Papa Bear's Outdoors

Nice Walleye

papabearoutdoors — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:57:27 +0000

Here is a picture of one of those nice walleyes I have been posting about. This one was over 28 inches long and a little over 9#. This boat also landed a 7, two 6s, a 3 and numerous nice ones. It is not like that every day but this section of the Susquehanna consistently produces limit catches of 15-20 inch fish, just the right size for the pan. I have a fish cleaning station at the house that would make the Gortons Fisherman jealous. If you don’t have one then get yourself an electric fillet knife and make it a Mister Twister. I have tried several and that one is far superior. I am getting reports that there is ice fishing going on on Oneida Lake with good ice reported on big bay at around 8 inches. I am anticipating a fantastic last month of the walleye season in all the river systems and any rain is just going to accelerate the amount of fish going into the pre-spawn mode. Take advantage of this potential bonanza of walleye fishing this spring.

No Ice!!! I love the boat!!!

papabearoutdoors — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:53:35 +0000

As much as I love ice fishing I would much rather be out in the boat and what a year it is here in the northeast. I have ice fished one day this year and never put the boat away and I am loving it. Last year the river froze in late November and never thawed till April. I am here at my winter time command bunker here in the mid state of NY near Binghamton on the Susquehanna River. The walleye fishing in this river system is awesome and the region around here is a major spawning destination for many fish. Our DEC has wisely installed many new boat launches in recent year and has made this great fishery so much more accessible. I have enjoyed this river for many years and some of my best inventions were hatched and tested here. I enjoy being able to row around down here for the exercise even on very high water such as this. HUGE fish can be had and limit catches of nice walleyes and smallmouths are the norm. If you are looking for a new spot to try for walleyes then the this should be on your list. The final weeks of the season, which closes here in mid March, can be especially productive with many spawning females moving up. When the ice is breaking up and the river is high is one of my favorite big fish times. How would you like to live on the island? Someone does and the whole thing is an engineering feat to keep it from washing away. Let alone having your own tramway to get out there. Here is an example of a fair day on the river. These are all males in the 17-20 inch range and all were caught on a specialized jig I manufacture. I can,t wait to get my little company fully launched and bring to you some of the cutting edge technologies I have invented and perfected. I think your going to like them!!!!

Views from the Vice – Yuk Bug

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:24:43 +0000

Truth be told, the Yuk Bug is a relatively new addition to my fly box. But after seeing the immense size and prolific nature of various types of stonefly insects at Papa Bear’s Outdoors a couple of seasons ago… I made sure I had plenty of the biggest buggiest, stonefly patterns available the next time I met up with Wayne to fish his beautiful property.

Nearly every rock in the 750 acres of freestone wilderness at Papa Bear’s Outdoors contains remnants of a critter that resembles these Yuk Bugs, both Golden and Black varieties.

No two flys accounted for more or larger trout for me last season than the Olive Yuk Bug shown above, tied in tandem with my own Black Tic Tac pattern which is basically a small wooly bugger made entirely of marabou and webby grizzly hackle.

Also, these nymphs/streamers are just plain fun to fish. After dead drifting the fly through a section of river, if a fish doesn’t take your presentation you can strip it in or twitch your rod tip to entice a strike. More often than not if a fish is there — they will take aggressively. Stoneflies swim toward the banks after they’ve released from their hold, and the stripping and twitching of the line creates a tremendously lifelike action on the legs of the fly, and it’s irresistible to trout.

If you’re planning a trip to PBO this spring, summer, or fall – do not leave home without a heavily weighted Yuk Bug.

Tight Lines!

Views from the Vice – Double Bunny Streamer

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:53:17 +0000

Much like the Meat Whistle posted earlier, I’ve been trying to go a lot bigger with my streamer presentations to entice all the trophy wild brown trout Papa Bear has on his property. One very popular trend I see a lot of these days is the Double Bunny streamer, which is two pieces of rabbit strip, usually Olive and White, tied together on a weighted hook to provide the ultimate action and undulation as soon as the fly hits the water.

I’ve tied several variations of this pattern up recently, not only for trout but for Smallmouth and Striped Bass and here in my local waters. And this pattern shown above is actually a slight departure from the straight Double Bunny, or for that matter Kelly Galloup’s Barely Legal streamer which uses Marabou instead of rabbit strips. I’ve added in some golden flash dub, rainbow tinsel, and some marabou around the collar. Without a doubt I have high expectations for this pattern.

Tight Lines!

Views from the Vice – Meat Whistle

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:43:05 +0000

Daydreaming about making some casts to Adirondack trophy brown trout hunkered down along the bottom of the perfect piece of pocket water got me thinking about my presentation — and Wayne’s constant advice that you CANNOT get your presentation down fast enough to get to these huge two foot wild brown trout. My new years’ resolution of sorts — use more weight. Hence the jig headed Meat Whistle streamer you see above.

The Meat Whistle is a John Barr design tied with rabbit fur, marabou, rubber legs, and I threw in some hackle fibers for good measure. It is a massive streamer that can imitate anything from a crawfish to an injured minnow… and we all know how much the 24″ browns at Papa Bear’s Outdoors like both of those things don’t we? I have lots more variations in a range of sizes lining my fly boxes for my trip north in a few months. June can’t come soon enough.

Tight Lines!

ICE FISHING SAFETY!!!!!!!

papabearoutdoors — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:08:54 +0000

Wow, we have has 3 people die here in the southern tier of NY this year trying to get out to ice fish. It has been so warm here that even I, the most devout of ice fishermen, have not even thought about trying it. We are fishing out of the boats and loving it. Yet after having two guys drown last week, a good friend of ours succumbed to his passion yesterday and today he is no longer with us. As I preached in my blogs last year, at first and last ice or any time for that matter, use common sense. Have an emergency plan in your mind so that in case you do go in your brain will automatically kick in. I use a high quality spud bar for probing in front of me as I venture out. I carry a set of ice spikes around my neck. These awesome little devices have a spike, set in a handle, that allows you to push the plungers and expose the spikes. Many people whom have fallen through the ice are unable to pull them selves back onto the good ice. With a set of these you are able to stab them into the good ice and help you pull yourself back on to solid ice. I also wear an inflatable personal flotation device. I often anchor a high quality rope in good ice and around me if I am venturing out onto very sketchy ice. A friend is always nice but often it is tough to find some other dim wit willing to flirt with disaster along with you. Good hard ice will support an incredible amount of weight but springs, current, warmer ground near shore and a host of other factors can effect ice quality. First ice can be some of the fastest action of the season but it also can be one of the most deadly times for the predator, so ……… HAVE A PLAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scenes from Chili

papabearoutdoors — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 03:41:18 +0000

My friend and newest member of the New York State Guides fraternity is in Chili with his father. Dad is from there and is an avid fly fisherman as his son David and they spend each Christmas there visiting ans fishing the fabled waters of the Patagonia region. Here are some of the beauties they have been catching. Each year they make a pilgrimage to this Mecca of trout fishing and these are examples of the fish that I am forced to view here in the frozen tundra of NY. Don’t worry I am suffering nicely fishing for walleyes up to 12# and muskies up to 35# here in the Susquehanna River. It is currently the late summer period down there and the fishing is a little slow. As with all my posts click on any picture to enlarge it and really get a look at them. I am a big fan of brown trout and that last one is a beauty. David is now one of my exclusive guides for my fishing place. He was raised in the Pulaski area of NY and the magnificent salmon fishing that the region is world renowned for. He knows how to handle the big brawling rivers our region of the Adirondacks is host too. As you can see he knows how to get the job done and is a great asset to the little trout fisherman’s paradise I am creating in the northern Adirondacks. Give us a shout if you need a guide in New York State.

Monster Muskies in the Susquehanna

papabearoutdoors — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:46:26 +0000

Christmas Day, all the presents were opened and happy children were playing with them. Above average temps and dad headed to the river. No one around and ideal water conditions for big Walleyes. On the fifth cast I had a good solid bite. 20 minutes later I had a 40 inch 15 pound muskie in the boat. 4 casts later I hooked into this beast. 40 minutes later I had this 45 inch beast in the net. Not what I was expecting but I wasn’t complaining. I was using 6# line and one of my custom ” Google Eyes Jigs”. Here in the Susquehanna River, in the stretch from the PA border up to Vestal, NY, it is legal to keep the muskies during the open season for walleyes due to the presence of tiger muskies which have no closed season here in NY. Because of the difficulty of telling the difference between tigers and regular muskies during the cold water period the DEC decided to allow this special regulation. I don’t often keep them but I had to get some good pics of this one and tied it on a stringer, ran home for my camera and rounded up a friend to take these pics. I then released it and hope it made it. This is a picture of the biggest one I have ever taken( it was released) which was 49 inches and around 35 #. These monsters are here to spawn and the only reason we get them is because they pick the jigs out of the spawning beds, much like a bass would, and we get them right in the tip of the nose. That and the fact that they are sluggish this time of year is the only reason that we are able to handle these hogs on such light tackle. It sure makes for an exciting day when you actually land on of these U-boats and just adds to the privilege of having such a great fishery right here in my backyard.

I am back from the forests

papabearoutdoors — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:41:11 +0000

Sorry for not posting in so long. I just seem to get caught up in deer season and lose my drive for tech work. It was an incredibly tough season here in NY and across much of the north east I am sure. Being a true trophy hunter during the bow season I found the well above average temperatures to be the bane of the trophy hunter as usual. I can’t say that I didn’t see deer but the big ones for me were almost non existent. The first night out I had a P&Y buck catch me getting in the stand, he was bedded 50 yards away, then it was all small ones. 21 buck were sighted during bow season and all were small after that first one. I ended up shooting a nice fat doe on the last day of the season. Gun season was not much better weather wise and I ended up shooting a decent 7pt. I also whacked a huge coyote on opening day of gun season after passing up three bucks including one decent 8pt. To conclude with the deer season the final tally was 3 doe and this buck. Now we are on to the walleye fishing here in the Susquehanna River which is nothing short of excellent.

Archery report 10/23/11

papabearoutdoors — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 01:18:25 +0000

Second day in the stands and it featured a crisp morning and unfortunately 2 were bedded under the stand upon arrival. I don’t believe either were the one I was looking for because this old monster doesn’t tolerate much company. No other deer were sighted on the morning session. The afternoon session found me overlooking an apple tree that has about a thousand little red apples on it. This tree is located in a grown over scrub field that is so thick you can’t walk through it. Seven does and yearlings all visited the tree and all could have been dispatched but old big boy didn’t show but it is still early in the season. Over several seasons hunting this little patch I have seen 4 different P&Y buck here. I haven’t hung one of them yet but I learned a long time ago seeing them is one thing and hanging them is another. The thing with this spot is that it is right next to houses and has a major highway on one side and a main street on the other. It is about 2oo yards wide and 400 yards long and the deer love it, so do I. Overlook no spot no matter how small or innoxius.