JAY CAPERS He's only 4 years old, but Joshua Manning of Greece already knows a thing or two about fishing. Here, he drops a line in the Erie Canal, but he also practices casting at home.

By Gary Fallesen
Democrat and Chronicle

(July 1, 2001) -- Joshua Manning's cast dropped behind him on the bank of the Erie Canal. The 4-year-old from Greece bent down, picked up the end of the fishing line and threw it in the water where it belonged.

"I thought I'd bring the kids out here," Mark Manning, 33, was saying as he untangled one of his two children's lines at Henpeck Park in Greece. "I never did it when I was young."

Manning isn't a Bassmaster or a member of Trout Unlimited. Fishing isn't his life. It's just a way to relax with his son and 10-year-old daughter, Kali, on a nice summer day.

What better place to do that than along the Erie Canal?

William Stefanini, 76, of Gates, was out of the hot sun under a bridge not far from the youngsters, recalling how he started fishing in the canal.

It was 1938 and his older brother, Merle, took him out one day in Utica.

"They call it the Erie Canal now," Stefanini says. "They called it the Barge Canal then.

"We were catching suckers. It was a good fish to hold on to. That started it for me."

Stefanini was hooked on fishing. He still returns to canal waters, landing a rock bass or an occasional carp these days.

"Just about all the warm-water species are in there at different points," says Ron Schroder of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. "Mostly you'd find a lot of panfish -- sunfish to rock bass.

"There's some good spots around the lock overflows where there's a little bit of moving water for walleye. You do have bass. Where it connects with the (Genesee) river, there's a possibility of pike."

There have been plenty of fish stories over the years. Don Filozof, 49, of Rochester, says he even caught a lake trout. He knows that was a fluke since lakers prefer deeper, cooler water and wouldn't tend to run into the canal.

Trout streams do feed this 176-year-old manmade waterway, however, so brown trout could be found here.

In winter, when the canal flow from the Niagara River eastward is shut off, the fish find wide spots in the system that don't dry up.

"There are sections out through Wayne County that
are kept full," Schroder says. "Once they draw it (the canal) down, these become little fish bowls."

Fish also flee to the river as the canal is drained, returning when the water starts running again in the spring.

Filozof took some vacation time to go fishing with his two sons -- Brian, 18, and Joey, 14 -- and two neighbor boys -- Daniel and Stephen Stemmer, 10 and 13, respectively.

"Don, can I use plastic bait?" Daniel asks after a half-dozen casts with a worm on his hook.

"Sure, son, you can use whatever you'd like," Filozof tells him, opening his tackle box. "I'll get you fixed up."

Filozof's father started him fishing in the canal when he was a kid. Now it's his turn. It's not the catching that's important, it's the fishing.

"It's nice to get out," he says. "If you catch 'em, you catch 'em. If you don't, it still gives you time to enjoy."

"They grow up fast," he says about children.

Manning first took his children fishing last year. They used hot dogs to catch a few panfish. The bait of choice this time around, though, was bologna.

"All the hot dogs are frozen," Manning explains.

"Hot dogs, bologna -- I don't think it'll make much difference to the fish."

Joshua Manning has a fish on his line. It's a red plastic fish that he uses to practice his casting. He does it in the yard at his family's home, too.

Most of his casts are textbook.

"Dad," he shouts after a long cast into the canal, "that one went far."

He reels it in and repeats the trick.

"I did that one so far," Joshua says, proudly.

In the shade, Stefanini observes he hasn't been having much luck in the canal lately. "There's not too much going on," he says.

Just some people hooked on fishing, if not catching.

Canal fishing Fishing is permitted almost entirely throughout the Erie Canal. There is access to the Erie Canalway Trail where it intersects with many roads across Monroe, Orleans and Wayne counties. Parks with access to the canal include: Henpeck, Ridgeway Avenue, Greece. Genesee Valley, Elmwood Avenue, Rochester. Canal, Clover Street, Pittsford. Northfield Common, Schoen Place, Pittsford. Reminder: A New York state fishing license is required if you are 16 or older. For more information on fishing, contact the DEC at 226-2466 or click on: www.dec.state.ny.us