Slow start, but by mid-AM fishing was in peak form!   Guided Boris, Mitchell and Nathan for the full day.  Boris and Mitchell have fished with me twice - once for pike and once for lakers.  Today was laker-time.   We stayed N. of Taughannock all day long.  Conditions were somewhat windy to start and Nate had the hot land landing a couple nice lakers.  Thing were looking pretty darn slow around 6 to 9 am, but as the winds switched and cloud cover moved in, the bite really picked up.  The guys did great mostly using smelt colored Shakers.   Around 13 to 14 nice fish were landed including a 28" wild one which we released.   Many fish kept were loaded with alewives and one female was pretty ripe.  Bait numbers were pretty insane, with some tremendous schools marked.   

On their best days, Keuka and Canandaigua Lakes have about 5% of the bait we find on Cayuga!    And that's a stretch.   Year in and year out Cayuga is THE top Finger Lake and probably the top (non-Great Lake) salmonid producer in NY State - and maybe the entire northeast.   The fall Brown trout fishing and the winter/spring landlocked salmon fishery will bear this out - mark my words!  Lampreys are under control.  Rainbows are coming back.   I give a lot of credit to Jeff Robins and DEC Region 7 fisheries for doing such a terrific job managing this lake!   Seneca Lake is tremendous for lakers and landlocked salmon, but lampreys are always a threat and Cayuga is much more consistent on big browns.    Either way - we have a lot of terrific fishing here.   And unlike the Great Lakes, you don't have to be overly concerned about contaminent levels here!    There are no specific advisories on Cayuga or Seneca Lakes!

Guided the Hermans today for close to a full day.  We started late - around 8:30 am, waiting out some rain and trying to avoid nighttime winds.    We picked up one fish near the State Park and then headed all the way to Hammondsport.   I don't typically do very well around the N. end of the Branchport Arm this time of year, though there are certainly fish around.   Numbers will change drastically in October as spawning nears and baitfish move in!    But this time of year, the Bluff and south end of the lake are usually better bets.   Fishing wasn't great, but wasn't terrible in Hport.   Eleonore nabbed 3 nice lakers - all around 22" to 23" down there.  John, after a great showing last week, had a tougher day - he nailed one good fish.   We marked some bait, but not a lot.  Typical Keuka Lake.    Friend Mike Canavan reported great AM fishing on Cayuga Lake, which fishes nicely on a westerly.   On Keuka winds funnel a lot more, which can be a curse on some days and a blessing on others.   Today was more of a curse!  ;-)   Fish ranged from around 75' on down, but some were suspended up higher.   

My guide schedule is starting to slow down a bit, so I'm excited to get out and check on some things I haven't been able to do in a while - the list includes Owasco Lake,  Otisco Lake, Waneta Lake and Seneca out of Watkins.   Canandaigua and Lake Ontario not to mention Keuka for smallmouths would be nice too.   Maybe even Cross Lake or Oneida...  Decisions decisions....It ain't easy being a fishing fanatic in the Finger Lakes region - or anywhere else in NY for that matter.   Stripers/Bluefishing in Massachusetts, perhaps the Thousand Islands or Lake Champlain for bass/pike would be fun too.    Better quit while I'm ahead!     

Had a fun 1/2 day starting around 6:30 am with Andy and Julie.  Neither one had fished in likely decades (and they hadn't fished much back then either,)  so I was happy to see both of them get their casting down and get into some very good smallmouth bass action.  Tube jigs did the trick on fish averaging 13" to 15".   They probably landed 14 to 15 legal fish.   A pumpkinseed and a couple rockbass were in the mix.   

After dropping them off I fished another 4 hours or so on my own working different areas with different techniques.  It felt pretty fun to actually go fishing!  It'd been a while....   I caught a very nice fish (17 1/2" dark and chunky) on some Berkely Gulp fished on a jig head.   Fish also attacked white superflukes.   After my shallow to midrange bite slowed I went deeper - doing some dropshotting like my friend Craig Nels likes to do.   I worked some flats along dropoffs concentrating on 25' to 40' of water.   The rockbass were hitting great - I also caught some perch and a handful of nice smallmouths.   Fishing remains very good on this lake and will only get better.  Parking wasn't a problem today and shouldn't be one after the holiday weekend!  

AM:  Guided Dave and son David for 3/4s of a day.   Action was very tough during the first two hours of the day, but I encouraged young David to hang in there.   By around 9 am the bite got hot 'n heavy for an hour, with the guys landing 6 or 7 nice lakers (to over 28") and a chunky brown.    Action slowed, but picked up for a short while with two more nice lakers coming to the net.   David caught the two biggest fish of the day and was quite proud of himself.    Semi-tough fishing but we were fortunate to be at the right place at the right time.

PM:  I picked up the Hermans at 2:30 pm and we headed out for some laker/brown action.   We marked a boatload of lakers but the bite was tough with fish chasing half heartedly and hitting lightly.   Tough bite, but a ride N. of Taughannock proved fruitful with John landing a nice 22" landlocked salmon!   Two nice lakers followed and then we called it a day.  Tough bite, but lots of fish around.    Depths and lure selection remain the same as in recent reports.   Lakers are fighting very well with surface temps at 73 degrees!

Guided Ted and his 10 year old daughter Jordan for a 1/2 day starting around 6:15 am.   Fishing proved tough in the AM.  We've had unsettled weather lately and a cold front hovering over the region.   But you can't keep hungry fish down for long, and around 9 am the lakers started showing signs of life.   I kept coaching on the finer points of the technique.  Eventually I borrowed Jordan's rod and showed then a drop and wound up hooking a laker.  I gave the rod to her and she cranked it in.  So they saw it could be done!    Then it was up to Jordan to hook and land her own fish.  Within around 10 minutes she did just that - all on her own.  Needless to say, we were very proud of her!   Then Ted nailed a nice fish.  

I've done and watched folks do 1000s of hours of laker jigging - you name it and I've seen people do it.   I generally know what works and what doesn't, but I keep an open mind.   When you book a trip you get the most recent technical info I have.  People compare this to fluke or striper jigging and there's no comparison in my opinion.  Lakers are a different animal.   And the technique changes year to year as more things become apparent.   I had Ted do something slightly different than he'd been doing it and it made a big difference.  The difference is all in the details!  They'll be back out with me on Thursday and I'm looking forward to it!  We had a lot of fun today.

Seneca Lake out of Geneva 8/21 AM:    Started off Saturday meeting Mark, Cathy and Tom at the Geneva ramp around 6 am.   I had a couple slow guiding days around Geneva over the past couple weeks, but both were on overcast borderline rainy days.  We marked decent numbers of fish on one of those trips.  We also had slow fishing elsewhere on the lake during those trips - which convinced me that it was more of a day to day weather phenomenon, than a general slowdown.   Lastly I also had a call from a client who mentioned marking and catching some good numbers of lakers around Geneva a couple days before my first tough trip there.   But NWS changed their forecast Friday night to 15 mph south winds - so I wasn't particularly optimistic when we set out.  I don't like being on the "wrong" end of the lake with 15 mph+ winds!

The early start saved our day.   Tom caught a laker on his first drop and we had great fishing over the next hour and a half to two hours.   A few doubles were hooked and the day was topped with Mark's 32" beauty which we released unharmed!   Great AM, which slowed considerably once the winds got stronger and the day went on.   85' to 105' was best, with excellent action in 85' to 90'.     Around 7 or 8 nice fish were landed.  

Skaneateles Lake 8/21 PM:   I was hopeful that the cloudy conditions and threatening rain would leave me with some parking options at the small State Launch on Skaneateles Lake.   It did.  I can't wait for the passage of Labor Day weekend when parking will no longer be an issue here.   There is a Town Launch at Mandana, but it's a trickier launch than the State ramp with a long walk added in.    I met Jack and Gary - both from Texas at around 12:30 PM and after a bit of a wait we launched the boat.   I like Jack a lot - he was one of my first clients and is the most successful businessman I've ever met.   He's given me some great business and life advice and I always hope and wish the best for him.   Gary works for Jack and had never fished, period!    So I set us up behind a large point and taught Gary how to cast and work a dropshot rig, a Superfluke and a tube jig.   He caught a rockbass on the dropshot so we got the first fish out of the way quickly.   Jack favors his spincast gear and brought that.  "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" is what he says, but the last time we were here he forgot his spincast gear and did just fine with my spinning tackle!    In a nutshell fishing was pretty good with the guys landing 9 nice legal smallies.  Most were 12 1/2" to 13 1/2" or so, with one around 16" or 17".  Some bigger ones got off and many hits were missed, but it was a good day.   Gary caught the largest which was awesome.   It's just a great smallmouth fishery and it'll only get better as the Fall approaches!  

Guided Mark, Bill and Billy for the full day starting around 6 am.   The guys had fished with Sean Brown on Monday www.reelhookedup.com  ,  Jon Evans on Tuesday www.fishingthefingerlakes.com   and booked with me for today.   Needless to say, these two guides get my endorsement for being amongst the best in the region.    I had fairly high hopes for today though originally we'd thought about fishing Cayuga Lake.   The guys fished Cayuga Monday and Keuka Tuesday and were interested in trying a different lake; I felt we could have a good day on Seneca.    There are still plenty of fish up on the N. end flats near Geneva.   We started out with a bang - I went over the technique and Mark hooked up in no time and then Billy nailed two nice fish (all from around 25" to 26".)    The fish took the jigs deep!    A fair number of hits were missed as well.  But the fish quickly got less active as the day progressed.   We wound up motoring south to Dresden and then over to Sampson and back North.   Fish were everywhere we went and again - the guys had a decent number of hits, but the fish weren't committing well or chasing very far.   

Around 75' to 115' is what we fished with most fish being marked from around 95' to 105'.   Tough day with lots of fish around but slow catching.   Cayuga remains my number one lake trout jigging pick from here on until mid-September, when Keuka really catches fire!

8/14 AM - Guided Jeff, Abby and Randy for a 1/2 day starting at 6 am.  I started my day with a quick encounter with Bambi while driving through Taughannock Park.   Damn!   Fortunately the truck wasn't damaged too badly, and luckily the same panel I dinged last year was hammered by the deer, so things should work out!

It was windy and fishing/boat control wasn't easy, but we managed to hook some good fish N. of AES.   Fishing slowed a little around 8:30 am but picked up around 10 am N. of Taughannock.   Abby nailed a 32" beauty (laker) that we landed, photographed and released.   Everyone caught fish and it wound up being a good morning of fairly steady action with one double.   Randy kept me entertained with some hilarious stories of working as a nurse in a busy urban hospital.   

8/14 PM - Guided Joan and Barry for a full day starting at 11 am.   I was optimistic regarding the fishing after the late rally during the AM trip.   Joan and Barry have done a lot of spectacular fishing throughout the world, but have a fondness for the Finger Lakes region and Cayuga Lake in particular.  They trolled here a lot over the past two decades.   We had some good laker action with each landing 3 solid fish.   Joan got things started with 2 beauties N. of Taughannock.  We covered a lot of water and despite the strong winds we managed to stay on fish.  We quit two hours early.  Really nice day!  Interestingly, Barry has run a collision shop for over 30 years and he helped me get my passenger door opening after the bambi run-in.   What a coincidence - 6 years of guiding, probably nearly 200 people, 600 trips and the one time I hit a deer I wind up with the only collision repair guy I've ever guided.   Take what you want from that one....

8/15 - Guided Todd (who didn't fish much) and his sons Jacob and  Connery for the full day .   Fishing was pretty good from the get-go with Jake landing a 29" solid laker to start.   Jake paid his dues on Thursday - he missed a couple fish as he was learning the technique, but then continued to fish hard without much action.  Today he made up for it.  He landed another, but trash-talking his older brother came back to bite him.    Connery landed 5 nice lakers - incl. three 27"ers in a row near Taughannock.    Another day of solid fishing.    The guys did a great job; they landed every solid hookup.  Todd managed a fish as well while one of the guys took a break.  

Keuka Lake AM:   Guided Bob and Bart for a 1/2 day starting at 6 am.   Bob booked a laker trip with me last year and reported some good laker fishing around the Bluff area midday on Wednesday.    Bob has relatives with a place on the lake and wanted to learn some bass techniques.  He's primarily been a live-bait fisherman in the past.   I had the guys work the "must have" plastics for the Finger Lakes (and most clearwater bass lakes) - Senkos, Superflukes and Tube jigs.    Not a great morning, but the guys had enough positive feedback from the fish to show them that these are viable techniques.  Bart landed a couple 12" to 13" largemouths working the Senko (using his own technique.)    A big rockbass or two were also caught.   Bob missed a few on the Senko and fluke.  He landed a largemouth as well with the Superfluke and had a big smallmouth behind/under his in one area.   We wound up near the bluff area where their house was.   I took some casts with a green pumpkin tube and landed into a nice 18" smallmouth.  There were likely more around too - since I hooked one, lost it then landed the fish.   I was hoping to show Bob a pickerel!

After the trip ended I took 45 minutes and worked some Branchport areas for smallies.  I raised a group of nice smallies in one area with the superfluke.  Then I had to go.

Seneca Lake PM:   Met Todd and his son Jacob at Geneva and we headed out for lakers.  I let Todd know earlier that I wasn't terribly confident in the weather pattern but we went for it anyways.  We marked quite a few lakers from 95' to 105'.   Todd lost his first three solid hookups, which was unusual -he generally lands most of his fish.  I'm not sure whether the fish just weren't grabbing the jigs well, or whether it was a coincidence.   Jake had a couple momentarily hooked as well.  He saw what the technique was about - and we'll be back out Sunday so he'll have a jump on things.  Todd wound up landing a couple decent fish.   

We spent a lot of time motoring around watching the electronics.  We also dropped a lot of jigs in place we marked and didn't mark fish.   A lot of bait moved in towards the evening.   But overall, I'd say that laker numbers are down now on the N. end.  I saw the same thing happen last year.   Of course, it's still a great area to fish and an angler can still have some great fishing up there, but I think a considerable portion of trout have likely started moving down the lake.  There's nowhere near the number of fish there now that there was in early July.  We worked an area downlake and marked some fish and had a hit or two.  But overall it was slow fishing - not terrible, but pretty slow! 

AM Trip:   Did a morning 1/2 day trip with Paul and Juan - guys that met in college quite a few years ago.   We started with lakers and the fishing was very good, the guys limited out in fairly short order.    Paul couldn't top his wife Liza's 31" laker from Sat. AM though.   Then we fished for browns with Paul nailing a 9lb 10 oz beauty.   The guys were a lot of fun. 

PM Trip:   Guided Dan who's been fishing with me once or twice a year probably since I started guiding.  We tried for browns early and he landed a few small lakers.   Then we went laker fishing and Dan nailed a 30" beauty over 9lbs that fought great.  Fish just weren't snapping up the jigs very well.  We marked a ton of fish - Dan had dozens of hits and a few short hookups, but nothing very solid.   Fun fishing, slow catching.  75' and out was good.  We worked both shores near Taughannock.  

Cayuga Lake out of Taughannock 8/8 AM:  Guided Craig and Jim for the full day.  Craig booked a trip back in April for some deep jigging.  Due to the weather, we rescheduled probably 4 times!    I don't do trips unless I think the weather will make for decent fishing conditions.    So we finally got a good day, though we started with fairly good south winds.   The bite wasn't easy, but we found an area with good numbers of fish and worked them hard.   The guys nailed some very nice lakers - up to around 26" to 27".  Jim's enthusiasm was great.   The technique isn't easy in the wind with a moving boat, but the guys did a good job and it paid off.   I think we wound up with around 6 or 7 fish total.   Both shores produced fish.

Taughannock PM:  Picked up Jim and his brother Joe at Myers Park.   Jim booked his first trip with me on my first year guiding.   We headed north and set up around 3:30.   Fish were moving for the jigs, but not very well.  The going was tough for the first three hours.   But during our last hour fish started cooperating and Joe nailed a couple and Jim got one.   The guys missed quite a few as well.  

Owasco Lake 8/9:   Started at 6 am picking up Fred from his rental house.  Fred's been booking trips for a few years with me and had a chance to fish some of the hot Owasco Laker action.   After getting some on and off again reports regarding Owasco Lakers, we decided not to spend too much time on them.   Given how much better Seneca and Cayuga are now for lakers, I don't see much of a point in grinding it out on Owasco.  

Baitfish numbers looked pretty good on the N. end of Owasco.   Especially on the west side near Buck's Point.   We marked fish shallow too - no doubt some browns/rainbows, bass and walleyes.    Lakers are around too, but they weren't particularly active when we started.  

I've been wanting to give the smallies a good shot here starting early in the AM so that's what we did.   I've been doing most of my bass guiding on Skaneateles Lake over the past couple years.  Huge baitfish numbers on the N. end of Owasco - plus lots of bass mixed in with them has me fairly convinced that a lot of the Owasco fish are suspended and on bait.  They are - but they're fishable.   Fellow guide and friend Jon Evans  (www.fishingthefingerlakes.com)  was raving so much about Owasco's bass to me that I was chomping at the bit to really give them a good try!

I had Fred working some Superflukes and we found a semi-motherlode of bass.   Fred started with a nice 18 1/2" fish.  Then a few 17"ers came to the boat with some smaller ones (15".)   At one point a school of around 20 fish followed in his fluke!   As we wound things down we tried lakers again, and they'd activated a bit.  Fred lost 2.   After I dropped Fred off I did something I haven't done in awhile - I fished after a trip.   I spent the next 5 hours working various areas, testing out rods and marking areas in my GPS.   Landed a couple more bass.   Found some good midlake lakers areas.  

I plan on doing more smallmouth guiding and fishing here.  Their are some real quality bass here.    I'll be combining it with some laker jigging, so we may have the best of both worlds soon!

Guided Liza for 1/2 day today.  Her husband Paul bought her the trip - nice guy!   He'll be out with me later this week.  Young children can make getting out as a couple difficult!   

I was very optimistic regarding our prospects this AM after lakers really started turning on last night.   We started at 6 am, but the fishing really got going around 7:30 to 8.   First fish she got was a 17" laker that we released.  But her second was a 31" 9 1/2lb  beauty.  Great fight - these fish really pull in order to stay in the cold deep water.   Then she hooked and landed a fat brown - a 27" fish that pushed 10lbs!  The condition (length to weight ratio) of these fish is tremendous!    A few more lakers were landed for a total of 6 lakers and one brown.   75' to 85' of water did the trick.  We used an assortment of plastics.  It was nice seeing all the jiggers near AES.   The ones I knew and talked to were all doing well and catching fish.

After looking at the wind forecasts I postponed my AM trip with 3 ppl (it's much too hard to control the boat with 3 and a lot of wind.)   I called Will and told him we could start our 11 am trip early, but he decided to stick with our original plan.  Add that in with the cranking  winds at around 15 to 25 mph and I figured I had my work cut out for me.  

I met Will and his dad Bill at the dock and they had the right attitude for a good trip.   Bill had fished the boundary waters in Wisconsin and spent days trying to catch lakers without luck.  So he told me one laker would be great.  That, I was pretty sure we could do.  

We worked different areas around Taughannock and we eventually wound up in an area that has produced some browns, salmon and rainbows for us in the past, including some lakers.   Bill landed the first fish - a 17" laker.  Then Will got things going by landing a 24.5" brown that weighed 7lbs!  What a pig!   Then he hooked another fish - a 26" brown that weighed 9lbs!   Bill then landed a bigger brown - a 27" 11lber!    Will then dropped what was likely a big brown.  We had at least two other nice browns follow in the jigs.   Then Will landed a 30" laker that weighed 10lbs.   The Cayuga fish are fat.   A few more lakers were landed and we called it a day.    Browns were in around 65' of water give or take.  Lakers were a little bit deeper.  

I knew we'd be in for a challenging day.  But with challenges come opportunities and the guys made the best of them.   Expect some great brown trout fishing this fall around creek mouths and up the tributaries.  There are some very nice fish in the lake this year!  Fish came on Lunker City Shakers.  

Guided Dave and Bud for the full day today out of Sampson starting at 6 am.  Dave picked up a nice 28" laker in front of the park.   A couple other hits were had.  We shot to the N. end and found some very good laker action with fish running up to 30".    68' or so out to 85' proved best.   On the west shore we also found fish further south.  On the last drop of the day Dave had a 21" landlocked salmon blast his jig boatside!  Lotsa fun there with a couple great jumps.   Fun day with various colors working.  Next to no boat traffic out there.  The guys were surprised at how few people were out given how good the fishing was.   That's the beauty of the Finger Lakes Region - great fishing, uncrowded conditions, great scenery and pleny of creature comforts!  

August is getting pretty much booked up.  Oddly - some Sundays still remain open and I have some 1/2 day openings.   The fall is still wide open with most dates available.   

I've been doing some split day trips, which has worked out well for me and clients in general.  Basically run a morning trip from 6 am till 10 am + then pull the boat out and do an evening trip from around 4 pm till 8 pm+.   Here's how today went:

Cayuga 8/3 AM:  Met Lance, Nika (hope I spelled that right) and Peter at the launch at 6 am.  The winds were blowing pretty good (10 mph) out of the south.  For a 3 person trip, that can be tough.   Fishing was kind of slow to start without much of an AM bite.   All the guys had some early hits with Nika losing one laker N. of AES.   Then Lance caught one and Nika landed one as well.  Both decent fish around 25" or so.   Not much happening after that.   The guys had some trouble feeling/detecting the bottom, which can be very hard in 85' of water with the boat drifting.  We could have done much better had it not been so windy.    One change I'm in the process of making is that I'm switching to Fireline Crystal.   It's very visible above the surface and that aids in detecting the bottom as well as hits.  So far so good with it!    All in all we had a fun day, though it wasn't easy fishing by any means. 

Seneca/Sampson 8/3 PM:  Guided Doug - who joined me on my early season Landlocked salmon "skunk" trip on Seneca in March, and his son Peter.   Today was the jigging tutorial and things went pretty well.    We mainly fished around the park and just south.   The guys picked up the technique pretty well.  We started with calm conditions then it got windy.  4 nice fish were landed - 3 wild and one hatchery.   A few were dropped too.   Chartreuse plastics as well as white/chart. baits worked best.   Around 67' to 85' produced our fish.  We had a few aggressive chasers.   Doug has a place on the lake and he caught a nice healthy fat pike yesterday, so that's always good to hear.   The guys really enjoyed learning the technique.     

Did a 1/2 day gar fly-fishing trip with John, who's in college and his younger brother Ben, who's in high school.   These guys are quite the anglers and have their fly casting looking pretty darn good.    They've been renting a house on Cayuga Lake with their parents and report seeing some nice drum swimming around in the shallows.  They've both hooked some while fly-fishing and John landed a nice one around 18".   More opportunities arise!  You can bet I'll be giving the drum a whirl!

Conditions were perfect today despite the mildly optimistic forecast.    Light south winds and sun.   Not a lot of boat traffic either.  We motored around and I saw one small riseform.   We kept looking and eventually just started fishing and the fish began showing up.   This type of fishing is as close to saltwater fishing as you can get around the area.  Sightfishing to schools of fish near the surface that are grabbing baitfish.   Fly-fishable fish that jump like tarpon.    Small gar aren't necessarily the hardest fighters - some of them come in pretty easily, but they are always exciting to fish for and they always jump!   The guys each landed 3 fish with "big fish Ben" getting the better fish.  Nothing huge - they topped out around 35" or so, but beautiful fish.   We saw a massive school of gar - just amazing!   

The guys live near the Potomac and have 4 foot gar (and likely bigger) swarming around them.   Can't wait to hear how they do on these fish!   I consider gar a gamefish.   They strike artificials well, they can put up an exciting battle and actually are considered good to eat.  In Texas, they are fairly common as a food fish from what I've read, though I like them as a fish too much to want to kill any for food.  

Cayuga Lake out of Taughannock 7/31:   Guided Paul and his son Doug from Wisconsin for the full day starting at 5:30 am.   Doug's going to Cornell and the guys joined me last spring for some casting and jigging.   Fishing was good to start on the east shore with nice numbers of lakers and one sublegal (16") landlocked salmon caught.   I think we fished from around 65' on out to 85' or more.   After landing around a half-dozen fish we spent some time exploring some areas that have produced other salmonids for me in the past.  Not much apart from small lakers were hitting for us in those areas.   A ride back up to the park produced more lakers.  There was definitely an afternoon bite starting around 1 pm.   Very good day fishing!

Seneca Lake out of Sampson 8/1:   I haven't fished out of Sampson much this year yet.  No reason in particular, other than that the north end of the lake has been so hot this season.   But I was psyched to check the Sampson flats out!   Brad's dad "Dutch" has a place just N. of the park and they were looking for a tutorial on the technique.   They got that, plus some very good lake trout fishing - incl. at least one or two doubles hooked.   Around 8 nice fish were landed - kind of Canandaigua or Keuka sized, no real slobs but solid 3 to 4lbers.    There are a lot of fish on the flats - we found around 3 "hot spots."   Lunker City Shakers did most of the damage.   At the marina we saw a tiny pike around 4 to 5" long - maybe a good omen for the future!  Time will tell.  Dutch grew up in Geneva and had a lot of good fishing stories and memories of Seneca in the 1960s.    Good bite!   Reports I received mentioned good fishing on Cayuga and a slow bite on Owasco this AM.

Had a few fun full days guiding Todd and Sean over the past week.   Here's how things went:

Skaneateles Lake 7/28:   Weather conditions were perfect for some good smallmouth bass fishing so that's what we did starting at 7 am.   Casting green pumpkin Bass Pro Shops tender tubes fished on 1/4 oz jig heads did the trick - as did white and green pumpkin Super Flukes.   Fish were hitting aggressively with others sometimes following hooked fish.    The guys landed a lot of fish - probably at least 30 or more.   No real slobs, but a lot of 12" to 15" fish.    Fun trip and the fish hit well all day long.   Water temps were around 75 degrees on top.

Cayuga Lake out of Taughannock 7/29:   Jigged lakers to start today and we had a lot of fish "looking" and a few chasing.  The guys landed around 4 to 5 lakers to start (at 5:45 am.)   Morning fishing was pretty good.  We worked quite a few areas mostly around Taughannock Park.   High point of the AM was Todd hooking a big brown trout that got off after a short but hard battle.  The fish was likely 10 to 12lbs.   Another brown or two followed - so things were looking good.    Fishing slowed around 10 am, but a couple more lakers were hooked and one landed just before we ended the trip.  Winds got pretty strong out of the N. by 11 am - probably gusting 20 mph or more.   

Had some good full day action with Todd and Sean today.   We started just after 6 am and the early start was worthwhile with at least one double hooked.   The guys landed around 11 fish by around 9:45 am or so, then action slowed considerably.   No real lunkers today but nice fish overall.   Around 73' on out remains best.  There are quite a few fish suspended over deeper water and they are worth a try if the shallower fish don't cooperate.  No shortages of bait this year on Seneca - it looks like Cayuga on the FF.   

I kept one of the lakers Todd caught on Saturday and grilled it today.   I filleted it, skinned it and trimmed it.   Sea salt and coarsely ground pepper and a little oil - that and some lemon with 2 to 3 minutes per side on the grill and it was some superb eating.   These fish aren't quite on the same gourmet level as Atlantic salmon or rainbow trout, but taken care of (from the lake to the table) they are absolutely excellent eating!   I don't recommend freezing them for long.  Fresh is the key with lakers!  Just delicious!  We always bring a large cooler with ice onboard.  The fish are killed/bled and then put on ice immediately.  They get filleted as soon as possible.  

Had a good time as usual up on Champlain with my buddy Mike.   We arrived on Tuesday early PM to find quite a few "wrapped" bass boats at the launch.  Mike Iaconelli's rig was there amongst others.   As usual, there was going to be a tournament going on - the BASS Northern Open, which started yesterday (7/22.)   

We took the Ferry across the lake (since we were staying at Sportsman's Cottage near Crown Point and the bridge is out!) and launched at Larabees just across and S. of the Ferry landing.    We tried a couple "new" areas and wound up fishing a neckdown area where I'd caught a big pike a couple years ago.   We looked across from us and saw Tim Horton's bass boat pull up - so it felt good to be working some of the same areas the pros like to fish.   We wound up catching a 4 or 5 nice fish on our first evening.   I caught a couple on crankbaits and Mike got some on a green pumpkin Berkley Chigger Craw as well as a Woolly Hawgtail.   The drop from around 8' to 12' was where we had our luck.   Mike also caught a scrawny pike.   No sign of any gar.

On Day 2 we launched out of Benson Landing at around 9:30 am (this getting up late is probably a huge mistake, but it is vacation)  - probably a 30 minute drive from the Cottages and a 6 mile boat ride from Ti.    Mike and I are both big fans of Rich Zaleski and his great website/blog at www.richz.com and his blog at www.richz.com/fishing/blog    Rich wrote for "Fishing Facts" magazine in the 1970s and 80s and then In-Fisherman and North American Fishing Club later.   He's a terrific bass fisherman and his blog is full of good tips.    We were interested in fishing some of the water chestnut in LC - most of which is found south of Benson Landing.  It's considered a noxious weed, but bass do hang in and around it.   Rich does well in it and has a good article on it on his site.  

My hat's off to Mike on this trip - he really did a number on the bass!  I just don't bass fish nearly as much as I'd like, and my tackle is always in some disarray, but Mike really has it together.   It didnt take long before we started putting a nice pattern together around the chestnut.  Mike pulled a couple solid fish off of a chestnut area using plastic worms and some of his creature type baits.   We both had bite-offs incl. Mike - who had a "chewer bite-off" - likely a bowfin.   My buddy Jarrod noticed that when you get a panfish type of pulsating hit - and hook a big fish or have a bite-off, it's usually a fin.    We worked some areas around the weedharvesters (another Zaleski tip) and it paid off.     

We didn't stick with any one pattern for long.  We kept trying new areas - using my electronics helped as always.  We had a hard time finding areas we couldn't catch bass in!   Nearly everywhere we fished, we caught bass - with Mike usually doing the most damage on the fish.   We worked South Bay and the mouth of it - more bass for both of us and a pike for me.    Fish came on plastics and spinnerbaits for the most part.   No real slobs.   We probably wound up with 20 to 25  bass on Day 2, around 1/3rd being decent 1.5 to 3lb fish  - all caught in new areas to us and a lot caught around "the nut" - which was a new thing.   After a couple trips we finally started unlocking the patterns of Ti!

We quit after seeing a flash of lightning and just getting a feeling that it was time to quit.  The "feeling" proved right as we arrived at the launch (with a local tourney going on) and watched as a scary sort of T-storm started moving towards us.   Ti is like the Finger Lakes (southern portions) with high hills;  T-storms can be on top of a fisherman in no time.   My truck was surrounded by trailers in the overflowing parking lot and it was a royal pain getting out my rig.  By the time I had gotten in my truck, bass boats were swarming the launch area waiting to pull out.   We made it just in time!  The first boat out and the lightning and very heavy rain started going crazy all around us.  We probably received an inch of rain in 20 minutes.  Strong lightning was striking fairly close by.   Nasty, yet pretty cool!

On Day 3 (first tourney day) we took the Ferry back across to Ti and then dumped in around 10 am.   Now that we've got plenty of good areas, next year we'll think about launching at dark thirty and quitting earlier in the day, but it's hard to motivate on vacation.    We fished areas between Ti and Benson Landing.   We saw where some of the pros were fishing, which was cool.   Fishing was decent with more bass coming on worms (Mike again) and a dink or two on a spinnerbait.  I caught another healthier pike on a hollow bodied swim bait, but the plastics and jigs were the way to go.   We found fish as shallow as 4' of water.   No slobs again - but a couple 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 lb fish.    A fun trip and most importantly we learned a LOT!   Can't wait for the next one and I can't wait to see how we do early in the morning.  As my clients know, missing the AM bite can be painful.   

Guided Eric for the full day today.  He's joined me on several occasions, both laker jigging and bass fishing.  The priority today was lakers and we met at 6 am.   I knew we might be in for some good laker fishing when I "saw" several lakers chase my temp probe at the south end of the lake!   Why worry about plastic lure color and type? ;-)    Eric nailed a couple nice lakers in short order (one on the first drop.)   We tried a few different areas and found a hotspot or two.   After keeping what he wanted for food we went searching for smallmouth bass.  Lakers ranged from 75' to 115' of water.

Smallmouth bass fishing was disappointing for us in the southern 1/3 rd of the lake.  Most expert smallmouth fishermen I know like the N. end of the lake this time of year, but we wanted to see what we could do further south, closer to where Eric's cottage rental was.   The rock bass were ubiquitous.     We just couldn't "call up" smallies apart from a few smaller ones further N.  

We finished up with lakers again before quitting and the bite was very good in the afternoon as storms approached.  We let go another fish.   We marked some bait on the south end of the lake, but as usual not much in other areas.   The weather was great - esp. when looking at the original forecast of T-storms, rain and basic misery!   Next to nobody was out on the lake - and for Canandaigua in the mid-summer, that's amazing!    Lakers ran to around 25" (two of them.)  

Had a busy weekend guiding - here are how things shaped up:

Cayuga out of Taughannock 7/17 AM:   Guided Joe and JC for a 1/2 day trip which was a gift certificate (hint!)    I wanted to start at 5:30 am but the guys showed up a little late - no big deal, the fishing was very good.  We worked areas mainly N. of AES on both sides of the lake.   Joe landed and released a 31" beautiful laker.  That fish made the trip.  Another 3 nice ones were landed.  Fishing wasn't easy, but it wasn't bad.   Around 75' proved best if I remember right.  

Cayuga 7/17 PM:  Guided Tony and his son Mike for a full day.   Fishing was tougher than the AM trip.   We worked past Sheldrake on the west shore.  It was HOT out, but the breeze helped things.    Mike hadn't jigged lakers before and it took some time to get the feel.  Tony fishes a lot and it showed.  He landed 4 fish on the day incl. a rare sublegal "dink."  We really fished hard and the bite wasn't easy at all.   Around 65' or 75' out to 110' or so was best - if there was a "best."

Seneca 7/18 AM:  Guided John and his son Josh for a 1/2 day.  They have a camper near Dresden and are starting to get into fishing Seneca Lake.  The AM fishing was excellent from 65' on out (mostly deeper) to 115'.   The guys had a couple doubles going and landed nice fish up to around 31" if I rememeber right.   (These trips blend together after a while!)    Great AM trip and we released the big fish.    The guys landed 11 fish in just over 4 hours.

Seneca 7/18 PM:  Guided Tony and Mike again, and I was optimistic on our prospects.   But it wasn't to be!  Another very tough PM bite with Tony managing one fish.   The guys fished very well, but the fish were just lock-jawed.  I was really hoping Mike would get into some fish, but it wasn't to be.   The fish-Gods owe him!    We fished hard working from 65' out to 115' and we tried some different areas.   A lot of fish moved for the jigs but just wouldn't commit - it was somewhat frustrating but the guys kept their spirits up.  

After a lot of internal debate - between muskies, smallmouths and more smallmouths, I decided to head up to Lake Ontario to try some jigging for Kings and other salmonids.  If I still lived in Rochester, I'd do this a lot more but since I'm down here it's become a once a year thing.   Maybe this year I'll be back again.    After setting my alarm clock for 2:30 am I finally got up and on the road around 3:15.  Made it to Hamlin at 5:45 or so.   Other anglers launching report some great salmon action thus far this season.   The hot zone was supposedly 150' to 180' or so, down around 50' to 80' or something like that.    I was incredibly psyched to launch my boat as I looked out on the lake - things looked right.   

My "psychedness" turned to horror as I switched on my trusty Lowrance HDS-5 and nothing came on!   I checked the fuse and the wires, then saw a faint image on the sonar.   I love my Lowrance, but Lowrance and Eagle units are junk when exposed to any significant amount of water - and I'm not talking immersion - which would ruin any unit, I'm talking simple rainstorms.   When I docked my boat on Monday to wait out the storm, the heavy rain soaked my unit and the light became toast.   So I awoke at 2:30 am, drove 2 1/2 hours and launched to find I basically had no electronics.   What a bummer!  If it was bass fishing or anything else - it wouldn't have been a big deal, but I was expecting to hunt salmon in deep water.  

Eventually I found that if I had the sun face into the unit I could read the screen.   So I used my vexilar and temp probe and did the best I could.   Cold water was inshore this AM which was great to see.   I had 46 degrees down around 70'.   Some nice hooks and bait too.   I came incredibly close to hooked a nice salmonid of some sort - maybe an immature King.    I dropped my jig and got hit then got hit again and I saw the fish.    He just never gobbled it.    Also had a hit casting a spoon.   Great Lakes jigging for salmon and trout can be done and I think consistently with some effort and smart fishing.  Mark my words!   It may be two decades before it becomes popular, but it can be done.  

I was too tired to try gar fishing Oak Orchard, though I kicked myself on the drive home for not doing it anyways.   Went to Bass Pro Shops and dropped $750 on a new HDS-5 so I'd have something for guiding the next three weeks while the older one gets fixed.  Then I'll mount one on the bow!    

Cayuga out of Cayuga Lake State Park 7/13 AM:   Met Matt and his wife Erin at their dock at 5:30 am and set out for some largemouth bass.    The winds were blowing pretty good out of the south when we started.   We worked some shallow areas from around 4' to 12' with search baits like spinnerbaits and Rat-L Traps.   Erin doesn't fish much but was casting very well within an hour or so.   Fishing was pretty good.  Matt started things off with a couple decent largemouths on a spinnerbait.    We worked areas out to around 18' of water or so.    Erin was happy just to catch a bass, which she did - a dink that is!    But you can't keep a good woman down long and on a large chart. Rat-L-Trap she caught the nicest bass of the morning  - probably around 2 3/4 to 3lbs.   Great fight!    We didn't find many pickerel which is what Matt was hoping for - Erin got one small one.  Plenty of panfish were around too.   Fish appear to be in a typical July Cayuga pattern - many fish still fairly shallow and quite a few out to around 12' or more.   The bite was good and I would have liked to have checked out some areas with crankbaits and jig/pig.    Matt did some cranking w/o luck.    Saw a bunch of carp and a few gar surfacing near Farley's Point.   

Seneca Lake out of Sampson 7/13 PM:   I met the Hermans at Sampson at 4 pm and we set out for some laker jigging.   What's great about Sampson is you don't need to go far to find good lakers.    This was a prime consideration given that there were some T-storms predicted and I didn't want to be far from our port when/if they came.  I didn't mark many fish N. of the park.  Eleonore landed a 26" fish within 20 minutes or so.  After an hour and a half the weather got ominous and the T-storms and lightning came.   We tried waiting out the rain/storms in our vehicles, but after a warning from a park official about a harsh storm on the way, we called it quits.  

Red Cross Derby Report July 10th and 11th :    My buddy Mike and I fished Seneca Lake for the Red Cross Tourney.   Most of my jigging trips on the N. end of Seneca Lake have produced lakers in the 10lb range, and my Cayuga trips haven't, so I knew Seneca was the place to be.   We had steady, yet unspectacular fishing during both days of the tourney.   Last year I landed 40 fish in a day, this year it took us 2 days to land that many.    The jigging is gaining popularity - I saw at least 6 boats jigging lakers during the derby this year.   Last year I saw one boat apart from myself and they weren't entered in the contest.     We fished hard from around 5:30 am till 3 or 4 pm daily.   No more 16 hour days for this guide!     We only dropped one good fish.    Depths varied - we had our best fishing in around 75' to 85' of water, but on occasion deeper water (out to 110') produced very well for us.    Chartreuse and white both worked well.  

The one thing I really get psyched about during derby time is fishing my custom rods made for me by Mike Canavan.   His jigging rods are the best I've tried - an absolute joy to use.   I let my buddy Mike S. do a few drops with one of my custom rods and he hooked and landed a 30 1/2" laker!   Great fight and Mike was very impressed with the feel, hook setting and fighting abilities of the rod.  Plus they are light as heck.     My heavier Canavan stick also worked great and is a delight to work 1 1/2 oz. jigs with.   The rods have great ergonomics, an ample butt section on both the handle and the rod;  they are forgiving to fish hooked on "the chase" yet have enough fast action in the tip to work jigs without the jigs overwhelming the rod.  Whether you like mono or braid, the rods perform great.    Mike can be reached at flytier@hotmail.com  

We had a great derby - I feel as a jigger we need to land around 40 fish to be able to get one over 31" and that proved true.   We landed nearly all the fish we hooked and fished hard.  The big one I landed took time and fought great.  All in all - no regrets here - we just didn't get the big bites.   My client Paul N. from 3 weeks ago managed a 12lb+ beauty and had the day one lead.   His words to me were "I couldn't have done it without you,"  which was a nice endorsement.   He's a great fisherman and really has the technique dialed in.   The derby is a good cause and the boat traffic is generally low for it - since it's spread around on all the lakes.   Results are available at www.reelingforrelief.org    Congrats also go out to guide/friend Jon Evans who did a great job as usual on the smallmouths on Keuka Lake.    www.fishingthefingerlakes.com  is his website.     

Keuka Lake 7/12:  Guided Kyle and Rob for the full day starting at 5:30 am.  That meant I had to wake up at 3 am after fishing Red Cross for 2 days and guiding a full slate last week.  So I was asleep at 6:45 pm on Sunday.    In some ways I was happy not to have to show up at the awards ceremony!  In some ways that is.... ;-)   

The laker bite was terrific 1st thing in the AM at the Bluff.   The guys landed 6 nice fish in around an hour.  We released one and spent another 45 min or so trying to get one more.    A couple were dropped and we went bass fishing.   I showed the guys how to work soft jerkbaits, senkos (aka stickworms) tubes and dropshot rigs.  The superflukes, senkos and dropshots produced fish.     Superflukes did best with some really decent smallies landed to 20" and 4.1 lbs.  We released the big one, but the guys wanted to keep a few bass along with the lakers in order to feed their clan of 8 ppl.   So we kept a few bass.  Largemouths had crawfish in them, smallies alewives.    Best smallie action for us was in around 30' of water give or take.  Largies ran a bit shallower.  It felt great doing some bass guiding for a change.   I started out as a bass fisherman, but my guiding has trended heavily towards lakers for obvious reasons - they fight strongly, run big, aren't not too hard to catch when you know how, they don't change locations too rapidly, look cool and  taste great.  Other than that, they are terrible ;-)    Fun trip!

Guided John and Brian for the full day starting at 6 am.   They don't do much fishing and what they've done in the past was mostly stream fishing, so today was a new horizon for them.   We started off attempting topwater bass action with no luck.  Working deeper using Rat-L Traps, Superflukes and Senkos paid off with a half-dozen nice bass landed running from 11" to 16" - with most being around 14".    The water was hot (around 83) and a fast retrieve on the trap worked well.    John hooked " a big fish" and I watched his rod double over and the fish thrash on the surface.  After a strong fight we slid the net under the 5lb+ drum.   These fish are fun - no two ways about it.  The drum hammered a Rat-L Trap!   We saw a good school of nice drum.    

We saw plenty of small gar surfacing in the AM.   We did give L. Ontario a try with some dropshotting.   Brian had a smallmouth around 11" come after his goby imitation.   Gobies were around.  After an hour and a half on the lake we hit the bay again.   The sun/heat got to Brian a bit and we wrapped up a little early.  The guys did a great job and Brian was even casting a baitcaster pretty well in short-order.   Good fishing.   

I grabbed a terrific double cheeseburger, onion rings and a milk shake at Orbakers on Rt. 104 just W. of the bay on the way home.  It's out of the way by around 8 or 9 miles but well worth it!    I stopped at Bass Pro Shops and bought a new winch and starting battery.   It was fun trying to switch out batteries in the parking lot with temps reading 104 degrees in my truck.   Sweat was pouring and I realized my wingnut was cross threaded and I had to use a saw to carefully cut off the post when I got home.   I installed the new winch, a bilge fuse and the battery and am ready to go.   Not the kind of thing I like doing with a heat index around 97 after waking up at 3:30 am.    Some people think guiding is just "going fishing" - they are completely clueless.    

Cayuga AM:    Guided Dennis and Marge for the 1/2 day starting at 6 am.  Dennis did all the fishing while Marge kicked back and relaxed.  He had a good AM landing 4 nice lakers - all 27" to 28".   Fish were full of vigor, ripping out plenty of drag.   Shakers and flukes did the trick.  Both lake shores were good.  Best depths ran from 65' out to 105' or so.  

Skaneateles PM:   Guided Jack from Texas for a 1/2 day on Skaneateles.   I'm not doing much "lake hopping" this year, but occasionally I make exceptions.   Jack did well on smallmouths despite the high hot sun and lack of wind.  Fish were active and we saw plenty!   Tubes, dropshot rigs, superflukes and topwater lures worked well.   Bass are loads of fun and today was no exception!    Surface temps ran from 78 to 80!   Nice day for a long swim. 

Launched out of Sampson for the first time this season.  Met Jeff and his dad Dan for the full day today.  We started at 6 am and worked the west shore hoping for bass and/or pike.   Loads of chopped up milfoil made working lures tedious for the most part.  Dan had a good hit on topwater (likely a bass,) but apart from that we didn't see anything in the two plus hours we fished.  

Lake trout fishing was very good with moments of excellence on the north end.  Dan wasn't feeling well, so he took a break for an hour or two and Jeff managed to pick up 5 nice fish including a 32" laker likely weighing 10lbs that we released.  Dan rejoined us and landed a couple nice fish of his own incl. a 30" fish.    Plenty of bait was around.   Action ranged from around 55' out to over 120'.   Quite a few fish are suspended over the depths and are responding to the jigs.  

The water fleas were HORRID!!!   When the fleas are bad for jiggers they must be impossible for trollers!   Just terrible, but it didn't bother us too much.   Another very good Seneca Lake trip.

Had some very good laker jigging on a 1/2 day trip with Nic and his daughter Juliet.   Plenty of fish and some bait were on the lake's east shore and lakers began the AM (at 6) quite aggressively.   Both anglers were new to the technique but managed to land around 7 fish total up to 29".    Best depths were 55' to 85' or so.   White shakers did the trick for us.  My friend and rod-builder Mike Canavan was on the lake and did very well, releasing a 10lb laker.  So some bigger fish are around.  Fish were very clean and plump - full of bait.  They averaged around 25".   

Started at 6 am with a 1/2 day trip with David, Linda and Bob - who joined me last year on Keuka Lake.   Last year we fished 1/2 day with Dave and Bob and then "traded" Bob for Linda - and the wind picked up on Keuka and the bite slowed.  Well today Linda more than made up for that tough day last year.   She pounded fish!   I'd look over towards her and her rod would be doubled over.  She'd never say "I got one" or anything - she was all business.   She landed a bunch of fish incl. a beautiful 32" laker that we released unharmed.    Overall a great AM with 12 nice fish landed!    Average fish was 25".  Surface temps were 59 to start.  Gorgeous day!  It doesn't get any better.

My PM 1/2 day was with Lonnie whom I'd met on occasion on Seneca Lake and around town.   I did a real jigging tutorial with him and he'll be hammering lakers from here on in.   He loves Seneca perch fishing and gave me some solid tips.   Despite the semi-tough midday bite, he landed 5 fish on a variety of plastics.   We worked 50' to 150'.  There are plenty of suspended fish out deep.  Best action was from 55' to around 80' or so.   Fun trip and surface temps reached 69 as winds blew warm water back in.  

Did a 1/2 day corporate guide trip with fellow guide Craig Nels today on Seneca.   Last year we met on Keuka Lake with this group.   Fishing was tough then.  Today the fishing was better, but the winds made for some tougher conditions.  

I guided Ken and John and last year Ken didn't have the hot hand, but today he did - landing 5 nice lakers before 10 am.    Baitfish weren't as abundant as they had been, but lakers were still around.   John lost a good fish near the boat - maybe a 29"er.   Craig's crew did well, as did our third boat's crew.   Fun day but a little less wind would have been nice!  At least it was nice and cool.   We found fish from around 55' out to 90' today.   We didn't work too much deeper than that.   

Another full day of guiding - here's how things went:

6/29 AM:   Did a 1/2 day starting at 6 am with Frank and his dad Gary.   Fishing was very good to excellent to start with plenty of fish out from around 47' on out.   Some large fish were in the mix with Gary landing and releasing a 33" beauty that likely weighed 11lbs or more.  We kept a 29" fish that was very fat - it weighed 9lbs 10oz - basically almost like a brown trout!   Fish were full of bait and fighting well.

6/29 PM:  Started at 11:30 am with Jacek, who's a surgeon in his homeland of Poland.  Fishing started out good, then slowed, then picked up again.  All in all very good fishing and he landed 11 nice lakers!    Wrapped up the full day at 7:30 pm.  Long, but productive day out there.  Surface temps are around 70 degrees.  We took fish out to 120' of water.  

Spent a lot of time on Cayuga over the past weekend.  Here's how our fishing panned out:

6/26 AM:   Guided Andy and his girlfriend for a 1/2 day.   We took it easy with an 8 am start.    The bite wasn't easy for us in the AM but we managed to land 3 nice lakers and miss a couple incl. a salmon.    Friends on the lake and on other lakes reported some pretty hot early AM fishing.   75' to 90' seemed to have the most activity.

6/26 PM:  Guided Toby and his friends Honey and Christina.   They don't fish much but brought a lot of enthusiasm with them.   The lake trout bite remained fairly tough, but in the evening the fish got a bit more active.   The ladies each managed to land a nice fish and lose a few.   Toby had a hold of quite a few fish/bites but luck just wasn't with him!   A good time was had by all and with luck the gals cooked up a nice fish dinner for him. 

6/27 AM:  Guided Sam, Adam and Kevin for the full day.   We started at 6:30 am with a good bite.  Adam started things off with a nice laker around 28"+ that fought great.   As the day went on the bite slowed and then picked up again by midday.  All in all a good day with 7 nice fish landed.   Everyone enjoyed the jigging and the depths remained the same - around 75' to 90' +.    We saw trollers pick up nice salmon or rainbow.   Most of our fishing was done on the east shore.

6/27 PM:  Guided Paul and Tarah for a half day (yes it was a long day for me on Sunday.)   Fishing wasn't easy to start and storms were threatening and then would disperse.   Paul wanted to learn the technique - he's caught plenty of lakers trolling.   A couple fish were landed in the first two hours.   As the sun got lower and things clouded up the fishing picked up.   Another 6 or 7 nice lakers were landed.    A really great end to the day!   Again - 75' to 90' seemed best.   

Friends reported continued good to very good fishing further downlake, on Owasco and on Seneca Lakes.    

Skinny 6/22:   Got out for some fishing with my girlfriend Beth and her son Sam.   I showed them the Skaneateles "tour" and we chucked some tube jigs and flukes for bass.    The most active smallies we could find were smaller fish and we did well on them as well as rock bass.  FWIW, the rock bass are really back heavily on Skaneateles Lake.   They are ubiquitous.   Sam had a lot of fun and did great once he dialed in the technique.   Beth caught the nicest bass, so it was a neat day.    Smallmouths are always a blast to catch and I enjoyed it immensely.   Very few boats were out.

Seneca 6/23:  We didn't motivate early, which probably hurt us on Seneca, but it was fine.  Gorgeous, hot day on the lake.   Laker action was tough for us when we started around 9 am.    Fish weren't grabbing good, but as usual there were plenty of them around.  Sam lost two big lakers near the boat by over-torquing them.   He's 13 years old and used to pulling stripers in on party boats.    He landed one around 20" and was impressed by the overall fight of the lakers.   I had a nice salmon follow me in, but fishing was pretty slow and we needed to grab a bite to eat, so we decided to bag on the evening fishing, vying to go to a bass pond instead.   

I'm noticed lakers getting into a summer pattern - hot early AM fishing (very early) and a decent evening bite with oftentimes slow fishing in between.    Moon phase and weather alter this pattern, but it's pretty typical.  The hot all-day laker fishing with AM/PM peaks has subdued a bit!

Cayuga Lake 6/18 AM:   Did a 1/2 day AM trip starting at 6 am with Pete, his brother Doug and dad Dan.   The brothers joined me last year on Skaneateles Lake for some bass fishing.   Laker jigging started out pretty good with a nice one landed and 3 lost.  Fishing slowed for a bit, but then they started hitting again around mid-AM.   Wound up landing 5 nice fish and losing one by the boat.  Decent fishing and a beautiful AM.  Good action around 70' to 80' give or take.

Cayuga Lake 6/18 PM:   At noon I picked up Todd and his 5 year old son Gage at the launch.   5 years old is younger than I take out, but Todd assured me that his son is a trooper when it comes to fishing.  Todd brought a lifejacket and gear for the youngster.   (I'm not letting 5 year olds use my $200+ fishing outfits!)    We started out with laker jigging on the west shore and it was slow.   A trip across the lake proved fruitful and Todd nabbed 3 nice lakers.  I don't explore "new" areas as much as I used to - and I should, but today it paid off for us.  We then grabbed a bite to eat/drink at the Aurora Market while Gage fished jigs under a bobber for panfish at the dock.  He really got into the fish!  We took out some time and set up for more panfish near Long Point and had a lot of fun nabbing rock bass, pumpkinseeds and plenty of 7" to 8" bluegills.    I showed Gage how to cast a spinning rod and with some coaching from his dad he really started to get good at it.   Very nice to watch!   

Back to lakers in the evening and we went to our "new spot" as well as another area.     Fish were still there and Todd landed another 6 fish.   Very good fishing!    Again, 70' to 90' was probably best.  We encountered some small lakers in 100' to 110'.  Big fish seem to be shallower.  

Skaneateles Lake 6/19:   Guided Gary M. today for the full day.  Gary joined me a couple years ago for two dates on Owasco and we really hammered the lakers.    I was a bit concerned about our 7:30 am meeting time at the state launch due to the opening day of bass season and limited capacity in the parking lot.  Sure enough, the lot was pretty much full when I arrived at 7:10.   So we met at the Town launch at Mandana.   This ramp isn't great.

Gary did well with the usual green pumpkin tube jigs, super flukes in white, bubble-gum and green pumpkin/watermelon and jerkbaits.  Lots of techniques would have worked - it was a "pick-em" day.    He landed around 15 to 20 smallmouths and rockbass.  Nothing huge but fun fish up to around 16".   Lake temps are around 64 on top.    Fish ranged from on the bank out to 10 to 15'.    I always have fun with Gary and we'll be back out somewhere on Monday.

Guided the full-day with Rick - whom it was nice to see, after guiding him way back when... and his college friend Gary.   These guys stayed in touch for nearly 40 years.   Rick wanted to book a trip on Owasco a month ago, and I probably would have been reluctant to do it, if it wasn't for the encouraging reports I got on the laker jigging from friend/client Dave J.   I wasn't sure what we'd be fishing for, so I packed up plenty of bass and pike gear.  The weather forecast called for clouds and wind.  Instead we got clouds and drizzle/rain nearly all day.  Not the worse thing in the world, but the guys didn't plan on it - they had heard of 80 degree weather and some sun.   So not much raingear - and I didn't have any Hefty Bags.   So they got pretty darn wet, but fortunately if they were discouraged they didn't show it!

Rick wanted to fish lakers, so that's what we did.   It didn't take long to mark baitfish and lakers.  And within the first 5 minutes of fishing (maybe on his first or second drop of the jig) Rick hooked a good fish.   This was at around 6:15 am or so.   He lost the first one but landed another shortly thereafter - a nicely proportioned 25" laker.   Gary was fairly new to the technique and missed a couple hits.   Overall the fishing was slow, but encouraging and by day's end the guys landed 5 solid lakers.   All the fish were in the best overall condition I've seen Owasco lakers in, in a long time.   50' and out produced the fish.  70' to 80' was particularly good.   We saw one boat trolling in the AM do pretty well.   I'm very optimistic regarding this fishery over the forseeable future.   

Guided Tom, his son Dave and daughter Caroline for what ended up being a short 1/2 day today.   The wind forecast was a little ominous yesterday with predicted 8 to 15 mph winds, then this AM they called for rain and winds gusting out of the S. to over 25 mph.   I launched my boat at 5 am and motored up to the house that my clients were renting.  We started around 5:30 am with moderate winds and overcast skies.   Caroline had never fished before - she's in her early 20s, but that didn't stop her from landing a nice laker and losing a nice one under the boat.  It wasn't really her fault - it was tough for me to keep good boat control with the wind.  She brought some great enthusiasm to the trip.  

We didn't mark many fish or much bait - probably a weather-related factor, but they were around.   The 70' and out depths held good #s of fish.   Tom lost a couple very nice fish away from the boat.  He had a very niced sized silvery trout/salmon apparently on for a bit, or he lost a laker then it came up after the jig by the boat - but it was a good fish.  

By 7:00 am the wind was pushing around 12 to 14 mph.  By 9 am we started hearing thunder and seeing lightning, so we called it a day shortly thereafter.   No doubt we would have done a lot better had the conditions not been so tough, but all in all I thought that given the conditions and lack of fishing experience we did pretty well.  We all had fun.  

Guided Todd on Seneca Lake for the full day starting at 6 am.  The early start paid off with superb jigging action from the get-go in relatively shallow water (around 45' to 50'.)   Nearly every drop of his jig was met by 1 to 5 hungry lake trout!   Of course hooking and landing the fish is another challenge - but the "fishing" and the "catching" ended up being very satisfactory.   Fishing slowed a bit by 8:30 am or so, but we had steady action on the fishfinder and a steady pick of lakers until Todd's last drop at around 1:50pm, which landed him a 31" laker that weighed just under 9lbs (it was thin.)   Todd ended the day with 14 fish landed, only one around 22", the rest from 24" to 31" - most being 25" to 26" and very healthy looking.  Lampreys have been bad in Seneca Lake but you wouldn't know it by looking at the lakers we've managed over the past couple trips; they've been very clean.   The fish are all full of bait too.  

Nearly every plastic in my box worked today - everything from tubes, flukes, reapers to shakers hooked fish.  Lots of colors also paid off.   Very few boats were out there - it was like our own private lake today.    Gorgeous day with great fishing - what more can a fisherman want?    BTW - this was Todd's third trip with me in the past three weeks!  Regular clients like Todd make my "job" a pleasure and it's great feedback in its own right.

Got out with my buddy Mike for some laker fly-fishing attempts.   We started at 6 am and went looking for relatively shallow fish.  I have a new RIO T-14 Integrated Head system - aka their Outbound Line.   We tried fly-fishing lakers from 30' to 50+ feet of water.   I felt we were getting on bottom in upwards of 40' of water - but fish weren't super aggressive.   I had one follow from a sublegal salmon and that was it.   There have been some good conditions for deep water fly-fishing lately, but today wasn't one of the better days for it.   We did mark a lot of lakers from 35' on out to over 100'.  We dropped a few jigs on them with mixed results - overall the jigging wasn't bad.  We landed a few fish midday.    Stay tuned - we will keep at this laker stuff with the flies.   It can be done (and we have had some success with it as far as fish hitting and following.)   

Stopped by my friend (and favorite rod maker) Mike Canavan's place.  Plenty of perch were in shallow!    We're looking forward to the Red Cross Derby on July 10th and 11th.   It's for a good cause and it's spread out around the region, so things don't get too crowded.  

Seneca/Geneva 6/3:

Guided Dave, his wife Nadia and friend Bill out of Geneva starting at 4pm.   Dave has lived on Seneca Lake since 1969, so it was interesting learning about the fishery history from his perspective over the years.   Back in the 1970s after a milfoil explosion, Seneca became one of the top pike fisheries in the Country.   They disappeared very quickly by the early 1980s - same thing we experienced a couple years ago.  It was a fungus.   So the pike boom or bust is nothing new.  I'd always heard about the 1970s pike fishery on Seneca, but had never heard of the fungused up fish, so it was good to have some clarification from someone who noticed.  

The guys (and gal) wanted to learn the jigging technique so that's what we did.   We started shallow (25') and worked out.  I had bait and plenty of marks in 25' but we didn't convert any of them.  Lakers?  Trout/Salmon?  Perch?  I don't know.   Water temps were around 70 down that deep according to my probe.   We found weird water temps out there.  In some areas 48 degree water was down 70' or more, in others around 50'.    Maybe springs?  I'm not sure.  Maybe my probe was acting up.  

Dave caught the first fish in fairly short order.   Other hits/fish were missed by Bill and Nadia.  Overall fishing was tough - it was fun, because fish were chasing jigs on the FF, but they weren't committing.  Dave caught two more - jigging the bottom.    Everyone enjoyed seeing the technique work and learning the idiosyncracies.   I'm pretty sure we have 3 new converts on Seneca Lake!  Bill had one follow from a LL Salmon around 24".  They are on the N. end now.   Dave's been picking up some salmon and browns trolling further down the lake by his cottage.  The fish are pretty shallow - down maybe 15' to 25' over 50' or so if I remember right.  

Conesus Lake 6/4:

My regular clients the Hermans have a place not too far from Conesus/Honeoye Lake, so we've talked about doing a trip or two out there.   From what we found yesterday, we'll probably be there more often in the future!  

Conesus Lake can be a tough lake to fish.  Between it's clear water, generally well-fed fish and boat traffic, as well as endless weedbeds and nice points it isn't always an easy lake to find active fish.   My buddy Mike worked for DEC and did a walleye creel census here in the late 1990s.   He and another employee continually monitored the lake - checking all accesses and even doing fly-overs counting fishing boats throughout the year.  They checked the ice fishermen - day and night too.   They had a total of zero walleyes caught through the ice there that year.  

My best advice for fishing this lake is to start at night or at least go as early as possible.  The gamefish are tuned into the alewives and the alewives make fish do weird stuff, especially from mid-May through July, when the alewives spawn.  Pike will feed at night - which they usually aren't known for.   So we started our trip at 6 am, which meant I had to be up at 3:30 am and leave at 4.   I had to convince Eleonore that it was worth it.   I didn't get home from my Seneca trip until 10 pm or so - so I took the biggest hit on sleep!

We started at an area I've had good walleye fishing on.  We were hoping for an early walleye but I rigged most of our stickbaits (and other lures) with TyGer wire, just incase.  I didn't want them losing a pike of a lifetime.   Eleonore was working an alewife colored X-rap and after around 10 minutes she hooked a good fish.  After a good fight I slid the net under the massive largemouth.   It was probably around 5 lbs, though we didn't weigh it.  Very solid fish on an Xrap w/o wire.   A few more largemouths were caught.  Then John hooked a good fish on an alewife tube.   Luckily the 30" to 31" pike didn't break the 8lb mono!   The second place we fished yielded a 30" pike for Eleonore on the same X-rap.  This fish engulfed the stickbait.  No wire there, so we got lucky.  We kept this pike since it was bleeding pretty badly and the Hermans wanted a pike for dinner.  

The conditions stayed pretty fishy till around 9 am when the clouds/fog rolled out and the sun really started to hammer down.  The fishing slowed quite a bit for us.   We tried a few different areas and wound up on the N. end around noon.   John was really tired and started to dose off.   I took a few casts with a Rat-L Trap and wound up hooking a fish that woke John up with its jumps.  It was a nice chunky 26" Tiger Musky!   We got a couple photos, released the sublegal fish and by then John was ready to fish.   Eleonore landed another nice largie on a Senko and we wrapped up the day.   Good fishing.  Weeds were up, boat traffic down - now's the time to fish here.   Nighttime walleye fishing is still very good and some fish are being taken in the day - that was the report I got from a good source.  Once weeds get really high, the nightbite gets trickier.    Occasional walleyes to 10lbs are being taken here.   

Did a full day again with Jim from California/Alaska.   After seeing the diverse habitats available on Cayuga Lake Jim was interested in checking on some freshwater drum (and gar) fishing at Sodus Bay.   I let Jim know that the drum population in Sodus Bay/Lake Ontario has been depressed over the past few years due to die-offs associated with the VHS virus.  

We checked out some gar areas to start.  Water temps ranged from 73 to 76 degrees in the bay.  The water clarity was excellent and weeds looked enticing.  I'd imagine bass fishing is excellent.  No weed harvesting going on yet!    We did wind up finding some drum and a couple gar in a few different areas.  Fishing conditions were difficult for fly-fishing for much of the day, with strong westerlies and whitecaps.   The drum fishing was very humbling.  We did fish to some decent pods of drum without a follow.   Other fish showed interest in Jim's flies including lots of bluegills, pumpkinseeds, a white perch (rare these days but coming back) and a couple small largemouths.    Boat traffic was very light.   We had a good time - we were on fish and fished hard for them.  Drum are certainly a challenging and worthy adversary on the fly-rod.   Fishing should improve a lot as the drum population rebounds - hopefully over the next few years. 

Guiding has been busy as ever - actually moreso.  Here's what transpired over the holiday weekend:

Cayuga Lake 5/28 Dean's Cove AM:  Guided Matt C. and his dad Dave for a 1/2 day on bass/pickerel on the lake's N. end.   I picked them up at Matt's cottage and off we went.   Last year we had some great action on nice pickerel (which we are all fans of) and some chunky largemouth bass.  On the boat ride up I was surprised by the numbers of dead bullheads on the N. end of Cayuga Lake.    It seems like every year there's a die-off of something up here.   According to Dave, it was channel catfish (!) a couple years ago, sunfish/bluegills last year and carp on another year.   The northern portion of Cayuga is shallow and subject to extreme temperature variations.  These may contribute to viruses - I don't know.  

The first area we tried near Frontenac Island featured some clear water and nice weeds.  A few good pickerel were dropped.   We fished a bunch of areas near the Cayuga State Park incl. Canoga Marsh.   Carp really had a lot of water roiled up and not looking good.   Weed growth varied a lot.   Fishing was generally tough with a few perch hitting and a pickerel here or there.   Eventually we tried a favorite area of mine and we were all impressed by the great topwater bass fishing.  Matt landed a beauty over 4lbs and hooked and/or landed a few other 2lb fish.   Topwater action was great until we quit around 11:30 am.  

Cayuga Lake 5/28 PM:   After dropping the guys off I picked up Todd and Ken at noon, both of whom work together in Rochester.  We had a fun full day trip with some halfway decent lake trout jigging.  I figured the evening bite would pick up and after some slow PM fishing it finally did.   Todd had the hot jigging hand and landed his limit and had another up to the boat.   Ken hooked and landed a good fish on a reaper and missed a few as well.  Fishing never really got as hot as I hoped, but the guys worked hard and really enjoyed the jigging technique.  

I need to put in a plug for the Aurora Market - which is open daily from 8 am to 8 pm.  You can tie your boat right up to their dock.  They have great sandwiches and coffee too.  The chocolate cookies are the best I've ever had.   Highly recommended!   It's directly across the lake from Dean's Cove.  

Keuka Lake 5/29 AM out of Branchport:  Did a morning 1/2 day with Stan and Mike who joined me last year for some good jigging.   Long story short - it was a tough AM bite.  We started at 7 am marking fish deep and shallow.   We had some activity on the fish finder but no great shakes.  We had loads of fish in 165' of water, but just one short hit.   Shallow fish came through for us around 10:30 am.   The guys limited out using white shakers.   I am really impressed with the color of some of the Keuka laker's flesh.  They are bright orange - I think they eat a fair number of aquatic insects.   BTW - Our fish were LOADED with bait.  

Cayuga Lake 5/30 AM out of Dean's Cove:  Did a long 1/2 day trip with Matt, Zack and Frank.    Matt and Zack first fished with me during my first season guiding and came back on my second in 2006.   They now have a boat and are looking forward to doing a lot of fishing on their own.   We had a tough AM fishing.   We had to move a lot and work hard for our bites.   The guys each landed a fish with Matt coming through on the best one of the day.   Tough fishing but the guys fished hard and came through.  

Cayuga Lake 5/30 PM Dean's:  Finished the day with 1/2 day (another long, tough one) with Tim aka "The lamprey eater" and Michele.  Michele first booked with me in 2005 and has been coming back nearly twice a year ever since.   Tim joined us two years ago and the two of them got married on 5/29.   We had tough fishing but the evening bite came through with them each landing a couple good fish.    Tim's a special Ed teacher and has a great, twisted, infantile sense of humor - which is just like mine  ;-)  So after a busy week guiding we tend to get pretty sick and crazy with the jokes.  Michele is a good sport.   Needless to say, it was a fun trip and I wish them the best with their future together.    Fishing was best from 70' to 105'.  

Cayuga Lake 5/31 Dean's:  Did a full day with Jim - who joined me in April for some fun landlocked salmon fishing.  He also joined me on Skaneateles Lake for some lakers, bass and perch last fall.   He spends half his year working in Alaska and he's a fly-fishing expert and aficionado - so that's what we did.   We spent half the day trying to catch salmon and lakers on baitfish patterns.    Sinking lines and electronics were used.  Jim had a few follows from small salmon on the flies but nothing solid.  I had him do a few drops with a jig and he nailed a nice laker and two small salmon.  We were both amazed at the properties of the jig and how it attracts fish.   We did some brainstorming and have some ideas re: fly-fishing lakers and deeper salmon.   Stay tuned!

He wanted to try some warmwater stuff - so we set up at the N. end of the lake for gar.   We spotted a few, but fishing was hard - they weren't interested.  It was fun having a giant 4 to 5lb largemouth go after the hookless ropefly.   Pesky bass.  We did a little carp fly-fishing without luck.   We went back to the gar and found that the gar had activated.   After seeing a few follow Jim's ropefly I knew he'd be in business.   And sure enough he landed his first gar.   He had quite a few follows afterwards, some from nicer fish but no monsters.   We called it a day when T-storms started rumbling a few miles away.   Water temps were up to over 80 on the N. end!  

Guided Perry for around 6 hours today on Cayuga Lake.   The goal was to try to catch some pike.   Perry usually picks up some live-bait and sets up slip bobber rigs.   No luck today on the bait - which is getting harder and harder to find, so he did some casting.   Due to the calm sunny conditions I encouraged Perry to try checking out some laker jigging areas N. of AES.  Perry's mainly a pike/musky guy, so we didn't do a whole lot of jigging, but we tried some.  I did mark a lot of bait and some nice marks (of lake trout) and fish seemed to be moving for the jigs.   Perry had one momentarily.   So I'm happy with what we found and the jigging prospects out of Taughannock.   35' out to 75' or so seemed to be a good area to fish. 

We motored down the lake and set up for pike.   I had him casting deep diving Husky Jerks among other stickbaits.   We were encouraged to see a few pike along drop offs.   It didn't take long before Perry set the hook into a nice northern around 27" long.    We continued working a stretch of shoreline, but air temps were close to 90 degrees and fatigue got the best of Perry (and I was pretty darn tired myself after a mediocre night's sleep.)   So we called things a day a couple hours early.

After dropping Perry off, I motored back down the lake.  The Cottonwood Tree seeds are a minor nuisance this time of year.   I continued fishing where we left off.   Eventually I hooked and landed a nice smallmouth bass.   But fishing was clearly slower by 2 to 3 pm and the heat and fatigue got to me a bit as well, so I wrapped up.    Water temps are coming up quickly - they were around 58.   We did see a small school ("shoal") of landlocked salmon in one cove.   Fish ranged from around 15" to 17" from what I could see.  Plenty of bass and panfish are in the lower ranges of Taughannock Creek (and likely Fall Creek and Salmon Creek) for the shore anglers out there.   Most bass I spotted in Taughannock Creek were around 10" to 14" long.  

Got out with Andrew, Charlie and Eric for some laker jigging.    Bait and plenty of fish still surround the perimeter of Cayuga Lake - esp. on the west shore.   AM fishing was much slower for us than previous trips this week, but we wound up having a good afternoon bite.  Fish ranged from around 25" to 28" for us.    Bait moved in during the course of the day and by early afternoon baitfish were popping along the surface.    Fish became more aggressive as the day went on.

A friend of mine reported trout chasing in his bass lures - so there are likely lakers in 20' of water or less.   We will try to fly-fish these fish here and on Seneca over the next week or two!   I have purchased some new lines and deep sinking heads for this reason.  

Guided the Hermans for a full day.  Fishing was slow for us to start on the lake's north end.  There are good numbers of smallmouths around as well as rockbass.  A minor fish kill of primarily rock bass did occur recently on the lake's north end, likely due to some virus.    Working down the lake produced plenty of good sized - 11" to 14" (mostly 13" to 14"!) yellow perch.   John and Eleonore also caught around a dozen nice smallmouths (from 13" to 16" primarily) and 4 nice lakers to 20".    Fishing improved as the day went on.

Green pumpkin tube jigs fished on 1/4 oz jig heads did the trick.   Drop-shotting produced a rock bass and a jerkbait produced a smallie.   No rainbows or salmon in the mix today despite the favorable water temps (48 to 56) and winds.    We did best fishing deeper water - 17' to 24' with the jigs.  

Lake trout fishing is improving by the day.  Baitfish are moving in and lakers are aggressively feeding and moving shallower.   Best fishing has been early AM and late PM.

5/20:  Guided Tony for 1/2 day.   We had good fishing on lakers along the shoreline N. of Dean's Cove.  Most fish ran 23" to 27".   Best action was from 55' to around 90'.   Surface temps are in the mid to upper 50s.  Around 8 to 10  fish were landed if I remember right.

5/21:  Guided Aaron and Dave for the full day with Roy and his dad Ace tagging along in a second boat.   Fishing continues to be good - esp. in the AM, with my guys landing 10 nice fish and missing/losing a fair number as well.  No real slobs, but nice lakers all the way around.  I've never seen such clean looking lakers out of Cayuga - just gorgeous fish with nearly zero signs of lamprey attacks.   Water temps on the surface reached 64 in some places!  But in general they are in the mid-50s.  Plenty of bait was in close in the AM and late PM (when I did a little fishing on my own.)   Again - 50' to 90' or so was best.   There are likely lakers in shallower water too.

Fished Conesus Lake today with Tony.   We were out a few weeks ago on Cayuga jigging lakers.   He called and was interested in something different, like some pike fishing.    I've been spending a lot of time on Cayuga, Seneca and Skaneateles Lakes thus far this season, so a road trip sounded good - I suggested Conesus Lake, which I don't get a chance to fish a whole lot.    It's a good hour and 45 minute drive from me these days.   Anyways Tony agreed and we headed out at 5:15 am.   

We arrived around 7 am with calm conditions and sunny clear skies - not the North winds 5 to 10 mph and cloudy conditions with a chance of rain that I was expecting.   We worked a bunch of areas without much to show for it.   Tony had a small pike follow him in.  He had a Tiger Musky around 24" follow him in.    But fish were clearly negative.   We saw pike on the bottom of the lake buried in cover.   They weren't aggressive at all.  Even the panfish were lethargic.   I think the weather system had a lot to do with it.  

Bass are spawning and we saw plenty on beds.   Fishing was so tough that Tony wanted me to take some casts with a different presentation to see if anything was hitting.  I managed one 14" largemouth on a dropoff in around 10' to 14' of water.   Tony nailed a nice smallie on a shelf.    We saw another Tiger and a lethargic pike, as well as a ton of bass, panfish and bullheads with a few carp thrown in.   

We tried a lot of areas with very little to show.   But we never gave up.   After trying the south end weedbeds for pike without a hit we tried a windblown area (skies clouded up a bit and the wind came up out of the N. by around 1:30 pm!)    We were talking about leaving in about 10 minutes when I handed Tony a rod with 8lb test and an alewife tube jig.   After 5 min. of casting he hooked a fish and I saw a flash.   I thought it was a smallmouth bass, but he said it was a "good fish."   I knew right away it was probably a walleye, so I ran up to the bow and got the boat positioned so it wouldn't drift over the fish.  I grabbed the net too.   After a few good surges I got the net under the fish just as the hook popped out!   What a nice walleye!   It was around 26" long and weighed almost 7lbs!   I asked Tony if he was going to keep it and he asked me if I wanted it and of course I said yes!   A few casts later and Tony landed a nice 17"+ smallmouth.    Perseverence really paid off!  We never gave up till the last cast.   A 7lb walleye is a nice fish anywhere, but on Conesus Lake in the daytime while casting, it's a heck of a nice catch.  Especially when the pike/Tigers didn't come through for us.  

Water temps were 56 to 58.  Expect some good nighttime casting for walleyes here over the next 3 weeks at the very least.   Pike/Musky action should pick up too.   I'll be back here a couple more times over the next month and I'm looking forward to it.  

5/16 AM:  Got out with Stu and his GF Shannon for around 6 hours.   We had some halfway decent action around Long Point.   Fishing was steady and quite a few fish were missed/dropped.   3 nice lakers were landed up to around 28" if my memory serves me right.   We tried the Silos area and found bait there as well as some decent fishing.  

5/16 PM:  Got out with Ed and his nephews Tom and Chris (from Fla.)   We tried different areas without much happening.  We also searched the depths - finding a few chasing fish, but nothing aggressive.    Again, the Silos area came through with some very good to excellent fishing on nice lakers averaging around 25".   We had two doubles going which made for some excitement.   A fun laugh-fest was had by all!   Very good fishing...

5/17:  Guided Cy and Scott for a 1/2 day today.  NHL Fans might know Scott (Stevens) - he has quite a few "Greatest Hits" videos on YouTube.   He's currently an assistant coach of the NJ Devils and played for a few different teams, managing to win a few Stanley Cups as a player with the Devils.   Just a tremendous hockey career.  Check this out for more:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U7jUbKQYdw   I'm glad I was able to get him into some fish!  ;-)

Scott has a place on a lake up in Canada, and Cy - being a friend of his, wanted him to see the technique.   We started at Long Point without much happening.  We made a quick move up to the Silos area and started finding some fish.  Fishing wound up being quite good and the guys landed 10 nice lakers to around 28".     I'm looking forward to hearing how Scott makes out on the lakers up in Canada and in NJ on Round Valley Reservoir.   Nice guy and a fun trip.   

Skaneateles Lake 5/13:  I guided Peter here for the full day.   It was a weird weather day with fog and cool conditions in the AM, then the sun came out and burned off the fog, clouds rolled in.  The wind came up a little, then died - and so it went.   Pete had never caught a smallmouth bass before and within maybe 20 minutes he managed a gorgeous 18"+ fish.   A great first smallie!   A green pumpkin tube jig did the trick.    We worked areas along the entire lake on both shores.   He managed a few more chunky bass and a bunch of nice perch incl. a couple over 14".   No trout today in the mix.   They were definitely around, but we just didn't get into them.   One bass came on a stickbait.   The jigging technique I use takes practice and at times it can be tough feeling the jigs in deep water.   That may have played a part in the lack of trout.   Water temps are around 46.   Pete's a kindred spirit and I really enjoy conversing with him.   Last time he fished lakers and pike on Seneca, so it was time for something different.   All in all just a nice day spent on the water!

Cayuga Lake out of Dean's Cove 5/14:  Guided Jim and his 11 y.o. son Griffin today for 1/2 day.   We timed things perfectly - avoiding the rain in the AM and missing out on the strong westerlies that came up in the PM!    Jim's a fly-fisher but I recommended a laker trip since Griff would be with him.  Lakers are so strong and so much fun - it feels great to have fish that can really put a bend into the rod and rip out some drag.   Lakers (esp. this time of year) excel in that department!   Water temps are 47 - perfect for lakers!    We tried deep to start using the electronics.  Didn't mark too much.  Moving in shallow was the key - we found good #s of aggressive fish from arounc 65' out to 75' or 80'.   Fishing was very, very good.   Around 8 nice fish were landed incl. a monster 32" beast!  Just one of the biggest, girthiest lakers I've seen for its length.  It hit a 1 oz roundhead jig with a white reaper tail.    Great fight and we released everything but one mortally wounded fish today.    Expect to find a lot of shallower fish now, with water temps reaching the upper 40s and lower 50s on the surface!

Got out on the lake with my friend Capt. Craig Nels today.   We always have a lot of fun on the water when we go fishing together and today was no exception.   We met each other before I started guiding back in my Bass Pro Shops days.    The weather started out misty and cold - we could see our breath.   Can't say I'm surprised after living most of my life in Central/Western NY.  

The plan today was to fish Craig's style and patterns for a bit then do some of my stuff.  Water temps ranged from a chilly 40 to a chilly 46!    We started working a large point with sandy areas and scattered rock near deep water that Craig likes to fish.   After about 20 minutes or so I had a hit.  I made another cast into the 25'+ water with my tube and hooked a good fish.   After a twisting, strong fight Craig slid the net under the 28" laker!   My best Skinny laker to date!   It probably weighed around 6.5lbs.  Not a fat fish.  I released it unharmed.   We worked some more areas and Craig caught a very nice smallmouth around 18" long.   A rock bass and another smallie were also landed.

We tried another area I like with nothing to show but a big perch around 14".   We then hit one of my favorite areas and Craig scored on another solid bass using one of his favorite Oneida Lake tactics.   I like fishing hairjigs and tube jigs on this lake and over the next few hours with them we each landed 15"+ rainbow trout, another 1/2 dozen monster perch as well as some smaller fish, bass and a bunch of lakers ranging from around 16" to 20".   Fish got very aggressive later in the day.  The wind probably helped.

Craig wanted to check out another couple areas.  He has a Humminbird Depth Finder with GPS and side-imaging which is an awesome!   I rigged up one of Craig's favorite tactics - a dropshot set up and got into another nice laker - maybe 22" or better.    Craig's pretty psyched about the upcoming weeks on both Skaneateles Lake and his home lake Oneida.  I can't blame him - we're in for some great fishing!   Check out Craig's Guide Service and website at www.empirebassandbeyond.com/    As a side note, it was a lot of fun cruising up the lake at around 40 to 50 mph in his Ranger Bassboat.    It tops out around 70 mph!   There's no problem getting to where the fish are.... 

I managed to get out this afternoon/evening for 4 to 5 hours on Cayuga Lake.  I brought spinning and casting gear for pike and salmon.   I gave the pike fishing near the south end 3 hours and never raised a fish.   I think the bite was just "off" due to the water/weather conditions - I don't know.  I just didn't find/encounter any fish.  I worked a lot of shallow spawning areas and adjacent areas with swimbaits, jerkbaits, tubes and other tactics.  Tubes produced a couple perch for me.  By all accounts, perch have moved into the south end and mid-portions of Cayuga Lake in good numbers recently.    Water temps ranged from 46 to 48 - perfect for salmon action.  I spent the last 2 hours casting for salmon on the east shore.  I landed 2 small (sublegal) landlockeds on stickbaits.   

I expect pike fishing to pick up once we get some seasonable and steadily warming weather.   A homeowner told me he'd landed a beautiful pike last week on a live alewife he'd accidentally snagged while casting for trout/salmon.   I know there are some nice pike around to be had on Cayuga Lake!   The rain started coming down and it got darker out - so I called it a day around 8 pm.   I'd started around 3:30.   

I wound up cancelling all weekend trips due to high winds and I had Friday off anyways, so it was time to try something different.  My fishing buddy Mike has been trying to get me out to the Catskills over the past two years.   It's been hard to coordinate a trip with our schedules, but everything lined up just right this week, so we met on Friday AM at his place near Otselic.  

Mike's really the catalyst re: my fly-fishing.   He taught me the basics as well as a lot of non-basics in the mid-1990s and onwards.    He spent a few years (around 2005) living in Catskill and fishing the high quality trout streams there, his favorite being the East Branch of the Delaware.    So I had a guide - and on this river, it's a big advantage. 

Once we drove into the Catskills, it wasn't hard to see how people could fall in love with the area.   The vibe, the waterways, pine and hilly terrain reminded me of Alaska.   The pace of life is slower.   The reservoirs alone (NYC Water Supply) are incredible fisheries for big brown trout.   I was impressed by the photos at the tackle shop we stopped at.   

There are plenty of pull-offs along the East Branch and plenty of PFRs (Public Fishing Rights) along the river.  It's a fishermen-friendly area.   We stopped by one of Mike's favorite areas and got on our gear and headed down.  We didn't see any other anglers at the time.   We saw plenty of caddisflies as well as a few Hendricksons both flying (emerging) and drifting (spent - i.e. dead) down the river.   Mike explained what we'd be doing and handed me some flies.

I was glad to see that with all the lake fly-fishing and fly-casting I'd been teaching that my stream fly-casting was in very good shape.   The goal was to present dry-flies below us (a downstream presentation) with a drag-free drift.    It's very challenging.  You need to get into position above the trout - close enough to cast but not so close as to put the fish down (momentarily spook it.)   You need to be able to read the currents well enough (like golf) to decide where the cast needs to go, and how the fly is going to drift.   Then there's line management involved.  Letting the leader straighten out.   Feeding line into the drift.   Then there's the luck quotient - you can make a perfect cast, have a perfect drag-free drift and still not get a grab!    My sympathies go out to the Delaware guides!   If you can't cast well, you're in for a tedious day.   The water level was low, the flows are slow and the fish can really get a good look at the fly.  

We spotted a few fish rising and I gave it a few tries.   Mike thought I did a very good job, but no grabs.   We tried another pool and I told Mike to give it a go, while I grabbed my camera.   Mike made a few casts then got a grab!  Fish on!   After a spirited battle Mike beached the gorgeous wild brown trout - 15" to 16" of Delaware beauty!   

Downstream we found some more rising fish and we switched off - Mike grabbed his camera and I made some casts.   The fish were grabbing flies off the water violently.    Were they taking caddis?   I don't know.  I went with a Hendrickson imitation which is what Mike used.  After a few casts and some repositioning I made a perfect cast and got a grab!   This fish didn't fight like any brown I've caught.  It jumped high, at least 3 times!   Great fight!   I told Mike I think I had a rainbow, and it was.   They are supposedly fairly rare in the upper East Branch, but numbers are going up according to what I've read.   It was around 14" .   We released it after a quick couple photos.   Those fish were highlights of the trip.  Mike landed a couple small wild browns later.   I watched an angler land another rarity further downstream - a drop-dead gorgeous wild brookie that had to be 14" to 15" long!  What a fish!   The angler wasn't very adept at holding it for a photo, so he blew a rare opportunity, but I did get a shot of the fish as it started coming in. 

We had high expectations for the evening fishing, but the hatches dwindled and the amount of rising fish greatly diminished.   Mike hadn't fished the river in a couple years, so we weren't as in touch with the river fishing as we would've liked to be.   A couple days spent here in a row is the way to go. 

The amount of fishing we have in New York State is staggering.  Between Lake Ontario and it's tribs and bays, the St. Lawrence River, the Finger Lakes, Lake Erie, Champlain, the Adirondacks, the Hudson, Long Island Sound, Catskills, Chautauqua Lake, Oneida Lake etc...   You'd need to spend ten lifetimes here, and you still would be skimming the surface!  

We had a great time and will be back in a few weeks to fish the next big wave of hatches.    For great reports and info on the Catskill fisheries, check out our favorite Catskill Website:  www.baxterhouse.net      

Did a full day with Don and his wife Sharon, who joined us for 1/2 of the day.  We marked plenty of lakers but the bite ranged from neutral to downright negative with tough fishing for most of the day.   There were loads of fish in around 175' to 180' and we also spent time from 130' to 150'.    Don and Sharon each landed a laker and early in the day a few fish were lost/missed.   But a tough bite overall, likely due to the cold front.   The west winds were quite strong and we saw one other boat out fishing and that was it.

Some casting with stickbaits (incl. jerkbaits,) spoons and tube jigs yielded some pickerel action.   Don momentarily had hold of what was likely a landlocked salmon around 18" long.   He also had a follow from one.   Sharon ended the day hooking a big brown fish - a beautiful 18"+ smallmouth that was FAT and had to weigh at least 4lbs.   It was a fun trip and water temps ranged upwards of 53 degrees on the surface.    We never did mark much bait - though there was some deep.   

Guiding has gotten off to a fast start for me thus far this season and the fishing has really been very good.   Here's how things went:

Thurs. April 29th, Skaneateles Lake:  I had to postpone a laker jigging trip due to the high wind forecasts, so I was able to fit Tony in for some casting.    My schedule is actually fairly wide open, so I have plenty of availability, though certain weeks and weekends are fairly booked.   I'm not cutting back much on my guiding this year, though I will be doing less "lake hopping" (two lakes in one day) and less spreading out of 1/2 days.   Over the past two years I have been extremely busy and just getting too worn out at times.   No more 10  or more trips in a row for this guide!   

Anyways, winds were forecast to gust up towards the upper 30s to 40 mph out of the west northwest, which could be downright brutal.   We put on the raingear and decided to give Skaneateles Lake a good try. 

Out of the big Finger Lakes - Keuka is probably the most wind friendly.  Due to its high surrounding hills and its layout, this lake is fishable on very strong westerlies.   Winds do a bit of funneling on the FLs too, so that's always a consideration.  Some lakes like Canandaigua and Skaneateles are narrow in areas, so you can get a "wind gauntlet" which can make for some very rough boating.  

We chose Skinny because of the chance for rainbows/salmon and the winds blowing out of the WNW.    Conditions were good when we arrived.   My electronics weren't working too well though.  My flasher signal was weak and my Lowrance HDS wasn't working at all.   After checking the wiring I finally realized the HDS had blown a fuse - and I didn't have a spare (I had a few, but they weren't the right size.)   The flasher's transducer wire got pinched on my trolling motor mount.   By the trip's end the flasher wasn't working.   

I had a handheld thermometer and water temps were around 40 to 44 (N. end.)   Fishing went pretty well.   Given that one other boat was on the water and we ran down the lake, dealing with a lot of chop, I thought we did well.  Tony nailed 9 or 10 nice smallmouths on the day.  Most were in around 5' to 12' of water.  We didn't do much deeper than that - maybe a couple bass.    He caught 2 landlocked salmon in deeper water - one was just over 16" and one around 14" to 15".    A few perch showed themselves.  No rainbows or lakers.   We were constrained by wind and couldn't work some prime areas.   North end temps were better than I'd have expected and if I had the trip to do again, I might have spent more time up there.   Tube and hair jigs did the trick on the bass and salmon.  He cast some spoons and stickbaits in places, but the jigs were the ticket.   

Friday April 30th AM, Keuka Lake:   Guided Lou and his son Luke for the AM on Keuka out of Branchport.   Luke's mom Della arranged the trip a few weeks ago as a send off to Luke, who'll be deployed this week to Afganistan.   She wanted me to make sure they caught fish, so I moved the trip from Watkins Glen to Keuka.   After two to three days of very heavy winds, I wasn't 100% sure WG would be very fishable.  Deep lakers aren't affected much by day to day weather conditions, so Keuka it was.   Fishing was good to very good.  Luke had the hot hand and got his first laker within about 20 minutes.   Fishing was steady and by day's end the guys landed around 8 or 9 fish if my memory serves me correctly.   Lou missed/lost quite a few;  it wound up being Luke's day.    Water temps were in the low 40s.    Fish were mostly deep - around 140' to 165' or so. 

Friday April 30th PM, Seneca Lake/Watkins Glen:   Guided Ed and John, who've joined me on probably a 1/2 dozen trips over the past two years.   We were hoping for some salmon action.     Conditions weren't looking too encouraging at 4 pm when we got underway.   The light/variable winds turning to south were N. at around 10 mph.   The south end of the lake was pretty choppy, with most boats heading out of the canal turning around and heading back in.   I was optimistic.   I found an area to tuck the boat into and within around 10 minutes Ed had a salmon follow on a fly.   John might have had a hit or two but after an hour and a half of casting the guys wanted to head in for a break.  I tried a few casts with a flyrod and had a swirl on my streamer.  The fish were clearly in.   I motored them back in and went fishing on my own.  The lake was flattening out and conditions were looking great.  After 25 minutes or so and a few casts, they called, I picked them up and we resumed the trip.

Ed hooked a good fish that clearly wasn't a salmonid.  Turned out to be a clean looking 26" northern!   What a relief it was seeing a pike without ANY SIGNS of fungus or disease or lamprey marks! There is hope....   We tried another area - no luck, then went back to our primary area when John hooked a nice fish on a stickbait.   After a great battle with plenty of runs and acrobatics I slid the net under the salmon, which was the heaviest looking one Ed had ever seen.   It was around 24 3/4" long and boga-ed at 5.5lbs!   John kept his hard-won fish for dinner and we headed in.   Water temps reached the mid-50s on the south end and were around 45 to 47 uplake.   

Saturday May 1st, Cayuga out of Dean's Cove:   Guided Joe and his wife Ann-Marie for some lakers.    Joe likes to flyfish a lot, but we wanted to go with a relatively sure-bet that would get Ann-Marie into some fish and hopefully some big ones.   Fishing was very good for most of the day.  We found lakers from 130' on out to 160' or so - I should say that we didn't check much shallower or deeper.   This time of year there are likely some fish moving up into 40' to 60' or less, but the majority are still deep.   The guys did great - Ann Marie caught some beauties and Joe was impressed by how much the fish pulled.  The quality of these lakers in really unsurpassed in the region.   I know Hemlock Lake has some beauties, but for a lake accessible to larger boats, Cayuga is fantastic.  Next to no signs of lampreys on these fish!   They landed 8 or 9 nice lakers and dropped some too.  Fish ranged from 23" to 29", with most being over 26"!   

We tried some casting and fly-casting up north with a couple pickerel and a perch to show for our efforts before we headed south again to jig some more.  Fishing slowed in the PM and we headed in.   After dropping them off the sun came out and wind picked up.  Jigging was still good and I caught a beauty that will be smoked later today as I write this.   I got a phone call from Joe later and they wound up driving up to Skaneateles where they found a restaurant that cooked some of their catch!   He told me the fish were delicious!    I find fresh caught lake trout hard to beat.   They don't freeze well - so if you freeze them for a while and they taste bad (usually rancid,) you froze them too long.   Try them fresh if you don't like them - and I think you'll be impressed.  If you aren't, you probably didn't process or prepare them right, or maybe you just like bland fish.   I have tips in "The Chef" section of this website.  Click onto "About John" then click onto the chef.

4/24:  Guided the Hermans for the full day.   We'd been looking to set up a salmon trip and things finally aligned for us.   Fishing was good in Watkins Glen for salmon and a few bonus browns.  The Hermans cast spoons and stickbaits (mainly the former) and caught a couple browns (16" and 18") and a few nice salmon.   We kept one salmon and the smaller brown for dinner.  The larger brown came up with 2 lampreys attached.   The eels are still very common in this lake, but fortunately the fish appear to be doing alright.   We had a lot of follows and a couple lost/missed fish as well.   My buddy Mike was on the lake and they caught some good salmon and even a rainbow trout around 18" to 19".  

Fish are available pretty much lakewide - Mike contacted fish on both shores.    After the guide trip I spent a couple hours fly-casting and managed to land a couple fish, one being a gorgeous well-proportioned 26" salmon that provided me with an unforgetable battle.  I was lucky to land it by myself and quickly released the fish without a hitch (no photos either - I've given up on "solo photos.")  Other large fish were landed by nearby fisherman.  This lake just keeps producing quality salmon - if there's a better salmon fishery around, I haven't seen it...

4/25:  I guided Jim from California for the day on salmon.  He's quite the flyfisherman and caster and he joined me last fall for a decent day on Skaneateles Lake.   Fishing was slower today than on 4/24.  We had overcast skies and cooler conditions with rain.   We found a lot of fish jumping around - but many seemed inactive.   We tried different areas and tactics and Jim managed to score on 4 nice salmon - mostly 17" to 18" fish.   One had some gashes in its side - likely from a loon or cormorant.   One came up with a live lamprey attached.   The fish as usual fought and hit "BIG" - it was a lot of fun and the rain wasn't bad.   We had a lot of action - follows, swirls and boiling fish around the boat.  Fun fishing and not bad on the catching.   Fishing/boating traffic was nearly non-existent until around 2 pm.  Water temps at the lake's south end reached over 50 in places.   

Did a full day fly-fishing trip with Gordon, who has joined me on quite a few guide trips over the past 5 years.   He usually does pretty well with the fishing and timing of his trips and today was no exception.   Calm conditions this AM made for some decent fly-fishing opportunities.  Again - I'm not seeing many sizeable salmon on this lake this year, but there's good action to be had with some smaller fish.  Gordon had a lot of hits and follows on mostly sublegal fish.   He landed 4 or 5, plus one brown around 16" that we kept.  The brown was well-fed and stuffed with alewives.    Type 4 full sinking lines and intermediate lines did the trick today.  We used my bionic smelt pattern for the most part.  

Seneca is the place to be for salmon, but with forecast north winds around 15 mph +, I'm happy to stay on Cayuga!   Water temps in the main lake ran to 48 degrees.  We had 53 in Cayuga Inlet.   Very few boats were out today.   I expect decent salmon fishing on this lake in 2011.  Fall runs of brown trout in the tribs should be very impressive if we get ample rainfall. 

I grabbed the fly-rods and headed out at 11:15 am in search of salmon and brown trout.   I'm not finding a lot of legal salmon on Cayuga Lake thus far this year - I know they are out there, but they haven't been finding my flies!    The good news is that there are plenty of young 11" to 12" fish around.   We should see some good to excellent salmon fishing on Cayuga Lake over the next year or two.   Between Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, we're in for a great ride re: the Landlocked Atlantic Salmon fishing over the forseeable future!

I had a lot of hits and follows today from salmon - the "problem" is that they were all undersized fish.   These fish maim themselves when they hit.  After catching a few, I moved in search of bigger fish, but couldn't find any.  Warm water is what to look for and the cold nights and cool daytime temps aren't making the search any easier.   Fishing should pick-up throughout the weekend as daytime temps warm up.   Lake level was finally at full-pool today and water temps were around 43/44.   There will be plenty of opportunities on the Finger Lakes for good salmonid fishing over the next month given the still cool water temps.    I was the only boater that launched out of Taughannock while I was there.    

Fishing remains very good out of Dean's.   Guided Martin, his wife Nancy and their son John today.   Martin and John fished with me last year and Martin still holds my boat record lake trout with a monster he landed that was at least 36" and fat.    We found good numbers of fish between 140' and 175' today.  Plenty of bait was around too, mostly in the deeper water.   Around 7 or 8 fish were landed and a couple nice ones dropped too.   Fish were pretty active and aggressive and the weather was gorgeous.  Water temps hit 50 today and on the way back in we spotted a nice school of perch in around 15' of water give or take.  

On a related note, my buddy Mike and his nephew had some good laker jigging action near AES in around 110' to 130'.   He also landed a gorgeous, clean 5 1/2lb brown trout fly-fishing - casting streamers on a sinking line.   They had other follows on the trout/salmon too.    The prospects for massive Cayuga Lake browns haven't been better in recent (and not so recent) memory.   Between Cayuga's browns and Seneca's salmon you'd be hard pressed to find better salmonid fishing on any inland lakes in the State.    Just my opinion of course!  They had water temps ranging from the low to mid 40s.

I had a day off, so it was time to check on Canandaigua Lake for lakers.   I've been chomping at the bit to get out here since I got my deep jigging gear set up and my Lowrance HDS-5.   Last year I tried for deep fish but my electronics were sub-par and I didn't look deep enough.   This lake is a good drive for me (like Honeoye and Conesus) but I enjoy the change of scene from the usual Seneca/Cayuga on occasion.

The tough thing about guiding a lot is that a lot of the prime weather days get booked up!  So today I was originally looking at nasty conditions, but fortunately the forecasts moderated to partly sunny then cloudy with a chance of rain.   Cloudy, dark conditions aren't great conditions to fish deep lakers in.   Anyways, it took me almost 2 hours to get from Trumansburg to the Woodville launch and out onto the lake.   By 12:15 pm I was cruising up the lake watching my electronics as I rigged a couple rods.    As usual, I didn't mark much bait on this lake.  There was some around 140' and 170', as well as some scattered fish both high and low.   The sun was shining brightly when I took a random drop and had a fish come up for the jig.   I marked a few fish then dropped in a jig and had a half dozen hits as I brought the jig up.   Then the skies started clouding up and the fishing slowed considerably.   I marked a lot of fish.   I hooked and lost one very nice fish (for this lake) and lost one or two others.  But they had shut off - likely due to the weather. 

Despite not landing any fish, I was very impressed and enthusiastic about what I saw today and where I saw it.   There are a lot of lakers from 195' out to 215'.   I'll take the shallower ones!    I don't see myself doing much a lot of laker guiding on this lake since it's so far away and Cayuga, Seneca and Keuka have so much to offer, but I will be doing some - and I'm absolutely confident we will do very well here if we choose our days wisely.   H2O was 45 degrees on top.   The only other fishing boats I saw were chasing crappies and perch. 

Guided Jeff and Andy for the full day today.  Jeff's fished with me before and we've had some good action on lakers and pike/bass.    Today the lakers didn't disappoint.   Trollers had some great AM action.  Jigging was OK to start with a couple fish landed for us in short order.   The deepest water (175'+) is the place to be - though there are fish shallower.    Fish got more active as the day went on.   By 11 am the guys had landed around a half dozen nice fish to 24".   

We tried a couple areas for landlockeds and Jeff hooked one and had a follow.  It was nice to see a few salmon around on Keuka Lake.  Diary keepers started catching fair numbers of sublegal fish last year.   The fish Jeff lost was around 18".   Bass and pickerel were also around. 

After a couple hours of trying for salmon we went back to the lakers and they were hitting very well.  A few more were landed.  We wound up with 13 or 14 nice lakers landed and at least double that lost!   Great day!   H2O was around 44 max.     

The guiding has really gotten into full swing in a hurry this season and here's how things went:

Seneca/Watkins Glen 4/3:   Guided Ron and his son Matt for salmon.  This is their 4th time fishing with me over the past couple years and they have a knack for hitting thing just right!  Saturday was no exception.   To make a long story short, we found some warm water and the guys had some great fishing casting spoons and stickbaits.   A total of 13 nice salmon and 2 browns were landed.   All fish but one were legal, and all were released with the exception of 2 salmon that took the rear treble hook of the stickbait too deep.   The guys had a couple 23" salmon and a 24"er.   

These salmon fight BIG.  Steelhead fight great but proportionally - I've caught plenty of steelhead and what you see is what you get - a 4lber fights like a 4lber and likewise for a 14lber.  Salmon fight so "hugely" - it's a weird way to put it, but you put a net under a hot 23" landlocked salmon and you'd swear that it was a 26" fish - they just fight like it!   Just amazing fish - and they spend more time in the air sometimes (seemingly) than in the water!    

It was nice seeing a few (not many) people releasing some keeper salmon on Saturday.  Many people keep most of them, but I'm always impressed to see these gorgeous fish released unharmed.    Water temps hit 52 where we were fishing.   Trollers reportedly did well throughout the lake from what I heard.  

I saw a couple pike landed by shorefishers, as well as some salmon.    After the trip ended I grabbed my fly-rods and fished myself for 90 minutes.  The wind came up and fly-casting was doable, but tedious.   I had a nice follow or two from a salmon, but decided to grab a spinning rod.   I got a hit, and set the hook - snagging a lamprey!  It was likely on a fish that took a swirl at my spoon.  Next cast I landed a 26" landlocked salmon!   It got wrapped a bit in the line, so I was able to land and release it quickly.   Wished it hadn't got wrapped - I would have gotten a much better battle.  I was disappointed to land what appeared to be a beautiful pike around 30" and find it to be in great shape except for the tail - which was fungusy and rotten looking.   I sure hope the pike situation turns around on this lake, but it doesn't look promising.    Our salmon had 2 lampreys attached on the day and some fresh wounds.   The brown trout were not huge - 16" to 17" but fat and clean - in excellent condition basically.  Great day.  Photos to come soon! 

BTW I had a nice meal afterwards over at "Mr. Chicken" in Watkins Glen on Rt. 14.   Very reasonable and healthy stuff.  I recommend it if you're in the area.   And no, I don't get free chicken for the plug....

4/4 Cayuga out of Dean's Cove:   Met the Hermans at 8 am at the launch and off we went.  Fishing for lakers was fantastic - we were in around 170' of water - and even deeper at times.   The Hermans - John and Eleonore managed to land 19 beauties on the day.  Not a fish smaller than 25"!!!  That's Cayuga at its best - BIG fish and plenty of them.  This early season jigging has turned out to be one of the hottest patterns I know in the region.   The fish are really turning on and just monsterous.  They are pulling hard!     We took some nice photos which I'll put up soon.   We fished close to a full day - but the best fishing was from 8 am till around noon.  We released all but one.  Lakers in Cayuga are in good balance and we'll be releasing more fish than usual this year, though I'm looking forward to firing up the smoker soon.   

My PM trip was with Ed and his wife Kate.  Ed's joined me on quite a few trips over the past year and although the fishing slowed a bit, it was still good.   Kate landed her first, second and if I remember right, third lakers today.  All BIG fish.  Ed landed a few beauties incl. one around 31" to 32".  Great fighters and really nice fish.  We kept two and they were full of alewives.    Nice way to end a long weekend! 

This hot weather has really given people the "fishing fever" - and I consider myself "typhoid John" - here to spread the flu!    Here's the rundown:

4/1 Cayuga/Dean's:  No April Fools here - I did a 1/2 day trip with Bob and his kids - Andrew and Chris.   There was a good chop on Cayuga and things looked a little tricky to start.  I marked good numbers of lakers from around 135' on out.   This deep jigging was a little tricky to get a feel for, but I was optimistic given the weather conditions and the fish we were marking.   We fished hard and the guys each managed to land a good fish - lakers around 25" to 27".   We were all impressed by how damn hard these fish can pull.   These deep fish emerging from "hibernation" have a lot of energy!    Lots of bait was in around 120' to 140'.  

After the trip the winds died down and the bite really got hot!  I got out into upwards of 200' of water to test my new Mike Canavan "deep jigging special" rod.  I loaded my reel with 10lb Spiderwire XXX mono and went to work.   In 5 drops I think I landed 4 fish.  The bite was excellent.   No huge fish, but the lakers were fighting great.   It's funny, but I love fly-fishing for landlocked salmon, but landing large lakers in deep water early season is nearly as much fun - you can lean into these fish more than you can a salmon!   I was loving it.    My braid set ups also worked well for the deep fish, but the mono (despite not having the longitivity) certainly handles better.    The stretch required that I point my rod at the jig while setting the hook.  

I checked some northern flats for carp.  Found a ton of them murking up the water.   These fish are fishable, but I was hoping to find some fish to sight cast to.  The wind and lack thereof in some areas prevented me from doing this.   Perch guys were out in numbers.   Cayuga ALWAYS provides excellent perch fishing this time of year!   Just be prepared to do a lot of filleting!  For every 11" to 12" fish you'll catch 15 to 20 eight to nine inchers!  After carping I tried the late evening laker bite and managed to hook a few more!  They were really grabbing.

4/2  Keuka out of Branchport:  I saw a lot of perch guys out this AM on the Penn Yan arm as I drove to Branchport.   The parking lot was nearly full of trailers at 8:30 am when we got things loaded up.   I met Coleen and Kevin at the ramp and off we went.  Fishing was excellent!   They managed to hook a double or two.   We had great action and they filled their limit in around an hour and 45 minutes.  This for two people who'd never jigged before!    Coleen is a sharp woman and she figured out what worked best.  Before I knew it, she was nearly hooking a fish on every drop or two for a little while.  Just "in the zone."  We had fun and did some catch and release for a bit.

My PM trip was another 1/2 day with Bob and the boys.   Fishing was very good in deep water again - 145' to 175' or so.   Bob had a limit before too long.   I think he got his first fish on his second or third drop of the jig.   The boys had a lot of action and dropped a lot of fish.   It was fun - just "fish on" or "I got one" - throughout the afternoon.  After some coaching and going over techniques - plus a little bit of luck from the "Fish Gods" the guys starting boating fish.   We managed a couple more.  Bob wrapped things up with a nice one around 26".   

Keuka fish can be hard to hook at times since they run smaller than many of the other FL lake trout.  However, they are beautiful, tasty, wild and abundant - which is why we LOVE this lake! 

After talking a bit to Jeff Robins (biologist from the NY DEC) earlier this week I decided to give Owasco Lake a try today to see what I could find.   Owasco has been a bit of an enigma over the past year or two.   Air temps were very cold this AM, so I took my time and was on the water by 11:30 am.  A lot of boats were out - I think they were all perch fishing.  No word on the bite.  

There have been some excellent smelt runs on the Owasco tribs thus far this spring (during the warm spell we had.)  I started my laker search around creek mouths.  The problem was that the cold nights have the creeks spewing out very cold water - much colder than what would attract smelt and lakers.    So not surprisingly, I struck out there.   I marked a lot of bait (?) and possible lakers in the southern 1/3rd of the lake out from around 120' to 160' of water.  I'm almost certain that the baitfish were smelt.    If the marks were lakers, there were loads of them, but I'm skeptical of that.   I couldn't buy a hit on anything.  Fish didn't move for the jigs much at all - except maybe to avoid them!

I checked some of the usual winter/early spring areas where I generally mark alewives and lakers and didn't find much of anything!   It was very weird.    Surface temps are around 37.  I jigged using light tubes cast around shoreline structure - working out to 22' to 23' or more water.  I also worked 1 and 1 1/2 oz jigs in the depths out to around 170' - the deepest water I found.   Never had a touch!   I marked lakers but they were very negative today for me.  

Some interesting ecological things appear to be happening on Owasco Lake.   DEC netting this past summer showed more smelt than alewives.  I was skeptical of these findings - not that I doubt the DEC, because I don't, but simply because we've always marked plenty of alewives and never found smelt in laker stomachs here.  Keep in mind, that I've only fished Owasco Lake since 2002.    But I don't think I was marking many alewives today.  There were some, but they were scarce.   Alewives tend to show up as bait balls.  Occasionally I mark them stacked horizontally, but what I was marking today was all horizontal bait.   Charter Captains I've talked to have told me that smelt tend to "mark" horizontally.   They usually don't ball up significantly in a vertical manner from what I've heard.   Now I may be wrong on this.     From the DEC nettings and my observations today I have to believe that alewife numbers are very low on this lake.   I spent HOURS motoring through the depths from the south end all the way up to the north end and marked very little bait wise that appeared to be alewives - certainly no major schools.   I definitely marked some lakers from 100' on out.   But no major alewife schools.   It appears to me that a lot of lakers are feeding on smelt and these fish are concentrated in the southern 1/3rd or even 1/5th of the lake.    Of course, one person can only do so much.  It's possible that alewives were laying along the bottom of the lake or just in areas I didn't check out.  But over the past few years I've usually made an early trip out here and marked a lot of alewives deep around the Wykoff/Long Point area.  That area was pretty barebones, apart from a few laker marks.    

Smelt fed lakers - this could be interesting here.   Shades of Maine and the Adirondacks!   I think these lakers might get larger than alewive fed fish.   I'd also think the high smelt population here would keep natural laker recruitment down - which has been the case on Owasco for years.   I think Owasco is the only Finger Lake that has virtually zero wild lake trout.    Smelt movements will likely be different than alewife movements - since they have different temperature preferences.  Jigging may get harder too (we've worked hard for every jigged fish here over the past 2 to 3 years) though I'm sure we'll always have lakers on alewives here.   Alewives will likely bounce back soon as well, especially with the current lack of predators on this lake (there are walleyes and lakers, and very few rainbows/browns.)  I will be back here once water temps get into the mid to upper 40s.  Probably around mid to late April.   I don't plan on doing any laker jigging trips here until I figure out what's going on, and even then I may not!  We've had too many inordinately difficult trips here over the past 2 years.    Keuka, Cayuga and Seneca are all better bets for guided trips.  I'd rather do Canandaigua than Owasco at this point in time.  

Stay tuned - things will get interesting!  By the way - smelt fed pike get VERY BIG too.  So do walleyes....   

The weather forecasts turned out to be dead wrong for this weekend.   Today was supposed to be cloudy with some rain, it turned out beautiful - mostly sunny with light N. winds.   I wasn't planning on fishing so I did some other things, but after driving up the lake from Ithaca and seeing the great weather/fishing conditions I figured better late than nothing at all, so I got the boat ready and trailered over to Taughannock  and was on the water at 4 pm.  I was the only boat trailer in the parking lot!   

I found some warm water off the mouth of Taughannock Creek and some other outflows.   I didn't have much success fly-fishing.   But eventually I hooked a big fish on a sinking line.   The fish got off after a short battle, but it was easy to tell it was a good one - probably in the 20" to 24" range, but one can never be sure.    Cayuga Lake has come up a bit, so launching is easy.   Water temps are mostly around 38/39, but I had 45 off the mouth of Taughannock.   Fish are around, but they seem scattered from what I've heard.   Some stable warm weather should concentrate what's out there.   Some BIG browns have been caught this winter and I'd imagine some very large salmon are around too. 

Did a full-day trip with Mark I, who's fished with me on numerous occasions in the past.   We've had our share of tough fishing together and today was no exception.  It's very tough for Mark to pick his days since he's very busy with his work, so we often have to just go for it.   He's an avid fly-fisherman and excellent fly-caster - he's very perseverent too, which are the right ingredients for lake fly-fishing success.    I didn't think today had a lot of promise as a  landlocked salmon day due to the forecast cloudy conditions and lack of wind.  Ironically, the day turned out to be the opposite - we had sun, but the forecasted light westerlies morphed into a reality of 10 to 15 mph northerlies with gusts to 22 mph - not a great wind for the south end of the largest Finger Lake!  

Things started with promise as calm conditions turned into a light wind.  Within about 20 minutes of fishing Mark had a hit or two on the south end.   We worked the west shore - alongside probably 15 to 20 boats that were trolling.   Winds kicked up and we moved around a bit, trying a bunch of different things.  Eventually we wound up back on the west shore and Mark had a couple light grabs in a row.  Maybe a smallish salmon, who knows?   I watched Mark strip in a fly on a sinking line and saw a exceptionally clean, bright and large salmon beeline for his fly.   But the fish was too late, Mark was at the end of his retrieve and the fish turned around.   We fished both shores hard until the wind got even nastier, so we wound things up.  Water temps ranged from 39 to 46.   

An added note on fishing Landlocked Atlantic Salmon:    I've had a fair number of calls for these fish.   Keep in mind that fly-fishing and spincasting for landlocked salmon on Seneca, Cayuga and Skaneateles Lakes is not a "piece of cake" or sure bet.   I have yet to see another boat fly-fishing salmon on Seneca Lake!   Ever!    On some days, it feels like it is easy, but these fish are like steelhead - west coast steelies.  It takes a lot of persistence and a bit of luck to score.  My friend Mike and I put in a lot of hours over past winters (incl. this one.)  If we could catch one legal fish per person in every 4 hours, we'd be happy.  Our success rates are usually a lot lower when shore fishing in the winter.   And boat fishing can be tough too.   A great day on Seneca can really make up for things, but keep in mind - this isn't laker fishing.  These fish have fins and they use them!  They move a lot both horizontally and vertically and their activity levels change frequently.   We've got a lot of great salmon action ahead of us this spring - but if you must have action, and lots of it - there are going to be a lot of days when laker jigging or something else would be your best bet.  Impatient?   Forget salmon fishing with the exception of days with the best conditions.   

I'd just detached my boat and secured the cover on it last night when I got a call from Doug, who has a place on Seneca Lake and has been interested in getting out to learn some of the fishing opportunities and patterns.    So I uncovered the boat, re-hitched it and prepared for the kick-off trip of my 2010 guide season.  

More south winds, reasonable temps and no rain till late in the day sounded like a pretty sure bet for some good salmon action on Seneca.  But never underestimate the mysteries of fishing!  Especially on Seneca Lake.    I picked up Doug at his dock around 8:30 am with light rain and dark skies.   A few boats were out trolling and perch fishing.   I had Doug work a lot of good areas with spoons, stickbaits and a jig, starting where we left off yesterday.   We couldn't buy a hit or a follow!  Very difficult fishing.   Trollers did pick up some fish - though quite a few 13"ers from what I was told.   Water temps didn't change, but the lack of sun and large flume of mud from Catherine's Creek certainly impacted the fishing.  We tried a lot of areas - pretty much everything I could think of, without any sign of fish.   Most boats (incl. perch guys) were off the lake by 1 pm, if not earlier.  So I think fishing was pretty slow all the way around.   There are loads of baitfish in upwards of 300' of water on this lake now!    I also marked some lakers, but I felt the best bet for our 1/2 day was to stick with the salmon fishing.   

The Seneca Lake fish Gods were very good to me and my buddy Mike today.  Fly-fishing for landlocked salmon is my favorite type of fishing to do.  Same with Mike - and he spent at least 6 summers in Alaska!   We've spent quite a few days this past winter trying various shore spots (that I don't mention due to privacy issues) and out in the boat - with fairly poor results.   January's trip on Seneca with the boat frozen to the trailer and both floating off the ramp was pretty typical.   We've paid our dues.  BTW - Trollers have been catching a lot of salmon all winter on Seneca and some guys have reported 40 to 50 fish days.   These fish school heavily and feed recklessly, so it's possible, but to me the fun of salmon fishing is feeling the rock hard hit, then fighting the fish as they go crazy with jumps and wild runs.  

Things will get interesting over the next decade as the State switches salmon strains.  These Little Clear Lake strain fish have a tendency to school heavily - they don't disperse very well.  So oftentimes when you find one, you might find a dozen or a few dozen or even more.   The new strain - I think Sebagos, originally from Maine do not school quite as heavily from what I've read.   So we'll see what happens.  I like the Little Clears - they've done quite well.    

We picked up a few salmon in the morning in around 50' to 60' of water.   A month ago a lot of them were out over 100' to 150'.    My bionic smelt fly did the trick.  We used intermediate and sinking fly-lines with the Intermediates producing the best results.   We worked some different areas then I hooked a nice fish around 20".   After landing the fish we saw a few more swim by!   Schools in!   After that we were treated to hours of top notch fly-fishing for salmon up to 23".    I think we landed 15 or 16 nice fish and missed/lost another 20 or more.  It was fantastic - a lot of fun.   The fish were feeding heavily on young of the year alewives along with some older ones.   We each kept one fish for dinner.   3 fish came in with small lampreys attached to them.  The lampreys are Seneca Lake's Number 1 problem.  Salmon seem to thrive here and do better year in and year out than in Cayuga, which appears to be boom or bust over the past decade.  But Cayuga's lampreys are under control.  Treatments have been carried out on Seneca recently - hopefully they'll show results over the next few years.  

Water temps were generally around 39, but we actually found some water over 53 degrees!  No luck fishing it though.   Some anglers were picking up perch.    

There are good reasons to fish in the winter and there are good reasons not to fish.  My first really accomplished fishing buddy Terry didn't care to keep his boat out all winter - he winterized his.   Not a bad call sometimes.  

My buddy Mike and I arrived at Watkins at around 9:15 am with 21 degree air temps.  The skies were sunny and the wind was light out of the south.  We took our time getting the boat ready.  As we prepared to launch Dave Wood (who runs open bass tournaments during the summer) pulled in and said hi.  He launched ahead of us without too many problems - a little skidding on the ramp was about it.  

We tried launching around 9:30 but my boat was frozen on my trailer bunks!   I backed in far enough to literally float my trailer (that's just how frozen it was) with no luck.  After 10 to 12 minutes of trying, Mike finally shook the boat off the trailer.  The ramp had a little ice on it, which made for some scary moments, though it really wasn't that bad.

Lesson #1:  Make sure to bring a shovel (that can break ice) and some sand or salt to the boat launch.    A buddy also helps, so the boat can be rocked off the bunks.

Once launching I warmed up the motor a bit and eventually the water started spewing out of the frozen water jet.   Good.

We headed up the lake with beautiful conditions.  It was worth it after all!   We set up in deep water (around 200') with our fly-rods and drifted up the lake.   Fly-fishing landlocked salmon in 200' of water, far away from any structure is a leap of faith.  You just "gotta believe."   And I do.  I believe I can look at the water with confidence that we'll run into some salmon.   And within 10 minutes I had a good hit.   Although our hands were freezing (it was still around 21 or maybe 24 degrees out, with wind and we wore no gloves) the fish gave us some energy.  

The fish didn't come back, but 10 or 20 minutes later Mike felt a grab and kept stripping - "fish on!"   Then his line broke and I watched a gorgeous chrome landlocked salmon around 23" to 24" long and maybe 4lbs or better careen into the air.   We weren't sure why the 10lb test leader broke - maybe knot fatigue, wear or just bad timing on the hook set.   Our predicted 5 to 7 mph south winds cranked up to around 10 to 15 mph with higher gusts.   We tried another drift but it was getting hard to strip the flies in fast enough - esp. given that my fly-line was tangling a bit.   We tried another area, somewhat out of the wind and I had one follow.  But we had no grabs.  Time flew by and before long we only had a couple hours left and headed back to spot #1.   I got hit again, but didn't hook up.  Hit twice actually.   We drifted a couple more times and I got hit again and again - out over 210' of water - but I just couldn't connect.  The fish weren't coming back and I wasn't hooking them for some reason.   Mike used a smaller fly with a hook in the back (a tube fly.)  I used large streamers and a RIO Deep 7 sinking flyline.   A switch to a smaller streamer didn't help.  Color didn't seem to matter - fish hit white and chartreuse.  

So it wound up being a fun day - we had some action (enough to keep us fishing hard) but no fish landed.   Such is the life of a lake fishing salmon addict.   Water temps were 40 degrees.  We saw 2 other boats out there (total) on the day.   We'll be back!

For those of you who bypass the homepage to read the reports: 

FINGERLAKESANGLINGZONE.COM bumper stickers are available!  They are black with block yellow lettering - very nice!    I also have some funny "no trolling" stickers (ovals with "trolling" crossed out in red,) FLAZ ovals and Jigging Addict/No Trolling stickers.    If you enjoy the site, please help me spread the word.   Over the past year and a half I've had well over 40,000 hits on this site!  During the season around 80 to 130 hits a day is average, which to me is way more popular than I ever expected the site to be.   

Stickers are FREE - just email me your name and mailing address and I'll get some out to you over the next few weeks.

Thanks,  John

Fished from 8:30 am till around 4 on Cayuga today with my buddy Mike.   We were on a mission - we needed lakers in order to 1.)  Have fun and 2.) Get some fillets for the smoker.   There aren't too many things in life that are better eating than smoked lake trout.  And the lakers cooperated.  Fishing was slow to start - we worked from 90' out to 150' N. of Dean's on the mainlake flats.  Mike had a grab from a suspended fish over deep water.  The winds were nasty and only got worse.    We moved towards Long Point and started marking a lot of fish from 80' out to 110'.   Action was best when the sun was shining and we managed to limit out by 2 pm.   We landed 7 and missed/lost a few more.  Nothing huge, mostly 24" to 27" fish.   We used 1 and 1 1/2 oz. jig heads.  Fish came on white tubes and flukes and one was hooked on a shaker.    

After the laker fishing we chased some perch in a lazy way - using an anchor.  The brunt of the wind pounded our boat, but around 1/2 dozen or more perch cooperated before we called it a day.  We didn't work much - just anchored, relaxed and lit a cigar or two.  Water temps were 47 degrees.    

Guided Florian and Ellyssa, two NYC residents who'd never fished before.   We met around 10:30 am for our 1/2 day.  They picked up the jigging technique without many problems and wound up landing 8 legal lakers.   I cleaned a limit and found that some fish had spawned, some were likely still spawning and some were pre-spawn.   I marked LOADS of lakers, so many I took a photo of my depthfinder - just crazy amounts of hooks!  

I did some jigging after the trip and picked up a nice 18" smallmouth on bottom in around 60' to 80' of water!   I also caught a few perch on minnows in the hour and a half  I had after the trip.    Water levels are low;  I think the temp was around 48/49.  Beautiful day out there! 

11/25 Seneca/Watkins:  I fished from around 10 am till dark using fathead minnows.   Perch fishing was very slow.  I worked around 4 to 5 good perch areas with one light hit.   They certainly didn't want my minnows!   Next time I'll try some other stuff.    I managed to land a couple chunky 16 1/2" smallmouths and even one landlocked salmon around 13" or so.    Reports are that smallmouth bass fishing has been pretty good in general, though slow since Monday.   Bass range from 10' to 40' from what I've heard.   Water temps were around 49.   Next time I'll be hitting midlake areas.   

11/26 Skaneateles Lake:  It's nice to see the State Launch still open.   Rumor has it the DEC may keep the launch open longer in the future.   Let's hope that's the case - after all, some of the best fishing here occurs from late fall through early spring.    We saw two other trailers in the launch on this Thanksgiving Day.  One boat was duck hunting.  My buddy Mike and I started by perch fishing.   We found fish right off the bat, but none of the 14" perch I'm used to encountering on my jigs.   We caught some Cayuga sized fish - mostly in 20' to 30' of water near the launch.  

Later on, Mike did some fly-fishing for rainbows while I casted jigs.   He landed a hard fighting 15" beautiful bow and a nice bass on the flies.   I landed two nice lakers - a 22" fish and a 19"er.   We did some more perch fishing way down the lake without great results.  Midlake areas produced more perch and bass (near 5 Mile Point.)     All in all, a fun day with good action from perch ranging in size from downright dinks to around 12" - with most fish around 8" to 11".  We had around 15 to 20 keepers and probably another 10 to 15 throwbacks.    I still can't fault Cayuga for some excellent perch action, though Skinny is also excellent.    By the end of the day I was working 40' of water and started hitting some good fish.  Next time....

Fished Cayuga for perch again today starting around 8:30 am.   The winds were strong this AM out of the south, which made for tough conditions.  I found scattered perch from around 7' to 20' of water.  Nothing special today - I landed around 20 to 25 fish with only about 10 being 8"+ keepers.  No fish much over 11".   I did catch a couple largemouths and a few bonus pickerel as well.  Water temps up N. were around 47 to 49 degrees.    Double hook minnow rigs did the trick.   I'll be focusing my perch efforts more on Seneca from here on in.   It dawned on me that 3 or 4 Seneca Lake perch would equal or surpass the amount of fillets I got from the 10 Cayuga fish!    But Cayuga is consistent and fun.  We've caught a lot of our Cayuga perch in the hour or so before dark - today I had to be off the water earlier, so I'm sure I missed out on some good fishing.   I quit around 3 pm.

Guided Kara and her husband Eric today for lakers.  Fishing was generally very good.  A lot of hits were missed to start, but once the ice was broken the lakers started coming!   7 nice fish were landed to 23"+.   We marked loads of fish, especially from 90' on out to over 130' - but we mainly just fished from 90' to 110' or so.   Cleaning the fish revealed that they still hadn't spawned.   Two of six fish kept had bait in their stomachs - one had a smelt.   It was a fun trip - they are both excellent swimmers and Eric's a College swim coach - so I learned a lot.   H20 is around 50. 

After the trip I spent an hour or so searching for some perch.  I caught a few from 10' to 23' or so.    Perch fishing is reportedly quite good (I'd expect that to be the case in all the Finger Lakes right now.)

Got out for some perch fishing with my buddy Mike, who incidentally did well fly-fishing for pike yesterday on Cayuga.   We worked a bunch of areas on the west shore.   Perch fishing was very good once we found them - in 4' of water!   We landed at least 50 fish, around 30 to 35 keepers (9"+.)  A couple largemouths and large pickerel also were landed.   Double-hook minnows worked well.  We actually ran out of bait today - there were a lot of dink perch in the mix.  

We did a quick check on laker flats near Aurora/Willets.  We found a lot of bait from 130' to 160' or so, and some laker marks - though we didn't have time to fish them much.   There are also lakers shallower.  

A funny story I forgot to mention from our last Cayuga perch trip.  I was working around 20' to 25' of water with double-hook minnow rigs.  I was reeling in my rig and I felt a light hit or two.   As I lifted the rod - raising the minnow rig out of the water I saw a huge "fish" rapidly following it in.  It looked like a big white rainbow trout or salmon - maybe 3' long!   And deep - 17lbs or better if it was an ounce.   Then the "fish" crashed the surface and took off.  It wasn't a fish at all - I had a large white LOON chasing in my minnows!  Swimming for them!   I'm glad I didn't hook it, but we had seen the loon working the area.   There's a first for everything....

I fished with my buddy Mike over the last two days.  We launched out of Taughannock on Saturday armed with our fly-rods and some gear - the target being northern pike.   Calm winds aren't great for pike fishing, but that's what we had.  We started before 7 am and fishing was difficult at best.   Scattered floating weeds made fishing the east shore tough and the lack of wind hampered our fishing on the west shore.   Water temps were around 50/51.   We persevered and conditions changed during the course of the day.  I picked up a 30" healthy looking northern on a fly midday.   We had follows on tube jigs from small landlocked salmon (15"-) fish.   That's a good sign for future fishing.   Mike missed a couple good hits - likely pike.   We fished the entire day and 1/2 hour before dark a 37" beauty nailed my X-rap on the east shore.  We got some good photos before releasing the fish.  The pike were fighting SUPERBLY - just in peak form!  Great surges and drag ripping runs. 

Today we grabbed our perch stuff and launched out of Dean's Cove.   It was an interesting day.   We never found many perch in my area from last week.   Deep water produced a 12"+ jack and a nice pickerel.  Cayuga has big perch and there's no doubt in my mind they are located deep this time of year - at least a lot of them.   IMO the smaller (yet still eating size) perch are shallower and readily available - so that's where people spend their time.   We marked a fish off the bottom in 50' of water.  Mike lowered his minnows and found he had a fish on when he brought them up.  Laker is what we thought, but unbelievably, it turned out to be a nice pickerel!   45' over 50' of water!   Working around 15' of water near Frontenac Island produced a bunch of perch for us and another pickerel.  A west shore area produced more (and nicer fish) plus a bullhead.   10' to 45' of water is where all of our fish came from, with 15' to 20' generally holding most fish.   I have no problems filleting 8" to 9" perch, and Cayuga delivers.   We took home around 34 perch and let go another 15 or more.  Double hook rigs with fatheads worked best for us, though we didn't try much else.  

Trollers reported good laker fishing over the weekend in around 120'.   The weather was great and water levels still good for easy launching.   Boat traffic was low.  

Skaneateles  11/8:   I've been putting a lot of miles on my truck and hours on my boat lately, making pilgrimages to Skaneateles Lake.   On Sunday I rode down with Jim from California/Alaska for a day of fly-fishing.   Conditions were as tough as they generally get for the lake - it was sunny and there was very little wind.   In the fall this isn't a "skunking sentence" but it still can make for very difficult rainbow trout fishing.   Jim's an accomplished fly-fisher and had his best luck using either a long sink tip (I think it was 24') or a full sinking RIO Deep 7 line.    Fishing wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either and Jim managed to land a few lakers, some nice bass and some perch on the fly.    Water temps are hovering around 51 degrees.  Jim was an absolute pleasure to spend a day with and he regaled me with some great tales of Alaskan fishing adventures.   

11/9:  Today I did a full day with Jeff K from NJ.   He's fished with me a bunch of times before - including earlier this year for pike on Seneca and lakers on Cayuga.   Our Seneca trip was our best pike fishing of the year on that lake.    For today, we brought fly-fishing gear, but wound up sticking with the jigging.    Fishing started out very slow and my two favorite areas really didn't produce much.   We worked a few other places and found a heavy concentration of active lakers and some nice 10" to 14" perch.    Bass were also in the mix.  Jeff wound up with a nice mixed bag of big perch and lakers for the frying pan.    No sign of rainbows today for us, but had we fly-fished I think we might have hooked some.   Lakers and perch ranged from 5' to maybe 30' of water.   Another fun day!    

Both days featured gorgeous weather!  Air temps pushed over 64 degrees today and the sun shone on both days.    Who says November fishing has to be uncomfortable?     Plenty of dates remain open in November.  Think pike, bass, trout and salmon!  On days I'm not booked, I'll be out on the water.

Cayuga Lake 11/5:  I was kind of surprised when I got an email from Beth inquiring about November fishing this past week.   Her 12 year old son Sam loves to fish and they were in town for a visit.  Most trips I've done in November are booked with hard-core fishermen - guys that ice-fish or steelhead fish.  The Carhart gang!   I rarely book trips with mom and her son - period, and never for a cold day in November!   But there's a first for everything. 

Beth got the trip off to a great start IMO by offering me a burger and some fries from 5 Guys (a place I've wanted to visit since it opened in Ithaca.)  The weather was cool and rainy to start.   Sam has fished on party boats before and was a very good caster.   I showed him a couple jerkbaits and he had no trouble learning to fish them.   He was a little bit impatient but he stuck with the program.  It didn't take long before he caught a northern pike around 29" long!   I was very disappointed to see the fish looking pretty beat-up.  The fish was thin and bleeding from its tail and body.  Very reminiscent of the viral infection (likely VHS) that we've watched decimate Seneca Lake's incredible pike fishery.  

In a different area, Sam landed another pike around 30" - a nicer looking fish, but it still had a couple red blotches on its side.  More VHS symptoms.  I'm not saying we definitely have VHS in Cayuga and Seneca Lakes - but it was apparently detected in a fish in the Seneca-Cayuga Canal a few years ago.  It's pretty obvious to me that we have it, and it's affecting the pike in both lakes.   What's the saying - if it smells like $%&@, looks like #$%@ and - you get the picture.     But the 2nd pike was a nice looking fish overall - not as thin as the first one.

As soon as we released the 2nd pike Sam hooked another one on the very next cast!   And what a fish!!!   I knew it was big, but it barely fit in my Super Magnum Cabelas rubber net!  Actually, it nearly jumped out!    It was a 37" HEALTHY looking thick bodied pike!    What a beauty!  We took some photos and released the fish.   And that was it on the afternoon.  The ride back was brutal - a front came in and air temps were frigid plus we got pelted with rain that felt like BBs.    Nasty!   I received an email from Beth - Sam is still in disbelief that he caught such a large fish and Beth still feels cold from the trip....

Skaneateles Lake 11/6:  To say it was cold this AM was an understatement.  Skaneateles had white-outs last night and there's still snow on the hills overlooking this gorgeous lake.   Ron and Matt (who've fished with me twice before on Seneca Lake) joined me for a full-day on the lake.  They are outdoorsmen and were dressed for the weather.    Fishing started out slow.  We had one follow from a rainbow and some missed opportunities.   At around 10:30 (we started at 8) the fish started hitting for us.   Ron caught some very nice 12" to 14"+ perch.   Bass too.   One rainbow followed Matt's stickbait.   Then the lakers started hitting.  By the time the day was over, Matt had landed 11 nice lakers - from at least 4 to 5 different areas of the lake.   The best fish was a drop-dead gorgeous 24" rainbow trout that Matt nailed on a tube jig.   We released the fish after taking one very quick cell-phone photo.   It was a picture perfect bow!   Great fight too.  One other rainbow was hooked.    The docks are out and launching isn't super easy, but it's not too bad.  I use boat bumpers and do some tightrope walking.  Water temps ranged from 48 to 51.   We saw one other boat on the lake all day long!  It's quiet out there and will only get quieter once shotgun season for deer opens up.  

Yesterday I bought a few dozen fatheads and got my perch gear ready.   My buddy Mike and I were going to fish Cayuga last Monday, but decided on Seneca at the last minute.  Today I fished solo and decided to fish Cayuga and I'm glad I did.   Lake levels are still decent, though the lake is dropping.  Water temps were at 52 degrees.   I worked the east shore of the lake from Aurora up towards Frontenac Island and found a concentration of perch.   The perch action was excellent, and I was surprised at the number of quality 11" to 12" fish I caught - these fish were very reminiscent of Canandaigua Lake perch or Seneca fish.   The lake is still loaded with 8" to 9" perch, but I've decided I can fillet them!   I probably caught around 45 perch - but only around 17 to 18 were good sized fish and only 4 to 5 of those were around 12".   I kept another 10 that were hooked deep - mostly 8" to 9" fish.    I had a lot of doubles.  The minnows worked well as did some Sliders and tiny tube jigs.   Best fishing was from 20' to 25' of water.   I also hooked a couple nice sized bonus pickerel - landing one around 24" and I landed a fat 17" smallmouth.   It was fun mixed bag angling and I'd gladly go back in a heartbeat.  The fun thing about Cayuga's N. end is you never know what you may catch - any cast can result in perch, small and largemouth bass, pickerel, pike or even a salmon, brown or lake trout.  

Cayuga really is a terrific perch lake - at least in terms of numbers.  Day-in and day-out, if you want fillets it's tough to beat Cayuga.    Seneca is boom or bust and most people that do well are on the lake constantly or fish with someone who is - but even then, it can be difficult, and you have the weather to contend with.  Getting a limit on Cayuga isn't hard, but they are small - but at the end of the season you'll go 10/10 on Cayuga, vs. God knows what on Seneca.    The biggest Cayuga perch rival the biggest Seneca fish - both lakes have yielded 17" to 18"+ perch.    

The Sliders really impressed me.   I fished them on double hook rigs using loops.   5 years ago when I worked at Bass Pro Shops they were the rage for Seneca and Canandaigua perch fishing.    I bought a bunch but hadn't really gained confidence in them.  Since I was into a lot of fish today, I started using them.  I was amazed - when the schools were hitting well I was able to cast them in, put my rod down and watch the tip bounce - just like using live bait!   You can cast and drag them or fish them drop-shot style.  I did both and caught plenty of perch and one big pickerel.   Who needs live-bait?   I do enjoy the baitfishing though, since it's relaxing and I can kick bait and enjoy myself, letting the bait do the work.  

I'm completely booked this weekend from Thursday through Monday, so there will be plenty of new reports!   It's like July all over again....

After getting some truck maintenance done at LeBrun Toyota in Canandaigua, I headed down to Woodville around 9:30 am.   Despite living 60 miles away from my dealership, I still get my truck work done there, so I have a good excuse to tow the boat over to Canandaigua.   My good clients the Hermans have a place nearby and they told me that they'd like to fish the lake, so I arranged to meet them at 12:30pm

The lake conditions were downright nasty, with very strong south winds - probably blowing a straight 20 mph and gusting into the 30s.  Tight 2' to 3' + waves and whitecaps right on the south end.   I checked a few areas for smallmouths and really liked what I found.  I had a lot of follows on jerkbaits incl. a school of nice fish.  I made sure I only stung one (a 17"+ fish) since I was pre-fishing for the guide trip.  H2O was around 54.

I called the Hermans to suggest cancelling the trip, since the winds were so strong, but they've "turned a new leaf" and decided to start fishing some more trying conditions (dramamine also helps!)    Unfortunately for whatever reason, the smallies weren't to be found.   The wind shifted slightly and the sun disappeared, which apparently made a difference.  They landed some nice perch and dropped a bass or two, but there was no sign of the large numbers of fish I'd seen earlier.   We tried a few other areas w/o luck.   The nice thing about this lake is that there are still plenty of lush green weeds around.   Despite the strong wind, John managed to land a beautiful 18"+ largemouth on a spinnerbait near the south end.    All in all a very tough day, but we made the best of it.  An earlier start would have really made a huge difference in the smallmouth fishing - there were a lot of bass around!  Calmer conditions would have allowed for some laker jigging - I marked some of those too.

After the trip we met for dinner over at Poor Richards - basically a stone's throw from the Woodville launch.   I was knocked out by the food, the service and the prices.  It's a perfect place to eat after a full (or half) day on the water.  The food is traditional American stuff, nothing fancy (casual dining a step up from a diner)   - I had roasted turkey with mashed potatoes and stuffing.  I subbed some NE Clam chowder for my salad and had my fill of coffee and a choc. shake - all for an incredibly reasonable price.  I highly recommend this place! 

Skaneateles 10/23:   I was on the lake most of the day from around 10 am till dark.   Fishing was good - not great, but steady for smallmouth bass and yellow perch.   I landed one rainbow trout around 17" casting hairjigs, and I missed another on a tube jig.   Fish still appear to be off dropoffs for the most part - I didn't encounter many trout moving up yet, though some certainly have.    At 2 pm I picked up the Hermans and we headed back out.   John got into some nice bass while casting tube jigs - we were positioned in 40' of water and he was casting towards shore, working the jigs back.  A fish just shy of 18" and a 17"er made it to the net (and were released.)    Some nice perch and a laker were also caught using tubes and hair jigs.    H2O was around 55 - so the cooldown momentarily has slowed.  

Keuka 10/24:  I guided Mike and his friend Mark for lakers.  We jigged the bluff area and fishing was very, very good from the get-go.  We were the only boat out jigging that I could see at the bluff area.   The guys landed a bunch of lakers - probably around 14 or 15.   That was great.  The fishing slowed for an hour or so, then on a Shaker jig, Mike hooked a big laker under the boat - down maybe 30'.   I got a glimpse of it and figured it was 7 or 8lbs - since most Keuka fish are somewhat small.  But it was much bigger and barely fit into my Cabelas Super Magnum Rubber landing net!   It was over 32" and much fatter than the 32" 12lb fish I landed years ago on Seneca.  This female was clearly loaded with eggs and possibly bait.   Mike couldn't even roll the fish in his hands for a photo.   We took some good shots and released the slob unharmed (it jetted towards the bottom.)    Beautiful fish and it was a great way to end the day.    Bass fishers I talked to reported excellent smallmouth bass action.   Perch are also hitting well.  

It's been nice having some days off to go fishing.   I used to fish Lake Ontario a lot for smallmouth bass, mostly during the recent heyday from the mid 1990s to the early 2000s.  My buddy Terry and I would count our bass catches in "10s".   It wasn't anything special to land 30 or 40 keepers in a day.   Once I think we hit 100, but I can't remember for sure.   Things have changed a lot since then, mostly due to the presence of millions of gobies, but also likely due to some weak smallmouth bass year classes.   Reports on Lake Ontario smallmouth fishing on the south shore have not been good this summer, but stuff like that doesn't discourage me.   I like a challenge!    My friends that fish with me don't have it easy.   I went alone today, but my buddies usually aren't subject to easy fishing.  It's rare that I call a friend up to go "pound some fish" - they're generally coming along for "research" and exploratory missions i.e. the same stuff I do on my own.   So in October that generally means no Keuka laker jigging or Skaneateles bass fishing  - I don't "practice" what I already know for the most part.   

Things weren't easy by any means today.   I got to Sodus around 10 am, after leaving the house with air temps at 32 degrees.   My engine's water outflow hole was frozen shut;  that took a while to thaw out.   I was hoping there wasn't an impeller problem.   There wasn't.   I talked to some perch fishers - they told me that the bite's been slow.    One angler reported seeing some big Kings in the bay yesterday - right around the bay bridge.   I got onto the lake and was greeted by west winds around 10 mph.  2' to 3' waves.    I made a 10 mile run to Pultneyville - some of the best south shore structure on the lake and started fishing at around 11:30am.    I worked from the shallows out to around 30' of water - using tube jigs and dropshotting.  Zippo.   I had a couple light pecks from gobies - that was it.  

Unfortunately I didn't have all day - I teach classes at 6:30pm, so I needed to be heading back to the dock by 3 pm.   As I worked my way east I started marking some baitfish.  I did see a couple gulls crusing along too.   I set up an alewife tube and started working that.   In fairly short order I had a few big smallmouth bass chase in the tube as I wound it in.   I was hoping some trout would be around, so instead of hopping in the tube, what I do is hop it a few times then crank it in - that's when the bass chased.   Unfortunately I couldn't get them to hit.  I tried some jerkbaits too.   Things got interesting when I heard a fish jump a few cast lengths away.   Mid-October in Lake Ontario with 55 degree water temps?  That wasn't a carp!    I motored out with my trolling motor and made a few casts with my X-rap.   I stood in awe as I watched a school of around 1/2 dozen to 10 brown trout from around 3lbs to 10lbs follow in my lure!     It was exciting - very reminiscent of the casting I occasionally do from shore or my boat around FL trib mouths.    These fish would have been fly-fishable.   They never hit, but I got them to chase a few more times.    In a couple weeks these fish should be right around the creek mouths, and I'm hoping to be back with the fly-rods.    No fish hooked for me today.   But I was so excited watching those fish chase me, you could have heard me yell half-way to Toronto!   Great fun fishing, poor catching!  The bay water looked good and I'll bet the pike and bass were hitting.   

If all goes as I hope it will, I'll be getting out on Waneta for pure-strain muskies, possibly Chautauqua/Lake Erie, Otisco a few more times and maybe even Oneida.    I'd love to fish the St.Lawrence too - esp. for muskies.  We're blessed with a lot of great fishing around here - I feel like I haven't scratched the surface yet.   I'm also looking forward to some pike fishing on Cayuga and Conesus (and I still haven't given up on Seneca) and then winding November down with plenty of Skaneateles and Cayuga Lake trout/salmon action.  Stay tuned! 

My guiding schedule is finally slowing down a lot, so now I have some time to fish.  My buddy Craig Nels www.empirebassandbeyond.com   called me up and asked if I'd like to join him on Chaumont Bay (just past Watertown) for some smallmouth bass fishing.    I'd never fished Chaumont Bay (though I have fished the creek and Guffin Bay) so I was looking forward to checking it out.  

Water temps up there were pretty darn cold - we had 48 on the surface when we started, but the basic temp was 52 degrees.   We started shallow and things weren't looking too promising - dying weeds and no signs of fish/bait.   A deeper area (10' to 15') around a shoal produced a decent smallie and a nice perch on a tube.   Craig wanted to try another area of his and we shot to Guffin Bay.   In very shallow water we spotted some decent smallies and drum cruising around, but they were spooky and somewhat negative.   We tried a deeper break and started contacting some nice fish, including a FAT 4lb smallie that Craig landed.   The same tube set up we use elsewhere was fine on LO Bays.   Another nice perch was landed.   We tried another area and I set the hook into a heavy fish - I was hoping for a monster smallie, but after the long, strong fight a big drum made it to the net.    I thought smallie, since the drum appeared to head towards the surface when I first hooked it.   A few more smallies and a largemouth were hooked/landed.  

The last fish I landed really surprised me - I guess you can take the guide out of the Finger Lakes but not the Finger Lakes out of the guide - it was a chain pickerel!   In all my years living around Lake Ontario and fishing creek mouths, bays etc....I've never heard of, or seen a chain pickerel.   Surely they can get into the lake's bays via various connecting waterways like the Oswego River, but again - I've never heard of a chain pickerel collected in fisheries research in those areas.  

All in all it was a fun day.  We barely scratched the surface of the fishery over there.   I would have loved to have fished some deeper water, but we found enough fish shallow to keep us enthralled.   Next time!   

10/10:  Guided Keuka Lake with Chip and John in the AM, then Doug and Andy in the PM.  Lake trout fishing ranged from good to very good.   The early AM bite was slow, but at around 10 am the fish really started hitting for us.   We lost count of the numbers of lakers, but the guys likely landed around a dozen or so.   Plastics were best - both white and smelt colored Lunker City Shakers.   Fish ran from 19" to 24" or so.   PM action with Doug and Andy wasn't quite as good as the "10am bite,"   but it was still good.   The guys landed 4 nice fish and they each lost good fish and missed some.   Overall, the consistency of the bite was great.  Fish are close to spawning, but they are still feeding.

10/11:  Did an AM 1/2 day with Doug and Andy (from yesterday.)    Conditions weren't the best - strong west winds funneling south and cold air temps.   Andy does a lot of smallmouth fishing on the Susquehanna River plus a bit of striper jigging, and he had no trouble with the jigging technique.    Bass fishing was decent in the AM - not great but not bad, and Andy landed a handful of nice fish up to 17".   No other species in the mix this AM.   Jigs were best - both tubes and hair.  I tried an X-rap later in some different areas and picked up a fish.  Perch fishers were out in droves.    Water temps are in the upper 50s.    Most bass were in moderately deep water - 15' to 23' or so.   I popped one on the N. end shallower after the trip. 

The plan today was to check on Seneca Lake out of Sampson for pike and bass.   But as I left my apartment at around 11 am the first thing I noticed was a bulge on the side of my boat tire.  The tire was close to failing.  In addition, I had a trailer light problem as well.   So I fixed what I could and decided Cayuga was a better call.   I used to fish Cayuga a lot in the fall.  We'd catch bass, perch and occasional pike, along with odd bonus fish like landlocked salmon and/or brown trout.  Throw in a little laker jigging and you can get a nice mixed bag.  Since we had the big pike boom on Seneca over the last few years and very good bass fishing (and mixed bag stuff) on Skaneateles, I've neglected Cayuga, so I was eager to give it a shot.  

Water temps are at 58 degrees.   I worked the southern portions of the lake for pike starting around 1:15 pm.   Nailed a 34.5" pike on an X-Rap in fairly short order.   About 20 minutes later I had a follow from a fish around 27" to 29".   It had a dark mark on its back.   The larger fish was in good condition, but had a reddish appearance to it.   I hope there isn't some pike virus going around.   Fishing remained slow for the next couple hours.   I had a hard hit and brought a 30" fish to the side of the boat.  It wasn't even hooked - just wrapped around the line with the Husky Jerk dangling from its side!   That was it for the day.  I did a quick check for trout/salmon off of Myers Point and Taughannock.  I didn't see anything, but I wasn't there for long at all.   A few nice perch are in the marina at Taughannock.  

All in all the pike fishing was typical Cayuga pike over the past few years.  Not great but not bad.  It's not the kind of thing I prefer guiding for, unless you're a die-hard serious pike fisherman who can put in 8 hours for 2 to maybe 6 fish.   The advantage is the size - Cayuga has some very nice pike.  A 20lber would never surprise me here.  There are lots of places these fish can dwell.   A TON of good looking water to cover.   So it's more hunting than fishing.

10/3 Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen:   I dumped out of WG at around 11 am armed with some pike rods and a pail of perch minnows.   Water temps (58 -59) and weather conditions looked encouraging for pike, but in 3 hours of fishing some of the best areas I know, I never raised a fish or had a hit.    There were tough days like this for pike even during the lake's most recent "pike heyday", but the weather today looked right.   The amount of pike habitat in this lake is staggering and it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.   No sign of dinks either.    It may be another 5 years before we have a pike renaissance in this lake.    I think a bacterial virus wiped out most of the fish.   A few healthy pike are reportedly being caught, but it's poor fishing at best.   But when one species goes down, another picks up the slack.  Expect bassin' and pickerel/perch fishing to keep improving on Seneca.   Don't moan about pike when there are so many other great opportunities around!

After the pikin' fiasco I set up my jig/fathead combo and my double hook perch rig and went looking for ringbacks.   I used a lot of electronics and worked a few areas w/o much luck.   On one shelf I had a couple quick hits and set the hook, watching my rod double over.  What could it be?   A pike or bass?   It wound up being a small rainbow trout, foul-hooked!    In 20' to 30' of water.   In another area I caught a small smallmouth.   Then I caught a double of a bass and a nice perch.   I found a school of perch along a ledge from 20' to 45' of water.  I nailed another 4 perch to 12" and maybe 5 more (small) smallmouths.   I know that pike numbers are low when I'm catching dinky smallies off the weededges!   The perch quit when the wind died and the sun started setting, but I know where they are!  And I'll be back.

10/4 Keuka Lake:  My AM trip was with Dave and his wife Deb.   We had good action on lakers, mostly around the bluff.   They landed 4 nice fish to 24" and lost a couple.  It was their first time fishing in a long time and their first time laker jigging, so that was cool.   85' to 110' was best.  There are plenty of baitfish swarming the bluff area!  Expect this lake to rebound on browns, salmon and rainbows if this keeps up.  Lakers may actually get bigger too - which they seem to be doing already.    My PM trip was with Jack and his 9 and 13 year old grandkids, Sam and Emma.   Sam was worn out from some full-out hockey and he managed to sleep a bit while onboard, but he did reel in a laker (that Grandpa kindly hooked!) and hook another momentarily.   Emma persevered through slow fishing and landed one.   Jack hooked a few good ones and landed a 25" fish.  The PM bite was pretty slow until around 3 pm when the winds picked up.  We started marking 8 or more fish AT A TIME!   And they were hitting!   Expect some hot laker fishing here over the next few weeks.   Smelt colored Lunker City Shakers were the hot lure.  No spoon bite for us today.    Colors are starting to look good and boat traffic was pretty non-existent.  That's tough to beat!

Did a full-day with Greg on Friday.   He wanted to catch an 18"+ smallmouth bass.   That's easier to do on this lake from November through early June, but we gave it our best shot.   It was nice to not have any set "parameters" on this trip.   The last two trips I've done on this lake were #1, fly-fishing - which although effective, can have its limitations, especially when fish are deep and it's very windy, and #2, I did a trip where we tried hard to catch fish on topwater - for the most part avoiding my favorite lure on this lake, a jig.

We worked throughout the entire lake, with Greg mainly throwing the tube.   His goal was also to gain confidence throwing the tube jig.    In the first couple hours he landed a few bass from 12" to 15".    In some deeper water he landed an 18" largemouth and a 19" smallmouth.   A few pickerel were also hooked and landed and we had some bite-offs.   Pickerel appear to be more widely distributed than I'd seen them over the past 6 or 7 years.   High point of the day was when Greg cast his jig to a drop-off and hooked "...a big fish."    After a great battle I slid the net under the bohemoth largemouth.    We took a quick couple photos and I put the slob up on my Tech-Scale.  6lbs 1 oz, of course we released the fish to fight again.   The fish had another hole in her mouth - it had been caught and released before, so we are thankful to the previous sportsman, and hopefully the fish will make someone else's day like it did ours.  

We found most of our fish in or near deep water - roughly 15' to 24' or so.   Water temps are descending quickly;  I've been on the lake three times over the past 8 or 9 days and it's dropped a degree everytime I've been out.  It's around 67 now.  

Did a full day on Keuka with Jeff, Mac and Roger - all from the Oneonta area.  We started around 7 am and fishing was slow but steady in the AM, until around 11.   Then things slowed to a crawl until around 1 pm, when a couple more fish were picked up.  All in all the guys landed 7 nice fish to 5lbs.  Two or three fish were lost and that was about it.  The fish had well developed eggs in them and empty stomachs, despite the presence of decent amounts of bait (for Keuka.)    All in all a fun trip with some good eating fish landed.  A Hopkins spoon took the largest fish, but assorted plastics like Lunker City Shakes and Zoom white ice Superfluke Jrs. produced most of the fish.   

9/20 was a half day starting at 1 pm on Seneca Lake with Dan and Kathleen.  Conditions looked good for laker jigging.  We marked some fish south of Sampson State Park and Kathleen lost one.   Dan had a few short hits, but overall action was very slow.  Fish were looking and chasing the jigs on occasion, but not aggressively.   Tough day with zero fish landed.   

There are still good laker jigging opportunities on Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, but I'm looking forward to shifting gears towards some of the other species out there like bass and pike/pickerel.   It'll soon be time for some of the best multi-species angling around!  Skaneateles Lake in late October/November can be hot for big smallmouth bass, jumbo perch, lakers, rainbows and salmon - all on the same trip.  Owasco generally produces mixed bags of large smallies and pike, with occasional walleye and trout in the mix.  Cayuga also kicks up bass, pike and pickerel with occasional salmon.  By November, it's time for large pike, salmon and browns on Cayuga.   We'll soon see how things shape up....

Did a full day trip with Rogerio from Brazil!    What a fun day - he brought a BPS 370 tackle box along that was packed full of expensive Japanese lures, like Lucky Craft,  Mega-bass, Yamamoto hardbaits and on and on.   These baits often retail for $15 to $25.  I even had a chance to watch a $60 swimbait "perform!"  

I don't have $20 to spend on a topwater lure or a stickbait, but I was very impressed with the action of many of these lures - especially the topwater baits.  They "walk the dog" like a supertuned Zara - unbelievable!   I tried like heck to find some active topwater fish for Rogerio and we found some, but they were mostly 10" fish, with one or two bigger ones thrown in.  It was fun watching the bass engulf the "quality lures."   

I was able to find some better fish here and there, and dropshotting and tube jigs produced a few decent smallies.  One exciting part of the day was watching a big pickerel chase a hooked smallie!   That's the first time I'd seen that happen on Skinny.   Very low boat traffic today.  Surface temps were around 68.   Rogerio didn't throw the tube jig much, but it seemed to be the ticket.   So was deep water.    Some rockbass also found our dropshot rig.    

Did some bass fishing on 9/11 out of Dean's.  I tried areas I don't fish much and had OK fishing on scattered largemouths running around 2lbs. each.    Fish ranged from 8' to 17' of water.   Crankbaits and tube jigs did the trick.  Deep cranking is producing fish north of Dean's Cove.  

On 9/12 I guided Joe and Joe Jr. for 1/2 day.    We had good laker action near Taughannock on fish running up to over 11lbs.   Best action was mid-AM.   85' to 100' was best.    Fish are still feeding.

9/13:  Guided Richard and Tiernan for 1/2 day starting at noon.   Fishing was OK, not easy but not terrible.  Richard had the hot hand and landed 4 nice fish, including two 28"ers.   Tiernan dropped what appeared to be a good fish.   We kept a couple and they were stuffed with fresh alewives.   

Fishing remains very good on Cayuga Lake - with the best action typically being later in the AM until around 7 pm.    Here's the breakdown over the past few days:

9/3 AM:  Fished with Boris and Mitchell (who'd joined me 2 years ago fishing pike/pickerel on Seneca Lake.)   Lake trout action started slow but wound up being very good by mid-AM.   The action was excellent by 2 pm, with lakers getting very aggressive.   Some big fish were landed as well, incl. one wild fish.

9/3 PM:   Guided Lowrance (aka Corky, Grizzly Adams and Santa Claus) and his wife Barbara.   Again - more good fishing.   We had good laker action until we left around 7 pm - with Barb getting a fish on her final drop of the day.   Lots of fun was had!

9/4 AM:  Had my long time friend Chris and his son Brian out for the day.    We whacked lakers fairly well from around 9 am till 11 am or so.  Brian hooked and lost a gorgeous landlocked salmon probably 25" or better!   In another area Chris hooked a fish that we knew couldn't have been a laker.  He landed a 26" rainbow, which we released after a quick photo.   More lakers were caught.  All in all, very good to excellent fishing.

9/4 PM:  Guided Amber for the evening.   We had a lot of fun and she landed a few nice lakers.   It was a relaxing trip on the water.

9/5:  Did a full day out on Sodus Bay for gar with Terry and his in-law Dick.  We saw what looked like hundreds of gar surfacing early in the AM.   We started the day with some casting for bass.   Due to all my laker guiding I regret not being more in-tune with bass, but that's what happens.   We worked some tried 'n true bass areas and Dick caught a small largie and lost a nicer fish.   There was a tournament going on and areas I like were being fished hard by competitors.   We set up for gar and Dick had a follow in short order.   Then Terry "hooked" one.   My jaw dropped when I saw the size of the fish!   It looked like two fish put together in the water.   After a couple terrific jumps I grabbed the 45" gar!   Beautiful fish  - and the longest we've landed on Sodus Bay gar fishing.    After landing the fish we picked up Terry's son in-law Jason and kept fishing.  Boat traffic and wind hampered our efforts.  But before the day's end Jason caught one gar deep.   Fun trip!

9/6:  Guided Greg for the day on Cayuga.  He's joined me on many an occasion for different styles of fishing.   He's always fun to have on board and today was no exception.   He landed a bunch of nice lakers - mostly after 10:30 am.  

9/6 PM:  Back out with Amber and her daughter Talia and her daughter's friend.   Jigging lakers was good with Amber taking it easy mainly watching her daughter and friend fish.  The gals landed a couple nice fish, before Talia's housemate started feeling slightly dizzy (lake-sickness.)  So we called it an early day.   It was the first trip I'd done with 3 gals - hopefully not the last!

Cayuga out of Dean's 9/1:  Got out with Patrick for the full day.   We headed north for bass.   Within 1/2 hour I had him casting a baitcasting rod fairly well.   Bass fishing was slow.  He picked up one largemouth around 11" on a crankbait.   The cold front appeared to have slowed the fishing a bit.   He jigged lakers around the Long Point area and did great - he nailed a limit in less than an hour then caught and released a couple beauties!  A new convert was made today!

Cayuga out of Taughannock 9/2:  Had a lot of fun with Steve and Bill from Hershey PA this AM.   Some solid laker action around the Taughannock area.  The guys landed at least 8 nice fish.   The bite was fairly steady throughout the AM.    My PM trip was with the Hermans, and again - the fishing was very good.  Eleonore landed a 32" laker - her best yet.  John lost a 5lb brown boatside.  Other browns were likely hooked, and another 7 lakers also made it into the net!   

During our PM trip we found a laker alive and on the surface of the lake struggling - someone had clearly caught it earlier.  It had air in its bladder and was likely dying due to the warm surface water.    Keep in mind that it is easy to "burp" lakers and get them back down.   Lay the fish belly down on the bottom of your boat, grab around the fish with your hands - thumbs up top and fingers on the belly and gently squeeze their belly area.  You'll hear the air expel.  Then I like to point them headfirst down towards the water and jet them down.   

I got off to a "fun start" when my bearings malfunctioned just as I pulled into the park.   But I pack spare hubs and was able to get things in working order and get the boat in the water within 1/2 hour.   I think I have a problem with a spindle or something but I digress...

So how was the fishing?   We started within a couple miles of the park and Eleonore Herman had a follow from a 3lb rainbow.   Then she started nailing nice lakers - 3 or 4 in a row.  Then she hooked and landed one of the nicest landlocked salmon I've ever seen - 26", chrome with a kype (hooked jaw) and in gorgeous condition.  We snapped a quick shot and released the fish.   More lakers were landed then John Herman hooked and lost another salmon - this one a FAT female - probably all of 7lbs.   More lakers followed.   We wound up with 10 lakers landed and one salmon.   All in 4 hours - from 3:30 pm till 7:30.  Fish ranged from 65' to over 100'.  Lots of bait was around as well.   Nice day fishing after a rather tedious start (with the bearings!)   But better here than on Route 8 or 9!

After a long day on 8/25, doing a full day on Seneca then a half day on Cayuga, I was ready for a mini-vacation with my buddy Mike.   I checked the wind and we decided on fishing Ticonderoga on Wed. and then above Plattsburg on Thursday and Friday.   

We arrived at Ti at around 3 pm and were on the water by 3:30.  We checked around one of my favorite gar areas and didn't find any.   We bass fished while we looked for gar, but to no avail.  We then set up for bass and Mike noticed an interesting looking backwater.   Within 10 minutes he was latched onto a nice chunky 2lb largemouth.  We did some further investigation and found another 1/2 dozen similarly sized bass.  Time flew by and after trying a couple more areas we had to go.  

We pulled into Marine Village Cottages in Plattsburgh at around 11 pm.   It's a great place to stay - I stayed there with my friend Terry around 6 or 7 years ago.   Here's more info (and feel free to tell them you heard about them via this website!:  www.marinevillagecottages.com  

They have terrific cottages with a kitchen - incl. utensils, coffee pot (with coffee and filters) cable TV, hot showers, linen etc...  The places are clean and comfortable and probably less than 1/2 mile from Point Au Roche State Park and the park boat launch.    This was strictly a "relaxation vacation" so we set the alarms for around 7:30.    We picked up our Vermont licenses at 9 am right online at the MV Cottages office and drove over to Mississquoi Bay.   We fished an area I'd worked previously with Terry.   Within around 15 minutes Mike hooked a strong fish.   It made a couple strong sweeping runs and then pulled off some acrobatics alongside the boat!   Mike didn't know what he had until he got a good look at the fish - it was a bowfin around 24"!   It fought every bit as good as a 34" tiger musky!  We got some good photos and kept chucking our spinnerbaits. 

I then nailed a nice pike around 29" that we kept for dinner.   We worked other areas and hooked some more pike over 30" that we lost boatside.  Mississquoi's pike fishing was superb!   Lots of hits from nice fish, though we didn't boat very many.   I also lost a very nice bass.  

We moved south to check on some other opportunities.   A point produced a bunch of follows from 14" to 15" smallies on a jerkbait.  Then I nailed a nice 17"+ smallie on a green pumpkin tube jig.  We checked on some deeper flats and I managed to dropshot a gorgeous 4lbs + smallie.   Working some other areas produced some more small pike and bass.   A great second day!

Day 3 was tough fishing for us.  We tried totally different areas without any great shakes.   Interestingly, we scanned some deeper water and marked some good hooks and baitfish.   Mike dropped a jig (ala lake trout fishing) and had a hit!   Next year I'll be spending some time up there jigging lakers and hopefully casting for some salmon with the fly-rod.    The FLW Stren Series was going on and the lake was getting pounded by bass fishermen.  It's amazing how much pressure this lake deals with.

Cayuga Lake 8/29 + 8/30:

Guided Tony on Cayuga Lake starting around 11 am out of Taughannock.  Laker fishing was very good and Tony nailed at least a half dozen solid lakers.   Best fishing remains around 75' to 95' with plenty of fish out deeper.    Fun trip.  

Today (8/30) I did 1/2 day with Tim, Kyle and 7 year old Hunter.   It was fun - especially watching Hunter hook and land (with a little help) the two nicest lakers of the day.   The guys landed around 8 or 9 nice fish.  The bite cycled on and off and the AM went on.  We stayed around the park for the most part.       

In a nutshell, we had good action this AM on Seneca with "Pepperidge Farm Tom."   Lakers were fairly abundant in midlake areas in anywhere from 60' (further south) to 85' or more water.   Nothing big, but plenty of gorgeous wild fish with bright orange fillets!   Milano man Tom did a good job landing lakers and we had a lot of fun.

My PM trip was with Tony (and his wife Barb, who read on the Kindle.)   He whacked lakers from start to stop, nailing 9 chunky fish to 29".  Most were cookie cutter 26" fish.   Both shores were excellent near Taughannock and the fish hit from the get-go.  77' and out seemed best.   Lots of aggressive "multiple chasers."   This fishing is reminiscent of Cayuga Lake circa 2005 when I started guiding!  Really fun stuff.   Living between Seneca and Cayuga Lake is as good as it gets (at least until it starts geting darn cold around here.)  

I'm on Champlain over the next few days (till Friday.)   So the phone is the best way to reach me.  No Blackberry here, so be patient with emails!   

Started the AM with a 1/2 day trip with Bob and Kip on Keuka.  They wanted to learn the jigging technique, so I gave them the tutorial starting around 7 am.   We fished the Bluff area and found very good numbers of lakers and even a bit of bait!   The guys landed 4 nice fish and lost a couple.   Most fish were either down on bottom or suspended at around 75' over 105' to 115'.   Fish ran to 25" and hit shakers and Kastmasters.   Keuka's been solid for us all year, if not spectacular.

My PM trip was on Seneca and I met Steve over at Dresden via boat.   We started around 2:45 pm and were met with slow fishing.  There were lots of lakers on the west side and some on the east, but they weren't hitting well for Steve - at least to start.   As the lake calmed and the sun got lower we kicked the skunk out of the boat.  Steve wound up nailing 5 nice 23" to 25" lakers in short order, in around 90' to 105' of water.   There's plenty of bait everywhere on Seneca!  Things look really good over there!   

Got out with Mike and John for a full day.  They've had a great season trolling and wanted to get the jigging pattern down.   They had no problem landing a bunch of (14) nice fish on the day.  Best fishing was mid-AM.  Lots of large fish - 27" to 28" with a 29" and some smaller ones (mostly 25" to 26") thrown in.   We found most of our fish on the west shore.

My PM trip was with Dan and his dad Mike, both from Massachusetts.   The bite was going hot and heavy when we started at 3:15 pm.  The guys managed to hook a few doubles.  Some good fish were missed and lost as well.  But overall they did a great job landing 9 nice fish, including a 31" beauty.  

Sunday (today) was a full-day with Jim, John and Keith.   Jim's fished with me a couple times before and on our last trip his buddy landed a couple nice bonus browns.  Jim was hoping for a bonus fish, and he didn't wind up disappointed.   The laker fishing was great, with 3 nice fish landed within an hour - two 28" fish and a 27".    Plenty of large lakers found the net.   Keith hooked up a nice fish and then I saw Jim's rod bouncing up and down quickly.  I knew it wasn't a laker, so instead of waiting on Keith's fish, I grabbed the net and saw a beautiful rainbow on Jim's line.  We landed the 26" chrome beauty, photographed it and released it unharmed.  What a fish!   Photos should be coming soon.  

Overall, plenty of lakers are close to Taughannock.   Fish are very active and feeding.  About 75' to 115' has been best, with deeper water producing once the shallows slow.  

I got out with my buddy Jarrod on Owasco Lake yesterday.  We met at 6:15 am.  The goal was to check on some (pelagic) smallmouths and lakers.  We spent the first two hours working some areas for smallmouths with no takers.   I might have had one hit.   Then we started looking for lakers.   We marked lakers, but no aggressive fish.  Eventually we had a few chasers and a hit or two.    Mid-Lake areas were best - basically N. of Long Point and Wykoff.   We tried another area for bass and I lost one and dropped what was probably a perch on a jigging spoon.   We fished until around noon.   Anglers trolling reported some lakers and a smallmouth.   A jigger told me he landed a couple lakers as well - so some fish are reportedly being caught.  We marked most lakers in deeper water - 85' and out. 

Jarrod hadn't fished Seneca much before, so we spent a few hours over there in the afternoon.   Laker action was very good (especially for midday) and we landed around a half dozen fish.   There were loads of fish around, but only a few (but enough) showed interest in our jigs.   Much better fishing than Owasco - that's for sure!

What's up with Owasco Lake fishing?   I don't know exactly what's happening.   We know that DEC netted it for lakers and found good numbers of very healthy fish.   Rainbows have been caught this season - including some beauties, as well as a few browns, plenty of bass and some walleyes.   So there's no shortage of fish.    DEC found good numbers of smelt but less alewives than in previous years.   We marked good numbers of alewives yesterday, though many were up high in the water column.   

Here's what I think is up:   We had one of the coolest summers I can ever remember.   Baitfish migrations and numbers are what determine gamefish location.   If water temperature, or other seasonal factors are what move alewives into the northern portions of the lake, it's likely that the fishing may be a few weeks or even a month behind.  Lakers spent more time than they often do near the northern portions of Seneca Lake.   Bass are still in the northern portions of Cayuga moreso than "normal."  Cayuga gar aren't even in their usual summer haunts yet.    I'd expect Owasco to turn on at any time, though the best bet will probably be in September and throughout October.   We may see the north end fishing last throughout October.  

8/15:  Guided John and his son George for a 1/2 day.  Fishing was very good with some nice lakers landed, mainly around AES.   The early AM bite was best.  Nine nice lakers were landed, with most fish between 26" and 30".  

8/16:  Guided Lawrence and his sons Ray and Nick.   Ray started things off with a good laker landed, then Nick dropped a nice landlocked salmon!   A few more good lakers were landed before things slowed up a bit around 9 am.   Nick really had the "hot hand" landing the lion's share of the fish.  

PM:  I watched the weigh-in at Oneida Lake.   Had a good time listening to the stories of how many of the bass were caught.  Good crowd too!  

Guided Mike and Eddie for the 1/2 day AM.   Conditions were foggy/hazy this AM and it definitely slowed the bite.   We had one solid hookup in the AM.   Lots of fish were showing up on the fish-finder and chasing the jigs.   A move down the lake worked (as did the fog burning off) and we started getting into some fish.  Once we returned to the N. end the fish had activated there too.   We landed some nice fish, basically an OK morning.   

In between trips I motored up the Canal just checking things out.  I haven't fished it in at least 10 years and I saw some bass and tons of baitfish.   I managed one nice largemouth dropshotting.   The weedgrowth screamed "plastic worms texas rigged" to me, but I didn't have the stuff on hand.  

I met Jaimie and her husband Tim at the launch and we headed out for lakers.   Tim had a hold of a solid fish in short order.   Things slowed a bit then Jaimie landed two, including a nice 28" fish.   A move downlake managed to help Tim land two as well.  He'd lost a couple others earlier.   We kept the fish and one of them had bright orange fillets - some of the nicest fish I've seen for eating!    It was a fun trip and nice way to end a busy guiding week.   About 80' to 105' was best.

Great fishing this AM with Russ and his 9 year old son Kyle.  We started at 6 am and it was well worth getting up early.  Lots of chasers and hooked fish.  The guys got a grasp of the technique and landed some quality lakers up to around 28".   We had trouble catching smaller "eaters!"    Not the worst problem to have!   Lots of fun action on the fish finder and the lakers have been strong fighters lately.  

I took a break and then started my PM trip at Geneva at 4 pm with Jim and Les.  I met the guys a few weeks ago at the launch when I was guiding a different party.   We had a slow start, but the laker action rallied later in the evening.   Around 7 or 8 nice fish were landed to 28".   85' to 110' held plenty of fish.   A lot of fish are probably on the move south, though the Northend still holds quite a few.

Did some warmwater guiding on both days.   8/9 was basically an aborted panfishing trip with Jack and his grandkids.   T-storms came through and that was that.    We did manage to find some pans around the N. end of the lake.

8/10 was the kind of trip I love doing.  Justin from the Buffalo area was interested in catching some pickerel and gar.  He's into taxidermy and hadn't caught or mounted any of those species yet.  I was certain we could get pickerel on Cayuga, but the Cayuga gar still aren't in their summertime haunts yet for the most part, so I figured we may have to motor up to Sodus.   Justin managed to land 3 nice 22" + pickerel in the AM.   We looked around for gar and only saw one - no schools.  So we packed up and drove to Sodus Bay.   After a 1/2 hour or so on the bay we found gar and lots of them!   I set Justin up with a castable rope fly and it didn't take too long before he landed his first gar - a small one around 30" at best.   We had a lot of follows and one or two other "hookups" before he nabbed a beautiful 38" fish!  Nice drag ripping fight too!  Water temps were "gar perfect" and I've definitely got gar fever.   Fun trip!   Champlain is in the works over the next week or two!  Monstah gar! 

8/7 AM Cayuga/Taughannock:   I picked up Jim and Steve at 6 am S. of Portland Point and we started searching for lakers.   I wound up heading N. to some favorite areas and we had a very good AM bite, at least until the wind really cranked up out of the N. at around 9 am.   The guys lost a few, but landed 4 nice fish to 30" and probably 9lbs+.   The wind pretty much shut things down for us.   Good numbers of Cayuga fish are within a few miles of Taughannock.

8/7 PM - Seneca/Geneva:  The plan was to stay on Cayuga Lake and fish the evening bite with the Hermans, but the winds were just not conducive to it.   So after a break, I met the Hermans at Geneva at 4 pm and we headed out.   It didn't take long before Eleonore was into a 26" fish.   There were a lot of fish around but many were negative/neutral.   Loads of fish were suspended in around 115' of water.   We picked up another fish or two up North, then I headed south.   I found an area I'd never fished before that had a nice shelf in around 80' to 95' of water - perfect!   The new area produced another 3 or 4 fish up to around 25".   A lot of Seneca fish migrate south gradually and I think that's what's happening.  I don't know, but I'll probably go out of Sampson State Park more than Geneve unless the winds are out of the N. strongly.

8/8:  Cayuga/Taughannock:   Joe called me a couple days ago.   I'd just had a postponement for Sat. AM, so I was able to get him and his son Alex in.   The guys drove straight in from PA starting at 2 am!  We got off to a slightly later start than anticipated, but it didn't seem to matter.  Fishing on the east shore of Cayuga was very good to excellent.  It was a fun trip.   Alex really whacked the fish - landing at least 9.   Joe got a couple small ones and one decent fish.    Fish slowed up around 11 am, then resumed hitting around 1:45 or so - we nailed 2 more. 

PM - I took out Jeff, Abby and Randy.   The goal was to catch enough trout to feed around 10 people and we managed to succeed.   The wind had died and it wasn't easy covering water.   Bets were on for the 1st. fish and heaviest.   Randy nailed the first, Jeff caught the most and Abby caught the heaviest.   Abby landed a 30" beauty that we released.   5 fish were landed on the trip.   One or two were lost.   My friend Mike was out there and really hammered the fish.   Most of our PM action was on the west shore from around 65' out to 80' or so.   Fishing is also still good N. of AES.  

Cayuga 8/4:  Did a full day out of Taughannock with Pat, DJ and John (who also joined my late last August.)   Conditions were pretty darn windy when we started.   DJ forgot to get his mighty license, so I ran Pat and John N. of Frontenac Point, while he ran over to Walmart.  The guys landed a couple nice lakers in the good chop, then we went to pick up DJ.   Fishing was "slow steady" through the day and a couple good fish were dropped.   The guys came within one fish shy of limiting out.  We had a bunch of good sized lakers along with 2 smaller ones.   This appears to be turning into an annual trip for the guys and we had a lot of fun.   We did pretty well despite our 7:15 am (relatively late) start.   Fish were in around 75' to 100' of water give or take.

Cayuga 8/5 AM out of Taughannock:  Took out Dan and Martha for a full day.   This trip was from a gift certificate given to them over 2 years ago!   We started at 7 am with somewhat choppy conditions and Martha having a hit on her first drop.  But the fishing picked up and Martha wound up landing a couple nice fish incl. a 30" wild beauty.   Dan nailed 5 nice fish incl. a 28", 29" and 30".   We did well on both shorelines generally S. of Sheldrake.   All fish were released. 

Seneca Lake 8/5 PM:  Guided Ed and Bob today.   We had a slow start, but within an hour or so the fishing picked up.   The guys landed at least a half dozen nice lakers to 30" (if my shot memory serves me right!)    The guys fish Round Valley Reservoir in New Jersey and I think the laker techniques will work for them there.  Reapers worked best today from 85' on out.    We stayed near Geneva.   Fishing was reportedly superb in this AM! 

I got out on my own around 3 pm to check on a couple bass areas and the laker scene up north.   I'm sure the bass bit well in the AM, but they didn't appear to be active where and when I fished.  I tried two areas that I haven't fished this year and didn't find much.  I did see a few gar surface.  

Re: Lakers -  I checked out the west shore from Dean's north to Silos and didn't mark many lakers.  Plenty of bait, but no great shakes on lakers.   The laker water was down around 90'.   I'm likely going to continue doing most of my Cayuga trips out of Taughannock and from Dean's south.  

I chatted with a few guys in a boat that just pulled in when I was launching.  They claimed to catch a "10lb bullhead".   I knew it must have been a channel cat, and sure enough it was!   I've always wanted to catch a Cayuga Lake Catfish, but never have.  They are around lake wide and I'm sure they must be tasty.   Over the years I've heard of cats in the south end, around AES, around Taughannock and Frontenac Points and around many areas up north.   A lot of drum are around Cayuga these days.   It'd be fun to drift some outside weededges with minnows and crawfish or crawlers and see what hits.   You never know!  

Seneca River 7/27 PM:

Got out with my buddy Jarrod for a few hours on the river.   He had some good bass fishing and we'd heard some good reports on walleye action over the past few months, so we gave it a shot.   I haven't fished the Montezuma area in probably 5 to 6 years.  We tried one of my favorite areas and I got a hard hit on a jig/crawler.   After a very, very strong battle we landed the BIG drum!  It was probably all of 12 to 13lbs.   I knew it was a drum after the first minute or two of the battle.    No walleyes or cats for us.   But it was a fun evening with an Osprey and two bald eagles sighted on the day.   We saw some gar breaking and Jarrod likely broke off a bowfin earlier in the day. 

Lake Ontario/Oak Orchard 7/28:

I met Jarrod at 4:30 am and we drove out to "The Oak" for my annual shot at jigging Kings in Lake Ontario.   I put the idea to (the late) Toby Wood years ago and he went out and jigged up a couple 15lbers off Hamlin Beach.   I still haven't had a stroke of luck with it, but I keep trying.  Toby had some salmon trolling experience (which I don't have much of) and knew what conditions he needed to get Kings on bottom.    Another friend of mine, George D. has also jigged his share of Kings over the years, so it is very possible to do.  

Things looked as good as I've seen them for jigging.  We had cold water in close to shore and decent bait.   For the first time ever, we experienced some solid chasing fish AND a couple hits (Jarrod.)    The lake did get rough, but I'm very sure we could have scored had it been a little calmer.  I felt confident with my new electronics.  We worked out to over 250' of water (4 miles out) and marked some nice hooks in and below the thermocline.   I think this will be the year we hit paydirt, cause I know I'm coming back!   We worked some plastics and Jarrod worked a spoon.    Boater action was reportedly "so so" today, so I'm looking forward on hitting the Oak/LO on a good to great day.     We found fish in around 85' to 105' of water on bottom and down around 60' over 210'.   It took a lot of tinkering with the electronics and precision boat control to present our jigs today, though we did drift a bit.  The big lake is quite the challenge for the jigger.

The great thing about the Oak is the terrific gar fishing in the lower creek (river.)  It is simply LOADED with gar - including some big ones and it felt good getting some fly-rod action.    The water was very murky, but we found plenty of fish.  I landed around 5 or 6, nothing very big.   Jarrod used his spinning gear and picked up a nice one on one of my modified rope flies.    Water temps were cool for this time of year in the river - around 74.  Usually it's closer to 84!

Seneca out of Geneva 7/24 AM:   

Did a 1/2 day on Seneca Lake out of Geneva with Ed and his grandkids, Eddie, Matt and Mike.   We started at 9 am, despite my best efforts to get the gang out earlier!    There were plenty of fish around, but they became less active as the AM went on.   But as the trip wound down the fish started hitting again (just before a possible storm.)    Early on, 8 year old Matt nailed his first laker on his own - a nice 4 1/2 lb. fish.   Mike had a good hit.   Ed wound up nabbing a nice fish around 7lbs 3 oz. before we called it a day.  IMO Seneca still offers the best laker jigging in the region, at least compared to what I've seen on Owasco, Keuka, Skinny and Cayuga.     

Cayuga/Taughannock 7/24 PM: 

Did a 1/2 day PM trip.  I picked up Mike and his son Jaime at Myers Park and we motored up the lake towards AES.   But as we approached our destination, it was clear that a T-Storm was setting up.   Winds and cloud cover picked up considerably, so we detoured to Taughannock Park, where I set up the guys and showed them the technique.   Storms materialized so we took cover in the marina and grabbed a bite to eat.   After the storms appeared to clear (maybe 45 minutes later) we headed back N.    I told the guys about "Maverick" Earl Holdren's theory about storms - "if you don't get struck by lightning, you might get struck by the biggest trout you ever saw."   Or something like that.

We don't take foolish chances, but Earl's point was that storm systems activate some of the biggest fish.    We had very active fish chasing jigs N. of AES.    Mike was reeling in and got hammered by a big laker.   After a long tough battle I was able to slip the net under a 32" to 33" fish!   I'd love to have had that fish for the derby 2 weeks ago.   We kept it and it weighed 10lbs 11oz!   A true pig!    As we were dealing with the big laker, Jaimie hooked a good fish, only to have likely "over-torqued it" and had the 12lb test break at the jig.   After that, skies cleared a bit and the bite slowed.

Cayuga/Taughannock 7/25 AM:  

I felt we'd have some good fishing this AM as I headed out with Jon, Larry and Matt.   We started early, at 5:30 am.  Winds were around 7 to 10 mph out of the south - so there was some chop.   We set up towards Sheldrake.   Baitfish were around, but I didn't mark many fish.  What fish I did mark, didn't appear to be active.   We worked areas without marks as well, with no luck.   We tried around AES and found more bait and marks.    A few light hits were had, but nothing solid.   The guys did the technique well enough to catch fish, but it wasn't to be.  I kept the guys out as long as I could, but eventually the chop got to Larry and we called it a day.   Zippo.   It always hurts to draw a blank, and it's something I never want to get used to.   The guys were persistent and never gave up.  The fishing was just super tough.  From reports I got, Seneca was good this AM, but very rough.  

Guided Eric (from 4/17) and his nephew Shane today for the full day on Cayuga.  The goal was to introduce Shane to some "offshore bass fishing" and get him into some pickerel and lake trout as well.   We started around 5:30 am and motored north.   Our first area provided one good topwater strike that was missed.   We tried another area with no luck.  We hit paydirt in our third area with Shane catching a nice 14" largemouth on a Skitter Pop.   I threw out a marker buoy and sure enought there were more fish in the area.   Eric soon nailed a similar sized bass on a chatterbait.  Then Shane nabbed a chunky 18" largemouth on a white Superfluke.   Fish were in around 10' to 12' of water around and over milfoil beds.   We had a few nice fish dropped and some nice sized pickerel up to around 23" landed.   Our early miss was in shallower water, so it's safe to say there are bass scattered in various depths around Cayuga.  We didn't encounter any deep weedline fish today, though they should set up fairly soon (if they aren't already.)  

The lake got pretty choppy around 11 am as we headed south for lakers.   Jigging can be difficult in waves, so we opted to try a few smallmouth bass areas.   One spot produced a couple quick hits/hookups for Eric on a tube jig.  The fish were small - around 11".  The lake calmed and we fished lakers near Sheldrake.   We marked a lot of fish, but had zero hits in the hour or so that we fished.   All in all a fun and fairly productive day.   Bass are looking good on Cayuga Lake and it'll be interesting to see the BFL tournament results after this weekend.  Yes, there were a lot of bass boats cruising around today and the lake will be mobbed this weekend.   Most of the guys were courteous but it was disappointing to have one boat cut us off in an idiotic way as we worked down a shoreline.   Water temps are in the low to mid 70s.   Lakers were down from 75' on out.  

Got back out with Perry and his friend Jeremy for another shot at Tigers.  Some decent fish have been caught (and released) over the past week.   I was able to procure some nice sized suckers from a relatively new baitshop on Rt. 5 + 20 about 2 miles east of Rt. 89.   We weren't able to start early due to Perry's work committments, so we started around 9:30 am and fished till around 6.   We had one decent largemouth on the suckers.   No tigers.   Jeremy did a bit of casting and also caught a bass.  He missed a couple other good hits/fish, but no definite Tigers.  

BTW -I was disappointed and had my suspicions confirmed when I saw a weed harvesting machine working some of my favorite weedbeds.  Over the past two years I've had some great fishing on certain weedlines and returned unable to find them!     I understand that milfoil can make many recreational activities (incl. boating, water skiing and swimming) nearly impossible, but why offshore, mostly submerged weedbeds need to be eradicated is a mystery to me.   Maybe the harvester gets paid by the hour - I don't know.  

One musky is the difference between a memorable musky trip and another "musky attempt."    I feel the fishing should be good and I'll probably give the lake some serious attention (as well as Waneta/Lamoka) in August.    Water temps reached 80 today!  It was "gar hot!"

7/20 AM - Guided a 1/2 day on Keuka Lake on 7/20 with Pat and Joe.   We had slow fishing at the Bluff with one landed.  A ride down to Hammondsport paid off with another three fish landed.  Fish were still hitting as we wound the trip down.   Bait numbers are excellent around Hammondsport.  

7/21 AM - Did a full day with Mike and Stan starting at 6 am on Keuka.  Fishing was steady and decent in the Hammondsport area.   8 legal fish were landed.   Fish were also hitting at the bluff area.   We went over a bass technique (soft jerkbaits) in one area and managed to raise some nice bass.    A large smallmouth hit one of our jigs in 80' of water.  The fish was amongst a very large school of bait.   

7/21 PM - Headed over to Seneca out of Geneva where I met the Hermans.   We had to pull to shore during a strong T-storm, but after things cleared the fishing was very good to excellent.   John hooked and lost what he claims to be the heaviest laker he's ever hooked.  He just couldn't move the fish much at first.   It was lost just as it was coming into view!   Bummer!   A bunch of nice lakers were landed (around 10 fish or more.)   85' to 110' was best.  

The last two days have featured tough fishing for us.  Here's how things went:

Otisco Lake 7/16:   Guided Perry and his daughter Stephanie for the day.   Any of you who follow these reports (and this site) will know that I generally do casting, fly-casting and vertical jigging.  Perry loves to still-fish with live minnows and he's been so busy with work he hasn't been able to get his boat out.   He's a super-nice guy who has reached his "life's esocid goals" - with a 20lb+ Tiger from Otisco, a 22lb pike from Conesus and a big Chautauqua Musky.   The goal was to get a Tiger on the minnows and maybe do a little casting.  Some health related issues prevent Perry from casting much, so we're mostly confined to the live bait.  Unfortunately it's been hard procuring large enough minnows for tigers, so we wound up with bass minnows.   We weren't able to get any tiger action - just a large perch, a small bass (if I remember right) and a few good hits (from what may have been small bass.)  We did some anchoring and casting, but to no avail.   We'll try again next week, hopefully with bigger bait and better results.  It was a beautiful day out there though - none of the forecast T-storms materialized.

Owasco Lake 7/17:  I had a great time with Tom, Jim and Artie today.   Fishing was slow - no two ways about it, but we had fun nonetheless.   Things looked good from the get-go.  There were loads of bait up on Owasco's north end flats.   We also marked quite a few fish nearly everywhere we tried - on both shores from Long Point north and on the north end.  Jim missed a hit, then scored on a solid 4lb+ laker.   He also had a hit on a spoon.  But apart from that, nothing much happened until Tom hooked what appeared to be a solid fish late in the day.  

The kept laker had zero bait in it, despite being caught in an area surrounded by bait.   The Owasco mystery!   The last few years have been difficult fishing in July on Owasco Lake for lakers.   I had a report from a friend at Seneca who hammered fish, and I volunteered to relocate our trip midway through the day.  The guys appreciated the offer, but decided to stick it out on Owasco.   

What's going on with Owasco in July?    One theory may be that the thermocline might be fairly thick - with alewives up high and lakers down below.   In effect a "thermal barrier" keeping predator and prey apart - at least until things cool in August/September.  It's plausible (my buddy Jarrod came up with the idea!)   Either way, there's bait around and many fish don't seem to be able to get to it.   Last year was a similar situation - lakers in an emaciated condition surrounded by baitfish!    I'd stick with other Finger Lakes for lakers until early to mid-August, when this lake should really turn on!

What a wild week it's been!  Here's how things went:

7/9 AM - Seneca Lake out of Geneva:  I got a call from Craig the night before, and we set up a 1/2 day trip.  He was accompanied by his 9 year old son Cain.    I had to contain myself a bit, but as I motored out of the Chamber of Commerce Boat Launch I was pretty psyched to see the hot, steady sort of normal weather.   I marked bait and lakers everywhere, and knew we'd be in for some good to great fishing.   Craig landed around 14 nice lakers and Cain managed to catch a beauty on his own.   Craig had a great touch with the fishing and had no trouble with the technique.   He's a neat guy and was an original member of "Blue Man Group."    So it was a lot of fun chatting!

7/9 PM - Seneca/Geneva:   Guided John and his buddy Ray.   They wanted to learn the jigging technique.   John was nice enough to pick me up a hot cup of coffee (at my request!) so I was ready to roll.  Fishing was slower than the AM, but it was still quite good and the guys landed 5 nice lakers.  Fish were in around 65' to 85' if I remember right.  

7/10:  Cayuga out of Cayuga Lake State Park:   I was looking forward to guiding Andy and his son Tristen.   Andy's done very well trolling and jigging for trout and salmon and was looking to get more into bass fishing.  He was out with me last year (the infamous "license incident" ;-)  We met at 6 am at the launch and headed out.   I got the guys working a combination of stuff - incl. Super Flukes, topwater, spinnerbaits, crankbaits and jerkbaits.   We found some decent pickerel fishing along with a few keeper sized largemouths.  

As we worked down the lake the fun began.   At around 11 am my motor alarm went off!   I'd been in some shallow water and was hoping it was just a weed in the intake.  But it wasn't.   A call to Skyler at Silver Lake Marine was made.  He gave me a few suggestions, but nothing worked.  My waterpump/impeller wasn't working!   So I had to use the trolling motor to get us back.  We were going to work smallmouths, but it wasn't to be.   Only problem was that I was near Farley's Point when this stuff happened!   To make a long story short, I was able to use my Motorguide Trolling motor to get us all the way back (around 5 miles!)  to the State Park.    Needless to say, we covered a lot of water and found some great bass areas.   Andy landed a chunky bass with a Superfluke as we worked back in.

So now I had a dillema.   I had to cancel my PM trip with my friend Chris and his son Brian.  I wasn't happy about that.   I had the Red Cross Derby this weekend, which I was really looking forward to fishing.   I'd already paid the $35 entry fee.   Skyler at Silver Lake told me it'd be Thursday before they could take a look at my motor.   That would mean another round of trip cancellations.  And if the power head of the motor had blown, I'd have been in trouble!

I was able to work something out with the folks at Silver Lake Marine and they got me up and running by Saturday night!  A new impeller was all I needed, and they happened to have one in stock.   The amazing thing was that I had dropped the boat off at around 8:30 am and decided to head to Rochester to shop a bit and grab some food at a favorite restaurant.  My buddy Chris (from Rochester) from the cancelled trip knew I was free and happened to call me - there was a party going on with a bunch of my High School buddies.   How great was that?   My boat was ready to roll at 5 pm.  I'd get to fish Red Cross after all, at least Day 2 of it!

7/11:  Red Cross Derby Day 2 - I was going to fish Red Cross with my buddy Jarrod, but he didn't realize that one of the NYS Bass Federation Tournaments he'd signed up for was held on the same weekend as Red Cross, so I was on my own.    Thus far I've fished Red Cross 4 times.  Once with my buddy Terry, then I guided it two years in a row with a client - Mark.  Then last year with Jarrod.   We've cashed checks 3 out of 4 years.   But no great shakes.   

I felt I could win this year's laker division and perhaps put 3 fish on the board.   Seneca has been HOT and my clients and friends have caught some big fish there recently.   We caught some pigs on Cayuga last April/May, but not much lately.  Seneca churned out a bunch of beauties during the Memorial Day derby too.  I arrived at the launch at 5:15 am and was shocked to see only one other trailer there.   In a nutshell, the fishing was tremendous in the AM, then it slowed, then it picked up, and then by noon it slowed but remained "slow-steady".    It was nice fishing alone for a change - no need to think about any boat positioning, waking up on time etc...    I hammered fish.  I landed over 35 lakers including at least two 29" fish and one at 31".   I fished to win.   Normally we fished for a check, so if we caught a big fish, we weighed it right away.   I put the 31" on my Tek scale and it went 10lbs 4 oz.    I failed to do a good job packing it on ice (due to the hot bite) so I know I lost a little weight, but it really didn't matter.   My 2nd best fish was a 9lb 2 oz fish, that just missed the board.   I fished till I absolutely had to go (in order to make the weigh-in.)    I apologize to the motorists I tail-gated on Rt. 14!  My fish wound up in 8th place.   I was pretty stoked about that for fishing 1/2 of the derby.   

So how'd my buddy Jarrod make out with the Fed???    He made the right choice!   He was paired with a good fisherman who had some good fish located, then Jarrod did what he does best - catch fish like a machine (he could probably give Ike a run for his money!)   Jarrod weighed over 17lbs of bass on the St. Lawrence AND caught lunker!  He came in 1st. Place in the non-boater division, winning $1,500!    He's a monster!

7/3 AM:   Did 1/2 day on Cayuga Lake out of the State Park on the North end.   I met Ed and Bob at the launch at 7:30, but we didn't start for another hour or an hour and a half due to some license issues with Bob.   Bob has some disabilities so the game plan was for me and Ed to fish, then when I hooked a fish I'd hand the rod to Bob so he could reel it in!  Fishing started off pretty good for mainly pickerel and it was a lot of fun to watch Bob get excited reeling in the fish.   Bob dropped what was probably a good bass on a Senko.  We had bass (Ed got a nice one over 2lbs on a bass bug and fly-rod.) and even a couple pike hit/follow.  One pike was decent (probably 30"), and the one we landed was around 22".    Perch and sunfish/gills were also hitting.   Best lures for us were spinnerbaits and lipless cranks.    

7/3 PM:   I headed over to Seneca Lake to meet Rob and Dennis.  They were up from Ohio and we shot out of Geneva for a crack at some lakers.  Lake trout action was very good and the guys landed some nice fish including a 31" fish that was fat and probably over 11lbs (which we released.)    The fish were feeding heavily and they were full of bait.   We had a great time and called it a day as T-storms/rain moved in.    Fish ranged from 45' on out.

7/4:   I did a long day with the Herman clan.   We started at 5 am with Karl and his dad Jim.   Karl is 7 years old and John Herman assured me that he was a mature young man very interested in fishing.  Well, John was right.   Karl did a great job and we started out with the guys handing Karl the rod when they hooked fish (after they landed a few themselves!)    Karl had fun landing fish, and he even missed one himself.   After landing 5 nice lakers on jigs, Karl hooked one himself!  He had a riot reeling in the fish that was a Keuka beauty - just under 27"!  

At 9 am I ran the guys back to the dock and picked up Alexi and Steve.    (Hopefully I'm keeping the names straight.)    We shot back to the bluff and the lakers were still hitting for a bit.   Steve told me he'd be happy with one, but he wound up with 2 nice fish.   Alex dropped 2 - through no apparent fault of his own.    Best fishing was in around 105' to 110' of water.   

At noon I dropped the guys off and picked up the last group, Dave and his daughters Emma and Elise.   The gals are young - in 4th and 5th grade and they love to fish.   I was very inspired and impressed with the job the gals did - they were great young fishers!   Elise managed a laker around 16" which wasn't an easy feat with the cranking winds (over 20 mph out of the west) and the rocking boat wakes/jet skiiers all over.   We fished hard and wound up back at the dock around 4 pm.  It was a great time, working with all the kids and watching them fish and in most cases, land some nice fish.   

7/5:  We did a full day starting at 5:30 am with Kirk and his wife Rebecca.   Fishing started slow on Cayuga Lake out of Taughannock, and I didn't mark much.   Kirk started things off with a laker around 14" - a rare Cayuga dink.   Fishing remained slow until 10 am (which is why I recommend a full day!).   After 10 am the fishing picked up considerably and a couple nice lakers came to the boat - a 28" and 30" fish.   Then we got another dink, and then a couple more nice 25" fish.   So the fishing basically got better as the day went on.   Fun trip!  Best action was deep - around 85', though we got fish from 65' (the dinks) out to over 90'.   Bait moved in (as did the fish) as the day went on.   48/50 degree water was deep - in around 80' and out.

Cayuga 6/29:  Guided Yvonne and Bryan on Monday for the full-day.    We had OK fishing - not spectacular, but certainly not bad.   Mid-lake areas produced 3 nice lakers for Yvonne and one good fish for Bryan.   One fish was dropped.  The morning bite was slow, though we got a slightly late start due to some circumstances beyond our control!    Fish bit slow, but fairly steadily throughout the AM.  Lots of lookers and chasers.   They each caught fish measuring 27".  The lakers are fighting GREAT right now, just in peak shape - making some drag ripping runs.   They don't like being cranked up into warm water!    It was a fun day - we've had some fun trips lately!

Otisco Lake 6/30:  Had a fun day on Otisco Lake with my buddy Jarrod.   We started at 6 am with some rain and threatening weather.   We were fairly engrossed in conversation when I felt a couple tugs on my rattlebait.   I uncharacteristically wasn't paying attention, which is a HUGE no-no when musky fishing.  I caught a glimpse of the 24" tiger after I failed to set the hook!   Jarrod, not being a slouch, cast his tube jig behind the boat in the direction of my Tiger and got hammered.  He landed the 24" fish.    Around 1/2 hour later Jarrod's tube got hammered again and in short order I was sliding the net under a 34" beauty!    We fished until 1 pm or so and didn't have any more action with the exception of a couple exhuberent bass.   So far so good on Otisco Lake - we're getting these muskies figured out!

Cayuga/Dean's Cove 6/27:   Guided 1/2 day trip with Andrew and his 11 year old son Matthew.   We started (and pretty much finished) the day with overcast skies.   Fishing was as tough as I've seen it all year.  There were baitfish on both shores -lots of bait.   Lake trout marks were few and far between.   The guys did a good job with the technique, the fish just weren't hitting for us.   We worked both shores and did a lot of searching for fish and jig dropping.   Matt hung in there and we fished as long as we could, but despite our best efforts the rare "skunk" finally reared its head for us.  

6/27 PM:   I can't say I was brimming with confidence when I picked up Jay and Jimmy at the Long Point Boat Launch (I do occasional "pick-ups" as a courtesy) at noon.  I knew what areas WEREN'T working, that's for sure.   But we had a full 8 hour day booked and there was a lot of lake to cover.   Skies had brightened (cleared up) a bit and as far as I was concerned it was a new day, but doubts lingered.   The guys were good sports, but Jay just had both his hips replaced and Jimmy told me he couldn't stand for long.   So my jiggers would be sitting during the entire trip.   

We started around Long Point and didn't have any luck, apart from one hit on a spoon - which already trumped any action we had all AM!   I decided to motor south and work mid-lake areas, and that's what we did.  And it was the right call.  On the east shore towards AES, Jimmy had a hit reeling up.  He fought the fish expertly and I was relieved and thrilled to see a 30" laker in the net.  I nearly dove in order to get the fish in the net!   We marked a lot of fish and bait - it was night and day compared to the AM trip, which is the drawback from booking 1/2 days.  We don't get a chance to cover all our bases.

Jimmy noticed a clicking noise on his reel.  He handed me the rod and I tested it out by dropping down a jig.   Just as the jig hit bottom and I jigged it once I felt a hit.  I set the hook and had a good fish on.  No clicking problem on the reel!   As I played the fish, Jay hooked up so I handed Jimmy the rod and went to net the fish.  We landed another 30" laker and a 25" fish.   Other fish landed on the day incl. another 30"er, a 25" and a 19"!  The fish are fighting great - really ripping out some drag.  We even had one jump near our motor!   Crazy lakers.  

6/28 out of Taughannock:   Guided Matt and his brother in-law Mike on Cayuga.  After finding the fish yesterday evening I figured we could put a "whuppin" on them today.   We had incredible numbers of chasers this AM, and some good hits but the guys just couldn't hook them!   Later in the AM the fish got more active after a slowdown.   Mike had a nice laker up near the net, but it broke off before I had the net ready, due to a net tangle/problem with the handle.  Matt nailed 3 nice fish.   The guys did well with the technique last year on Seneca out of Geneva, but for some reason just weren't in sync today.   I ran into my friend and rod builder Mike Canavan and he reported excellent fishing this AM.  Best action was from 65' on out.  We had chasers in upwards of 110' of water.   Baitfish are abundant!  Cayuga is just LOADED with bait from end to end.  

Guided Matt and his dad Dave for a 1/2 day today.   They do some bass fishing around VA and Wash. DC and were looking to get more familiar with Cayuga Lake bass fishing.  Dave has a summer place just N. of Union Springs and he's trying to get into fishing.   Matt fishes a bit but has found Cayuga to be challenging.   Anyways I did a lot of pre-fishing for them this week, trying to get re-acquainted with Cayuga largemouths.   Fishing had been fairly tough for me, until today that is.  

The weather system probably played a huge role in the bite today, but the storms and accompanying low barametric pressure apparently got fish on the feed.   While waiting out a thunderstorm with some wild lightning I went over some theory and techniques with the guys incl. bass patterns on Cayuga and working rattlebaits, jerkbaits, swimbaits, spinnerbaits and topwater.   An area I had somewhat limited success in earlier this week (on 6/24) came through and a good time was had by all.   The guys landed around 1/2 dozen decent bass - mostly 1 to 2lb fish.   Dave missed a beauty - probably a 3lber.   Other follows and hits were had.   A bunch of pickerel were landed.   We had great fun with the pickerel, which hit and fought as good as the bass.   Sunfish and perch also chased and hit the lures.   Hot lures incl. a Rat-L Trap,  a modified spinnerbait and a hard jerkbait.   By the morning's end both guys were casting baitcasting rods and enjoying it!    After the trip I did a little testing of one of my new Po' Boy Swimbaits and I checked out a few areas.    The time to test "new" lures and areas is when the fish are hitting, so I left our hot area and went on the prowl.  

Overall I managed to land 3 bass.   Fish were much more aggressive than earlier in the week.   Fishing pressure was pretty high for a Friday - though it is summertime. 

From time to time I get asked about boat rentals on Cayuga Lake.   I stopped by the Cayuga General Store on 2679 Lower Lake Road and met Mike the new owner.  The place has been rebuilt and is very nice.   He's renting pontoon and fishing boats and hopes to increase his "fleet" next year.   Give him a call at (315) 568-9439 and tell him you heard about rentals from John the guide!    His store is on the water just N. of Canoga marsh - a usually good bass, panfish and pickerel area.   He's open seasonally. 

I guided 1/2 day this AM with a friend who chose to remain anonymous!    He landed one 25" fish.    Lakers did hit well, with quite a few missed hits this AM.   We started at 5 am and there's plenty of bait around.    A temp probe was a huge asset today - we actually had 48 degree water down over 100' on the west shore and down 65' on the east shore.  100' is deep for this time of year.   Weather forecasters were wrong on the wind - we had stiff southerlies for most of the AM.  

Went to Otisco for a crack at some Tiger Muskies at around 1 pm.   I did a bit of casting with large Fin-S fish and assorted other lures.   I hit paydirt just before T-Storms rolled in - probably around 3 pm.    I cast a rattle bait and felt and saw something pretty much at the same time.   I thought to myself - "Man, that's a nice pike!"   Then I remembered that Otisco doesn't have pike!    "Wait a second - that's a MUSKY!!!"  I had a riot landing the 32" thick bodied fish on my Fenwick Elite Tech Musky Rod.   I snapped a couple quick shots then released the fish unharmed.     I saw a big Tiger cruising just under the surface.  Bass were around.  My buddy Jarrod nailed a limit of walleyes last night, along with a couple sub-legal tigers in the early AM.    The lake looks beautiful - no algae blooms, just clear water and lush weedgrowth.   I'll try to get photos up in a week or two.   By 4 pm T-Storms were rolling in.    

Got out on my own for some bass fishing today.  I love to bass fish, but with all the lake trout guiding over the past couple years it's taken a back seat.  It's taken some time to get back into bass fishing mode.    Cayuga wasn't easy today.   I started around 6:15 am working N. of Dean's Cove.  Water temps south of Red Jacket Yacht Club dropped considerably - they were around 56 this AM, due to the strong N. winds of the past couple days.

Water temps were in the low 70s near the N. end of the lake.   Many bass are still guarding nests.  I saw some big fish today - largemouths in the 5lb range, but they were spooky.   I dropped a 3lb+ fish on a Superfluke that was cruising a non-descript flat.   I landed a 1.5lber on a spinnerbait along a weed ridge.    Many areas seemed devoid of fish.   Even the pickerel weren't very cooperative today, though I did manage a couple.   I had a couple nice smallmouths on a tube jig and swimbait today in 3' to around 12' of water.   There are loads of alewives roaming the northern portions of the lake, so there's plenty of food for the bass.  Quite a few boats were out today - I was surprised, but then again school is out.  

I started with a 1/2 day trip at 6:30 am with Ross and his wife Kris (sp?)   Lake trout action was pretty decent, with 3 fish landed and 3 or 4 lost.   Landed fish included a 28" and 28.5" fish.  Conditions were somewhat foggy/misty in the AM with plenty of baitfish around.   Best fishing was from 65' on out to around 85' or 90'.   It was a fun trip.

After the trip I took a run over to Aurora for a bite to eat, then up to the northern portions of the lake, checking conditions out (I'm guiding bass/pickerel/pike up there next week.)    For those interested, it's easy to pull up to the Aurora Dock, walk up the small hill in the park and go to the Aurora Market - which has some terrific sandwiches, snacks and coffee.  

Afterwards I motored around and fished for a couple hours and found a few areas that looked promising for next week.   I saw a couple nice bass and had some solid hits on a new swimbait.   The usual pickerel were active.  Lots of bass fishermen were out pre-fishing for the Chamber of Commerce tournament on 6/20.    Weed growth is up high in many north end areas.

I picked up the Hermans at 4:15 and we headed out for some lake trout action.   John landed the first laker within one hour, and then another shortly after.   Bait moved back in and we wound up having a nice evening, with a total of 5 fish landed, including two 29" to 29.5" fish.   Fishing was great - they were chasing aggressively, so we had good action throughout the evening despite just landing the 5 fish.   We had a lot of hits.   Are things finally set up for lakers?  It looks like it.  The thermocline is well established and I expect things to pick up throughout the region.  

I arranged to meet my buddy Jarrod and his wife's grandfather, Max at Sodus Bay today.  They started fishing early at 7 am and I started around 10:30.    Storms rolled in this AM, but once they cleared Jarrod nailed a nice drum within a couple casts on a crankbait.   Drum were following - two to four at a time, then the wind came up a bit and they stopped according to J.    Bay temps were right around 69 to 70 degrees.    Jarrod encountered some crappies, bluegills and bass while drum fishing.   He saw a few gar surface too, though surface activity was very limited.  He landed another couple drum on tube jigs and crankbaits, and lost what was probably a very large drum on a bladebait.

I had a tough time on the drum.  There are tons of small baitfish in the bay - possibly emerald shiners.   Drum, bass and panfish (and likely gar) are around these fish.  I worked some open water suspended baitfish with a blade bait and landed one nice drum.   Apart from a small bass, bluegills and rockbass, that was the only fish of note I encountered.    The drum numbers still seem relatively low on Lake Ontario Bays compared to what we've seen over the past 15 to 20 years.   But there are fishable numbers.    I marked what was probably a school of gar in one area.   Gar fishing should pick up in the next few weeks.    Bass are active in the bay and anglers reported doing well on plastic worms like Senkos.

Well I had some grandiose plans for Dean and Scott today.  They've fished with me a couple times - one time just hammering lakers on Owasco and another time having a solid day on Cayuga.   I was hoping we could hit a salmon or brown around Taughannock Point early in the AM, head south for pike and then finish off with some lakers.   As we launched slightly after 5 am I ran into a couple guys who'd fished live alewives since midnight without any fish.   We gave the park around 1/2 hour w/o luck (no wind) then decided to head south for pike.   Conditions were perfect for laker jigging, but I thought we had a good shot at some pike and bass.   We worked pike for about an hour without any grabs when I got a text from my friend (and rod builder) Mike Canavan, who'd had some very good laker action further north.    So up we went.

The bite had disappated a bit by the time we arrived.   We did mark some fish and plenty of bait - which was a good sign.   Dean hooked a big laker and played it for awhile - then lost it.   A scale on the hook confirmed that it was foul hooked.    A couple other hits were had, then eventually Scott landed a 20" laker.   We worked some other areas and Scott hooked a solid fish - but unbelievably it was also foul-hooked!   We did get a good look at it, and it was a well-fed fish.   Scott then hooked another and it got off.    Fish had moments of aggressiveness, which was nice.   We did a little casting with tube jigs and superflukes.  Large perch, bluegills and some nice bass were in shallow.   But we mainly stuck with the lakers.    H2O on the surface is around 62 to 64 if I remember right.   The bottom line is that there was a very good to excellent bite in the AM - from around 6:30 to 7:30.   Fish had their moments later on, but that was by far the best fishing.  

6/10 Sampson AM Trip:   Did a full-day with Jeff and Jon.   I gave these guys a freebie;  last fall they booked a weekend with me and my Ford Ranger's clutch decided not to work, so I had to cancel both trips.   We started at 6:30 am.   This year I'm starting a lot of my trips earlier than ever before - incl. 5 am for some.   It never hurts to go early, with the possible exception of the winter!   

We started out looking for lakers and didn't find much.   The flats off Sampson had really warmed up.   So we headed out for some pike.   In a nutshell, the pike fishing was alright - not great, but certainly not terrible.   The guys started out working a jerkbait and swimbait and Jeff dropped a fish.   4 nice pike were landed up to 27", one 23" pickerel and two perch around 13" to 14".    We saw a few dead pike.    Jon fly-fished for awhile and managed his goal for the day - a nice pike on the fly!   So that was cool.  It hit a natural colored deceiver fished on a Type 6 sinking line.   Fish ranged from shallow to mid-depths.    We finished out with some laker jigging and Jon lost one just below the boat.  Both guys had browns around 15" to 17" chase in their jigs near some heavy bait schools.   The jigging got us primed for the next day's trip on Cayuga.

Re: Pike - I still haven't searched the entire lake for pike on my own, or via guiding.   But anyone who's fished Seneca Lake over the past three years would pretty much have to be blind to not see that this fishery has declined significantly this year.   Numbers have gone down every year, but that's to be expected given that there were two large classes of fish (see my old reports!)   I checked out a couple of my best areas several times and have seen very few fish.   These areas have produced year-in and year-out for me - even back before the recent pike boom.   

Is there still good pike fishing in Seneca Lake?  YES.  

Is there the potential for a great day on Seneca Lake for pike?  YES.  

Are there some lunker pike around?  YES.   

But here's the deal as I see it.   The population got so high over the past three years that it was bound to crash.   Every year we've seen some fungused up fish, fish with a weird slime on them, dead fish and what appears to be "half-dead fish."   I saw a bunch of dead pike on Wed.   Fresh dead pike and old dead pike (aka fuzzy pike ;-)    DEC has had reports of fish die-offs.  Cornell fisheries has examined some dying pike.  They've basically said "something's wrong, but we don't know what it is."     It's some sort of bacterial infection or virus.  Not VHS thus far though.  

One of the pike caught Wednesday was a light green, thick bodied beauty.  As nice a looking pike as I've ever seen color-wise.   We also had a thin fish showing signs of some sort of fin-rot or abrasion.  Not good.   The other two were average looking fish.   The pickerel was healthy.   I spooked a 32" to 34" beauty that was thick bodied and healthy.  That was nice to see!    It's a huge lake and it supports a lot of pike.  

Since the habitat and baitfish are still around on Seneca, I expect there to be improvements in the pike fishery in the future if they have some successful spawning.  We may see smallmouth bass and pickerel bounce back too.    For numbers, I still think Seneca provides the best pike fishing in the Finger Lakes.  Conesus is good too for size.  I'm checking out Cayuga shortly.   There's been decent numbers of 22" to 27" fish there - so pike are on the upswing again.   We'll just wait 'n see what happens.   Things will turn around (or else we'll just fish elsewhere or for a different species - you just can't lose here in the Finger Lakes!)

6/10 PM:  After a time mix-up that was my fault, I picked up Dennis and Becky at the dock at Sampson.  They both love to fish and were just married!   We decided to start with some pike fishing.   Our wind died, making drifting impossible, so I worked us with the trolling motor.   Fishing was tough and I went over working jerkbaits with my couple.   Weird stuff happens when fishing and Becky made a cast and I grabbed the rod to show her how to work the bait.  To make a long story short, with a little help, Becky landed a beautiful 19 1/2" smallmouth bass!    We fished a bit longer with zero luck.   We tried lakers for a couple hours without a hit.   So we went back to pike.   No pike, but Dennis managed to hook a couple huge perch.   Both around 14" and fat.   There are still some beautiful perch in shallow.   All in all, a tough evening trip - but it happens.

6/11 on Cayuga/Dean's:   I met Jeff and Jon early at Dean's Cove and we headed out for lakers.   Fishing was steady if not slightly slow all day, but we had enough action to keep us transfixed.  Let's just say the fishing was good, but the catching was a little slow.   Jon managed his first, second, third, fourth and fifth laker on the jig!  Jeff nailed one on his homemade bamboo jigging stick.   All in all a good day - we hooked fish right at the get-go, and we also got fish not long before we left.   Baitfish are around and some smaller trout and salmon were hitting bait on top.   Fun day.    

I didn't think in a million years I'd fish on Monday after the long week I had, but my buddy Mike called with promises of "lazy fishing", drifting with nightcrawlers for walleyes (and I hoped some bonus fish.)   After a 2 hour plus drive I met him around 2 pm at Marion Manor,  on Oneida's south east shore.   We launched Mike's Lund and soon were out in deep water around buoy 109 (a community hole out on the deep flats of the lake.)   I haven't done much deep drifting for eyes, apart from a time or two on Chautauqua Lake 16 or 17 years ago.   And it showed!   Usually when I fish Oneida I fish the west end, which has plenty of beautiful classic walleye structure - points, shoals and islands.

We set up with very light winds.   We did manage a few hits casting 1/2 to 5/8 oz jigs tipped with crawlers into our drift, but couldn't hook up.  The walleyes (?) were stealing our bait.  Before long the wind died and the bites stopped for us.  We tried in shallower and caught some nice panfish (rock bass and perch.)   We also caught a couple nice bass, incl. a smallie that fought great.  Mike had a nice walleye follow in his Cotton Cordell Grappler Shad.    It got dark and we did some nighttime casting.  Mike nailed the only walleye of the night.  I then drove home utterly exhausted and tried to stay awake. 

Interestingly enough, when I got home and checked my email, one of my client/friends from April (Eric from 4/17) had sent me a report of his walleye fishing in the same area last weekend!   He'd done well and gave me some terrific tips to try for next time.   I'm looking forward to doing more of this fishing - just to do something different and have a chance at a big channel cat or a lucky sturgeon!   

PS - My friend Bill Alexander (noted jig tier from Sylvan Beach) is selling high quality laker jigs at reasonable prices.  Bill's a great guy and he pours all my jigs.  He has all my molds including my 1 1/2 oz. deep jigs.   1 oz. heads are .60 and the larger ones are $1 each.   Give him a call at (315) 762-5752.   He pours them on super sharp high quality Mustad Ultra Point hooks.    Bill encourages customers to order together in order to save on shipping costs.    BTW - Bill is a superb bass fisherman and has won a few boats over the years!  And he does it all with spinning rods!   

I just wrapped up one of the busiest weeks I've had guiding.   Needless to say, I feel "pasted" ;-)    Fishing varied - we had some moments of very good action and some slow stuff - that's fishing.    Re: Lakers - it's a tricky time for lakers.  Lots of fish are just on bottom and not showing up on the fishfinder.  There are schools of baitfish w/o lakers around.   Lakers on Cayuga that we kept had very fresh alewives in them - and the fish were still not plump.  I think things are just starting due to our much cooler than normal May.

Owasco Lake 6/6:  Did a full day with Tom and Bruce.  I love being hired to show angling approaches and that's what we did.  Tom told me up front that he wasn't worried about catching fish - it was about learning how to approach the lake and some techniques to work on.   We started at just after 6 am with laker jigging - which for my money is the best/most fun technique day-in and day-out.   You can do it 12 months out of the year, catch big fish with relatively inexpensive equipment and do well amongst jet skiiers in the middle of the day.    We didn't mark many fish or bait, but Tom ended up hooking one laker on the lake's northeast shore in around 85' of water.   We had laker-friendly water temps from around 65' or 70' on out.  Later in the day we found good numbers of inactive lakers on the lake's west shore - we didn't mark them, just dropped down the jigs and they showed up!    There will be some good jigging out here - timing is everything.  

We did some bass fishing with tubes, jerkbaits and superflukes.  Large perch were chasing the lures in.   Bass weren't on the usual points for the most part, though we saw a few big fish.  I also spotted a walleye amongst some suckers.   Bass are likely spawning and we didn't look for them much.    I showed the guys some good areas then we went pike fishing.  I wasn't expecting much with the lack of wind but the guys worked jerkbaits and swimbaits with focus.   Near the south end of the lake Tom's rogue got hammered and he landed a nice 27" pike.   The exciting moment was a little later when Tom hooked a huge fish on a swimbait.   Judging from the run the fish made, it was likely a pike that was at least 10lbs or better!  

We wound up back on the lakers and Tom had a brown colored fish in around 90' of water hitting his lure below the boat - it was most likely a suspended smallmouth.  

Cayuga Lake/Dean's 6/6 PM:  After the Owasco trip I trailered over to Cayuga where I picked up Matt, Andrew and Nate via boat at Long Point State Park.   How vital is a good thermometer this time of year?   Well, we had lethal laker temps down to around 70' on the east shore and down to 45' or so on the west!  So that's a world of difference.  There's no point in wasting your time jigging areas void of lakers.  Life's too short!    We had a tough time.  The wind kicked up from the N. and I took the guys to the Sheldrake area.  There were fish around - Nate hooked one and lost it.  But bait was scarce.    The further north we went, the more bait we found.   Eventually we found a huge concentration of bait.  Time was running short and the sun was getting lower.  But Nate hooked and landed a nice laker and just as we were admiring the fish,  Andrew hooked up!  So we nearly had a double.   We had found the fish/bait and the guys had a decent number of hits over the next hour.  Nate landed another nice laker, then Matt got one.  All in all a successful trip, though things looked bleak for awhile.  Like "Ike" says - "never give up!"

Seneca/Sampson 6/7 AM:  Guided Joe and Tom from 6/5 for a 1/2 day.  The guys were heading back home today and wanted to do something fairly close to where they were staying.  I thought Sampson would turn on more for lakers, so that's where we went, starting at 7 am.  The cold water inshore we had on 6/5 was gone.  So was much of the bait.   We worked lakers for an hour w/o action.   We headed over to the W. shore to check on pike.   Again, Seneca pike is a fraction of what it was over the past 3 years from what I'm seeing.  I haven't put in a full day pike fishing yet  - really searching and checking out areas, but I'm not thrilled with what I'm seeing.   It's back to reality on Seneca for pike.   The lake is fishing more like it did in the early 1990s - you do a lot of searching and casting for a few fish.   We saw one boat pick up one.  We saw one fish as well - again - it was showing signs of fungus or some sort of infection.  Not good.    We went North looking for lakers and didn't mark much bait or fish.  Where were they?   Right on bottom.  We had good laker temps in 40' and out up north.   Tom picked up a nice 26" fish.  We had other chasers, but they were neutral/negative again.   That was it for the day.  Somewhat tough fishing.   

The guys reported some great bass fishing yesterday on Keuka Lake with guide Jon Evans.  Jon's a great fisherman and really a bass master - he fishes competitively and wins/places in a lot of events.   Check out www.fishingthefingerlakes.com to learn more about Jon and the fishing he does.   We run into each other once in a while and I can attest that he's a really good guy as well as an accomplished guide/angler. 

Guided Joe and Tom this AM for the full day.  Laker action was decent with 4 nice fish landed - most around 27" to 28"+.  A few fish were lost and a fair number of hits missed.  We had lakers from around 27' on out - though there were fish shallower!    Large numbers of baitfish are moving in.  Surface temps were 52 to 54 off Sampson.  

PM:  I did a trip with a different Tom (Tom A.)  The weather got a little weird and we ran around checking out some different areas.  We wound up back at Sampson and Tom nailed one nice laker.  He then lost a BIG FISH and missed one or two more.  The big fish straightened out my hook!  It was a combination of a fatigued hook (having been bent before) plus too much torque on Tom's part.  But the fish was big!   We had a great time and the evening turned out to be picture perfect after it appeared as though it might get nasty out. 

Guided Dan K. today for the full-day.   He was out with me on Skinny about a month ago and we were hoping for a repeat of the surprisingly good fishing we had then.   Fishing today wasn't great, but it wasn't bad - it was basically an "OK day."    We started by targeting smallmouth bass.  Many of them were hitting short or at least not very aggressively - Dan would get one hit and not hook the fish.  Bass are widely distributed around the lake.   Dan's fish ran from around 10" to 16".   He probably landed around a dozen along with a couple rock bass and a 13" perch.   Larger (17" to 19")bass were definitely around - a lot of times the smaller of two fish would hit and the larger one would show itself as Dan fought the smaller one!    Tube jigs did the trick.   A pleasant surprise came with a couple lakers Dan landed in 15' to 25' of water casting 1/4 oz. tube jigs in green pumpkin.   Dan filled his laker limit with a 20" fish he jigged up in around 70' of water.  He also dropped 2 other solid lakers.   These fish hit blue tube jigs with a red flake jigged vertically.  

My buddy Craig was on the lake fishing bass exclusively.  He eventually found a good pattern that yielded some big smallmouths.   Jerkbaits and tube jigs worked well for him.   Water temps were in the upper 50s - around 56 to 57.  The north end of the lake was coldest.

Guided the full day with Bob and his brother Bill.   Bill joined me on Owasco Lake on 8/19/06 and he did very well on lakers.   Today was tough.   We started at 6 am and fished hard all day.   We found laker friendly water temps from around 65' on out (though we even tried shallower.)   Good numbers of fish remain in the deep water basin - more or less roaming around suspended.   We worked a lot of "hooks" and had virtually no reaction from the lakers.  One or two chasers on the day.    We had zero fish coming off the bottom in the depths.   We worked downlake and Bill eventually nailed a 21" laker on a tube jig in around 75' of water off a point.   The guys weren't up for pike or bass fishing, which would have been a better option (what could have been worse?) so we lived and died by the laker jigging.   I had no problems with that and thought we could do better.  But the guys fished well, doing stuff competently.   

For Lake Trout jigging, this past May has been the toughest one since I started guiding in 2005.   Luckily we still haven't gotten skunked yet, but we've had to work extremely hard for everything.  Fish aren't coming easy, though there have been some hot moments.   The lack of a good warming trend has kept baitfish scattered.  Lakers just aren't putting on the feedbag very heavily.   Bass and pike fishing is a better option, though Seneca pike have also been "off."  Early bass fishing has been excellent.   But we enjoy the challenge of the lakers - so we keep doing it.   And tough fishing hopefully makes us better fishermen.    Water temps are much cooler than usual for this time of year.   Let's hope June heats up a bit!

After much debate (as always) my fishing buddy Jarrod and I decided on Irondequoit Bay for today.  Honeoye, Conesus, Otisco, Owasco and Sodus were considered.   What a tough decision, but off we went.   Drum were the target today.   We started at the mouth of the bay - there were black areas full of baitfish around, but no fish for us.  The mouth of Russel Station had very little flow, but there was enough for me to nail a 20"+ brown trout (probably 3lbs) on a Krocodile spoon in about 3' of water.   That fish could have easily been taken from shore.   We tried the mouth of the Genny without luck.  

We headed back into the bay and I landed a nice Northern Pike around 31".  It was very clean!   Some big rock bass were also hitting, and we saw plenty of gar.  I had another follow from a smaller pike.    We saw gar everywhere and had plenty of slashes and follows from them.  I didn't bring any rope lures and the gar weren't super active at the time.  Fishing was pretty slow in general.  A trip across the bay to another area (around some points) produced a solid smallmouth for Jarrod.  Then he set the hook into a chunky 21" walleye (both fish on deep diving crankbaits.)    We ran across a congregation of nice largemouths running around 1 to 2lbs.  We caught around 5 of those, then we finally hit paydirt (or at least Jarrod did) with a couple beautiful drum!  This fish were very clean and looked just like their saltwater cousins - redfish.    

Water temps ranged from around 62 to 67 in the bay on the day.  70 is usually the key wake-up for gar fishing.    The lake ranged from 51 to over 60 around the Genny mouth.   Fishing today was a nice change of pace from the usual Finger Lakes stuff.    We may hit Sodus or Oswego soon, but there are so many other opportunities around - those areas may be low on the priority list!

I just wrapped up an 18 hour day on the water;  I've been ridiculously busy over the holiday.  Fishing was tough to say the least!  Here's how things shaped up:

5/22:  Guided Bob and Joanie on Seneca Lake out of Sampson.  They've fished with me a few times in the past, on both Cayuga and Owasco Lakes.   We tried some casting for pike without any action from northerns.  One pickerel and one nice lake trout found their way onto the end of Bob's alewife tube jig.   We fished up north for lakers and Joanie caught a nice one jigging.   After the trip, I met up with my old fishing buddy Phil and we did some laker jigging.  The jigging picked up a bit and we managed to land around a half dozen lakers - mostly 22" to 25" incl. one 29" fish.   We checked a pike area and I picked up one nice northern plus a 14" perch.   The perch and pike were shallow.   The most interesting part of the day was watching a laker whack an apple core I'd tossed overboard.   It looked like a baitfish!

5/23:  Guided the Herman's for a full day on Cayuga out of Dean's Cove.   Fishing was slow.  We jigged lakers with John Herman catching a solid 29" fish in shallow, but overall it was tough going.  We covered a lot of water and marked few fish and very little bait.  The few fish we marked weren't very active.  AES Cayuga was discharging cold water, which doesn't help anything.  John also caught a nice smallmouth and a few perch to 12" in a shallow bay.   I couldn't believe that people were wakeboarding in the 49 degree water near AES!   Wow.  

5/24 AM:  Guided Ron and his son Matt on Seneca Lake out of Sampson.  We started with some pike fishing.   Matt had a follow or two from a couple good fish in short order, but no grabs.  After an hour of pike fishing, we headed north for some lake trout.  Ron did well, landing two 29" fish and one around 25".  Matt landed a 24".   We had fun and found fish between around 50' and 120'.  

5/24 PM:  Did a trip with Erica and Elliot out of Sampson as well.  Erica is another "Wine Enthusiast" employee.  They were in town for a little R an + R and some wine tasting.  They're based in NYC and had never fished before!  We got a late start and things weren't looking good.    Lakers were chasing but not hitting.   As things got dark, it was time to pick up and lo and behold Erica landed a nice 3lb + laker!   So we avoided the skunk.     

5/25 AM:  Guided Ed and John for the Seneca Lake Memorial Day Derby Day 3.   Fishing was very tough.   We marked lakers but couldn't get them to grab.   John lost a good fish in deep water.  One fish was landed on the day.   And we fished hard! 

5/25 PM:  Guided Greg, Tom and Dennis for some lakers on Cayuga.   The wind was blowing good out of the north when we started and things didn't look great.  Greg has a place on the lake and I went over the jigging technique with him.   We worked a lot of areas from Silos down to past Long Point.   We tried from 40' out to 150'.   100' to 105' produced one 29"+ fish for Greg.   No other hookups were had. 

Wind forecasts weren't looking too good for our planned Lake Erie trip, so we decided on fishing some Western Finger Lakes.   I grew up fishing the Western Finger Lakes, mainly Honeoye and Conesus.   Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s  as a 6th and 7th grader I would join my friend Jeff in his 12' rowboat, dump out of Honeoye's south end and spend the day out there casting for bass and pickerel.   Fishing for both species was very good then on Honeoye, with fewer but larger bass and plenty of pickerel.   Now it's better number wise for bass (mostly smaller) and the pickerel fishing isn't as good.  From around 1986 onwards I'd mostly fish with my buddy Terry in his multi-species set up and we'd fish for walleyes, pike and bass on Conesus or walleyes and bass on Honeoye. 

The main difference between the Eastern Finger Lakes (like Owasco, Otisco, Cayuga and Skaneateles) and the Western Finger Lakes (like Honeoye and Conesus - and to a lesser extent Keuka and Canandaigua) is with usage.   The Western lakes generally have a flatter topography, so for better or worse they were heavily developed.   Conesus Lake is wall to wall cottages/homes.  Same with Honeoye.   They are very close to Rochester (and Monroe County,)  where you have a five county population of over a million people.   Of course you have the opposite situation with Hemlock and Canadice Lakes - the smallest (western) Finger Lakes - where homes were taken over (bought out) by the City of Rochester and the lakes are kept in pristine condition as sources of water for the city of Rochester.  (I know Hemlock is a water source, I'm not certain on Canadice - though I think it also is.) I don't fish Hemlock or Canadice much at all, and it's not because I don't want to!  The experience out on these lakes is wonderful.  I just don't have the time or the set up right now.   But they are treasures.

Honeoye and Conesus offer some fantastic fishing.   Conesus is an alewife driven fishery without the salmonids!  So the warm water fish get to eat all the alewives without sharing them with trout and salmon - fish get BIG here!   The boat traffic here after kids get out of school in late June is intense.   There's no comparison to the eastern lakes.  Last time I checked, there was a water-skiing slalom course set up in the south end of Honeoye Lake!  Right where the great fishing is.   In the 1970s it was understood by cottage owners that the south end was for fishing and the rest of the lake was for other activities.  This obviously has changed.   Conesus is also crazy.  On summer weekends there are plenty of imbibed boaters racing around the lake at 1 am.   I love fishing these lakes in May and early June, and again in October and November.   There's some great summer fishing, but be prepared to share the water with plenty of other enthusiasts.   Best call is to start at 4 am and get off the water around 11 am during the weekends, or fish rainy days and weekdays.

5/18:   Jarrod and I got on the lake just before 9 am with 58 to 59 degree water.   On the way down I became a complete believer in his Garmin GPS/Navigator!   It was amazing - I learned a new route that was both scenic and saved us a lot of headache as well as mileage.   We had bluebird skies and a light Northwind.   We tried a point on the way to the N. end and marked some good fish and bait.   Up to the north end we went and I found an area with some very subtle weed growth.   Within short order - maybe 10 to 15 minutes on my alewife tube I had a hit was was hooked up to a tiger musky around 22" to 24".   I lost the fish.   Jarrod was next, hooking and landing a very hefty pike at 32" on a jerkbait.  The fish fought great.   I then landed my first Conesus Tiger musky - a dink around 20".   They've been stocked here since the late 1980s or early 1990s.   Jarrod had a good pike follow him and I landed a 14" largemouth.  And that was about it.  We worked down the lake and found plenty of smallmouths on beds, as well as a few largemouths.   Males seemed to have moved up and many females were hovering just off the shelves.   I landed a big smallmouth, again on a tube, then Jarrod did the same.

Fishing slowed up for us from around 1 pm till 5 pm.  Jarrod had a hit, missed it, made another cast and had a walleye follow him in.   We saw some big pike.   But the fish seemed to have shut off.   Around 5 pm I hooked a big fish and lost it.  Then Jarrod put on a swimbait clinic for me, landing a 4lb+ largemouth and another chunky fish.  Then he set into the biggest largemouth I've seen in person caught on the Finger Lakes.  It was huge - 22 1/2" and weighed in at 6 3/4lbs!   At around 6 pm we talked to some guys trolling eyes and they reported slow fishing - 2 fish between 5 and 6lbs on the entire day.   That still isn't too bad IMO, for cooling waters and an alewife driven walleye fishery during the day.     By this time we'd decided we'd stay and fish Conesus on both days, rather than switch over to Honeoye Lake.  

We used the Garmin Navigator and located a hotel and pizza place.   The unit gave us phone numbers and addresses - how great is that?    We grabbed a bite to eat, went to the hotel and set the alarm for 1:30 am.   We checked out and were on the lake by 2:45 am and met with a good southwind and very cold conditions.   There was one trailer in the parking lot and the boat was coming in as we launched.  The guys reported landing one 5lb walleye.   Water temps dropped to 57.   We worked a few good streches and never had a hit.  We didn't see many baitfish around.    At daybreak the bass turned on and we landed 4 or 5 largemouths, incl. one around 4lbs.   No walleyes.   Jarrod did have one eye follow him in around 7:30 am.  

We tried an area my buddy Terry had found years ago, where I used to catch some daytime (early AM) walleyes.  At least I THINK it was the same area!   I had a wicked bite-off and then Jarrod hooked a very heavy fish before being bitten off.   I then landed a pike around 25" on the tube.  We rigged some pike stuff up and I landed a solid 32" fish.  Jarrod does a bit of musky fisheries work and was very impressed with the heft of these pike.  They were very well fed and very strong fighters.   A few more smallies and another pike rounded off the day.    We quit at 2 pm.  

Overall the fishing was tough - we fished our butts off on very long days.   I fully intend to chase walleyes here in a week or two at night.   I think the fishing is going to be very good after the next few hot days bring in the spawning alewives! 

Lots of guiding over the past few days makes for a tired man.   I have a few days off and what's a Finger Lakes Guide do?   He takes a trip to the Finger Lakes.    I'll be fishing Honeoye and Conesus Lakes over the next couple days.   We were planning on Lake Erie, but the wind forecast isn't looking too good.   Here's what we found over the past three days:

5/15:   Fished out of Taughannock with Paul and his son Doug.   The wind forecast was downgraded and we were met with dense fog in the AM, which made for slow going.   The strong southerlies of 5/14 cooled things off a lot, and water temps dropped to around 42 degrees.  The warm water was at the lake's south end - which was murky/muddy as well.   Good numbers of browns were around, but casting for them in Cayuga's south end can be like looking for a needle in a haystack - it was a troller's game out there.   My guys worked spoons and stickbaits and never had a hit.   We saw a pike landed and had friends report some good brown trout action.  

We wound up N. of AES jigging lake trout.   Doug did well, hooking a few nice fish and landing 2 solid lakers.   Fish were from 85' on out.  110' to 120' was best for us, and there was some bait around.   Paul nailed a small LLS on a spoon at AES and that was it for us.  Doug also missed a LLS hit at Taughannock before we called it a day.   We fished hard!

5/16:  Guided Bill and his son Nathan for the full day on Seneca out of Watkins.   They had some great pike fishing with me last May.   We found very cold water on the lake's south end - no doubt from the winds on 5/14.  On our first drift Nate missed a salmon and Bill lost what was probably a nice pike.   We tried some other areas then returned to our original area of warmer water.   We found plenty of salmon and the guys wound up having a nice day with around a dozen landlockeds landed - mostly 14" to 17" fish.   We kept the few we couldn't releas