meadows with mixtures of birch, beech and maple trees along its bank.  Along the edges of the river, an extremely bright green aquatic plant that looks like Christmas ribbon grow in large groups that bend and flutter with the flow of the current.  These same plants would prove to hold an incredible amount of baitfish and provide ambush points for my quarry.

Fish your lure all the way back to the boat!

The fall of 2007 remained hot with clear skies well into October, when rain storms pushed their way in dropped the air temps and took hold into November where it changed quickly to snow.  Being that the school semester began the first week of September, the pleasant weather provided about eight amazing weeks of sunshine filled exploration.  From the point where Josh and I had stopped fishing in my previsous post about the ADKS, the river holds an abundance of good sized smallmouth bass and Northern Pike.  During my trips it was not uncommon to see muskrats, turtles, deer, herons, king fishers, and bald eagles.  Launching from Rte 3 just outside of saranac lake either by the pine street bridge park, or along the side of the road from a gravel turnoff there was a large amount of flat water and generally slow moving currents to fish.  

Kayak Thrash

The area of the river from Pine Street to the fish and game club on route 3 is stacked with pike mostly in the 5-10 lb. class.  The fish would hold in deeper pools, along banks with brush cover, along weed lines, at drop offs, and under fall downs and floating mats of brush.  Essentially any type of structure that provided camoflauge and cover from the sun.  The most effective baits I used were spinner baits, buzz baits, and surface poppers.  Diving lures worked as well, such as Rapala's X-rap, however I would invariably end up cleaning off the lures from vegetation as much as I was fishing.  My primary baits were the buzz baits because they run on the surface and provide a lot of excitement when the fish rocket out of cover to take them.

Some of the things I learned while fishing solo from a canoe or kayak is that boat positioning is both critical and frustrating.  It is critical because if you position yourself along a weed edge line, a single cast can cover that line while casting parallel to shore.  However that same cast can be difficult to hook a fish downstream of your boat while the boat is also being push downstream.  When the fish strikes you have to be ready for the hook set making sure there is no slack in your line.  I used braided lines with steel leaders since they offer much less stretch than monofilaments, and since most of the time I was moving toward the fish during the strike I would have to really set the hook to get it to sink into the fish.  The best pattern I found was a gold blade buzzbait with a silver blade paired with a trailer hook and a Gary yamamoto shad bait fitted between the two hooks to "fatten" up the bait's profile.  I highly recommend a trailer hook while river fishing because the bait moves more erratically due to river currents, and most of the time all of my fish were hooked by the trailer hook only.  At the most productive areas where I could cast to multiple "fishy" looking spots I would anchor with a short rope length.  This would do two things, first it helped during hooksets because the boat was no longer moving towards the fish, and secondly the boat would swing like a pendulum in the currents offering different angles for each cast.

October Pike

In the area by the game club there is a deep pool immediatly following the bridge that accesses the sanitary department located opposite Rte 3.  After that pool the river makes a quick switch back bend where the water shallows up into a huge vegetated flat.  On the south side of the river where it makes this bend, there are standing reeds, lily pads, and other aqautic plants that tended to hold the largest fish.  The very first time I approached this spot I missed the same fish several times and it was huge.  Twice I watched as my buzzbait shot into the air as the fish had hit so hard.  On a third cast I felt the full weigh of the fish on my rod, unanchored my canoe floated across the top of the fish.  I could see my line in the fish's mouth as it made "death rolls" against the river bottom much like an alligator does to tear prey apart.  After four rolls I saw my lure emerge from its mouth without a fish attached to it.  It appeared as if the fish had the lure pinched flat inside its mouth without ever making hook point contact despite me setting it hard three times.  I sat down with adrenaline coursing through my body as I realized I had lost a fish potentially around 15+lbs.  Determined to catch this fish, I returned on three subsequent weekends tossing three different lures, a large salt water Atom popper, large spoon, and the same buzzbait.  All of which the fish hit and missed leaving me feeling like this fish was a fisherman's worst nightmare.