Dear Afishinado,
I remember when I lived in the Binghamton area. I used to love fishing for smallies after two hard frosts. It was like a light switch was thrown, and every big fish in the Susquehanna up there would fight for your fly.
There was a park along the river in the Johnson City NY that was immediately below the cooling water outlet for NYSEG's Goudey Station power plant. Many work mornings were started flipping a few casts from the riverbank with large poppers or size 2/0 Clouser minnows.
I'd catch one or two dandies and toss the rod in the car and go call on customers. I'd spend the rest of the day thinking about how many I could have caught and I'd go back the next morning.
I'd repeat the process until I had to return to jigging for walleyes every Fall.
Man do I miss those times!
Regards,
Tim Murphy 🙂