Fishing In Deferiet, NY

Today actually started out quite nice.  After stopping at the Steward's in Great Bend for a cup of coffee, I turned onto Highway 3 and traveled north until I got to the tiny village of Deferiet, New York.  Turning left on Riverside Drive, I proceed past the small Catholic Church until I got to the Public Access boat launch which sits right behind the Water Treatment Plant.

It was a little bit cold today (high of 33) and I decided that I would just fish off of the river bank instead of taking to the water.  Which was a wise decision since the river was ice cold.  

Red Dot - Where I was at

My whole goal was to try and snag a few yellow perch.  Perch are open all year (bag limit in NY is 50) and was one of the first fish I caught up here in NY.  Perch start to spawn in the April-May time frame, and since it was just a short winter, I figured there might be some out there.  It turned out I was wrong.
Now the town of Deferiet can be described as an artificial island.  South of the town there sits a hydroelectric station and an overflow canal which diverts part of the river.  The red dot on the picture is where the canal runs back into the river.  My thinking was that where these two meet would be a great place to try a river rig with a floating jig setup.  Alittle later on in the year, this would have worked wonders, but I think it was still too early.  
One Last Note

Neptune was not willing to give up his bounty this day. (Is Neptune in charge of Fresh water rivers as well? Seems like a job he'd give his no-good brother-in-law or something.)  However it wasn't a complete loss.  When I stopped at the Steward's Gas Station to pick up lunch/dinner after my little expedition, turns out they had Bush Light on sale for $3.99 a sixer!

If you ever decide to fish the Black River, make sure to use a snag free set up.  This river is lousy with large rocks and sunken logs.  It wasn't too bad this year since all the heavy river flow cleared out most of the crap, but last year was terrible! I must have lost 15 bucks worth of tackle in there.