Finding Bass on Staten Island

Large Mouth Bass typically don't come to mind when you mention Staten Island, but that is exactly where we found them last weekend, at Silver Lake Park on the east side of the Island.

Sliver Lake reservoir was created back in 1917 when water was brought there from the Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County, NY about 120 miles away to fill it. It is the largest body of fresh water on that island.

Based on the water temperature going into the 60s we figured the bass might be in their post-spawn period, and be very finicky about feeding as a result. Unfortunately, we found we were right after we tried nearly every lure in the tackle box, with no success.

Some local fishermen recommend we try some live leeches - and after sharing some with us we had great luck spot-fishing the bass and working the leeches right in front of them. They couldn't resist, and we landed three large bass in short order.

You can find this wonderful live bait online at speedyworm.com - which claims they are easy to store for up to 2-3 weeks in pre-moistened bedding stored in your refrigerator door. Just be careful what you grab if you have them on hand, and you go for a midnight snack while not-quite-awake.

Back on the Bass

After what seemed to be an endless winter here in New York and a cold wet spring we finally got a break-out day this past weekend with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 60s.

After a fruitless day spend looking for Striped Bass off the south shore of Long Island we turned our attention to a small pond in Bridgehampton on the south fork. With the water temperature going above 60 degrees and the large mouth bass in a pre-spawn mode, we thought the bass would be patrolling their nesting areas.

We tried using a Mepps bass-killer, with a sliver spinner and black feather trailer. The reason these Large Mouth bass were so actively hitting this lure was because of their territorial instinct to ward off any potential predators from their nesting sites.

It was a beautiful "first-cast, big-strike" early morning and you can see the result of this effort!