Lake Neahtawanta: Best Kept Fishing Secret in Oswego County

By Spider Rybaak

The Pier at Lake Neatahwantha is a great place to teach kids to fish.

Covering roughly 750 acres on Fulton’s west side, skirted along its north bank by NY 3, Lake Neahtawanta affords easy access to the city’s 11,800-something residents.  Yet this huge pond on the edge of town doesn’t see many people at all.

You can blame its lack of fame on the Oswego River, the state’s second largest stream. Running through the heart of the city, boasting two sets of fish-rich rapids and a long stretch of canal, all lined with hundreds of yards of easy access, the river draws a lot of fishing pressure.

Natives don’t mind, however. Not because they’re altruistic and want to share their bounty; but because they have a plan B: Lake Neahtawanta.

Iroquois for “little lake near the big lake,” Lake Neahtawanta averages 6 feet deep and drops to a maximum depth of 12 feet. Roughly 75 percent of its shoreline is wooded, but its northeastern corner is wide open and public, offering loads of access on manicured lawns.

Savvy natives fish the place from the bank and boats. If you ask them how the fish are hitting, most remain calm, just shrug, and confess to catching some white perch, maybe a bullhead or carp. Not exactly something worth writing home to mom about.

That’s about all the attention most anglers give the place. And that’s a terrible shame.

Hailing from the south shore of Oneida Lake, I have all the dynamite fishing I want close to home and never found a good reason to fish this lake until 2010. That’s when Mike McGrath, my partner in a kids fishing program, suggested we do a couple sessions at Lake Neahtawanta. He took me up there and introduced me to the place.

The fishing was good. We added the spot to our list and have been staging a couple kids fishing classes there every year since.

Warm weather angling for white perch, bullhead and sunnies is popular from Bullhead Point Park. A pier stretches out for nearly 100 feet, and is favored by anglers who wish to fish in relatively deep water. The rough shoreline along the parking lot, and the manicured lawn that wraps around the northeastern corner for several hundred yards, are popular with folks who just want to kick back and relax while watching their rod tips for communications from the deep.

A few northerns and largemouth bass are also present, keeping things interesting. In fact, a local I know claims everything you find in the Oswego River, including unusual species like bowfin and gar, thrive in these waters.

Perhaps Neahtawanta’s greatest claim to fame is ice fishing.  In fact, its hard-water bite for crappies and panfish is legendary, drawing more anglers onto the ice than spring through fall.

While it’s possible to launch car-top craft from Bullhead Point, a more suitable spot is North Bay Campground. Located a couple hundred yards west of the point, at the end of Phillips Street, it offers a hard surface ramp. In addition, it has 36 seasonal sites and 42 day sites--each with easy access to the water--a camp store, a hard surface launch, a beach, bathhouse with showers, and a playground.

White perch are the lake's most cooperative fish.

Kids Fishing Classes

By Spider Rybaak

Marshall, an associate of McGrath's, holding a Lake Neatahwanta catfish as his student looks on.

New York is etched in a fabulous web of fishing hot spots. But even fantasies have highlights, and the most exciting fishing destination in the Empire State is Oswego County.

Not just for trophy seekers, either. Granted, catching a walleye or brown trout big enough to hang on the wall is a common goal; but it’s at the end of the line, one of the final tests of an angler’s skills. 

And expert anglers don’t just appear out of nowhere -- It takes years of patience and practice, even apprenticeship, to fully develop fishing skills. And although some learn the game as adults, most trace their interest back to when they were kids.

Mike McGrath is a good example. Packing almost two generations of angling expertise, the man is savvy in all things fishy: from tying flies and fly-fishing for trout, salmon, northern pike and black bass, to trolling for muskies, jigging for walleye and bottom fishing for monster catfish.

With all that knowledge under his cap, you’d expect to find him chiseling out a name for himself on the marble column of the world’s greatest anglers; or at least living high on the hog competing in the tournament circuit.

But that’ll probably never happen. You see, this mild mannered Central New Yorker is a husband and father.  And like the countless other unsung heroes throughout history, McGrath couldn’t live with himself without donating part of his life to giving back. He does it by instructing someone else’s kids in the secrets of carp fishing.

McGrath’s choice of the species is simple. He knows that youngsters have short attention spans. Although catching panfish is fun, the thrill is often fleeting. On the other hand, when children catch carp, the experience is so intense it’s burned into their fondest memories, often hopelessly hooking them for life to the character-building sport of angling.

Watching the master spin his magic, observers often ask: “But why carp?”

When you get to know him, the answer becomes clear: McGrath is a man of the times. An unabashed internationalist, he specializes in this fresh water behemoth because of its worldwide appeal; it’s the most popularly sought fish in the Old Country. (The fact that the Oswego River drainage boasts one of America’s greatest populations of huge carp doesn’t hurt, either.)

Having served apprenticeships under European and Asian masters, Mike knows his game. Like a turkey hunter, he draws his quarry in close. Instead of calling the fish vocally (he has trouble vocalizing the gurgles and grunts of carp speak), he lures them in with his “10 pack,” a gob of grain bound by sticky stuff like bismuth that he “packs” into clumps the size of softballs and heaves into the water. As the pack slowly dissolves, its flavors are released, drawing carp and catfish into the area.

He’s good enough at it to turn a profit running McGrath & Associates Carp Angling Services. But he always makes time to teach, and pairs up with this writer regularly to offer free classes on local waters.

To see how McGrath does it, or to learn how to fish with worms or lures in my section, you are invited to attend one of our classes. See the schedule below:

May 10:  Oneida Lake Hatchery, NYS Rte. 49, Constantia; 

11 a.m.-1 p.m.

May 17:  Lake Neatahwanta, NYS Rte. 3, Fulton; 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

June 14:  Lake Neatahwanta, NYS Rte. 3, Fulton; 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

June 28:  Oneida Lake Hatchery, State Rte. 49, Constantia; 

11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

July 12:  Lake Neatahwanta, NYS Rte. 3, Fulton; 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

July 19.   May’s Point Fishing Access Site, Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, NYS Rte. 89;  11 a.m. -1 p.m.

August 9:  Lake Neatahwanta, NYS Rte. 3, Fulton; 

11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

August 16:  Great Swamp Conservancy, 8375 North Main Street, Canastota; 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

September 6: Lake Neatahwanta, NYS Rte. 3, Fulton; 

11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

October 18:  Lake Neatahwanta, NYS Rte. 3, Fulton; 

11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Mom and daughter admiring the child's first fish, caught during Spider's section of a kids fishing class on Lake Neatahwanta.

Mike McGrath unhooking an average-size Lake Neatahwanta carp.

Typical fishing class conducted by McGrath and Spider.

May Bites

By Spider Rybaak

Scott showing his walleyes as friends Anthony Sokolowski (left, Phoenix) and
Austin Pollmanteer (center, Central Square) cheer.

May sees some dramatic changes in Oswego County’s world class fisheries.  Most notably, steelhead move out of the tributaries-- out of the minds of most anglers-- and are replaced by walleyes: the other fish everyone wants to catch.

Walleyes prefer to spawn in rapids, too. In average situations, they procreate in creeks and peel out for deep water soon afterwards. Not in Oswego County.

You see, our walleyes are spoiled. They have major river systems to court in. Feeling safe in the relatively vast and deep rapids of the Oswego and Oneida Rivers, they aren’t under  any real pressure to beat fins back to the lake immediately afterwards, and stick around in the warm, caressing currents to pig out on all the minnows playing in the whitewater. 

Normally, the action is best the first week or two of the season. This year, however, for reasons varying from late bursts of unseasonably cold weather keeping the streams cool,  to the heavy rains we’ve had recently, the walleyes are extending their stay in the bubbly. 

Three hot spots of note:

Caughdenoy: The plunge pool below the dam has enough walleyes to draw lines of anglers on both sides of the river around dusk. Crankbaits like Smithwick Rogues account for most of the fish.

Phoenix : After years of so-so opportunities, this place is coming back…in spades. By 9 p.m. last Saturday evening (May 18), native son Scott Davie caught two fish about 20 inches long in the rapids on the west bank on a Thunderstick. 

Oswego: Larry Muroski says: “On a scale of 1 to 10, the walleye bite is at 7. The action stretches from the railroad bridge downtown, north to the former Coleman’s Restaurant. Shad Raps and Challenger Minnows are catching most of the fish,” continues the colorful owner of the Oswego Salmon Shop, (315-342-2778). 
But that ain’t all. 

“The dam in Oswego offers an unbelievable smorgasbord right now,” reports Muroski.  “Massive quantities of bluegills, yellow perch, monster rock bass, 15-pound sheepshead , and huge smallmouths are up there.”

[Smallmouth season is closed until June 15, but catch-and-release fishing with artificial lures is permitted: editor]

“Huge channel cats are in the tailrace below the powerhouse,” Muroski adds, suggesting: “still-fish half a shiner on bottom .”

If catfish are the apple in your eye, “The placid water above the dam in Caughdenoy holds trophies,” says Rob Goffredo, owner of Bartel Road Bait and Tackle (315-676-2144), Brewerton’s newest tackle shop. “Fish cutbait on bottom,” he advises.

Bear in mind, the rapids below the dam in Caughdenoy are the Oneida River’s only fast water and draw loads of catfish, too. While trophies are always possible in the plunge pool, most of these guys are spawning age, generally running from 16 to 22 inches, perfect eating size. They’ll take worms and shrimp.

2013’s Free kids Fishing Classes

May’s one of the best times to go fishing—and to teach kids how to fish.

This lesson was brought home last Saturday. Mike McGrath and I conducted our first kids fishing class of the year at Fulton’s Lake Neahtahwanta. 

Owner of McGrath & Associates Carp Angling services, Mike is the East Coast’s foremost expert on these freshwater behemoths. He proved it by landing 20 of the beasts ranging in size from 7 to 20 pounds, raising the eyebrows of all the youngsters and adults at the event.

Back at the gazebo, I was instructing the kids on how to fish with worms and lures, and showing them how to keep the bait out of the reeds and bushes. Roughly 15 showed up, and everyone caught a sunfish or white perch. 

Two more kids fishing classes are scheduled for this summer on Lake Neahtahwanta:

June 8 

July 13

And three are scheduled for the Veterans Memorial, on the west bank, in Oswego :

August 10

September 21

October 19

Sponsored by Berkley, Alvey, Shakespeare, Sampo, Mustad and Marukyu Baits of Japan, the classes are held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Tackle and bait are provided; or bring you own.

Kids 16 and over must possess a fishing license.
For more information, contact McGrath at 
mmcgrath2@twcny.rr.com ; 315-882-1549; or Spider at srybaak@yahoo.com.

Rob Goffredo, owner of Bartell Rd. Bait & Tackle, Brewerton's newest tackle shop,
fishing with a friend for cats above the Caughdenoy dam.

Fishing for walleyes in Caughdenoy.

Scott Davie unhooking one of his walleyes.

Marshall Kise, McGrath's main man, holding a carp caught by his student Dominick Evans of Weedsport.

Oswego's Carp Master, Mike McGrath, explaining the mysteries of his favorite fish.

Allie Waldron, Hannibal, holding her sunnie.

Ma Holden of Hannibal holdin' one of three pumpkinseeds caught by her daughter.

Curtiss Gale Wildlife Management Area: Fulton’s Primordial Woods

Trees so tall you can't see where the canopy begins.

About a mile south of Fulton, a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation sign hangs on the west shoulder of Cty. Rte. 57, its golden letters announcing the Curtiss Gale Wildlife Management Area.

You search in vain, left and right, up and down the road, for a parking site or access point (the road on its north end is a private driveway).The only way in is from the shoulder of the highway or from the WMA’s 1,000 or so feet of Oswego River waterfront.

And if you decide to hike in, don’t expect to find even the barest amenity like a trail.

No, this lack of human intervention isn’t a sign of our tough economic times and things to come; it’s the result of DEC honoring an agreement it made with the pair of gentlemen who gave this magnificent patch of woods to the state to insure its rare, primordial beauty is never blemished by human kindness and remains a refuge for wildlife.

You see, H. Salem Curtiss and Thomas K. Gale donated the area to the DEC with the stipulation that hunting and trapping are prohibited.

That’s one of the things that make the spot unusual: hunting is a management tool used on all the other WMAs in the state.

Seems the donors’ kind restriction was contagious, spawning a rare moment of cooperation among all concerned.

Normally when a pristine piece of property this close to a metropolitan area is acquired, selfish interests band together to develop it, usually destroying its natural makeup with bathrooms, fences, and groomed trails, making it look like a franchise of the state park system.

Instead, they left the place to nature’s devices; and wow, what a job she’s done!

The forest has never seen mechanized equipment. Its rolling complexion doesn’t have one rut. Instead, the ground is carpeted in a uniform patchwork of plants and forest litter.

And the floor is old; older than the old growth trees reaching so high you need binoculars to recognize the leaves.
I know…I got a stiff neck trying.

I had to identify several by their bark.  A black cherry boggled my mind; how it managed to grow so straight and tall is nothing short of miraculous. Tulip poplars, maples, oaks, hickories, beechnuts, you name it, tower to heights I never knew the species could reach. They’re so far up there, in fact, it’s surprising the Federal Aviation Administration doesn’t make them wear blinking lights. 

These behemoths aren’t the exception; the forest’s full of majestic old growth. Adam Perry, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation puts it in a nutshell: “There’s a lot of really old, big trees there. If you’re into big trees, it’s the best place in Oswego County to see a bunch in a small area.”

Covering only 45 acres, Curtiss Gale WMA is one of the smallest in the system. Straddled by the highway and river on the east and west, and posted  signs to the north and south, it’s virtually impossible to get lost--or even disoriented--in the place.

And that’s great for family groups and others who fear wandering off the beaten path. The moment you step in, the trees start to dwarf you but never so much you have to worry about losing your way out.

To learn more about WMAs, including their locations, go to www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/7768.html.

 One of countless giant tulip poplars.

No trails through Curtiss Gale WMA's magic forest.