Some nice smallmouth bass from the 1000 Island region of the St. Lawerence River in New York. (Photos by Tom Cross)
Last week a yearlong anticipated fishing trip with two high school buddies and my son Ben, was successfully concluded. Ben recently retired from the armed services after a 20-year career and has been busy catching up on his fishing. Fortunately, his last duty station was Ft. Drum in upstate New York where they purchased a home only 20 minutes from the 1000 Island Region of the St. Lawrence River. The region is considered the best smallmouth bass fishing in the U.S. In 2023, the Bassmaster Elite Series Championship was held at the 1000 Islands and yielded the highest and heaviest catch in tournament history. Bassmaster Magazine named the 1,000 Islands the best bass fishery in the country.
My high school buddy Mark drove and towed his 21-foot Lund Pro-V Bass with a 225 hp Merc on the tail end which goes much too fast for me. My other high school buddy Mike and I split the gas and picked up the tab for a few meals. We stayed at the Bridgeview Motel on Hi-Way 12 with a view of the 1000 Island Bridge to Wellesley Island and Canada. The rooms were clean but small with only two beds, a bathroom with shower, fridge, and a TV. No complaints as we were only charged $48 per night. It was conveniently located halfway between the 1000 Island Bait Shop and Grassy Point State Park, where we launched the boat.
For morning breakfast, we ate a hearty eggs, potatoes and ham at the NorthStar in Alexandria Bay. Evening dinner was usually in Clayton.
Mark had some boat troubles when two of the three batteries that power his 36-volt trolling motor went on the fritz and required a side trip to Auto Zone at Fort Drum. About $275 later we were back on the water, but some missed wiring connections required an emergency boat machinic to reconnect the circuitry to the onboard charger. Nevertheless, those were minor inconveniences, but the fishing never skipped a beat.
In New York bass season opens June 15 and all manner of bass boats magically appeared at the motel and bait store just prior to opening day. The 1000 Islands area is so vast I refer to it as “endless fishing”.
The St. Lawerence River is a shipping channel and freighters frequently appear on the horizon on a slow journey to Montreal or Quebec passing right under the 1000 Island Bridge.
Ben led us to a little side channel close to a large gravel flat that smallmouth were using for feeding and spawning. Spawning beds dotted the underwater landscape, as one could easily see six feet or more below the surface of the clear St. Lawrence River. Drop shot on a fluorocarbon leader with a small plastic minnow fooled the most bass. I stuck with a 1/8 oz Ned jig and a plastic craw. Nearly half the smallmouth boated coughed up a crawdad. My personal best was a smallmouth that weighed a few ounces over 4 pounds. Three or four bass in that range were caught, probably 15 or more bass topped the 3-pound mark, most were in the 2-pound, 15-to-16-inch size range. In all, as close as we could count, between the four of us, probably 100-plus smallmouth bass were boated in five days of fishing.
We also caught four 30-inch northern pike and 5 or 6 “fallfish” a species of freshwater minnow, the largest minnow species in the U.S. Ben also hooked a large snapping turtle and in one hasty cast, I hooked Ben. That required cutters to cut the hook and push the barb through the skin to get it out. While Ben was hooked, he hooked and caught a dandy smallmouth, the fishing was that fast. Every five minutes it seemed somebody had a fish on. There are 1,000 places to fish at the 1000 Islands.
For info go to www.1000islands-clayton.com.
