Learn more about our featured fishing destinations below.
Adirondacks
The Adirondacks is a huge mountain range that is the largest protected area in the contiguous United States. You have more than 2,000 miles of hiking trails, over 3,000 lakes and ponds as well as 1,200 miles of rivers available for exploring. Because this area is so large with so many different types of waters to fish, anglers can target a variety of different fish such as largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, walleye, trout, landlocked salmon and more.
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains are located in southeastern part of New York state. This area is known for the Catskill Forest Preserve, which is home to lots of wildlife, ski resorts, miles of hiking trails and some excellent fishing. This area is home to plenty of lakes, rivers, streams and ponds that provide good fishing for a variety of fish species such as largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, pickerel, panfish, brown trout, rainbow trout and brook trout.
Chatauqua Lake
Chautauqua Lake is a popular lake for recreation such as boating, sailing, fishing and more. It is a narrow lake that runs 17 miles long. You have several marinas and restaurants in the area. This lake gets quite a bit of boat traffic during the summer.
Chautauqua Lake is known as a quality muskie lake with good numbers of them and some big fish up to and above 50 inches long. If you’re looking to just catch some fish though, it will be much easier to put some largemouth bass in the boat as they are abundant throughout the lake around the weeds and docks. Walleye are here too in good enough numbers to target and many anglers pursue them throughout the fishing season. They are easier to catch for most anglers in the spring and fall, but you can target them down deep in the summer too.
Finger Lakes
The Finger Lakes are a group of linear-shaped lakes in the west-central part of Upstate New York. With 11 lakes covering 14 different counties, this region is a major tourist destination. People come here for many different reasons. Fishing and boating are very popular on the lakes, but people also come to the area for the events and festivals, to visit the wineries and to enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain is a huge lake located mostly within the borders of Vermont and New York, but a portion of the lake is also located across the border into Canada. It is a natural, freshwater lake and it is very popular for fishing and boating. Lake Champlain is 100 miles long and 12 miles across at its widest point. The maximum depth is about 400 feet.
The cool waters provide excellent fishing for a variety of species including salmon, lake trout, steelhead, brown trout, perch, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, walleye and northern pike. This is one of the best multi-species lakes with big fish potential in the country.
Long Island, New York
Niagara Falls Region
The Niagara Region is a popular area due to the Niagara Falls. Visitors view the falls from the New York and Ontario side and it is a pretty cool tourism area. You will find plenty to do here from sightseeing, shops, dining and for the anglers, this is an amazing area to do some fishing.
Roscoe, NY
Roscoe, New York is an awesome fishing destination. Anglers have access to a variety of excellent trout rivers and some reservoirs are in the area as well. Trout are king in this area, so plan on doing a lot of trout fishing while visiting Roscoe, New York. Brown trout and rainbow trout are the primary species of fish here, but walleye, salmon and steelhead are here too.
Steelhead Alley
Steelhead Alley refers to the river tributaries of Lake Erie that are found along Lake Erie’s southern shores. You can access these tributaries in the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. In the spring, these states stock these tributaries with one year old steelhead and these fish come back into these tributaries when they reach spawning age. Take a look at the map below to see the tributaries that are home to some excellent steelhead fishing.
Susquehanna River Valley
The Susquehanna Valley is a region of low-lying land that borders the Susquehanna River in the states of Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland. The Susquehanna River is a very popular river for outdoor recreation and the fishing can be awesome. The river is famous for its amazing smallmouth bass fishing, but there are other species to target as well. Anglers also catch muskie, northern pike, walleye, perch, crappie, catfish, sunfish, pickerel, American shad and more.
Thousand Islands
The Thousand Islands are a group of over 1,700 islands that straddle the United States – Canada border in the St. Lawrence River. The Canadian islands are in the province of Ontario and the islands in the United States are located in the state of New York. This area is a popular vacation destination for fishing, boating and camping.
This area is home to some fantastic fishing for a variety of fish including game fish such as northern pike, muskie, smallmouth bass and largemouth bass. Smallmouth bass do better here than largemouth bass, but there are plenty of places where you can target largemouths and they are under fished here by most anglers. This is big fish country too. If you put in the time, you may find some absolute giants. Big pike, muskie and smallmouth bass are caught here every year.
Upper Delaware River
The Upper Delaware River is one of the best fishing rivers in the northeastern United States. This is a large region to fish that gives anglers a chance to fish for warm water species such as smallmouth bass, walleye, striped bass and also cold water species such as rainbow trout and brown trout.
