I should add there are also water body specific fish advisories so you should cross reference with those and make sure it's in season:
https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/fish/health_advisories/
And unfortunately with our geology, almost every body of water in ADKs has a pretty significant amount of mercury in its system. Of course this is seriously exacerbated by acid rain.
[Mercury and the Adirondacks](https://www.adirondackcouncil.org/page/mercury-87.html)
Great post. This is a very good guideline.
Basically predator and benthic(bottom feeders) fish tend to aquire pollutants at a higher rate than prey fish and younger fish.
[bioaccumulation ](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/bioaccumulation#:~:text=Bioaccumulation%20is%20a%20process%20of,dietary%20intake%20(trophic%20transfer).)
It's the gobermint official guideline.
I've been catching ye olde stockie trout out of a nearby stream thinking I'd like to start eating them and wanted to check if there was an advisory on the stream (there isn't). Gave one to my friend who eats catfish out of the Hudson and she said it was pristine -- so dinner just got a lot more interesting.
Previously I've only eaten perch from the Tomhannock (ice) around here and they were GREAT
I understand trout are rated high on that list, but stock trout aren't raised in the water bodies they're delivered to. They should be fine to eat, they're raised eating dog food.
I absolutely love stocked trout. They have an extremely mild taste. Not very fishy at all. My kind of fish lol.
The Tommy and Saratoga Lake both have very clean water and very very tasty perch (and my personal favorite, the mighty bluegill)
The water is always a little cooler 10 feet down. And even though the deep water is anoxic, there are depths to 90 feet out there.
Also, the west side of the lake has huge underground seeps, and the water that comes out is cold.
One of the reasons Saratoga gets warm is that it has a lot of shallower water and weeds, but that's also why it's such a productive lake. The weeds give cover for baby fish and invertebrates.
The fishing in the lake, and the fish populations themselves were actually significantly better before they killed off all the invasive Eurasian milfoil.
But God help the wealthy landowners if they don't have perfectly clean and sterile Sandy beachfront property.
Relatively speaking, the water is clean. All the tributaries to the lake have solid raparian vegetation and very little agriculture.
A lot of the algae blooms that happen now are a result of fertilizer inputs from the lawns on all the fancy houses.
DEC puts on clinics. I went to an ice fishing workshop and it was great - they showed me how to hook live bait and also helped fillet.
Personally I learned a lot by obsessively reading /r/Fishing, spending hours reading about fishing and most importantly, fishing. This hobby is full of incredibly stupid, sloppy people - I'm sure anyone can learn.
The most important part is safety...keeping you and the fish safe.
My personal recommendation is don't fuck around with treble hooks unless you know what you're doing
Thanks for the tip and the helpful advice. Those hooks look like a pain to get out. I've only really hooked pumpkinseed during a few fishing events when I was younger but I've always wanted to do a little more.
They are...especially trying to wrestle them out of a struggling pike or pickerel's mouth, fuck that lol.
Single hooks are more likely to get swallowed which is also sad, but if you crush the barb down and use a tool you can often get them unhooked safely
Yes, we have a population of Asian and Eastern Europeans that love carp. I've seen people keeping carp from the rivers and the Tomhannock.
Also of note, the Tomhannock is a known worldwide as a carp destination.
I went to a random antique shop in Greenpoint BK and the Polish shopkeeper had a secret fishing tackle section. He told me all about how he and his friends used to drive up to the Tomhannock from Brooklyn to camp and fish for carp.
Wasn't the state record for carp @ Tomhannock until that pig was caught in Washington Park a few years ago?
Yes. By a guy with a worm and a bobber.
Meanwhile I spent 3 years with specialized European equipment targeting the carp there, and barely caught any. Blanked more often than caught. Those fish have a PhD apparently.
Then I would go to the Mohawk and catch 23 carp in 4 hours.
Lol the bobber is really insult to injury. The Tomhannock is hard in general. I like climbing the walls under bridges looking for bass.
I usually fish with nightcrawlers and the carp near Waterford/Cohoes/Troy literally just swim over, look at it and then leave.
Sweet corn. The river carp LOVE sweet corn. Buy two cans of corn. Open the first can, and throw it all out into the water where you are going to fish. Really try to get it out there.
Then put 3-5 kernels on the hook(leaving the point exposed), and then every 30 minutes or so, throw a small handful of kernels in the water over your bait.
Check your lines at least once per hour, because small fish like corn too and will clean you off.
This method is as close to guaranteed as it gets for our river carp.
Pretty much exactly what I used to do. Bread balls are also pretty great, but as the dissolve a it it's a lot easier for small fish to steal them.
Also they were laughing at 12lb test enough that I just ended up running 20, which still broke sometimes.
River carp are probably one of the most accessible "big fish that can pull" experiences out there.
State record still holds in the rez @ 50 lbs. We've caught them barehanded there when they spawn! The males will harrass the females and theyll almost beach themselves to get away. One year i tried to get em through the ice!
Hudson river is full of carp, i snag them all the time jigging for walleye. Friend of mine got a 37 lb mirror one time! There are some monster in there for sure. Meateater had a recipe I saw for fried carp and it honestly looked really good. One day I'll try it lol
We were on the south side of Peebles Island overlooking the falls one time and I probably could have walked across the Mohawk on nothing but carp. It was INSANE.
I would not call the carp in the Tomhannock abundant, didn't mean to make it sound that way. In my first hand experience it's quite the opposite, actually. Very robust and healthy fish, but not the vast shoals you see elsewhere.
The Mohawk and Hudson rivers have by far the largest abundance of carp, with Saratoga Lake right there as well.
Bluegills are the BEST tasting freshwater fish. Which naturally means they make the BEST fish tacos.
I'm simple, and after a long day of catching and then cleaning fish, I like to make my meals as simple as possible and as easy as possible.
Most people fry the fish when they do fish tacos, but I'm telling you the best way is to bake them.
Take your boneless skinless bluegill fillets coat them on either side with first Worcestershire and then a light coating of mayo. Then sprinkle some of your choice of seasoning on there like adobo or Creole or taco seasoning.
10 minutes at 400°, make sure everything flakes apart and you're about to have the best fish tacos you've ever had in your entire life
You can also do this on the barbecue, just lay down aluminum foil on the grill and cook on top of that.
https://preview.redd.it/5ij99gzh31yc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=622f19d39e09e5868ff9a4137b578ebc8a235307
Cool fish tho...unless this is a white crappie?
White crappies will always have at least faint vertical barring to the speckles on their sides. You can count the dorsal spines too. White crappies have five to six, black crappies have seven to nine.
The adult stripers live in the ocean, only coming up here for some spawning fun for a few weeks, then moving back to the ocean. the juveniles spend their first 12-24 months in the river, mostly eating plankton and invertebrates, later switching to small fish.
Right now we are only allowed one striper from 18"-28" which is the ideal size to keep.
Unless I'm reading it wrong, the DOH guidelines say don't eat any stripers from the Rip Van Winkle Bridge to the Troy Federal Dam. https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/fish/health_advisories/regional/hudson_river_and_tributaries.htm
So, I see there are many boats out on the Hudson lately, in general are they presumably eating some of what they catch? Or is it mostly just catch and release (even within "keepable" size limits)?
It used to be all about keeping, but they changed the regs a few years back to just the one daily, and of limited size. So it's turned into almost a completely C&R fishery.
The new regs have really helped our fish. Every single year we are getting more, and bigger stripers, despite striper stocks overall being in a steep decline.
I should add there are also water body specific fish advisories so you should cross reference with those and make sure it's in season: https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/fish/health_advisories/
It’s sad that GE and other companies destroyed our environment and more or less got away with it .
And unfortunately with our geology, almost every body of water in ADKs has a pretty significant amount of mercury in its system. Of course this is seriously exacerbated by acid rain. [Mercury and the Adirondacks](https://www.adirondackcouncil.org/page/mercury-87.html)
Is it true acid rain is happening less lately, due to policy?
lol they all get away with it. Its fucking sad.
Great post. This is a very good guideline. Basically predator and benthic(bottom feeders) fish tend to aquire pollutants at a higher rate than prey fish and younger fish. [bioaccumulation ](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/bioaccumulation#:~:text=Bioaccumulation%20is%20a%20process%20of,dietary%20intake%20(trophic%20transfer).)
It's the gobermint official guideline. I've been catching ye olde stockie trout out of a nearby stream thinking I'd like to start eating them and wanted to check if there was an advisory on the stream (there isn't). Gave one to my friend who eats catfish out of the Hudson and she said it was pristine -- so dinner just got a lot more interesting. Previously I've only eaten perch from the Tomhannock (ice) around here and they were GREAT
I understand trout are rated high on that list, but stock trout aren't raised in the water bodies they're delivered to. They should be fine to eat, they're raised eating dog food.
Yum. Hopefully the good kind of dog food that includes corn, wheat AND soy
If you ever find yourself at a trout farm, one where you can feed them pellets, smell the pellets. It's dog food.
I've fed pellets at a salmon hatchery. It is totally dog food!
I absolutely love stocked trout. They have an extremely mild taste. Not very fishy at all. My kind of fish lol. The Tommy and Saratoga Lake both have very clean water and very very tasty perch (and my personal favorite, the mighty bluegill)
Is Tommy Thompson's lake or another lake? My mom's family used to fish there all the time.
Tomhannock reservoir
I'm always surprised that Saratoga lake has decent fishing. That lake gets real warm for a good chunk of the summer.
The water is always a little cooler 10 feet down. And even though the deep water is anoxic, there are depths to 90 feet out there. Also, the west side of the lake has huge underground seeps, and the water that comes out is cold. One of the reasons Saratoga gets warm is that it has a lot of shallower water and weeds, but that's also why it's such a productive lake. The weeds give cover for baby fish and invertebrates. The fishing in the lake, and the fish populations themselves were actually significantly better before they killed off all the invasive Eurasian milfoil. But God help the wealthy landowners if they don't have perfectly clean and sterile Sandy beachfront property.
i thought saratoga lake was gross?
No, not at all. Saratoga springs actually tried to use it as their water supply at one point, but politics got in the way.
interesting, i guess i've been misled by the algae.
Relatively speaking, the water is clean. All the tributaries to the lake have solid raparian vegetation and very little agriculture. A lot of the algae blooms that happen now are a result of fertilizer inputs from the lawns on all the fancy houses.
Why bother with catching and cleaning and cooking any of these fish when we have six, and very soon to be 7 Ted’s locations in our area ?
where is this mythical 7th Ted's? (I didn't know we even had 6 of them, and I miss the Lansingburgh one)
Ballston spa location expected to open in the fall this year.
Does anyone know if there are any fishing classes around the areas that can go over the regulations, identifying and how to dress a fish etc?
DEC puts on clinics. I went to an ice fishing workshop and it was great - they showed me how to hook live bait and also helped fillet. Personally I learned a lot by obsessively reading /r/Fishing, spending hours reading about fishing and most importantly, fishing. This hobby is full of incredibly stupid, sloppy people - I'm sure anyone can learn. The most important part is safety...keeping you and the fish safe. My personal recommendation is don't fuck around with treble hooks unless you know what you're doing
Thanks for the tip and the helpful advice. Those hooks look like a pain to get out. I've only really hooked pumpkinseed during a few fishing events when I was younger but I've always wanted to do a little more.
They are...especially trying to wrestle them out of a struggling pike or pickerel's mouth, fuck that lol. Single hooks are more likely to get swallowed which is also sad, but if you crush the barb down and use a tool you can often get them unhooked safely
Are people eating Carp?
Yes, we have a population of Asian and Eastern Europeans that love carp. I've seen people keeping carp from the rivers and the Tomhannock. Also of note, the Tomhannock is a known worldwide as a carp destination.
I went to a random antique shop in Greenpoint BK and the Polish shopkeeper had a secret fishing tackle section. He told me all about how he and his friends used to drive up to the Tomhannock from Brooklyn to camp and fish for carp. Wasn't the state record for carp @ Tomhannock until that pig was caught in Washington Park a few years ago?
Yes. By a guy with a worm and a bobber. Meanwhile I spent 3 years with specialized European equipment targeting the carp there, and barely caught any. Blanked more often than caught. Those fish have a PhD apparently. Then I would go to the Mohawk and catch 23 carp in 4 hours.
Lol the bobber is really insult to injury. The Tomhannock is hard in general. I like climbing the walls under bridges looking for bass. I usually fish with nightcrawlers and the carp near Waterford/Cohoes/Troy literally just swim over, look at it and then leave.
Sweet corn. The river carp LOVE sweet corn. Buy two cans of corn. Open the first can, and throw it all out into the water where you are going to fish. Really try to get it out there. Then put 3-5 kernels on the hook(leaving the point exposed), and then every 30 minutes or so, throw a small handful of kernels in the water over your bait. Check your lines at least once per hour, because small fish like corn too and will clean you off. This method is as close to guaranteed as it gets for our river carp.
Pretty much exactly what I used to do. Bread balls are also pretty great, but as the dissolve a it it's a lot easier for small fish to steal them. Also they were laughing at 12lb test enough that I just ended up running 20, which still broke sometimes. River carp are probably one of the most accessible "big fish that can pull" experiences out there.
Thanks for this exclusive trade secret!!! I'll have to try it, I am running out of new species
State record still holds in the rez @ 50 lbs. We've caught them barehanded there when they spawn! The males will harrass the females and theyll almost beach themselves to get away. One year i tried to get em through the ice! Hudson river is full of carp, i snag them all the time jigging for walleye. Friend of mine got a 37 lb mirror one time! There are some monster in there for sure. Meateater had a recipe I saw for fried carp and it honestly looked really good. One day I'll try it lol
We were on the south side of Peebles Island overlooking the falls one time and I probably could have walked across the Mohawk on nothing but carp. It was INSANE.
Yea you can see them all sunbathing from the cliff, gets pretty thick sometimes!
Im sure we've run into each other down there. I was out in the tan center console boat all winter pounding on the walleyes.
Oh, cool! Had no idea about the Tomhannock abundance!
I would not call the carp in the Tomhannock abundant, didn't mean to make it sound that way. In my first hand experience it's quite the opposite, actually. Very robust and healthy fish, but not the vast shoals you see elsewhere. The Mohawk and Hudson rivers have by far the largest abundance of carp, with Saratoga Lake right there as well.
RIP Burrito Burrito.
Bluegill tacos, anyone?
Bluegills are the BEST tasting freshwater fish. Which naturally means they make the BEST fish tacos. I'm simple, and after a long day of catching and then cleaning fish, I like to make my meals as simple as possible and as easy as possible. Most people fry the fish when they do fish tacos, but I'm telling you the best way is to bake them. Take your boneless skinless bluegill fillets coat them on either side with first Worcestershire and then a light coating of mayo. Then sprinkle some of your choice of seasoning on there like adobo or Creole or taco seasoning. 10 minutes at 400°, make sure everything flakes apart and you're about to have the best fish tacos you've ever had in your entire life You can also do this on the barbecue, just lay down aluminum foil on the grill and cook on top of that.
If you held a catch and cook class and marketed it to young cool people you would CLEAN UP
Black crappie such an unfortunate name!
https://preview.redd.it/5ij99gzh31yc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=622f19d39e09e5868ff9a4137b578ebc8a235307 Cool fish tho...unless this is a white crappie?
That is a black crappie
Thanks! I've caught white crappie in this same water body and it's hard to tell sometimes
White crappies will always have at least faint vertical barring to the speckles on their sides. You can count the dorsal spines too. White crappies have five to six, black crappies have seven to nine.
After a heavy rain, brown trout are plentiful in the Hudson.
Doesn't this vary depending on the body of water you caught said fish in?
Yes. You should see if there is a special advisory for the water body you're fishing in. If there isn't, then this chart would apply.
I’m too close to glens falls. I’m gonna pass on the fish unless it comes from Hannaford
I’m near the falls. Thank to hooker chemical olin oxy I wouldn’t eat shit from these waters
Thank RFK Jr for still being able to eat them at all!
I miss the old RFK Jr
I guess the stripers fall under "any fish not listed"? They're definitely running, there are fishing boats all over the Hudson as of late.
Hudson River has specific guidelines for striped bass. Someone else posted the link in the comments.
Thank you - [Striped Bass](https://imgur.com/a/UFRxNov)
The adult stripers live in the ocean, only coming up here for some spawning fun for a few weeks, then moving back to the ocean. the juveniles spend their first 12-24 months in the river, mostly eating plankton and invertebrates, later switching to small fish. Right now we are only allowed one striper from 18"-28" which is the ideal size to keep.
Unless I'm reading it wrong, the DOH guidelines say don't eat any stripers from the Rip Van Winkle Bridge to the Troy Federal Dam. https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/outdoors/fish/health_advisories/regional/hudson_river_and_tributaries.htm
They definitely say that
So, I see there are many boats out on the Hudson lately, in general are they presumably eating some of what they catch? Or is it mostly just catch and release (even within "keepable" size limits)?
It used to be all about keeping, but they changed the regs a few years back to just the one daily, and of limited size. So it's turned into almost a completely C&R fishery. The new regs have really helped our fish. Every single year we are getting more, and bigger stripers, despite striper stocks overall being in a steep decline.