Potsdam Alumni Finds Meaning on the Water
With patterns of winter sunlight on a half-submerged sandbar, Joe Sicherman ’17 has woven a life from the waters he has always called home. An accomplished fishing guide whose services are in high demand, he works full time immersed in a connection with nature that others spend lifetimes trying to reach.
Living on the west end of Oneida Lake near Syracuse, Sicherman is close to some of the richest waterways in the East, including the Finger Lakes, Lake Ontario, and a creel full of streams and rivers. Key among the options is the Salmon River, whose headwaters course down from Tug Hill and whose steelhead runs have flavored many a fireside tale. A carefully nurtured water whose levels are regulated by a series of dams, the Salmon can be fished even during the spring melt—or when there are four feet of snow on the ground. It is here that Sicherman is his busiest, running the river from October through April with boatloads of both experienced anglers and novices, casting into shadows and across rapids for the strike that could become a defining experience.
When Sicherman was a youngster growing up near Syracuse, his grandfather had a pond stocked with trout. His father took him there to fish, gifting him a first indelible glimpse of a water world.
“I will always remember the vibrant colors of the rainbow trout glistening in the sun as we landed that first fish,” Sicherman recalled.
Looking north and to his future, Sicherman chose SUNY Potsdam for the strength of its environmental studies program, where he knew hands-on learning meant his boots would be on the trails and in the waterways.
He met professors and fellow students who shared his passion for the outdoors and helped connect him to the resource.
“I focused a lot of my studies on fisheries and how different environmental impacts can affect them."
Within hours of moving into living space on Potsdam’s Bay Street, Sicherman discovered an abundance of smallmouth bass in the Raquette River just outside his door. He and a group of friends launched kayaks and spent hours chasing bass and pike. A pivotal internship at the Carpenters Brook Fish Hatchery in Elbridge, N.Y., further connected him to practical knowledge of local fisheries and gave him experience helping guests learn how to become anglers.
After his graduation from SUNY Potsdam, Sicherman had a lucky break getting work as a first mate on Lake Ontario. Plunging into the busy world of charter fishing, he was home. He went on to gain his captain’s certification and set out to build his name and business.
Sicherman can’t imagine doing anything else. It's not that guiding is not work—a lot of details have to be wrangled for the experience to be successful: making sure the right gear is available, finding and catching fish, ensuring guest safety and comfort, and monitoring weather. When the sky darkens and the snow flies, Sicherman turns on the propane heaters in the boat to warm chilly hands. Coming off the water in 2023 to a pummeling of lake effect snow, he even had to use a strap to yard the drift boat across a snowed-in boat ramp. The job requires mobility, resourcefulness, versatility, and in a way, a relishing of the difficult and elusive.
“While there are so many beautiful weather days on the Salmon River where we get to enjoy the river and what it has to offer, we have equally as many days when the weather is certainly less than ideal,” he said. “The river, however, lined with a fresh dusting of snow overnight or even six inches of lake effect snow per hour, is still quite beautiful and magical.”
Reading the waters ahead, Sicherman sees a vibrant industry and important work connecting people to the outdoors and experiences they might not otherwise have. A deep love for the outdoors and being on the water keeps him positive even in the nastiest conditions and toughest days.
As he puts it, people are meant to do certain things in life, and Joe Sicherman is meant to teach people how to fish.
“The river is full of bald eagles, ducks, and various wildlife throughout the winter. It's nothing to see five-plus mature and immature bald eagles per day in the dead of winter,” he said. “With nobody around, a beautiful river, amazing fish and the mighty bald eagle patrolling the river, it’s pretty hard to not love being there.”
Article by Bret Yager. Photos courtesy of Joe Sicherman