Local Guide: Early Ice Fishing on Coles Creek Bay

Early Ice Fishing: Coles Creek Bay

Coles Creek Bay is another area where anglers can generally find some safe ice earlier than a lot of other places in St. Lawrence County. Coles Creek Bay and State Park are located off of Rt. 37 between Waddington and Louisville. Coles Creek is a very diverse fishery. On any given day a fisherman or woman should expect to catch Northern Pike, Yellow Perch, Blue Gills, an occasional Crappie and Walleye. The Northern Pike, Yellow Perch, and Walleye are the main attractions at Coles Creek. All three species can be caught using a variety of gear and tactics.

The Yellow perch fishing in Coles Creek Bay can be good to great on any given day. Generally the Perch will be found on flats and gradual drop offs. Small jigs tipped with a small fathead minnow, a minnow head or spikes (maggots) are top producers. Another productive method that can eliminate smaller perch is to use Tip Downs and Tip Ups rigged with a 2-3” shiner minnow. The larger size minnow makes it harder for small Perch to ingest so your chances for the larger 10”-13+” perch; Coles Creek is known for goes up. It's not uncommon for a couple fishermen/women to fill a 5 gallon bucket over the course of a few hours but be mindful, unlike Jefferson County, our neighbor to the south which has no limit on Yellow Perch, Coles Creek as well as the rest of the St. Lawrence County water bodies have a daily limit of 50 Yellow Perch per person. So get out after the Perch and have yourselves a great fish fry at the end of the day! 

The Northern Pike fishing on Coles Creek Bay can be exceptional at times. You have a chance at some really large Pike but generally speaking most of the fish are going to be between 25”-30” long and weigh between 4 and 6 lbs. What Coles lacks for average size of Pike it makes up for in sheer number of Pike that an angler should expect to catch. If you’re fishing with tip ups expect to be chasing flags all day long and to bring a lot of bait. I usually like to use sucker minnows that are between 4”-6” long but in recent years they have been becoming harder to find consistently at local bait shops. However, 4”-5” Golden Shiners will do just fine. When you’re at a bait shop just ask for Pike bait and you’ll be all set. These guys are “toothy critters” so most anglers will generally use steel leaders to attach their hooks to their tip up line. I like to use 20lb-30lb fluorocarbon leader line instead of the steel leaders because the fluorocarbon line basically disappears in the water and is also highly abrasion resistant. The steel leaders can stick out like a sore thumb under the ice but generally speaking the Pike won't care if you’ve got a big, juicy minnow swimming around just waiting to be eaten. The Pike will generally be found in the same areas as the Perch so you can catch Perch jigging one minute and be battling a nice Northern Pike on a tip up the next!