Eric Rosario.com

Weather: 83*
Water Temp: 59*

NEW PALTZ, NY -- Wasn't going to fish today but needed a fix, even a quick fix so I headed over to Chodikee about 5pm; launched by 5:30pm (fished for about 2hrs).

Sun was setting so it started to get cool and the wind started to pick up. I threw a spinnerbait since plastic would have been a challenge to fish in the wind but got no takers. With much hesitation yet determination I threw a jerkbait which has proven to be useless for me since I bought one. Well the ice was broken because I got two fish on a jerkbait; Yipee! I got one pickerel and a bass, I did loose a bass on the jerk which would have made it 3 fish but heck my confidence went up a few notches catching any fish on the bait.



Chodikee at this time of year has zero lilly pads and the few times I've gone to the lake I'm finding that I prefer to fish it when it is loaded with lilly pads. The pads give an alternative option of fishing because there is very little cover and/or structure throughout the lake. Sure if you've been there you'll say I'm crazy cause all you see are some kind of plant life all along the edges of the lake but that is all dead this time of year so it only makes me wonder, "Where are the fish hiding?"

As for me, I'll be avoiding this lake in the early Spring & late Fall since it has proven to be killer in dead Summer.

Weather: Sunny 64*
Water Temp: 58*

WAPPINGER FALLS, NY -- Hit the water today about 3pm with a buddy from nybass.com. We launched and went to fish right near the bridge on RT9 making our way up toward the waterfalls and rocks. We drifted the area with tubes and caught no bass but had bites. We fished spinnerbaits, grubs, tubes, worms but nothing was producing a solid pattern. By 6pm we had only three fish in the boat and decided to head back toward the boat launch and fish till the sun set.

Heading toward the boat launch we started fishing the eastern shorline going toward the boat launch and to our huge surprise we did a killing in the last hour on the water. We thought we'd end the day with only 3 fish but we hit a school of bass and ended the day with more like 12 fish. We caught so many at the end of the trip (about 7:15pm) that I lost count. There was a fish on just about every other cast.

Most fish were very small but the bigger fish were comparable to this...



Considering Wappingers has always been tough I was shocked to say the least that we caught so many fish. It was a great day!

Weather: Windy & Rain 51*
Water Temp: 49*

NEWBURGH, NY -- Fished this lake last weekend with my son and had a killer time for a 2hr period, however one week later there is a huge difference. It was raining hard, of course while I was on the lake, and very windy with almost no bite for the 3hrs I was on the water for as long as I could bare the cold.

I got on the water by 10:30AM, anchored down in a spot that produces well and has good cover/structure. Didn't get a nibble for about an hour while moving around every so often in the same general area. Considering the wind was heavy and the rain coming down, I didn't want to keep pulling up the anchor and moving so I stayed at several spots longer than I normally would.

While trolling to a spot I knew for a fact produces big fish, my only hope for getting a fish today, I landed a nice size crappy enroute to the spot that went home to the frying pan. Once I got to my spot and my final hope of seeing a fish I tossed my rattle trap and landed a nice slab, probably about 3.5lbs. I didn't weigh it cause it was raining and I was cold; LOL.



After catching this puppy I started making my way back to go home and warm up. Yea, I wimped out and called it a day after about 3hrs. I tossed spinnerbait, grubs, cranks and even a jerkbait. The only thing that worked last week and for the one fish today was the rattle trap. Oh, I did lose one fish near the boat on the rattle but it don't count since I couldn't hold that sucker!

Weather: Cloudy & Windy 61*
Water Temp: 50*

NEWBURGH, NY -- Having had sinus surgery three weeks ago made it impossible to get out to fish the minute the lakes were thawed so I held out as long as I could and that hold out ended this weekend.

My son wanted to join me fishing for the first time in a long while. We weren't sure if the wind would hold out but it wasn't as bad as we expected. We got on the water about 2:30pm and fished till about 5pm since we had to be off the water so we could be home in time for Wrestlemania 25.

Initially I tried a spinnerbait and got a nice largemouth, while my son was using different diving crankbaits. The spinnerbait and cranks weren't producing much other than the one fish on the spinnerbait. So we tied on a rattletrap and started burning that bait through the weeds as the boat drifted in the heavy winds. We were rewarded with some fish....



My boy is still a little weary about holding the fish but we'll get him passed that. It was a bonding time and a time to get him hooked to our family sport; bass fishing. :o) We continued throwing the rattletrap for about 2hrs landing about 5-6 fish in such a short amount of time. Had the weather been better we could have fished longer and harder for great numbers since the fish were hammering the rattle.

Too see my boy landing one of his fish click "Read More" and see the video.
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