Great Area

[nwf477]

Hello I live in Richmond Va but I spend my vacation up here, well close. My grandfather built a cottage on Crystal Lake near Redwood in the late 50's. I spent every summer there growing up. Now I am 54 and there is nowhere else I would rather go then this area. I wish Crystal Lake had a forum like this one because even though I am away I still feel connected. Having never fished on Black Lake and only going by the luck I had this summer I am sure everyone did well no matter where. Anybody that has complained about this area just does not get it or their version of a beautiful spot must be totally different then mine. Just wanted to say thanks for the forum it helps make the time go by till next summer.

[bigmouth]

I helped put in a fiber optic line through Crystal Lake last year...it's a nice place!!

[hawkeye]

What happened to the sign for Crystal Lake? Did it become private now?

[Fishpro]

I also had noticed the sign missing on my way to Black lake. Rumor has it that the sign was taken down due to outsiders going to the lake for swimming. Supposibly there are no life guards for supervision there - so it became a saftey issue for the owners of the land. My daughter knows some people who have leases on Crystal and intends on checking it out. Maybe later I will be able to elaborate a little more of the overall situation. Catch & Release!

[nwf477]

The brothers that own the trailer, beach area had an inspection couple of years ago. I was told that it did not go well and since they had no life guard no more public swimming. I was also told by DEC that Crystal Lake is private, no public boat launch. I was concerned about the spread of the milfoil weed. In order to swim or launch a boat you have to own a cottage or lease trailer space from the Folsom's. Of course I think the rules get bent depending on who it is. I love the lake it may not be the biggest or have trout or salmon or islands on it but its perfect for me. As usual the big fish get away and or the stories get better.

[Fishpro]

It is sad when people can actually own a lake by owning the land that surrounds it. All lakes should have a public access or launch area. These are state owned and should be available to all. One might say though that there are those people who do nothing but ruin our outdoors. They leave trash, don't abide by fish and game laws etc. As for safety and other restrictions they should be monitored and in force. The general public should have the opportunity to be able to enjoy the outdoors where ever it may be. Our taxes and support money from Sport & Fishing licenses provide the money that make things possible. Catch & Release!

[ShaneO19]

Its even more sad/corrupt that the DEC stocked Crystal Lake with 370,000 walleye in 2013. Meanwhile Black Lake was stocked with only 180,000. If a lake is going to be be stocked by the DEC then it should have some kind of public access.

[nwf477]

I e-mailed DEC concerning the weed problem at Crystal Lake only because of the NYS Conservationist magazine. It is always warning people to clean their boats to prevent the spread of the invasive weeds. My response was since its a private lake they will not do anything. I asked then how did you manage to stock 370k walleyes every year? Its amazing to me how agencies preach about conservation, the quality of water yet because a lake is private they ignore it. I was also told a study was done several yrs. ago and every thing was ok, however the the study did not include Crystal pretty much all the other lakes. They have boat racing every year, I think its fun but the lake is small and with different fuels they use it cannot be good. DEC says it does not affect the water my reply was my hobby are aquariums so its ok to pour gas and oil in my tanks? I pretty much gave up at that point.DEC is a joke how can they stock a private lake ( with no public access ) and not monitor a lake for problems.
Sorry for the rambling I love the area I just want it to stay nice.

[Fishpro]

Well Said!!! May Crystal Lake become a model as for maintaining its quality and wildness. Like most things MONEY is the key. Maybe if enough complaints are made things could change for the good. Catch & Release!

[nwf477]

I agree money can do many things, ( I have squat ) and getting others to complain is pointless. The lake is not very big not even close to Black, Butterfield, etc. I know people love their boats but why do you need boats with motors from 55-175hp.? I have a plain jane 12'boat with a merc.6hp. I can get from our cottage to the end of the lake and back 20min. tops. The owners of the beach do not care what you have as long as they get paid, most of the cottagers pay 60.00 per yr.( for road maint. and use of the beach whether to swim or launch a boat ) and there is approx. 20 and that does not include the trailers. In my opinion there seems to be a lot of money spent and not going towards the road. I feel that given time things are going to get worse.Now the fishing is as good or better than it was back in the late 60's and 70's. Granted there may not be as many big pike but the bass fishing has been super, I caught close to 30 when I was there in July. for 2 weeks. I will let the smaller ones go but I love eating fresh fish. Okay I am done so how are things at your lake?

[Fishpro]

Although very beautiful and somewhat still wild, Black lake also has its problems. Mostly Zebra mussles, excessive weed growth, algie blooms,cormorants etc. To make matters worse we have the age old problem with violaters taking over the limit and undersized fish. Through the years I have observed various species becoming over fished and smaller in size. Pike , Bass and Crappie are a few. In the 80s - 90s the perch population were mostly stunted and were wormy and were not a good choice for consumption. Only in the last couple of years have the Perch begin to grow larger and worm free. Don't really know why but it is a good thing. Black Lake in the 50s and 60s was mostly a Walleye lake. The original bridge was taken out and a causeway was put up in its place. This move didn't take into consideration of the fish coming and going into the lake. As the Walleye, Northerns and Muskies left to spawn many of them weren't able to traverse back into the lake. Fortunity this was corrected years later by re-constructing passageways through the causeway. The lake then became known more as a Bass lake as they exploded and replaced the Walleye. The DEC, for many years now, have been transplanting Walleye fly to revitalize the Walleye population in the lake. So you can see our lake has its problems like Crystal only more being larger in size. One can only hope for the future that the DEC and all people who use the lake to practice good conservation and respecting nature. Time will tell. Catch & Release!

[craiglemans]

I agree it's a great area, especially if you have the great fortune to spend your time up there with a child who loves to fish

One weekend while at my place on butterfield, I was in the local gas station grabbing a cup of coffee and worms. I had asked about the sign being down and if they were still having the boat races. The woman at the registered said "there's the owner, ask him". So I had a brief chat with the guy who owns the area (apparently it's been in his family for a long time).

Keep in mind, I don't know this guy or anything about him or his intentions, but what he told me is that the NYS was getting crazy about the regulations particularly as they applied to the swimming area. He told a story about how if somebody was walking on the beach and say ankle deep in the water that he would need a life guard. Apparently he had been fined by NYS for that and many other items. My understanding is that his way around this was to take the sign down, remove public access and "lease" the parcels. I guess that area has always been primarily seasonal campers. He also mentioned that the state was also going to shut the boat race down and even with his work around, the fate of the area seemed iffy at best. Again, I don't know the guy, but he didn't seem to want to limit public access, he was basically forced into it by the state.

I was up there the weekend of boat race and the weather was horrible. I heard a couple boats running but only for a couple minutes. it's too bad as we have always enjoyed the boat races.

With all that said, it seems to me that this is a case of our taxpayer dollars hard at work, protecting us, from ourselves..........

On a side note, that's a tiny lake (1 mile x .16 mile). For it to receive that quantity of stocking doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[Fishpro]

Your post was interesting to read. Sounds like another over reaction again. They might be looking toward a launch area sometime in the future. Then again who knows. Trying to understand their thinking boggles the mind sometimes. Catch & Release!

[craiglemans]

like everything, the true is probably somewhere in the middle, but I think anybody who has dealt with NYS can agree, logic does not always govern.

If anybody here is ever in the area in the middle of September I'd highly recommend checking out the boat races (if they don't get shut down). It's a grass roots/family event. it's pretty amazing to see hydroplanes powered by 9.9 hp motors doing 50 mph around the lake. I think the top classes do 80-90 mph. I believe the race proceeds go to the local volunteer fire dept.

[craiglemans]

Fishpro,

you mention worms in the perch in Black lake. This summer we caught perch in Butterfield that had what looked like seeds in the meat (think like a tomato seed). The "seeds" were white and in both the meat and around the gill area (I didn't notice until I started to fillet it. Any idea what these are?? I have looked on the web and haven't found anything.