Schroon Lake

Schroon Lake stretches roughly nine miles along the Route 9 and Interstate 87 corridor in the eastern Adirondacks, its 4,107 acres split between Warren and Essex counties. The lake is really a broad, drowned section of the Schroon River valley: the river enters at the north end by the village of Schroon Lake and exits at the south toward the Hudson, and that riverine character shapes the fishery. A long, narrow basin reaching 152 feet deep holds coldwater habitat for landlocked Atlantic salmon and lake trout, while miles of boulder-strewn shoreline and rocky shoals grow some of the better smallmouth bass fishing in DEC Region 5.

The engine of the coldwater fishery is rainbow smelt. Schroon's salmon program is substantial — DEC stocked nearly 35,000 landlocked salmon here in a recent year, a mix of fry and fall fingerlings — and those fish grow up chasing smelt through the open basin. Lake trout share the deep water; the laker population is best thought of as a mixed wild and periodically supplemented fishery rather than an annually stocked one, and the fish that come up at ice-out and through the ice can be genuinely large.

For the fly angler, the calendar starts the day the ice leaves, usually mid to late April. Spawning smelt push toward the Schroon River inlet and the gravelly north-end shallows, and the salmon follow them into water a cast can cover. Full-sinking lines and tandem smelt streamers — a Grey Ghost trailing a bugger is a local standard — worked along the drop-offs and off the inlet mouth produce the best salmon of the year, with the occasional lake trout mixed in. The window lasts into late May before the fish slide down to the thermocline.

June belongs to the smallmouth. Schroon's boulder shoals and rocky points hold bass shallow through early summer, and they eat poppers, sliders, and Clouser-style baitfish patterns with the aggression that makes Adirondack smallmouth fishing so addictive. Through midsummer the salmonids are a troller's game, but mornings still offer chironomid fishing in the bays and dragonfly and damselfly activity along the weedy margins.

Fall brings the salmon back. As surface temperatures fall through the 50s in late September and October, pre-spawn salmon reappear near the surface and stage toward the river mouth, and streamer fishing off the north end can rival ice-out. With three hard-surface launches, a village beachfront, and wadeable shoreline near the inlet, Schroon is one of the most accessible big coldwater lakes in the Adirondacks — a legitimate destination rather than a consolation stop off the Northway.

Schroon is a long, narrow, natural lake oriented north-south, with a maximum depth of 152 feet, a mean depth of 56 feet, and a surface elevation of 807 feet. The DEC contour map shows the classic drowned-valley profile: a deep central trench flanked by shoreline shelves that drop away quickly, with the broadest shallow flats at the north end where the Schroon River enters near Eagle Point and the village. Those north-end shallows and the inlet delta are the smelt-spawning grounds that concentrate salmon at ice-out.

A summer thermocline sets up over the deep basin, stacking salmon and lake trout below practical fly range from roughly late June through early September. Rocky, bouldery structure dominates much of the shoreline — prime smallmouth habitat — while softer bays and weedy margins hold the lake's dragonflies, damselflies, and chironomid beds. Rainbow smelt are the dominant forage and drive the behavior of every coldwater predator in the lake; northern pike also cruise the weedy sections, so a wire-shy leader occasionally pays the price.

Ice fishing is permitted on Schroon Lake, and the winter fishery targets lake trout and salmon over the deep basin along with perch and pike in the shallower bays. Jigged smelt imitations account for most of the lakers. The lake's size and springs around the river inlet make ice conditions variable, especially at the north end — verify safe ice locally and check current DEC Region 5 season dates before heading out.