St. Lawrence River, Planned fishing trip

[Goshawk]

I decided to give it another go, but in the fall this time. Heading back to the same resort in Clayton, NY for 4 more days in early October. I've been told that the smallies are much more cooperative in the fall. Maybe the largemouth are as well. Hopefully the weather cooperates more this time. The owner said that the water level was still high, but no longer in flood stage like it was in May. Water temp is in the 60's.

[Goshawk]

Day 2 of trip 2. I didn't get on the river on Monday because of the wind....just too much for my liking.
The wind is down to 5kph all day today (and forecasted to be the same until I leave on Friday). Water clarity is about 20 feet plus, and water temp is 56-58°. Not a lot of bites today, but it seems the bass are in 15-40 FOW. I didn't catch anything worthy of a picture, but they were all a respectable 2lb or so. Taking a break this evening and heading out in the early morning to give topwater a shot for a while to see if the largemouth are cruising the grass.
When I was here in May, Alan had to install temporary docks on top of his permanent docks which were right at water level at the time because of high water. Now, the temporary docks are about 5ft above the water causing me to climb out of the boat and crawl up to the top level. Did I mention that it's not too easy with ligament damage in the knee?

[jam1324]

Good luck tomorrow Goshawk! Careful with that knee, wouldn't want to ruin the rest of the week and then some hurting it.

[Goshawk]

Back home from the trip with nothing to do but put the cover on the boat and relax.

I never did find a concentration of fish, just one here and there. I'm not sure if it was the constant NE wind of the blue bird skies, but no one that I talked to had much luck establishing a pattern.
I caught fish in anything from 3' to 45'. The largemouth were in the shallow weeds, but were really spread out like they were just solitary roamers. The smallmouth were in deep basins near a rocky "cliff" of sudden and very tall depth changes, nothing gradual.
The water was very stable in temp, 56-58° and very much gin clear (I could see weeds moving with the current at 20'). I could actually see my silver tube moving at almost 30'!!
I managed to land 12 bass this trip (much better than my last trip), all in the 2.5-3lb range. I also had a 35"+ muskie on for almost a minute but lost it at the side of the boat. Lots of follows by muskie and pike on a white tandem spinnerbait. The bass fell victim to silver tubes and drop shot crawfish baits.
I will be back next year, but I'm going to pass on the springtime as the information I got from Alan was that the water level will be just as high or higher next spring because of restricted dam flow downstream. If they open the gates right before I would normally go in May, the current will be 10mph or higher!!
Sorry about no pics, but I didn't find out that my camera needed repair until I got there!