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I'm not sure what to say about the preceding post other than this. I fished Charleston for 40 years and never.....yes never ever caught a laker while fishing for pike. I think if you were consistently catching lake trout while fishing for pike something is very wrong. But then again I never knew lakers were so easy.
I fished both Big Rideau and Charleston when it opened at the tail end of the season and I fished when it was open during the Feb mid 2 weeks. There was alot of tradition around it. Opening day rivaled the deer hunting opener on a sportsmans calender but they were correct in closing it and keeping it closed. There were alot of fish hogs about. I knew guys who took holidays and filled there freezers and yes I would say the number of people fishing would be in the hundreds on all lakes (Devil, Buck, Charleston, Big Rideau and the many smaller lakes north of Kingston). There was kind of a carnival atmosphere to it with the derbies and suppers in local legions. Lots of boozing back then too
I only fish Charleston a few times a year for lakers, usually after work. I work 10 minutes away. I don't know about during icefishing, but last spring several people I know caught a few lakers in May fishing shallow water casting crank baits for pike. First time they had caught lakers when fishing pike.
Its true Ganman, in the last 10 years the lakers and their habits in Charleston Lake seem to have changed?? Living in Athens all my life and fishing Charleston for 35 years myself, I can see a big change. Incidental catches of lakers while fishing for pike in 4-10 fow are very common. With the water temps. being 1-4 deg throughout the entire water column, this is not entirely unbelievable. I do believe the alewife population has suffered a bit, because you just don't see the shad boiling on the surface in the evenings like you used to....The smallmouth fishing has never been better on Charleston probably causing competition with the lakers for shad, and possibly causing lakers to roam more in search of food, especially in winter....also I know that lake trout are being caught during summer in areas not known to be "traditional laker water". I've witnessed stocking in the village of Charleston, where they just let the fingerlings go at the main dock?? New home (shallow water imprint??)....Anyhow, this is just my opinion and some thoughts, what do you guys think?...have a good one!
