Although April ushers in the initial year’s first open-water fishing via the trout season, May is generally seen as the hardcore beginning for fishing in our region. With walleye, pike, pickerel and tiger musky season opening on Saturday, May 2, the potentials and opportunities to catch fish greatly expand. These angling opps, in conjunction with spring bullhead and catch-and-release bass fishing, truly usher in the year’s first all-around fishing for many area anglers.
The Chenango and Unadilla Rivers, as well as the other major Susquehanna tributaries, offer wonderful opportunities to catch a variety of fish, not the least of which are walleye, considered by many to be the tastiest of our freshwater fishes. Although not a particularly active fighter on the line, a decent-size walleye can place some serious stress on your light spinning rod, given half a chance.
For the most part, walleye are school fish that prefer deep shaded pools, even better if the pool has some submerged cover such as old logs or bankside root systems. Catch one and there’s a good chance you’ll connect with at least another that’s sharing the pool. Walleye normally hug close to the bottom, so keep your bait or lures just off the bottom for best results. Being a large member of the perch family, walleye aren’t overly particular with what they eat, preferring small prey fish, crayfish, leeches and night crawlers.
There was a time when you had to travel north to the Adirondack lakes and rivers, or Canada or New England, if you sought to fish for northern pike. No more. Following a fish-rearing pond’s dam washing out half a century ago on the old Rogers Game Farm in Sherburne, pike fry escaped into the Chenango River. Thanks to abundant prey and small rough fish, the small pike thrived and multiplied. Today pike are found throughout the Chenango and the Susquehanna rivers and are steadily spreading in the other main branch tributaries as well. They are now even found in the waters from Earlville upstream to Randallsville, once considered primarily trout water.
As a youth, I cut my angling teeth on pickerel. Just about every pond or lake my dad liked to fish had an abundance of these aggressive predators. And to a seven-year-old boy, a 24-inch pickerel was truly a monster fish. I still recall those long ago outings on White’s Pond, North Pond and Plymouth Reservoir when the pickerel always seemed to be hungry and snapped up anything that we offered them, be it lures or live shiners.
There doesn’t seem to be as much interest in springtime bullhead fishing as there once was. Years past, many nighttime pond, lake and river shorelines twinkled with the numerous lights from lanterns as anglers awaited a bullhead to take a bottom offered night crawler. The best bullhead areas were sought out by boat anglers as well, and tie-up poles driven firmly in the mud bottom of these “honey holes” were obvious testimony to the prime locations.
Along with the larger species of local fish available now, several panfish types are also sought out in May. Yellow perch, sunfish and crappie may be small but can provide entertaining fishing and excellent tablefare. Although perch have already spawned in most waters, sunfish and crappie spawning will just be getting underway and they’ll be found in the shallows, with crappie preferring areas that harbor submerged structure such as dense weeds, old stumps and treetops in less than six feet of water.
In last week’s column I mentioned that early May was also an excellent time to fish for larger stream brown trout. With the water temperatures rising and insect hatches occurring in streams, all this combines to create an increase in the stream ecosystem activity. Smaller preyfish become more active due to the insect activity and this in turn generates more feeding opportunities for the brown trout, especially in low-light periods of dawn and dusk, and even after dark. Now I’m not talking about those 8-9 inch stocked trout, but rather brown trout of over a foot in length.
Should stream levels drop and become clear, a May rainfall that roils the water is another generator of increased trout feeding activity as fresh trout food-stuffs are washed into the stream waters. The darker roiled waters also give wary trout the confidence to venture out from any cover they may have been lurking under to feed during the daylight hours.
Another activity that will be approaching is the carp spawning season, although it usually occurs later in the month. It is when the big carp move into the muddy shallows to spawn. It’s also the time when avid bowfishermen get the best opportunity to help cull some of these over-sized “goldfish” before they can add to their already overly abundant population in many of our area waters, especially our rivers.
Since the initial spring turkey season occurred, all-around sportsmen/women who enjoy both hunting and fishing have been hard pressed to decide whether to spend the morning fishing or hunting. This is especially true when they’ve chosen to fish and then hear a gobbler sound off nearby. But that’s the allure of May …so many choices, and all are good ones.

Earth Fest at Rogers Center, Saturday, May 2
Celebrate Earth Day, Arbor Day, and May Day on this fun-filled afternoon. Enjoy music, games, exhibits, crafts, treats, giveaways, demonstrations and more! Noon to 4:00 PM

NRA Banquet May 12
The Northern Riflemen’s Alliance will host its sixth annual Friends of NRA Banquet at the Silo Restaurant on May 12. Activities start at 5:30 p.m. with dinner at 7:00. Live and silent auctions will follow the dinner. To reserve or get more information, contact Bradd Vickers at (607) 336-3546 or (607) 226-1195 or via e-mail at bradd@furany.org.

NRA Offering Free Memberships
The National Rifle Association is currently offering free one-year trial NRA memberships. To join click on http://www.nrahq.org/nrabonus/.