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Side trips are his favorite: Making memories in the Adirondacks

Art Holden
·5 min read

CRANBERRY LAKE, N.Y. — For the past 24 autumns, my brothers and I have made it a point to get together for an annual fishing trip to upstate New York, where we sample some of the Adirondack Region’s best fishing locations. And since my brother Ed purchased a camp on Cranberry Lake 14 years ago, that’s always been our home base, fishing the 12,600 acre lake for most of the week, but also getting out to explore other bodies of water for at least one day.

We’ve taken our boats to the St. Lawrence River (probably my favorite fishing destination of all time), fished and checked out the million-dollar views and houses on Upper Saranac, chased walleye on Tupper Lake, ran into rocks on the fast-falling waters of Carry Falls Reservoir, waded the Grasse River, fished for brook trout on Massawepie Lake and even carried canoes a half mile through the woods to try for Lake Trout (never caught any) on Lake Lila, just to mention a few of our side excursions.

And through it all, it’s the memories I remember more than the fish. And, they weren’t always good memories, like the time when we returned to our vehicles after fishing Stark Falls Reservoir only to find notes on our trucks asking us to call a certain New York State Trooper because it was reported to him that we got a little too close to the dam.

Heavy fog adds to the serene morning as Ed, Dick, Don and Art Holden paddle on the Oswegatchie River in upstate New York.
Heavy fog adds to the serene morning as Ed, Dick, Don and Art Holden paddle on the Oswegatchie River in upstate New York.

They've come a long way

Yes, the fall fishing trips have become a tradition, and because two of the brothers live in Massachusetts, and two in Ohio, it’s the only time the four of us get together in one place. Twenty-five years ago, my brother Dick didn’t even own a fishing pole, Ed didn’t own a boat (he has four now) and Don was still using his 50-year-old Langley baitcaster. We’ve come a long way – literally and figuratively – and we owe it all to fishing and the Adirondacks.

Now I love fishing Cranberry Lake, but I really look forward to our side trips ever year, and this year we stayed close, choosing to fish a slow section of the Oswegatchie River (Indian name meaning “Black Water”) by canoe in the morning, then pack up and put the canoes on Tooley Pond for what was hoped to be some trophy largemouth bass fishing.

The beauty of the Oswegatchie River

Fishing wise, the river turned out to be a bust, but in terms of beauty, it was spectacular. We launched in the fog, and there’s just something magical about paddling into the haze of a heavy mist, not knowing what’s ahead. I caught a small bass on my second cast, but it was the only fish I hooked on the float.

The autumn sun soon burned off the fog, and we enjoyed the beauty of the river. A Belted Kingfisher chattered and flew ahead of us as we floated in the current, but after an hour with very few bites, we decided to paddle back to the put-in and head to Tooley Pond. On the trip back, we startled a pair of river otters playing on the bank. They dove into the water and kept surfacing to check us out, chirping each time they raised their heads out of the water as if to say, “get out of here, this is our river.”

Tooley Pond

In Ohio, Tooley Pond would be called Tooley Lake as it’s 46 acres, not large by any means, but on the other hand, it’s not a farm pond. Tooley Pond is strictly catch-and-release, and is perfect for kayaks, canoes and small boats (no gas engines allowed). It’s down a long gravel road and certainly can’t get much fishing pressure. It’s ringed in lily pads, but for some reason, the vegetation didn’t seem to be as heavy this year as in the past when we’ve driven by it on the way to view waterfalls.

For that reason, the four Holden Boys were set up to fish weedless in the lily pads, but no one was home. So, we switched up our approach and drifted in the middle of the pond and we each managed to catch some nice largemouth fishing deep. They weren’t the trophy 4-,5- or 6-pounders that the literature said was in Tooley Pond, but nice bass nonetheless, and the best thing about it was that we figured out where they were and what they would bite on.

Brother Dick probably got the best fish of the day, but it wasn’t a bass. Instead, he hooked a 13 ½-inch perch on a crankbait, worthy of Fish Ohio status had he caught it in the Buckeye State.

Outdoor correspondent Art Holden shows off the 18-inch smallmouth bass that hit a popper during the evening hours on Cranberry Lake in upstate New York.
Outdoor correspondent Art Holden shows off the 18-inch smallmouth bass that hit a popper during the evening hours on Cranberry Lake in upstate New York.

We packed up around 3 p.m. and headed back to Cranberry Lake for an early supper, and then went out for the evening bite. With the sun setting over a flat-calm lake, we threw top-water baits near shore hoping for some big blowups. And while I rarely fish this way, I landed my biggest bass of the trip when an 18-inch smallie came up for my popper and proceeded to put on a show.I was using light 6-pound line, so I didn’t horse him as he danced out of the water twice and wouldn’t give up at the boat. After a quick photo, the fish was released back into the dark, tannic Cranberry Lake waters, just as the 70 other fish I caught that week were.

We started the morning in the fog on the river, fished a pond in the afternoon, and the big lake as the sun was going down and the moon coming up – not a bad way to spend a day in the Adirondacks, and more memories made.

Outdoor correspondent Art Holden can be reached at letsplabal@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Fishing in the Adirondacks with brothers is all about the memories