Fishing at Roper Pond, Essex County, New York

• Overview

  Roper Pond is an Essex County water, New York side. The water sits 1,716 feet up. The water measures roughly 8 acres, so nothing here is far from anything else. Warrensburg is the closest town at 25 miles. Then Ticonderoga, 30 miles, and North Elba, 30 miles. Within a short drive: 0.8 miles out stands Bullhead Pond, Twentyninth Pond at 1.2 miles, 1.3 miles out stands Calahan Pond, Lost Pond at 1.6 miles and 1.7 miles out stands Rankin Pond. The county edge is within a short distance of the bank.

• Where to Fish on Roper Pond

  Depth is unmeasured here, so let the shoreline guide you. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Public occurrence data for Essex County names brown trout, brook trout, white sucker and pumpkinseed. Species recorded across the county may be limited to a few waters. Take Roper Pond a stretch at a time.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The range across the year is 15°F to 65°F. Winter shuts the surface down for months. Count on hard cover from midwinter, and open water from mid April. Average temperatures cross freezing around mid April in spring and again near early December in autumn. Reckon on open water from spring through to late autumn, with May and June the strongest. Anyone fishing Roper Pond regularly works to that calendar.

• Tackle & Baits

  The rules here are undocumented as far as public sources go. Nothing is listed nearby for parking or launching a boat. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Barbless rules turn up on managed water more often than not. For a change of water, Bullhead Pond is 0.8 miles distant. For Roper Pond in particular, ask before you travel.