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July 13, 2022
A collection of Oneida Lake’s better size walleyes.
July 3, 2022
Much to my dislike this season,Oneida Lake and white water seem to be the norm . Throughout May and June strong NW and NE winds have packed their ugly punches more often than I have witnessed in my 47- year charter career on this pond. And now, it seems that July is following that trend. My crew of Cathy Divine, her sister Theresa and friend Randy experienced Oneida’s force on this Sunday morning and did not flinch. They braved the nasty wind and accompanying chop to both jig and troll for the complete 6-hour charter. Although the bite was not fast and furious, Randy and Theresa, visiting from Oregon caught their first ever walleyes. Theresa’s 25 inch eye is the biggest of our 2022 season. It took a Blue Hawaiian 800 Series Deep Reef Runner fished on a three color lead core in 35 fow. Randy’s walleye came on a i1baits.com purple 5/8 oz. bucktail jig with red flash and half a crawler. Cathy’s “eye” came on a wire diver with a Bass Pro bargain-bin crankbait.
June 30, 2022
First off I'd like to thank Devin Frink, his girlfriend Mariah, Dave, David King and Wayne Dane for sharing an Oneida Lake walleye charter with me this morning. What a pleasure to be on the water when Oneida Lake decides to keep all the sheep in the barn.
A light 5 mph easterly breeze accomodatted a O.3-0.4 mph drift. Decided to remain in jigging mode all morning. i1baits.com 5/8 oz ICP(insane clown purple) bucktail tipped with a crawler, the all purple with red flash 5 /8 oz bucktail, the infamous Joker 3/4 bucktail, along with a perch pattern RotJaw jigging lure and a perch pattern bladebait all added keepers to our catch.
Today was a day of firsts!. First walleye ever for Mariah, first walleye for Dave on a bucktail dressed with a crawler, and a first walleye for Devin on a ROTJAW jigging lure. Managed to land 6 keepers, 6 shorts, and drop a few on a very nice calm drift hosting an exceptional screen but a stubborn bite. All bites came in 31 to 27 fow.
What we lacked in bites was compensated by the comradarie shared within the group.
June 7, 2022
Mark Paikin, Jim Iannetoni and Paul Francher met me at Fremac Marina at 5:30 am for their Oneida Lake walleye charter. This would ultimately settle on a spinner/worm technique applied in the weeds, after trying our hand at jigging with no results. The Hammer Spinner found at Bhammertackle.com got the job done for us. with a mix of walleye and chain pickerel.
June 3, 2022
Again, Lady Oneida showed her propensity for the wild side. Yet another four bag drift. My drift sacks have a funnel opening of 80 inches at the top and taper to 9 inches at the bottom. Without these, there's no way to sustain a 0.3 to 0.4 mph drift, which I find ideal to cover water and maintain jigging control with adequate bottom touches per cast in a 10 to 15 mph wind.
Paul Tetro, sons Jeff and Rob along with friend George Kilpatrick arrived at Fremac Marina at 5:30 am for this morning's Oneida Lake charter. We headed west in search of a fishable picture, which we found in 14 to 22 fow. After three drifts we boated 4 keeper eyes, one short and a good yellow perch. Then the picture became less inspiring and the skylight told me to find stained water. So back to the east we go, with the new game plan. Well sometimes, my logic leads me astray. After one drift with little to no picture and nary a bite, I get a call from
DAVID, Capt. Dave Wilson who has found a good bite in 24 to 21 fow. Back to the west we go and my crew picked away to end up with 10 keepers, 5 shorts, 2 yellow perch and 4 pumpkinseeds. Best producers today were i1baits.com Bad Boy black/nickel bladebait, and the i1baits.com 5/8 oz. purple bucktail with red flash and crawler, a Johnson Johnny Darter and an XPS silver/black blade.
May 30, 2022
Another grinder on Oneida this am. Early start, 5:30 am with my crew, Jim Froio, Mike Michael Lasinski, his dad, John Lasinski and Bobby Bob Carducci. Overcast, 3 to 4 bag drift ENE; I was hoping the chop would provide a chomp. It did and it didn't. i1baits.com bucktails were our best fish catcher this am. Nine keepers, 10 shorts, 1 jumbo perch, 1 largemouth and 1 pickerel. Black/purple, purple/chartreuse, perch and chartreuse/white all brought fish to the boat. Each pattern included flash, a stinger and half a nightcrawler. Our early depths were 12 to 8 fow. Later in the morning, we found some keepers in 38 to 32 fow.
May 19, 2022
I love my office; but please, enough of these windy, choppy days on Oneida Lake. Add rain to the mix and you have the perfect opportunity to fish with little to no angler traffic.
Wet, windy and well worth it, summarily communicates this morning's walleye endeavor. Dr.Chris Buff, Dr. Jeff Wilson and Nick Macheron braved the elements and were rewarded with their walleye limits along with 5 big perch and 12 other eyes that didn't measure up.
A smorgasbord of lures got the job done: i1baits.com 5/8 oz. purple with red flash bucktail tipped with half a crawler, bladebaits silver, gold, and sunrise, jigging raps/RotJaws in perch patterns all contributed to the box.
Best depth was 26 to 18 fow and 19 to 17 fow at two different locations. Best three were in the 20 inch range.
May 7, 2022
Went east this morning with Jim Froio, DJ David Hiltbrand, Mike Heller and Mike Michael Lasinski looking for that winning entry in the Chittenango Lions Club, Oneida Lake Walleye Derby. Found some biters in 33- 22 fow. Best fish by DJ David Hiltbrand was 21 1/4 on a Lakeside Outfitters RotJaw jigging lure. Currently, the fish is the leading for the Fremac weigh station.
Nice drift, good markings, stubborn bite, bellies full of larval stages (possibly) Mayflies? Tried drifting spinner/crawler, also perch-pounder rig but to bo avail. All bites came on blades and RotJaws
Dr. Chris Buff, his two daughters Rachel, Sara and son-in-law Mark Libertucci spent Sunday morning with me on an Oneida Lake charter. Minimal to no wind for most of the morning required a run an gun approach which put us over good concentrations of fish but the bite was as stubborn as it can get. Fortunately the few keeper walleyes we had were 19.5, 20 and 21.125 inches. Several shorts and some perch kept the group attentively jigging.