Today I went to Harriman State Park in Upstate New York to go fishing for some Largemouth Bass. I have gone to this particular lake many times in the past and it has always been a strong producer of bass in the summer months. Lake Skannatati is one of the less frequented lakes by hikers and swimmers as it is not part of one of the larger beach lakes that are available inside of the park. Thus making it a great spot to come and fish as there is almost always plenty of parking and space to relax and cast out.
The first spot we chose to walk to and fish was along an unmarked trail to the left of the parking lot along the edge of the water line. We casted out a few times around the water line until we reached a large boulder in the water that extended out 15 or so feet then had a second smaller boulder in front of it.
I hooked my line up with a Texas rig using a green pumpkinseed yum dinger worm.
After a few casts out near the boulder, I decided to toss my worm into some of the nearby weeds and lilypads. After jigging it for a few minutes slowly through the piles of weeds, I eventually hooked up on a nice Largemouth Bass. It put up a good fight on my new fishing pole setup. My current bass / panfish setup is a St. Croix triumph 6′ light rod with a Shimano Sedona 1000 reel.
We continued to fish in the weeds and lilypads around the boulder and caught several more small Bass. We then decided to hike about a mile around the right side of the lake, this time taking the marked trail to the fishing access on the other side of the lake.
The right side of the lake features deeper water and thus requires a different technique from the Texas rig worm. Our initial setup for this side of the lake was bomber crankbaits. We fished this area for a while but did not catch much other than small crappies and one small Largemouth Bass. We tried multiple different baits and eventually got skunked as the temps reached 90+ degrees. We decided to call it a day.
In conclusion, Lake skannatati is a good Bass producing fishing spot. Be weary of the snakes though!
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