St. Lawrence River, Planned fishing trip

I'm heading to Clayton, NY for 4 days in May for some fishing for the first time. I've seen a few shows on WFN where they've been fishing in the lower St. Lawrence and Lake O at the mouth of the river. I'm not going to be targeting smallies because bass fishing is closed in the river only in that county, but walleyes and pike are open for catch and release (which is what I do anyway).
Has anyone gone fishing in that area before that can give me some tips (not locations)? I'm going to limit myself to the US side of the river. Any help would be much appreciated.

Just a few more days before heading to the St. Lawrence for 4 days. Has anyone heard any fishing reports from that region with the water being higher than normal? Any help would be appreciated.

Water is crystal clear there so use very natural presentations and colours. The area has a healthy pike population and jumbo perch, and of course smallmouth and largemouth bass.

Spinnerbaits and crankbaits casted along shorelines, drop-offs and weed beds are all productive tactics. Water may be a little cold this time of year, so slow down the presentation if you can't get them to bite.

You will have fun. Good Luck!

Thanks for the reply. Since bass season doesn't open in Jefferson County until mid-June (same as Ontario), I won't be targeting bass. However, I'm likely going to be catching some as they tend to use the same habitat as walleyes. I'll be fishing slowly at any rate with the colder water temps, probably doing some trolling and throwing jigs around the weeds and rocks.

Just arrived at Mil's Cottages. The boat is staying on the trailer for the night because of heavy rain and there's no ramp here so it would be a cold, wet 1 mile walk back to the ramp to retrieve the truck.....not happening!! We'll see what's up in the river in the morning when it's supposed to clear.

Looking forward to the report. Hopefully the high water doesn't mess up the fishing too much. At least the weather is supposed to turn for the better.

Good Luck out there! If the pike aren't biting. Try for some jumbo perch. Nice ones in those waters.

Fished Lake O last week, Bay of Quinte, water temps were around 54 degrees and we were trying to stay between 0.5 to 1.0 mph trolling speed.

Good luck, tight lines

Good luck out there!

What a tough week!

After all the rain and thunderstorms and high winds, I spent a total of about 17 hours on the river this week. Normally I don't care about rain, but a cold rain combined with 20mph winds was more than I wanted to endure. It just makes you feel miserable.
I did manage to find a few spots where I marked fish in the DownVu and managed to catch a total of 11 smallmouth and 2 walleyes (unfortunately my phone's camera isn't working). Most of the smallies were around 2lb, but one spawning female was 5.81lb. The walleyes were 17" and 24" (didn't weigh them). All fish are still swimming free.
Almost every fish were caught on a 5" paddle-tail swimming grub crawled on the bottom (tried to imitate a goby). 2 of them were caught on a swimming jig tipped with a Rage Craw. One surprise....I was reeling in the swimming grub for another cast and had a 36"+ Muskie follow it, almost colliding with the trolling motor shaft! Oh, there was a 2.2mph current in the main channel of the river and 1.3mph in the side channels. I marked water depths from a few inches to over 80ft. Visibility for the most part was in excess of 15ft except in some of the bays where there was runoff entering (4-5ft vis).
I think the water temp was the main obstacle to a more successful trip. When I got here on Monday, the surface temp was 41.2deg. This afternoon when I came it, it had risen to 47.7deg. At those temps, the fish are just shut down like it was still winter! All of the locals that I spoke to said that they never venture out for any fishing until the temp reaches about 53-55deg. If I return to this camp again, it will be in summer or early fall because I can definitely see the fishing potential of this place.
Hitting the road for home in the morning.

Great report and sorry that the weather didn't cooperate with you. Hope you have a safe travel home

Temporary dock

Permanent dock

Thanks Mike.

On a related note, the water level in the St. Lawrence is about 2.5 to 3 feet above normal. The owner of the camp had just installed a temporary dock on top of the permanent dock that is submerged as can be seen in the above pic. The other permanent dock (the other pic) will get it's extension this coming week.
I received an email from the owner of a camp on Lake Huron's Whaleback Channel that I'm going to in Sept. He said that the breakwater protecting their docks was submerged right now, where it's normally about 3.5 feet above the surface.
I'm thinking every one of the Great Lakes is much higher than normal from all the rain and a ton of snow run-off. It's going to be a while before all of that water filters out through the St. Lawrence to the ocean.

Thanks for the report..

I concur, all my shore spots along Lake Ontario / St Lawrence shoreline are 2 to 3 feet high. Also fishing is way behind schedule. No pike yet, just catching panfish still.. I did notice some nice new weed growth which I thought was odd with the high water, I estimate in 2 weeks those spots will be good fishing.

I agree, water is still too cold..