December 23rd, 2019

Photo by Larry Vrooman

Hello everyone, the Sacandaga is froze over completely, as of Monday
morning the 23rd.

The bays have been frozen over for more then a week.

Murray bay in Broadalbin has 7″ of ice, in front of sport island pub has over 6” of ice, and the bay in Mayfield between Gordon’s marina and Wally’s beach has 5”.

I rode my sled across the bay to Wally’s yesterday, it is all solid clear black ice.

The furthest out report was by scout island by an ice fishermen was 3 1/2 ”. I would not recommend going out on the main part of the lake for another week or so, stick to the bays. There is plenty of water in all of them since the lake is just about full, it is at  June levels, so there is plenty of water to fish
everywhere.

There is one ice ridge forming in front of Lanzi’s about in the spot were it usually is.

Also because of the high water, when you do start riding be on the lookout for docks that floated away and froze in the ice away from shore. There is one out from 526 south shore rd. in Edinburgh that I know about, but i am sure there are more. Remember this when you decide to crack that throttle for the first time this season.

As far as fishing:

Northern’s are biting good as reported by John Reale, the walleyes are biting good too. Fishing is usually good on early ice, so I am sure the next couple weeks should be pretty good, even for the amateurs.

Tip of the week:

Make sure the roof of your shanty doesn’t leak.

Lake Report July 3. 2019

Hello everyone, here is your fourth of July lake report.

Since my last report the lake went up about one and a half feet, and then has been dropping steadily since last week. its been losing about 2 inches a day.

What all this means is that the lake level is almost where it was on my last lake report, actually about 8 inches lower but not enough for any major changes and nothing new to report. Most marinas and bars stillhave extension docks out and there is 10-12 feet of water through stump alley.

No problems there this weekend or probably the rest of July. the only problem still is not much beach or islands to go to. Northampton picnic area is still underwater and so is most of sand island, hey but at least its getting flushed.

The good side you can boat anywhere, so if your new to the lake now is the time to explore. one new addition is Placid Pines, which is across the rd. from Ponderosa pines in the town of Day now has a dock.  It is easy to dock to and marked with their name. They serve food also besides drinks, its nice to have another spot on the lake especially north of Batchlorville bridge.

Water Temperature:

is 75 degrees at the surface and 58 degrees at 30 feet.

Fishing:

bass are biting great,
walleyes are getting a little harder to find, but the real fishermen aren’t
having a problem.
northern’s are still biting but mostly small ones,
not to many perch either.
2 reports of rainbows being caught around the rock shoal to the northeast of sand island.

Tip of the Week:

make sure your mooring line is out of the way before you back up.

p.s. there is an s.p.c. chicken b.b.q. fundraiser at Wally’s Driftwood Park on Sunday July 14Th from 1-4…without the s.p.c.(Sacandaga Protection Committee)  we would not be able to use the lake the way we do so if you love the lake show your support!

Lake Report - June 18th - 2019

Hello everyone sorry for the long delay in lake reports.

Lake Level:

Water, water, water. As everyone knows its been raining since April.

Between that and all the snow melt, the lake was at record levels in mid-April, going over the top of the spillway a couple of feet. They let it down the best they could by the beginning of May but with the continued rain, the level found itself back to spillway elevation. So basically what that means is you’re going to find the water 3 feet higher than you’re used this time of year.

On a good note this makes it very good for boating. You can go just about anywhere on the lake and not have to pay much attention to the danger boueys.

All the marinas and restaurants have finally put their docks in. The i-go-inn got the rest of their docks in last week. Be aware at some of these places, like Lakeside, i-go-inn and Wallys, you may have some temporary extension docks or ramps to get you to shore because of high water. These temporary docks can be tricky to walk on so be careful. (But they’re a great test of sobriety.)

Unfortunately there’s not much island at Sand Island, the Trap Islands are under water except for a bit of brush, and the picnic area and some camp sites at North Hampton are under water. You can obviously make it through Stump Alley and Mosquito Bay with no problem with any size boat because there’s 9 feet of water. The other positive is you can go way up the bay beyond Lakeside, and also way up the Sacandaga river where it widens almost to the bride that crosses on Route 30. These are great spots to do a tie-up. Since there’s not many land spots so floatilla’s will be popular for the next few weeks.

Don’t forget band in the bay on June 29th at Driftwood, that will be a big floatilla! If it stops raining the lake should go down two feet by 4th of July.

Fishing:

Fishing Bass has been biting good. The season just opened Saturday so you can keep them now.
Northern Pike have been biting moderate, with some reports of 40-inch plus fish being caught. (I had one in the store at 45-inches.)

Walleyes and Perch have been kinda slow, and there have been no reports of Trout.

Water Temperature:

Water temperature Surface temperate is 64 degrees and 58 degrees at 20 feet.

Tip of the Week:

Make sure your bilge pump works.

Lake Report as of Friday March 1st, 2019

CONDITIONS

This lake report is a lot different. Why???
Because I did the whole thing in my pickup truck yesterday afternoon. I accessed the lake from Driftwood Park (aka Wally’s) on the marina side and then drove to the shanty near Scout Island and measured the ice there.

There’s 23” of solid, good ice. I measured the ice in one of Beaver Ross’ old fishing holes. (Judging by the quarter of ice I had to chip away, I missed him by about an hour.)

From there I went to Sport Island Pub and all the way back to Lakeside. Conditions are great for a pickup truck, and even better for snowmobiles and ATV’s.

I did not cross the heave at Sand Island or got to Captain Nauti’s or Ponderosa Pines. But going by reports and my knowledge, of the last two weeks on the lake, it is just as good on that side as it is on this side.

There are no new heaves to report. The lake is down about 6’ from its January high, so any variations in the ice that I found are caused by ice settling onto the land and island poking out.

There’s a perfect amount of snow for snowmobiles, but not enough to restrict any other form of transportation including vehicles. In my opinion, these are the best conditions we’ve had in 10 years!

FISHING

Northern’s are coming on strong, we may see another record breaker in Fuel-N-Food’s Weekend Long Contest. Walleye and Perch have been steady throughout the season. Walleye’s haven’t been huge but the Perch I’ve seen have been monsters. Finally, a few trout have been caught, with the majority being browns.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Download and use the SEND IT – HDR III app on your phone this weekend. You can download it on Android here and on your iPhone here.

Lake Report as of Friday February 15th, 2019, 3PM

Photo by Wendy Rue

The conditions on the Lake are absolutely perfect as of 3 PM today! There is about 4" of fresh snow on the lake. This means you can use a snowmobile AND there is not enough to stop a side x side or a 4 x4.

There is 18" - 21" of ice and NO SLUSH!
The only hazard at the moment is an ice ridge that runs from the Broadalbin Boat Club past Deer island to Sin Clair Point. It is about 5' in height in most areas. A few spots to get around it are to head towards Scout Island or a few spots in the  middle between Lanzi's and Sand Island. Other than that the Lake is flat and the shorelines are great.

***NOTE: Conditions change daily this time of year ALWAYS USE CAUTION

The water is up about 12' higher than normal for this time of year so you can fish pretty much anywhere!

Fishing Report:

Big Northerns are biting this week
Walleye are plentiful, but small
Perch are not hitting to well
just a couple of trout

Tip of the week.

Look out for shanties - they are everywhere this weekend!!!

Friday February 8th, 2019

Lake Report as of Friday February 8th, 2019

Photo by Larry Vrooman

I was out yesterday, there is 16 to 20 inches of ice so the ice is good but there is about 2 inches of water on top.

When it freezes today and tonight, it’s going to be glare ice, no lubrication for sleds if it doesn’t snow a little.

Also the water went up a little so it leveled out some of the ice heaves, but they will be back. They are still letting water out so once it starts dropping the heaves will be back.

In my opinion it’s going to be a good weekend for ice fishing, side×sides and 4-wheelers. Not so much for sleds unless we get an inch of snow or more for lube and cooling.

Stay away from any inlets or creeks and you will be fine.

Fishing has been slow with just barely legal walleye’s biting best. Still a few monster perch being caught, and the northerns have mostly been under 30 inches.

Tip of the week: Jack up your shanty.

January 26th, 2019

Lake Report as of Friday January 25th, 2019

As mentioned last week, the Lake Conditions are Changing by the Day, the weather has been wild and they are still letting water out at the rate of 2 inches per day. This report is as of Friday Night, January 25th.

PLEASE USE CAUTION AND BE AWARE NEW RIDGES ARE FORMING OUT THERE DAILY.

Photo by Larry Vrooman

The Lake has changed dramatically since the last report. We have gone from flat and smooth conditions to a lot of snow that you can ride on.
There is 12" - 16" of ice out there.
On Top of that is about 8" of slush and water.
On top of that is about an inch of ice as it begins to re-freeze.
So, Amazingly it is pretty good riding out there.

That being said, there are a lot of pressure ridges.

As of Friday Night:

• 3 Ridges between Lanzi's on the Lake and Wally's.
• 1 Ridge Going from Beacon Island toward Scout Island, it goes almost all the way to Broadalbin.
• 1 Ridge forming at the top of SinClair Point going towards Fishouse.

Please Beware that these are not the only ridges out there and new ridges are forming daily.

IT IS SAFER TO GO SLOW.
The Ice is Good, and you need to keep your wits about you to avoid pressure ridges.

Fishing:

Walleye are hitting good still
Northerns are coming in at about 30"
Perch are quite large
There is no report on Trout at this time

Tip of the Week:

Jack up your shanty!

January 13th, 2019

Lake Report as of Sunday 1-13-19 8:00 p.m.

Sorry for the long delay in lake reports but up until now the lake has been unpredictable.

The Sacandaga froze early this year (right around Thanksgiving) and it looked like it was going to be a blockbuster winter. Then the rain came and the lake went up 5 feet since it froze and 10 feet up since my lake report on labor day, crazy year.

This caused 6 inches of good ice in the middle but open water or very thin ice  around the edges.
Basically there was ice but you couldn't get to it. Which as you can imagine
caused a lot damage to docks.

Now that the cold weather is back that has all changed. The edges are froze with 7" of ice and there is 10" where it was already froze in all the spots where i checked.

By Sport Island Pub there is 12" and there was a pickup truck on the ice by Northampton campground. Its good clear black ice with just a little frozen snow on top.

There are 3 caution spots i found, one is from the point of Griffis road heading towards Scout Island back toward Lasky's marine. This is nothing new its thin or open there every year.
The second is close to Sinclair point on the northeast side its froze but thin, again nothing new same every year.


The third spot is new though. There is a spot on the northeast side of Beacon island aka: (Yacht Island) running towards Sand Island and Broadalbin that is open and it's the size of a couple football fields. This is in the area of the trap islands and, I believe, it's due to the high water. Luckily not much of the main traffic ever heads that way.

This morning though ice fisherman told me it finally froze last night.Use caution under the Batherleville bridge but ice is good all the way to Ponderosa pines. I never went further then there.

Captain Nautis is good, Sport Island, Wally's, Lakeside, and Lanzi's all good. In fact there isn't even a ridge yet in front of Lanzi's or any where else for that matter.

They are dropping the water now though 2" a day so conditions are going to change fast.

The water has only froze this high one other time in 1995 that i can remember so it's going to feel like a whole different lake to most people.

You can fish in bays and back waters that are usually dirt, and there are no rocks or islands sticking up where they normally are for snowmobiling. It's also perfect for getting your shanty out before it snows.  Its flat ice with just enough snow for lube but not enough to slow you down.

If you want to see how fast your sled is now is the time, just use your head and check a mile or two ahead, then turn around and open it up....if that doesn't get you all wound up......SELL YOUR SLED.

Fishing has been good.

Walleyes been biting best at first light and again between 4-5:30 in the afternoon, The big pike have slowed down, perch have been a few here and there, and no reports of trout.

Tip of the week:

bring a spare belt