New York's interior waters punch far above their fame: Oneida, the shallow walleye machine sustained by the state hatchery, and Champlain, the 120-mile "sixth Great Lake" where national bass tours and salmon trollers share the same water.
Reports current for Friday, September 4
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
New York's walleye heartland: 51,000 shallow acres that behave like a Great Lake and produce like a hatchery.
The End: America's surf-casting mecca, where the fall run becomes a religion under the lighthouse.
The Finger Lakes' complete fishery: lakers on the flats, bass on the shoals, salmon in the chill.
The mighty drift: trophy steelhead, lakers and kings in the Great Lakes' most powerful water.
Thirty-two miles of wild Atlantic barrier beach: Robert Moses daybreak blitzes, the lighthouse bar, and Long Island surf casting in its purest form.
The smallest Great Lake fishes the biggest: king salmon factories, world-class brown trout alleys and the Niagara-to-Salmon-River arc that defines New York trophy fishing.
New York's muskie mother water: the lake that named a strain, still trolling legends over the weed flats between Victorian towns.
Steelhead Alley's crown: Zoar Valley's wilderness gorge feeding Lake Erie chrome through the Cattaraugus' long, moody miles.
The Oak: Lake Ontario's trophy trib in miniature, where 20-pound kings and lake-run browns stack beneath a waterfall you can cast across.
The urban sea: stripers on every reef between two shorelines, blackfish holes with zip codes and porgy summers for eight million neighbors.
The Adirondacks' flagship: the West Branch's boulder pools below Whiteface, where New York trout fishing keeps its cathedral.
The short giant: Oswego's harbor river packs Ontario's runs into a mile of urban water: kings in the wall shadows, steelhead all winter.
The Finger Lakes' tiger den: the easternmost Finger runs muskie hybrids over walleye water in Syracuse's backyard.
Buffalo’s quiet trib: smallmouth water all summer, and a fall steelhead surprise minutes from the city line.
The birthplace of American dry-fly fishing: the Beaverkill still runs wild browns through the pools that named the sport.
The Beaverkill’s twin: Willowemoc water is smaller, quieter and every bit as historic, from Livingston Manor to Junction Pool.
The Catskills’ big freestone: the Esopus runs rainbows through Phoenicia on water the Shandaken Tunnel keeps cold all summer.
America’s best wild trout tailwater: Cannonsville’s cold releases grow selective browns that humble visiting anglers all summer.
Pulaski’s legend: the Salmon River stacks Great Lakes kings, coho and steelhead thicker than any tributary in the East.
The Queen of American Lakes: 32 miles of gin-clear Adirondack water hiding lake trout, landlocked salmon and world-class smallmouth.
The deepest Finger Lake: Seneca’s 600-foot trench holds lake trout in numbers that made the National Trout Derby a local holiday.
The Y-shaped Finger Lake: Keuka trades size for quality with lake trout, smallmouth and a rainbow run up the outlet.
Clear water and steep drops: Canandaigua holds lake trout, smallmouth and the region’s cleanest reputation.
Auburn’s home water: Owasco stacks lake trout, browns and smallmouth in a Finger Lake small enough to learn in a weekend.
The Adirondack flood-control giant: Sacandaga grows walleye, northern pike and the state-record-class fish that made its name.
The Adirondack chain: Saranac’s connected waters hold landlocked salmon, lake trout and northern pike among the islands.
Cooperstown’s Glimmerglass: Otsego holds lake trout and landlocked salmon in the water Fenimore Cooper made famous.
Adirondack tailwater and freestone: the Sacandaga runs trout above the lake and a famous whitewater release below.
Rochester’s river: the Genesee runs steelhead and salmon to Lake Ontario past three urban waterfalls.
The Erie Canal’s river: the Mohawk runs smallmouth, walleye and pike across upstate New York.
Species activity across the state's covered waters. Peak of the year: May.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for this state's dominant water type (estimated).
| Water | Type | County | Live gauge | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oneida Lake | Lake | Oswego | USGS | Apr |
| Montauk | Coastal | Suffolk | modeled | Apr |
| Cayuga Lake | Lake | Cayuga | USGS | Apr |
| Niagara River | River | Niagara | USGS | Jan |
| Fire Island | Coastal | Suffolk | modeled | Apr |
| Lake Ontario | Lake | Monroe | modeled | Apr |
| Chautauqua Lake | Lake | Chautauqua | modeled | May |
| Cattaraugus Creek | River | Erie | USGS | Jan |
| Oak Orchard Creek | River | Orleans | modeled | Jan |
| Long Island Sound | Coastal | Suffolk | modeled | Apr |
| Ausable River | River | Essex | USGS | Apr |
| Oswego River | River | Oswego | USGS | Jan |
| Otisco Lake | Lake | Onondaga | modeled | May |
| Buffalo Creek | River | Erie | USGS | Jan |
| Beaverkill | River | Sullivan | USGS | Apr |
| Willowemoc Creek | River | Sullivan | USGS | Apr |
| Esopus Creek | River | Ulster | USGS | Apr |
| West Branch Delaware River | River | Delaware | USGS | Apr |
| Salmon River | River | Oswego | USGS | Jan |
| Lake George | Lake | Warren | modeled | Apr |
| Seneca Lake | Lake | Yates | USGS | Apr |
| Keuka Lake | Lake | Steuben | USGS | Apr |
| Canandaigua Lake | Lake | Ontario | USGS | Apr |
| Owasco Lake | Lake | Cayuga | USGS | Apr |
| Great Sacandaga Lake | Reservoir | Fulton | USGS | Apr |
| Saranac Lake | Lake | Franklin | modeled | Apr |
| Otsego Lake | Lake | Otsego | modeled | Apr |
| Sacandaga River | River | Hamilton | USGS | Apr |
| Genesee River | River | Monroe | USGS | Jan |
| Mohawk River | River | Albany | USGS | May |
New York's fishing map has no equal in the East: Great Lakes kings and steelhead (the Salmon River's fall run is an institution), the Finger Lakes' two-story fisheries, Adirondack brook trout ponds, the St. Lawrence and Champlain's world-rated bass, Oneida's walleye, Catskill rivers where American fly fishing was born, and the ocean surf at Montauk. You could fish a lifetime of Octobers here and never repeat a trip.
Spring: Catskill hatches (Hendricksons on the Beaverkill), lake-run rainbows, walleye openers. Summer: St. Lawrence smallmouth, Finger Lakes trolling, Adirondack canoes. Fall: the crescendo: Salmon River kings, Montauk blitzes, Champlain's bass feeding down. Winter: hard-water culture upstate and steelhead for the devoted in half-frozen tributaries.
Both, by season: world-class smallmouth June-October on the reefs, salmon and lakers spring and fall in the broad lake, pike and panfish through the ice.