Until recently, Upper Chateaugay Lake was known primarily for its lake trout. It remains a very good place to catch lakers, especially through the ice. It holds a decent number of smallmouth bass and more than a few landlocked salmon and rainbow trout, but in the last 10 years, northern pike have carved out a large predatory niche for themselves and some genuine lunkers now prowl the 70-foot deep lake.

Leo Demong, a DEC Region 5 biologist who oversees management of Upper Chateaugay Lake, said pike apparently showed up in the lake in the mid-1990s. The species was not stocked by the DEC or with the state agency’s approval, and it certainly wouldn’t be the first time that some anonymous angler introduced pike to a place that was previously dominated by trout or bass!

However they got there, pike are now thriving in the lake. Region 5 biologist Rich Preall said that his office in Ray Brook has heard reports of local anglers boating pike up to 20 pounds in Upper Chateaugay.

A map of the lake can be downloaded from the DEC’s Web site, at www.dec.state.ny.us.

For travel information, contact the Franklin County tourism office at (518) 483-6788.

OSEETAH LAKE
While you may have to go a bit out of your way to reach Upper Chateaugay Lake, pike-filled Oseetah Lake couldn’t be much easier to find and explore. It’s a short boat ride away from downtown Saranac Lake Village, and you can be into fish within minutes after embarking from the Lake Flower boat launch, which is on Route 86.

State biologist Preall happens to live in Saranac Lake, and he knows Oseetah intimately.

“It has northerns and a lot of them,” he said.

Most of the pike in Oseetah aren’t whoppers -- 24 inches is about average, and a 30-incher would be considered a lunker. But daily catches of 20 or even 40 northerns aren’t unusual there, according to Preall. He racks up plenty of pike by fan-casting with buzzbaits in white or chartreuse, cranking the noisy lures over and just under the surface at a moderate speed.

To get to Oseetah Lake, a traveling angler need only launch his boat at the state-owned launch already mentioned, head straight across Lake Flower, bear left and keep going across the small connecting channel. Once you’ve hit Oseetah, you’ll see a couple of small islands to your right. Preall said the closer of the two is a particularly good spot for pike.

Another hot location is the next bay to the south, where a fairly sizeable island is ringed with pike-friendly weedbeds.

Along with an astonishing number of northerns, Oseetah Lake harbors numerous 1- to 3-pound largemouth bass and schools of mostly small yellow perch.

Don’t plan on racing around from one spot to another in this body of water. Oseetah is only three feet deep on average. Formed by the impounding of the Saranac River, the lake has few spots over eight feet deep, and all those locations lie in the flooded river channel. Buoys mark the old river bed, and if you veer left or right from that route with any speed, you’re bound to bang your propeller on a sunken stump or rotting log.

The folks at the Franklin County tourism office listed above would be happy to help Oseetah fishermen find a spot to rest after a long day of reeling in those toothy northerns.