River Fishing

The rivers included here are defined as wider than you can cast across, and deeper than you can wade in many places. Fishing from boats and canoes is a possibility.

The Chemung River starts in Corning, runs through Big Flats, Elmira, and Waverly, and ends at Athens PA, where it joins the Susquehanna River. Principal gamefish are smallmouth bass and walleye, with enough perch, rock bass, channel cats, bullheads, pike, suckers, and musky to make things interesting. Carp are also plentiful and offer excellent sport on light and medium weight tackle. Prime seasons for fishing the Chemung are summer and fall, with good walleye and musky action well into December. 90% of the river is wadeable in summer, and there are several access points where canoes and small boats can be put in.

The Chemung is fed by two rivers, the Tioga and the Cohocton. The Tioga River begins at a dam in Tioga PA and flows north to Corning. It holds the same species as the Chemung, and is noted for walleye, especially in springtime when they move up to the outflow of the dam to spawn and are readily accessed from the public parking area there. The first mile or two below the dam also hosts a decent tailwater fishery for trout, according to officials who manage the impoundment. The Tioga River below Addison is in Pennsylvania, so PA state regs apply, and a PA license is required. The Cohocton River is really more properly called stream, so it's discussed below.

The Susquehanna River is about 15 miles east of Elmira on Route 17, and has all the same species as the Chemung. It runs deeper, wider, and longer, and a DEC survey found three times as many smallmouth bass per mile here than in the Chemung. There are public boat launches in Owego and Nichols, NY, and Sayre, PA.

The definition of stream used here is a river small enough to cast all the way across, and wade across virtually everywhere except for a few localized holes. Both warm and cold-water species are present in local streams.

The Cohocton River fits this definition of stream perfectly. It starts near Wayland, NY, flows southeast along Route 390 through the hamlets of Cohocton, Naples, and Avoca, criss-crosses Route 17 through Bath, then to Painted Post where it joins the Tioga to form the Chemung. From Bath upstream, the Cohocton is managed by the state for brown trout fishing, and has several public access parking areas and stretches where public fishing rights have been acquired. Get on Route 415 in Bath, drive north/west, to find them. Fly fishing is a favored method for taking trout from the Cohocton from April through June. Special regulations apply in many areas.

Newtown Creek, Sing Sing Creek, and Cayuta Creek all offer fishing for stocked trout from April through June. Specifically, Newtown Creek below the Route 17 bridge in Horseheads; Sing Sing below Route 17 in Big Flats; Cayuta Creek between Alpine and Van Etten. From Van Etten south to Waverly, Cayuta Creek (called Shepard's Creek closer to Waverly) offers fun fishing for smallmouth, rock bass, and pickerel. Gold Rapalas, crayfish, dobson, and tonies are traditional favorites there. Seeley Creek offers similar water warm species where it flows through Southside Elmira and Pine City.

Lakes in our area offer a superb combination of cold water and warm water fisheries. Cold water species include rainbow, brown, and lake trout, and landlocked salmon. These are sought from boats with downriggers in summer, in the tributaries in fall and spring, and near shore in winter. Principal lakes for these species are Keuka, Seneca, and Cayuga Lakes. All are within 45 minutes of the Elmira-Corning area.

Warm water fish present in local lakes include smallmouth and largemouth bass, pike, perch, rock bass, sunfish, and carp. This is primarily a summer and fall fishery. Lamoka, Waneta, Spencer, and Cayuta Lake all have good warm-water fisheries, as do Keuka, Seneca, and Cayuga Lakes.

Pond Fishing