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 release.  These things just maim themselves!    A big brown followed in a spoon, as did a nice pickerel.  Bill lost a nice 30" + northern under the boat when it grabbed a spoon intended for salmon.   It was pretty exciting.  

5/16 PM:  Back out of Watkins with Jeff and Abby, who I guided 2 years ago for lakers on Cayuga one August.  Back then we got blown off by torrential rains and a good T-Storm.   That was nothing compared to what we experienced Saturday!   The weather was getting iffy, but we decided to try fishing anyways since we weren't working too far from the marina.   We headed out and Jeff lost a salmon in no time.   We kept an eye on the weather and lo and behold a wicked storm came out from the South West!   We were able to take shelter while our visibility dropped to around 100' and 57 mph winds and waves crashed around us.  It was crazy.   After 1/2 hour the storm blew through and we were fishing again.   Salmon action was very good and around 4 or 5 more were landed including a 15" brown.   It was nice to see a brown on Seneca - we don't catch many there these days.  

5/17:  Guided Steve and Albert on Owasco.  Steve has a place on the lake and hasn't really explored all the lake has to offer "angling wise" yet, so off we went.  The guys wanted to learn some techniques and areas to fish.   So we started north with tube jigs and jerkbaits - two of my favorites.  It didn't take long before Albert had a couple hits and was hooked up with what was most likely a laker over 22".   It got off, but it was fun.  We then headed south.   The guys wound up each landing 18" chunky smallmouths, some big perch to 13" and a couple 25" northern pike.   It was fun and I think they are now believers in the stickbaits and tubes.   In the PM I "traded" Al for Steve's son Sil.   He's only 10 years old, but was casting consistently within a couple hours.  Conditions were very tough fishing with 20 mph winds out of the NW.  We tried some laker jigging and casting for bass, but the bite had shut down.   Water temps were in the low 50s.  

I got out onto Onondaga Lake near Syracuse with my buddy Jarrod.  I hadn't fished Onondaga since 7/22/2000, so I was looking forward to hitting it.   The lake is one of the most researched fisheries around, due to its history of heavy pollution.  It's much cleaner than it once was and the fishing has been excellent for the past decade at the very least.   A 48" tiger musky (A State Record Class Fish!) was electrofished here last week, along with 4 others (incl. a couple around 20lbs.)   These fish drop down into Nine Mile Creek (Otisco Lake's outlet) and wind up in Onondaga Lake.   There's a ton of stuff for gamefish to eat in Onondaga Lake - so there's some serious big-fish potential here!   We were hoping to encounter a musky today, though we didn't throw musky lures.  I used TyGer wire leaders on most of my presentations today just in case.

A cold night made the shallow bass pretty lethargic when we started around 9 am.   I landed the first largemouth on a Senko - and it didn't hit hard.   We fished hard and Jarrod lost a nice pike (or possible musky) near the lake's north end.   It took a few hours before we got our second fish, a nice smallmouth around 2.5lbs.   We spotted a nice pike and a hefty bowfin in one cove, along with some good bass.   Jarrod then had a slashing hit from what appeared to be a good musky.  The fish was big and it missed his swimbait.   That was it on the esocids.   We headed down the lake to a couple of bass areas my buddy Terry and I had found on our previous trip on this lake back in July of 2000.   Jarrod found a neat pattern and hammered 3 nice fish in a row on a lipless crankbait.  He then lost a slob largemouth, probably around 5lbs.   I landed a couple bass as well - all were shallow, in less than 7' of water.  We worked N. to the launch and caught some more bass.  Our total on bass was around 12 to 14 mostly keeper sized fish today, primarily largemouths, but 2 chunky smallies.  Lipless cranks, a spinnerbait, a stickbait and a senko produced our bass.   Water temps rose from 57 to over 61 degrees today.  We also landed a couple perch.   Carp and bluegills were everywhere and we did see plenty of bass too, incl. some big ones.   It was a fun day and we'll be back.  

I got out for a half day with Larry and his girlfriend.   Lake trout jigging wasn't real easy, despite the favorable conditions.   Fish were around - from shallow to very deep, but just not very aggressive.   The goal was to learn the technique, and that we did.   Two lakers were landed a couple more missed.   Fish came from around 160' of water.    We had fish marked and chasing jigs from 80' on out.    We found lakers just about everywhere we fished - from Sampson on to the North end of the lake.  

After the trip I spent a little time searching for pike.  I hooked a smallmouth bass and had a decent pike follow in a swimbait.   I didn't encounter any decent pike numbers.   I'll be back out checking on pike again - I only fished one area, but was disappointed in what I saw.   Water temps on Seneca were in the mid 40s on top.  

Did a full-day guided trip with Chris and Mike, who've been enjoying the mixed bag stuff on Skaneateles for the last couple years with me.   Water temps ranged from the low to mid 40s for the most part.   We had little wind to start, then it built out of the North.  Only 2 other boats launched out of the State Ramp today - one being my friend Mike S. who did some fly-fishing for trout.

We were impressed as heck by the terrific smallmouth bass fishing.   We found bass on dark bottomed rocky/weedy areas in roughly 7' to 20' of water.   The largest (longest) fish we caught today was 20 1/2" and weighed just under 4lbs.   We had a shorter fish push the scale down to 4lbs 6oz today!   There are a lot of nice bass in this lake despite what many folks may think.   This is a great time of year for big smallies, though the low water temps have limited their willingness or ability to jump much!  

Chris nailed one Landlocked Salmon that was 19" long on a hair jig.   We saw freshly stocked rainbows feeding on the abundant midges that were hatching lakewide.   No other trout action for us, which was surprising.  I was definitely expecting lakers.  They will undoubtedly be in the mix next week when water temps reach close to 48.   My buddy Mike landed 2 decent rainbows (up to 20") today fly-fishing.  And he worked some of the same areas we did.  It just goes to show how downright DEADLY fly-fishing can be for certain species, like trout, salmon and pike.  At times fly-fishing is the #1 method to catch those fish.

The perch really cooperated today.  They are spawning or darn close to it.  The guys - esp. Chris, landed 14 beauties today - mostly 12" to nearly 15" jacks!   This lake is a challenge to fish.  My advice to those who struggle with this lake is to move around and try new areas.  Location is the key.  Don't waste your time fishing the same areas day after day if they aren't producing consistently.  

After Chris and Mike left, I met up with Mike S. and we fished smallmouths.  We had a blast.   There are so many great fishing opportunities in the region!

I did an AM trip starting just after 8 am with Matt from the Fingerlakes Tourism Alliance and Susan, a Senior Editor with "Wine Enthusiast" magazine.   The weather was beautiful with a strong sun and very calm conditions.    The goal was to get Susan a lake trout that she could take over to the Aurora Inn and have their chef prepare.  Lakers were around from shallow to deep, but not grabbing super well.   Both Matt and Sue had a few hits, but nothing they could convert.   Eventually Susan did manage to catch a nice 29" laker on a jig in around 160'.    Perseverence paid off.   The jigging can be easy when fish are aggressive, but it can be difficult when fish aren't.  

Matt and Sue had some committments that they were running late to, and I had an hour before my PM trip with Ed, Tom and Dave, so I checked on some shallower fish.  The wind came up a bit and the skies clouded up a bit more.   I found some active fish and dropped two.   Things looked good for the PM trip.

I met the guys at the launch, just as the skies were starting to get a bit ominous.   We motored to a shallow shelf and set up in around 50' of water.   It didn't take long before the guys started getting some hits.   A couple fish were lost, then a couple were landed.  But the storms started approaching.   We headed for cover at Dean's just as a good T-storm came in.   The trip was aborted after around 2 hours.  

Cayuga Lake 5/6:

After a busy week on the water I was going to take it easy Wednesday, but then my buddy Craig called me to see if I wanted to join him on Cayuga's N. end, fishing out of his Ranger bass boat.   How could I refuse?   So off we went at around 4:30pm.   We worked some areas for largemouth bass and got into some nice fish in short order.   Fish were hitting jerkbaits and a tube jig.   Craig caught some stellar fish with a spinnerbait - a 4lb 2oz smallmouth, a 3lb 8oz largemouth and a whopping 5lbs+ largemouth!  Just some beasts!    Fish were in shallow water - probably less than 7'.   There were a ton of dead bluegills and sunfish floating around.  This appears to be an annual event on Cayuga's N. end as the panfish spawn.   I'm not sure what the deal is.  

Craig has just launched his guide service and  I expect him to do very well.  He'll be focusing on Oneida and Onondaga Lakes, but is also available to do trips elsewhere in the region, including Lake Champlain and Lake George, as well as select Finger Lakes and the Thousand Island area.    He's a stand-up guy with a worldly view on bass fishing, having competed in tournaments across the eastern U.S.   His website is www.empirebassandbeyond.com/  

Owasco Lake 5/7:

Fished Owasco Lake today with my buddy Jarrod.   We were hoping to find some northerns and smallies, but went in with an open mind.   We started around 11:15 am on count of some committments Jarrod had early.   Things started out promising on the north end of the lake when Jarrod missed a couple hits.  Then he landed a nice pike around 27".   Then I hooked a nice fish casting into around 10' of water.  It was a 23" lake trout!   I used to catch a lot of lakers in the spring shallow in Owasco, and it was nice to see that they were still moving up.    There were a lot of perch in shallow.  

We worked south and Jarrod picked up a smallmouth around 15".   I had a follow from what was probably a walleye, and Jarrod landed another decent pike.   Pike seemed a bit lethargic.   A cast into deep water produced a nice laker around 27" for me.   The lakers were outfighting everything!   I thought my first laker was a huge smallmouth at first.  Give lakers 48 degree water on the surface and they fight with intensity and vigor!    We spent a little time jigging lakers deep without luck, but we didn't try for long.   We patrolled the shallows once the wind died down and managed to spot at least 3 or 4 nice walleyes, but they were lock-jawed.   A ton of perch were chasing our jerkbaits.  The hot lure of the day was an alewife colored tube jig fished on a 1/4 oz. jig head. 

Overall the fishing was somewhat slow.  I blame a lot of it on the lack of wind.  Fish were hitting very well when we started, with rainy conditions and 10 mph west winds.  As soon as the wind died, the bite died for the most part.   Perch fishers report catching bonus walleyes while perch fishing.   Water temps were in the upper 40s to 51.   Many bass still seem deep, though I'm sure a sunny day will move some up in short order.   We didn't work on jigging lakers much, but I'd love to spend a day on the lake going after them. 

I have some freetime this week and I'm very psyched about checking out some places I haven't visited in a while.  This afternoon I fished Seneca Lake with the intention of finding some good DEEP flats on the lake's north end.   I generally fish Sampson or around Severne Point when I want to hit 150' of water or more this time of year.   With my new jigging gear, I'm able to fish water from 140' out to over 180' very effectively, so it's opened up a lot of new water to me.  

I started shallow near Belhurst and didn't find much of anything, despite favorable water temps down 30'.   Surface temps were in the mid-40s.    I then headed down the lake and worked out to 180' of water.   I never landed a fish, but I lost and missed quite a few and marked good numbers.   Eventually I found an area that had solid numbers of baitfish, primarily down around 40' to 60'.   I found some aggressive chasing fish in 85' of water too.   So I felt very good about things on the lake's north end.   

I did spend an hour or so checking a few shorelines.  I didn't encounter any pike, other than one fungused up one (beat from spawning.)   I wasn't expecting to see many in the areas I fished.   I'll be checking on the pike fishing shortly, as I'm guiding for them in around 10 days.    I expect decent pike fishing, though I'm sure many will be recouping from the spawn.   

I was out on the water from 6 am till 8:15 pm today.  Yes, it was a long one!  Started at 6 am with Steve, Stu and Shannon.  Lake trout jigging started with a bang, with Stewart nailing one on his first or second drop.  After that things slowed for a while, though the guys did lose/miss a few.   Steve nailed 3 nice fish and Shannon landed her first and second lakers late in the trip.   Fish ran from around 22" to 29".   They are still full of alewives.   H2O surface temps are coming up - they're in the mid 40s.   We had hits from 100' out to 175' today, with the deep stuff producing all the solid hookups. 

My PM 1/2 day was with Thomas and Jessie - both from England (and staying at Cornell for the week.)   Thomas had never gone fishing before - so he'd (obviously) never caught a fish.   So action was the #1 priority.   So we ran up North and set up for some pickerel.  Tom had no trouble learning how to cast spinning gear.   BTW - Water temps were around the mid to upper 50s.  Water was muddy (carp anyone?) around Canoga and further north.   Action wound up being good with around 1/2 dozen nice pickerel landed.   The guys also got some perch, with Tom catching a nice 12"er.   He learned how to use a Rat-L Trap, X-rap and tube jig.   And all produced follows/hits.   We tried some laker jigging with a few non-committal hits.   It was a fun evening. 

Pickerel are so underrated it's ridiculous.   People tend to hate them for three reasons:  they bite off baits/lures intended for other fish;  they are bony and require filleting expertise and lastly they are often small and tough to handle and tend to go crazy, cutting people with their teeth and/or hooking people with errant treble hooks while thrashing.

Those are valid reasons to dislike pickerel, but there are some great reasons to like them:  They hit hard and often provide good to great action when other fish aren't active;  they fight good;  they taste GREAT (once you learn how to fillet them) ;  they keep panfish populations in check and they respond well to numerous techniques/lures - including fly-fishing.   I love fishing for pickerel, and nearly all the Finger Lakes are capable of producing "pike sized pickerel" upwards of 27" long and better!

Had Dan K. up for the full-day today.  Dan's been booking a trip or two a year with me since I started and I always look forward to taking out this S. Carolina resident.   The first time he booked a trip we dealt with severe T-Storms.  Ditto our second trip.  The last two were good, but today we had "stormbringer Dan" delivering high winds!  ;-)

As was the case last time I was out on Skaneateles, by the afternoon we were the only boat on the lake (or the only trailer at the State Launch.)   It was nasty with sustained 15 to 20 mph S. winds and higher gusts.   H2O is cold - around 41 lakewide.   We started up N. with a bass and rock bass.  We shot all the way to the south end and Dan landed a good pickerel and more smallmouths.   A large rainbow or LL Salmon followed in his X-rap but didn't hit it.   More smallmouths followed, then Dan nailed a gorgeous 26" Skaneateles Lake trout.   For this lake, that's a very good fish - not as big as the occasional 30"+ trophies the lake coughs up every year, but much bigger than the usual 15" to 19" fish that ply this lake.   Dan also caught a 19" laker.   As we worked up the lake, he caught more quality smallmouths and 4 very nice perch - a 15" 1lbs 8oz fish and a couple 14" 1lb 6 oz fish and one 12" fish.   This lake contains some beautiful perch.   Fish were caught on tube jigs.  The method I use is tricky, but Dan had it dialed in around halfway through the trip.   The wind made things much more complicated.   Boat control required 2 driftbags and my 82lb thrust trolling motor.   We stayed deeper for the perch and bass.    We didn't see any rainbows, but we're pretty sure Dan missed on in shallow.  They are around!  

The "Fish Gods" work in interesting ways.   A little over a week ago I took John V. and Ed out for 1/2 day of lake trout jigging.   Both anglers did well with Ed catching the lion's share of the fish.   John came out again with me last Friday and missed a couple while the other guys did well.  On this trip John did very well, landing 4 nice fish averaging 27" while Ed just didn't get the bites.    That's fishing!   It happens to me and I'm sure it happens to those of you reading this.   The fish were loaded with freshly killed alewives and a few smelt.

Lake trout action slowed for us a bit on Monday.   We found excellent numbers of fish on bottom from around 135' to 175' give or take.   But the fish just weren't nearly as aggressive as they were on Sunday.   We didn't find any real patterns.  Just keep working areas and move around alot is what we did.   Surface temps were up around 43 degrees!   As they continue to rise expect a lot of brown trout and salmon to work their way up the lake.  

Guided Mike, Zoe and Trent from "Edible Finger Lakes" magazine.   The publication is available throughout the region at wineries and other locations.  They spotlight regional cuisine - as well as local restauranteurs, wineries, farmers and other interesting things of note.   We'd been talking for awhile about local fish and their absence from local restaurants and markets.  Anyways the crew met me at 7:45 am and we headed out.

Fishing was excellent!   As good as I've seen it for deep jigging.   Zoe mainly took photos, but she fished and managed to land a couple nice lakers.   All in all 14 fish were landed in around 2.5 hours.   The fish were all solid - averaging around 27".   They are STUFFED with baitfish - primarily alewives, though we had one laker spit up a smelt and one laker had a big sunfish (around 7") in its stomach.   Water temperatures are around 41 on top.  North end temps are in the high 50s (though they fluctuate widely up there.)

The weather forecast online (and via NOAH) looked great for LLS and brown trout action.  Strong S. Winds and highs in the low 80 sounded good.   I was guiding longtime client Mark D. - who fished with me in a couple Red Cross Derbies.   Fishing was tough.   We worked Taughannock w/o any action then headed to Ithaca.   Fishing pressure near the inlet was fairly heavy - certainly heavy for recent times and we gave the shore casters space.   Some salmon were taken by trollers and casters off the Ithaca Pier, but action was spotty.   Plenty of alewives are around and dying - likely due to abrupt temp changes.   Mark had a follow from a small pike or pickerel, but that was it.  Getting out at daybreak would be a good call.  We started around 7:45 am.  

Our wind started changing and dying on us, so we headed N. above AES in search of lakers.   Deep jigging wasn't bad.  Mark landed 3 nice fish from 23" to 25.5".   Fish came from around 100' out to 160'.   Bait is around as well.   Fishing at AES was slow.  No one was there and we didn't raise any fish.  

Conditions are going to warm rapidly at Cayuga's south end with these record or near-record highs.   There are vast quantities of warm water around Ithaca and I think it'll be a troller's game shortly (it was today.)  Expect good to excellent fishing from the usual areas like Taughannock, Myers and Ithaca, but wind conditions and water temperatures will be huge factors.   Some of the best action is yet to come - both for casting and fly-casting, but things will be a bit more unpredictable.  

Guided three Johns today!  So we had four Johns on the boat - John O, John H, John V and yours truly.   We started at 7:30 am in around 75' (I can't remember exactly!) in some moderate chop and we worked our way out.   There are fish scattered from around 125' on out to 175' or more.   John O. had the hot hand and got the first hook up.   We wound up landing 8 nice fish up to 32.5".   The smallest was 26.5" - so Cayuga Lake is churning out some real quality!    Nearly all the landed fish (all kept) were loaded with freshly eaten and some digested alewives.   They are feeding heavily!  

After the trip ended, I was going to check on some carp further north, but on the way I tried jigging lakers.  After missing one and landing a decent fish, the winds came up a bit out of the south, and I decided to call it a day. 

Fished hard today with my buddy Jarrod.   We started around 8 am targeting lakers.   There are loads of fish out from 75' to 180'.  Most were from 130' or so out to 180'.   We had some grabs and decent hookups to start, but given the number of fish we were marking the "catching" was only fair.  We landed 5 keepers and missed and lost lots more.  We divided the day between laker jigging and casting for bass. 

We saw some interesting stuff.   DEC diaries report very few salmonids apart from lakers.   But we saw a large silvery fish gobbling freshly stocked landlocked salmon at the boat launch!   A 20" brown followed in Jarrod's stickbait too.  So trout and salmon are around.  

Bass fishing was good.  I landed a nice 4lb+ largie and Jarrod landed five or six 14 to 16" largemouths.   We saw some big perch cruising around and plenty of huge carp.   Large pickerel and 3 to 4 pike chased our lures as we bass fished.   I was impressed with the sizes of the pickerel.  Last year I caught a lot of small ones - it's nice to see 23" to 25" pickerel around.  

Keuka's always a good bet when forecasts call for windy conditions out of the west - which is what we had today.   We made the call last night.   Keuka's high surrounding hills keep conditions fairly calm there - even with stiff west winds.  Strong southerlies can be a different story!  H20 hit 41 to 42 today.   We did a little crappie fishing w/o luck.  Jarrod may have had one follow.  

I was out on Cayuga quite a bit over the past 48 hours.  Here's what happened:

4/18:  I did a 1/2 day trip with Ed and John (both from the area) targeting lakers out of Dean's Cove.  We got out around 7:30 am and started finding some fish within around an hour.  By 10 am the fishing was pretty hot 'n heavy.   Lakers were deep - mainly around 165' to 175'.   The light winds helped us cover water.   The guys had some terrific action, boating around 14 solid lakers!   We experienced three doubles.   Ed has a lot of Cayuga Lake fishing experience  - especially with landlocked salmon, and it was nice to see that he was very impressed with the great lake trout fishing.    I was also impressed.  Cayuga is just a fantastic lake!    It was nice meeting a couple local anglers and we had some mutual friends/acquaintances.  

After the trip I went out for an hour or two and managed to miss a couple fish and land one nice laker.  The guys clearly had hit the hot bite earlier in the day.   So I trailered my boat home, grabbed my fly fishing gear and met my buddy Mike - who picked me up in his boat at Taughannock; he 'd been fly-fishing all AM, starting at the Treman launch.  

Mike was stoked to have landed a beautiful 25.5" brown earlier in the day on the lake's south end.  He reported plenty of alewives in around lower Cayuga Inlet.    Where there's bait, there's fish!    We tried a few areas near Taughannock and wound up on the east shore.   I had a follow from a very nice salmon - maybe 24" to 26", but didn't connect.   Mike hooked up with a beauty shortly thereafter (down the lake a bit) and after a strong, long battle landed a 25" Landlocked Salmon!  To land two nice fish like that in a day's fly-fishing says a lot about Cayuga.  Mike was expecting more action this AM, but he couldn't help but be pleased with the quality of the fish he'd caught.  We were both pretty tired, so we quit around 6:00 pm.  

4/19:  Guided another 1/2 day starting at 9 am with Len and his wife Colleen.  The late start was fine with me (I was really tired) - and they preferred it since they were on vacation and did the wine trail the day or two before.  We went over the technique and then set up deep.  Len had done some trolling before for lakers on the Finger Lakes and wasn't real thrilled with the fights of the lakers, but he was willing to give the jigging a chance.   After landing three nice lakers, he was impressed with their battles.   Jigging with medium to med. heavy baitcasting set ups really helps highlight the sporting qualities of lakers.   Colleen managed to land a laker around 20" that we kept for their dinner.   This laker spit up 2 nice smelt!   These were the first smelt I'd seen in any lakers since we started jigging Cayuga Lake (at least that's my memory)!   It was refreshing to see.   I forgot to mention on my last report (4/17) that we had a laker with a mudpuppy in its stomach!   These fish clearly eat just about anything they can find.

BTW - Smelt are showing up at Taughannock and dip netters have been out in force.  The action has reportedly been fairly decent, with drives producing most of the fish.  

After having a fun 1/2 day with Len and Colleen, I trailered the boat down to Taughannock Park in hopes of connecting with some salmon/browns.   I ran into my friend and client Jesse (and Jason), who'd been fly-fishing from shore.  He showed me a photo of one of the most impressive brown trout I'd ever seen taken in the lake on a fly - it was a fish he'd caught earlier in the season - just a silver, fat blimp of a brown!     By 4 pm I was launching my boat.

No great shakes to report in the two plus hours I spent fishing.  The water along the E. shore was pretty cold.  I had a follow from another tremendous salmon, but couldn't get the grab.  It was at least 25" long!   I headed south looking for warmer water but as I got within range of Ithaca, the fatigue from the last few days started to hit me, and I turned around and headed home.   Water levels are high and temps are cold.   Expect good fishing for the rest of the week from S. end shore areas.    

Had some very good to excellent action today guiding Eric.   We did a full day trip and within an hour or so he was into some lakers.   The fish were quite aggressive in the AM - I'd see 2 or more fish shooting off the bottom to chase his jig.   He landed 8 beauties - all but one were 27" to 28" lakers!    Baitfish were suspended in around 40' of water.   We caught our lakers from around 135' to 165' today.   Action was good all day long, with the last fish landed about 20 minutes before calling it a day.   A lot of fish were lost and hits missed as well, but given how deep we were fishing - it's not unexpected.  H2O remains around 39 degrees.  A few fish appear to be moving shallower.  

My buddy Jarrod's been telling me about handling some big bowfins and other cool fish up near Alexandria Bay and some of the river/bay tribs.   I was glad to give him a helping hand and see firsthand some of the work fisheries people do.    ESF is doing a bit of pike habitat enhancement - basically flooding marshes (that no longer get flooded naturally due to hydroelectric controls) in hopes of providing more northern pike spawning habititat.   Jarrod's been working some trap nets in hopes of getting some northerns to tag.  

I don't have time to get into all the details of the work, but it's interesting stuff.   We got to take a 10' pram up and down some tributaries of the river/bays and work some nets.  I saw plenty of young perch, some great crappies, carp, bass, small pike, grass pickerel, bullheads, golden shiners, white perch and one bowfin.   In one trib we saw a few steelhead.   It was fun, yet easy to see that it's hard work setting fishing nets/traps and checking others.   I took plenty of photos and will put up a photo essay sooner or later.

The fun part of the day was doing some fishing after we were done setting nets.   We managed to catch around 8 beautiful keeper sized black crappies - all 10" to 12" fish on various jigs.  Jarrod released a couple sublegal ones as well.    We did alright given that we had zero boat control - no trolling motor and not much of an anchor - so we wound up bashing into many of the fallen trees we were fishing!    I also landed a nice bonus largemouth bass.   Water temps are all over the place in some of these small rivers/streams - you may have 35 degrees one day and 55 degrees two days later!   

Guided Martin and his son Jonathon for 1/2 day today.   We did a trip last year around the same time for lakers and had slow action.  We resorted to some warmwater fishing at Canoga marsh.   The Fish Gods owed us, and they paid us off in big dividends today.    A lot of fishing knowledge comes by accident - or "accidentally on-purpose."    Read any "In-Fishermen" article and you'll know what I mean.   Using large Swim Baits for walleyes or "float and fly" for pike - clearly other species were being targeted and patterns were formed.  Same with Lake Ontario walleyes - Charter guys started catching them while trolling spring browns and things took off from there.   Today was no exception.   I'd love to tell everyone that I motored out to 170' of water and we started hammering lakers, but it's not true.   Here's what happened today:

Last Thursday we did well near Dean's Cove on a break from around 145' to 155' of water.   There is a large flat and then things drop off.   Because my handheld GPS is a piece of garbage, I left it in my truck (not that I marked our areas from last Thurs. anyways!)   I went looking for my break and thought I'd found it.  So I set the boat up in around 155' of water.   Martin and Jon started dropping their jigs and fishing.   Unbeknownest to me, we drifted off of our break!   I had the guys reel up and they both got hit!   Jon landed a solid laker.   We were in business - first drop of the day.   The guys kept fishing - Jon landed a 31" laker and so did Martin.  The thing is, I noticed Jon's braid was into its backing while we were fishing (or catching.)   I checked the depthfinder and we were in 170'!   A new boat record for getting fish on bottom on jigs for me.   Long story short - we found excellent laker action in water as deep as 180'.   

The guys managed to land 14 nice fish.   Including 2 at 31".   Smallest was 24" and most were 27" and up.   Cayuga's coldwater fish community is in good balance now, so we are harvesting less fish than in years past.   We kept 2 of the smaller fish today.   Martin wasn't doing nearly as well as his young (I think 13 Y.O.) son, but as he reeled up his luck changed.   He had a solid grab not far below the boat.   I kept telling him to get the fish out from under the boat!  Usually lakers will come up to the surface and bang around under the boat, and the jig will pop out.   Martin just had a hard time moving the fish.   It was wrapped under the motor too!    I took a look behind the motor and my jaw dropped when I saw the size of the fish!   It was the biggest laker I'd ever seen from a Finger Lake (though I know that plenty bigger have been caught.)  It was the biggest ever hooked on my boat.

I slipped the net under the beast and we got it in the boat and the hook came out easily.   It was bleeding from the mouth a bit, so we didn't want to stress it much at all.   I took a quick photo of the fish over the net, then I had Martin snap a quick shot of me holding it.  He said "I got it" and I let the fish go.  It took off for the depths.   Once I checked the digital I found that the shot hadn't been taken!  Oh no!   I had a feeling, but we were all so revved up having landed the huge fish we weren't thinking straight.  I could have put the fish in the livewell and then double checked the photos - but I didn't even think of it.   But I did get one good photo.  It was a solid 36" - without pinching the tail.   And it was thick bodied.  Just a clean beauty.   I just got done raving about the great browns and salmon we've seen on Cayuga this year - add in the lakers! 

I kicked myself out of bed and managed to get on the lake before 10 am.   The lake and streams flowing into it are still very cold - around 37 degrees.   I fished quickly but had no luck in that stuff.   I worked down to the south end of the lake and found some 41 to 42 degree + water.   I managed a nice 23" brown trout on a chart. deceiver (streamer) and then an 18" brown.   I lost/missed at least 2 salmon.   Then I had a follow from a MONSTER brown - I managed to get a good look at the fish and it was all of 27" to 29" or better!   A big dark shark!    Around an hour or two later I took my Cornell class to a popular shore area and landed a nice 20" salmon, after missing 2 hits 5 minutes earlier.   I got my fix, then went back to helping the students with their casting!

I've been ridiculously impressed by the quality of the Cayuga fish this year!   There are good numbers of 15" and 23" browns out there (2 and 3 year olds I believe) plus there are some PIGS that are pushing 10lbs and up.   With salmon, we have good numbers of 17", 20 - 22" fish and some 24" and up!   How great is that???    Lakers are doing well and rainbows are bouncing back - you can't ask for a better fishery!   Lampreys are under control.  I think we'll have great fishing for the next 2 years at the very least on Cayuga.  I'm lovin' it! And things are just getting started - the best fishing should be over the next month!

Things got off to a great start for us on 4/11.   I met Adam and his dad Kurt (my apologies if it's written with a "C"!) at the launch at 10 am.   With the heavy winds forecast I was hoping for an early start, but it looked like we lucked out - the winds were a nice 10 mph.   Water temps were great around the northern portions of the lake - upwards of 40 to 41 degrees.    I demonstrated the jigging technique and off we went.   Within about 10 minutes Adam felt a couple hits on the retrieve and we all watched as a 14" to 16" rainbow turned away below the boat.   Then Kurt had hold of a beauty - a thick bodied rainbow that appeared to be at least 20" long!   We thought we'd be in for a stellar "catching" day but it wasn't to be.   After a fishless drift we elected to run down the lake and worked a few different areas.   By this time the wind came up fairly heavily and made keeping contact with the jigs difficult.   Further south Kurt landed a big female perch around 12" or better.   Some hits were missed as well.   But it was very difficult fishing.   Then the winds increased to around 20 mph + with stronger gusts.  We ran back up the lake and found we were pretty much the only boat left out.   Another fish was dropped and we called it a day.   As we pulled into the launch it was clear - we WERE the only boat still out!  The north end of the lake was whitecapping from north winds!

I went back out on my own to check on things, but found similar results.  I did manage a couple hits (I think from bass) and I landed a smallmouth bass around 14".  In 39 degree water I was surprised, but it jumped.   Early season (cold water) rainbow trout fishing can be difficult on this lake.  I use a jigging method that requires a lot of focus - with both feel and line-watching and it can be tough even when conditions are perfect (light winds).   Add in some heavy winds and waves, along with deep water and tricky drifting/boat control and things become much more difficult.   The guys were great sports and we fished hard. 

I don't see this as an indictment on the current fishing on the lake.   With light winds and some sun I think a very good day is quite possible, if not probable on this lake.   But the warmer things get the better.   My favorite time to fish this lake is in early to mid-May - any cast can result in a big smallmouth, jumbo perch, wild laker, rainbow or landlocked salmon.   It's mixed bag fishing at it's best!   

Decisions, decisions, decisions!   After 3 days of teaching and some inclement weather what's a fisherman to do?  I talked to my buddy Jarrod 3 times on Wednesday trying to come up with something.  Do we go to Skaneateles Lake for some rainbows, perch and salmon?  How about Owasco for the first time this year for some big smallies and maybe some laker jigging and a whack at a few rainbows/browns?  Better yet, Cayuga Lake has been fantastic for trout and salmon - so we could go there.  Or Seneca.  Or Fairhaven on Lake Ontario and cast for spring browns.   It was an angler's dilemma.  A Central NY angler's dilemma that is.  

After careful consideration of the conditions and weather/wind forecast we settled on some good old panfishing on the N. end of Cayuga.  Jarrod whacked around 90 perch there with his father in-law on Tuesday.   They found some nice schools of 10" to 13" fish on Cayuga, which has been the 'hot perch lake' according to anglers Jarrod talked to while working at BPS last weekend.    We decided on 1/2 day of perch, then we'd do my 'once every 2 years' attempt at seeing whether Cayuga Lake still holds much of a crappie population.  

Perch fishing was very good to downright superb.  We found our own areas, away from the pack of 23 boats huddled together S. of Frontenac Island.   There was probably upwards of 40 to 45 boats out on Cayuga perch fishing.  We were able to mark fish in 16' to 19' of water and just have at them with various rigs incl. a buckshot spoon with a dropper, double hook rigs with plastics and so on.  We used bits of night crawlers and they worked great.   We started around 9 am and by noon we had landed 80 to 100 fish, keeping 47 perch.   We had a ton of doubles.   I'd be lying if I said they were all 9" or better - we had a fair number of 8" fish, but they are filletable and that's what I'll be doing for the next hour and a half.   Great fun and great eating - that's what pans are about.   If you want guaranteed perch Cayuga is the place to be.   We saw a few bass, some good carp (not an oxymoron!) and a few pickerel around here and there.  The high point of the day was what looked to be a 2' sturgeon (he's 80% sure) that Jarrod saw on the Cayuga/Seneca Canal.   It may have been a pike, but Jarrod handles plenty of pike on the St. Lawrence River for ESF Fisheries and it didn't look or move like a pike/pickerel.   Crappie fishing didn't pan out.   We tried a bunch of areas from Mud Locks on south and never saw or hooked any.  The one area we tried that looked most promising is still more or less permanently off limits to fishing (we found out.)  Water temps ranged from the low 40s to nearly 50 degrees on the N. end below the RR. tracks.  Water levels are LOW.    There's also a lot of muddy water around.  

Cayuga 3/27:  The original plan was for me to hit Canandaigua today and my buddy Mike to fish Cayuga, then we'd compare notes.  Winds were forecast as light and variable originally, but on 3/27 AM the weather people predicted 10 to 15 mph out of the South.  Which should have made for some great trout/salmon action.   I decided to fish with Mike instead of hitting the lakers on Canandaigua.   But sure enough, we had very calm, if not glassy conditions (certainly by 2 pm.)    I started things off by hooking what seemed to be a very nice fish on one of my bionic smelt patterns.   I had a tough time moving it, then it dawned on us that it was foul-hooked.  We got a very good look at it before the hook pulled out - it was a nice brown around 22" to 23"!     Mike was next with a follow in, then later he landed a 15.5" salmon.   It's hard to believe a salmon that small is a legal fish in Skaneateles and Seneca - they are cylindrical at that size!   At Cayuga a salmon needs to be 18" long to be a keeper.    We tried the south end - nice warm temps but no fish for us.  

Eventually we decided to jig lakers since the conditions were perfect for it.  We tried an area south, then shot up to AES.   Mike had the hot hand nailing 3 nice fish before I landed one!   He got a 15.5", 28" and a 30"!   I eventually landed a couple around 23" and he got one more.   Fish were in around 90' to 115'.   We didn't mark most fish at first, we'd just drop jigs and they'd show up.   Best action has been in the late PM.   About half the fish had alewives (fresh ones) in them.   We released the small fish, which happened to be wild.

Canandaigua Lake 3/28:   I fished Canandaigua Lake for lakers from around 12:45 pm to 6:45 pm (I keep track of times for the diary program.)    I wish I had some encouraging news, but I didn't.   My electronics seemed to work OK for awhile, then my signal weakened.  But I did a lot of fishing and searching - pretty much hitting every area I've ever seen a laker on, as well as some that I haven't.   Never had a hit.   I never marked any bait either.   I don't believe I've ever fished this lake for lakers in March (winter pattern), but I've fished it in early April with similar results.   The water was ice-cold - around 36, but it isn't worse than other F. Lakes.   I worked the south end flats for awhile, and usually it's a no-brainer - at least as far as marking some bait and fish.   I may have marked a fish or two on bottom with the Vex, but nothing that moved for my jigs. 

Plenty of perch and some nice bass were cruising very shallow water on the N. end of the lake.  The water was warmer there and I'm sure there was some good fishing to be had, but zippo on the lakers for me today. 

Best bets for early season lakers (IMO) are Cayuga, Seneca and Keuka Lakes.  Canandaigua just doesn't have the laker population these other lakes have.  Things will get easier there as water temps warm up.   I think fish are probably really deep here right now.   Maybe that's where the bait is, I don't know.

3/25:  Very difficult conditions on Cayuga Lake!  Whitecaps and steady 14 to 22 mph + winds made fishing a challenge to say the least.  When I got to the launch a bass boat was coming in reporting no action and another boater decided not to launch given the whitecaps.   I fished a few areas and had a very tough time with boat control.  I managed to miss a good salmon around 20" in fairly shallow water on the W. shore.  But that was it.   The strong WSW winds kept inshore temps very cold!   I only fished 2.5 hours before having to leave in order to teach classes.  

3/26:  Today was a different story.  I launched at around 11:45 am without seeing another boat at the ramp.   I missed one hit off the park and then motored south.  I worked an area I hadn't fished seriously for salmon in probably 3 or 4 years and struck paydirt!   I had encounters with between 12 to 20 fish today - action was great.   Only problem was I couldn't keep fish on the hook!  The water was calm and clear enough so I could see fish chasing my fly.  That doesn't happen often on Cayuga Lake with the winds we get.  But I had a lot of fish making some crazy moves for my flies.  Trout and salmon often aren't very adept at hitting streamers and minnows.  My flies needed some tweaking as well.  I had some good sized fish show for my flies, incl. a HUGE fish - either a big brown or maybe a laker - it had to be 27" to 30" long!   Maybe even a pike, but I don't think so.  I was in around 20' of water and it showed up under the fly and took off.   I had a pretty good look at its tail - and I'd say brown.   After making a few changes to my presentation I started hooking up and landed an 18.5" salmon and a 17.5" fish.   I missed another 20"+ fish and lost another good one as well.   H20 was 36.5 degrees.  My season on Cayuga for salmon could end today and I'd be happy.  It's been a terrific year!   There are good numbers of 17" to 19" fish out there, as well as 20" to 22" fish and some 25" fish.   We should have great fishing on Cayuga in 2010 too!!!

As I headed back from some swimming at Cornell this afternoon I checked out the lake and it looked beautiful.   Imagine my surprise as I launched my boat at 3 pm without another trailer in the parking lot!   After fishing our tails off yesterday, I knew I'd be in for some better fishing today with the change in the weather.   Fishing didn't start off promising, but after an hour of covering water I stumbled upon a pattern and the fun began.  My first fish landed was a 24" solid brown - not very fat, due to a lamprey wound, but nonetheless a nice fish which I kept.  It weighed 5lbs even and had nothing in its stomach.   Then I lost another fish that appeared to be another brown around 23" to 24".  My leader broke not long after I'd rerigged it AND checked my knot.   It was a clean break - maybe the fish's teeth, I don't know.   Then came a 22" chrome Landlocked Salmon that wore out my arm!  This fish didn't want to give up!   It dug and dug in a fight that would rival any smallmouth bass.  For my money, Landlocked Atlantic Salmon are the best fighting gamefish in freshwater - at least in the Northeast, BAR NONE!    They can do anything a smallmouth bass can do, yet better.   A LS in 48 degree water is capable of jumping 10 times or more.   I love smallies, but I've never seen one jump that many times!  I released the salmon

More chases, hits and misses came.  Then I landed an 18" salmon that jumped a bunch of times and gave a great accounting of itself.   More hits/chases and misses followed, and then I set into a very solid fish.  I thought maybe I foul-hooked it since it ran so much, but I got a glimpse of a chrome beauty and no, it was fair hooked.   It was a thick bodied fish from head to tail and didn't fight much like a salmon.   It looked like it may have been a 4 to 5lb rainbow!    Either way, if you were within a few hundred yards of me, you'd have heard me yell when the hook popped out and I lost it!   Another hit was had, then it was time to go. 

All in all, fantastic fishing with a ton of action - lots of follows, hits and some nice hookups.  There are some real quality fish in Cayuga Lake this year.   I released the two salmon and just kept the big brown.  I didn't work the fish I found too hard, I kept trying new areas just to see the extent of the good fishing.    Water temps ranged from 36 to 37 today.   With the exception of occasions where I've run into schools of fish, I don't think I can remember a day when I had better action from large fish in a Finger Lake.   I had 2 browns that were in the 23" to 25" range, at least one salmon or rainbow hooked that was also in the 24" to 25" range and follows from some fish that were also that size.  

Again I recommend people limit their kill on this lake.  These fish are delicious, but statewide limits of 5 fish incl. no more than 3 salmon per person per day are ridiculous and this fishery could not sustain that kind of harvest.  Why Lake Ontario steelheaders are confined to one fish per day in the tribs and we have such liberal bag limits - on a fishery jeopardized as much by exotics as the Great Lakes is totally beyond me.   There aren't THAT many fish around!   I limit myself to one fish a day generally - once in a while 2.  I do the same with my clients.  

Got out all day long with my buddy Mike.  We started around 8 am and fished till almost 6:30 pm.   There are fish around the usual areas like Taughannock and further south.   Creeks were spewing murky and in some cases slightly warmer water into Cayuga Lake.  We had hits on our first 5 passes around the park, but only connected on a 16 to 17" salmon.   Clearly, there were some lethargic and smaller fish taking passes at our flies.   We fished hard for a few hours, then the wind died and it started raining.   We tried laker jigging near the lake's south end for an hour and a half w/o seeing anything.   A 14" brown and a couple more salmon, incl. a 20.5" fish rounded out the day.  When the wind blew, we had action - not great, but solid.   I expect some very good salmon/brown trout fishing - weather depending, right through mid-May!   Fasten your seatbelts!  H2O is 36 (up to 39 in places) and water levels are still LOW.   Fishing pressure from shore was fairly high at the park today.  

3/16: 

I got out for a couple hours in order to check my electronics out and try to find some fish.  I had a couple "lookers" and chasers, but no contact.   The folks at Barrett Marine re-checked my electronic hook ups and they re-did them.  All's copacetic, though I still wasn't getting much of a signal.  

3/17:

Well I figured out the problem with the Eagle Unit.  My transducer wasn't totally horizontal.  Not a big deal in 30' of water - virtually unnoticeable, but in 150' of water - VERY NOTICEABLE!!!    I fished for a couple hours before my guide trip today and marked some fish/had chasers but no hookups.  I spent most of my time N. of Sheldrake.

I picked up Cy and Kip at the launch at 11 am.  When we set up the trip yesterday, I figured we'd be looking at the fishing action as a "3" on a scale between 0 and 10 with 10 being the best.   But Cy wanted to learn the technique for future use.   The lake trout jigging now is as challenging as it gets!  Fish are still in a winter pattern and fairly dormant.   Water temps range from 35 to 37.  Lake trout are scattered everywhere - from probably 70' on out to 200' or more.  Maybe a few are shallow too.   There's very little bait in less than 180'.  No thermocline.  Negative/neutral fish.   Not much to "grab onto" out there! 

Cy has a lot of fishing experience, some with jigging fluke in Massachusetts.  That was helpful.  Cy landed the first fish within around an hour.  A 28.5" laker just under 6lbs (yes they are thin right now - plus the fish had a lamprey scar.)   Kip got the second, a nice 21" clean fish.  As Cy was bringing in his line in order to get out of Kip's way, he hooked up!  So we had a double going.  But his (apparently big) fish got off.   A few more hits were missed and that was it. 

I enjoy deep jigging.  If you learn how to detect bites and hook/land fish in 150' of water, you'll find the rest of the year's jigging to be a piece of cake.   Once bait moves up these fish will feed hard and the lakers will be some of the heaviest fish of the season - just loaded with bait.   Expect things to improve by the week.   Best action today was N. of the Dean's launch, pretty much in the middle of the lake.   

I got over to the launch around 1 pm, but spent the next two hours checking my power connections on my console depthfinder.  I recently had my boat wood replaced and while working on the console wood it's possible that a couple of the crimps may have been pulled loose a bit.   I wasn't able to fix the connections well enough to get enough power to get a strong signal, so I had depths but wasn't able to mark fish!

I fished from around 3 pm till 6:45 pm mainly just checking out areas that often produce fish, dropping down my jigs and watching things on my Vexilar on the bow.   I had 2 good chasers over by Aurora in around 125' of water.   I hooked one fish on my new jigging (Canavan) rod, but lost it.   Out a little deeper (around 145' to 150') I missed another fish.  Now that I have some fish located, I'll be able to pinpoint things a bit better, but I need to get the electronics issue fixed.  

Lake level is low (better than a couple weeks ago.)  It's launchable.   I did see the first largemouth bass of the year, right in the "marina" at Dean's!  So that was pretty neat.   Water temps were around 36.   I have a new mold and tried out some new 1 1/2 oz. jig heads.  So far so good.  I'm going to try to get back out either on Seneca, Cayuga or Keuka once I get the electronics taken care of, and I'll field test the new jigheads.  

Cayuga 3/7:

After picking up my boat on Friday I was psyched to make sure everything was in order.  I also was hoping to check on conditions for a possible guide trip.   I arrived at Taughannock at 1:15pm on Saturday to find 17 trailers in the parking lot.  People obviously had some cabin fever and were jonesing to get out.   3 boats came in as I prepared to launch.  They reported slow salmon fishing.  The wind was light and offshore, so I decided to check on lake trout.   I did a bit of searching between Taughannock and Sheldrake and didn't see much.   It might be time for a new depthfinder - I don't know, my inexpensive Eagle doesn't have the power/sensitivity to mark much in deep (over 120') water in the winter.   I worked out to 170' or so.   Wind and rain came up and it got nasty.  I motored south to try some fly-fishing for salmon.  I had one follow and that was it.   Water temps are around 35/36.  I expect good to excellent salmon fishing once we get the right weather conditions - mark my words!

Seneca 3/8:

A lot of perch are reportedly being taken in some of the community holes in the northern parts of Seneca Lake.  I'm told nearly 40 boats were congregated on a huge school of perch up there Saturday!   I don't enjoy that kind of "combat fishing."   My buddy Mike and I launched out of Severne at around 9 am today.   We tried an area for perch pretty thoroughly w/o anything except a very beat-up looking scrawny pike.   Our shiners were basically worthless - they would die after a couple minutes in the water, but we persevered.  Many perch fishermen bring an assortment of baits (oak leaf bugs, fat heads, worms etc..) and plastics with them.  We will start doing that in the future.   After 2 hours without perch we checked on lakers at Severne.  I missed one.  We saw one caught on copper line.   Perch anglers were congregated in singles and groups of 3 and 4 boats.   I'm not sure how they were doing - my guess (judging from how much moving around they were doing) is that a few of the boats probably did well, but most struggled.   Conditions were pretty awful for fishing, lots of fog (esp. N. of Long Point) and no wind.   I was happy that my cellphone had an electronic compass on it, the fog was unreal at times.   

We worked for perch and pike in an area I like N. of Long Point and we hit a few nice pike.   We tried Sampson for lakers and didn't mark anything.   A lot of the poor laker bite of the last 2 days for me was probably due to the low-light conditions.  Sun makes for the best winter jigging.  

Last I heard, perch were in less than 20' of water in many parts of Seneca Lake.   We didn't see much today - and we could see the bottom in quite a few areas.  Water temps were around 35 to 37 today on Seneca.   Water levels were decent and the launch at Sampson is open.  I'm not sure about other launches, but I'd guess most are open by now.   (They certainly will be after the rain tonight!)  

Got out on the water today around 11 am with my buddy Mike.  Water levels are at winter draw-down and temps were around 37/38 on Cayuga.  We fly-fished all day and found a couple pods of fish.   Overall the fishing was good but the catching was slow.   Mike nailed a 22" salmon that gave a great account of itself - jumping 3 times.   He lost one when his tippet section broke at the knot.  I never had any solid hookups today but had a handful of hits.   Fly-fishing these fish can be tricky in the winter - as it gets colder the fish often get more lethargic, hitting once and that's it.  We had a few repeat "hitters" today, and also a few isolated grabs.  Fun day and I'm looking forward to the days getting longer and getting to put more time in.  

Re: Dropbacks.  Mike's fish today was thin and had some signs of abrasion, as well as what looked like an attack from a Loon or Cormorant.   There was no apparent fin-wear.   Mike kept the fish, and sure enough it was a drop-back female with a few eggs left in it, as well as some tiny undeveloped skeins.   The fish had some very large alewives in it, so it had resumed feeding.

Got out with my buddy Mike over the past two days.   We always have a good time getting out for some serious fishing/fly-fishing and we do a lot of thinking and hypothesizing on the water.   We worked our Seneca shorefishing area for perch on Sunday and had pretty slow fishing.  We did nail around 8 or 9 fish, and 4 of them ranged from 1 to 1lb 6 oz.   So there were a few bass-sized fish in there.  The stomachs of the perch were loaded (just packed!) with minnows.  These fish clearly change their feeding preferences from day to day depending on what's available.    

We fished Cayuga for salmon today starting around 10:15 am.   It took awhile to find some fish - we worked some areas pretty thoroughly.   Turns out they were right where I'd left them a couple days ago!   I nailed a chunky alewife filled 17 1/2" brown on a deceiver using a sinking line.  Not long afterwards I had a decent hit fairly close to the boat.  I set the hook and my Diamondback Backwater 6 wt. rod snapped near the handle!   So now I'm holding my flyrod handle and fortunately I still have a gorgeous large landlocked salmon on the line!   As I handline the fish in, it started going crazy, with some insane jumps!  These fish are like steelhead on speed.   Just crazy!  Mike netted the fish - though he was dying to get an action shot with me playing the fish on the broken rod.   I wanted to salvage the rod and get that fish in!   We took a couple quick photos and I quickly released the most beautiful landlocked salmon I've ever caught.   There wasn't a mark on this fish.   It was just shy of 26" and a solid 6lbs.    We wound up hooking/missing a few more.   Mike set the hook and broke off a tube fly in one fish - he'd had 3 hits in a row!  

I kept the brown trout to eat.  It was full of bait and very fat.   These fish in Cayuga are finding bait - lots of it.  They're growing well and lampreys are under control.   My last 2 landed salmon were both in the 5.5 to 6lb. range and the dropped fish were around 20" to 22".   I'm not finding a ton of fish, but the fishing is very good and I think we'll see some 7 to 8lb or bigger fish by this spring.  H2O is 41 degrees.  Water levels are low, but not at winter draw down levels yet.     

After seeing the nice weather forecast, and watching the skies clear on the radar, I decided to take the boat out for an afternoon of fishing.   It's been kind of hard for me to get up early lately - I feel that I'm making up for my sleep deprivation that takes place from April through November, but it didn't matter today.   I launched the boat at 1:15 pm.  The lake level of Cayuga is LOW, even though it looks alright.   I found that out on the way back in at 4:30 pm when my prop got introduced to the rubble at the mouth of the marina!

I brought pike and salmon gear and fly-fishing equipment today.   I was psyched to try this rod that Mike Canavan sent me - a spinning rod with a split grip and interesting guide configuration.  The rod fished suprisingly well - it's a St. Croix Graphite III blank.   The rod cast light X-raps as well as heavier jigs with ease.   The handle was ergonomically pleasing and the guide spacing made complete sense when I cast and retrieved lures.   The rod has 3 relatively large single foot fuji guides, then there's a wide gap and 4 tiny guides and the tip top.   The rod was custom built for a particular spinning reel.   When reeling in, the line barely touches the outside of the larger guide ring - so there's next to no friction.   While fishing my index finger is on the blank.  I was very impressed - it cast and worked a variety of lure types well and was very light and pleasing to fish with.   I just received my new BASS Master magazine and can see that most major manufacturers of rods are now offering split grip rods.   Mike's been doing these for years - he's way ahead of the curve on rod building!    But I digress...

Water temps were around 41 degrees.  I had a hit and landed and released a 16" brown off the park.  It hit a white (small) X-rap.   I worked a few areas both N. and S. of the park, staying on the west shore.   Not much was happening.  I was hoping for a fish dinner and almost regretted releasing the brown!   In one of my favorite areas S. of the park I worked jigs and the X-rap for awhile, then went to the fly-rod.   I was pretty much getting ready to leave when I felt a hit and then a solid weight.   I knew it wasn't a snag since I was working an intermediate line and was in 20' of water or so.   The fish was heavy, but didn't do anything acrobatically - salmon can sometimes be a little lethargic (like steelhead) in the cold.   After some good digging near the boat I slid the net under it - it was a very nice fish - a 25" female that weighed 5lbs and 11.3 oz.    The last 25" salmon we caught in the winter/spring was in April or May and weighed 5lbs. 5 oz.   This fish (today) was in excellent condition!  No lamprey scars and FAT!   It's great to see.

A lot of people think that these salmon spawn then return to the lake, and then we start catching them.   My experience has been that the salmon we catch in November in the lake are not fish that spawned that particular fall.   I think that very few salmon survive spawning in Cayuga and Seneca Lakes.   In over 10 years of fishing salmon in the Finger Lakes in November and onwards I've caught 2 or 3 "post spawn fish".  That's it.  And one of those was on Skaneateles Lake - a lake with no alewives and no EMS problems.    The post-spawn fish I've caught were males.   I have yet to catch a post -spawn female (that I can remember) in the lake!    You'd think that after spawning the salmon (and browns) would be very hungry and aggressive like drop-back steelhead, but it isn't the case.   The fish I caught today had IMMATURE eggs in it - tiny skeins.  This was clearly a fish that was going to spawn in 2009, not a "drop back".   This fish was also loaded with alewives.   Cayuga has had loads of bait for years.   We haven't had a bait-shortage on this lake since I've lived here (since at least 1995!).  Yet some years the salmon are well-fed and on other years they aren't.   I think the baitifish have different depth preferences and it seems to me that if the alewives go very deep, the salmon don't always find them.   I'm not sure, but it's a theory.   

I had 2 fish hit today and landed 2.  I'm not complaining at all, but I didn't find any numbers today.  Conditions weren't my favorite for salmon - I like sun and north winds on Cayuga, but they weren't bad.   Re: guide trips - think of salmon fishing like steelhead or musky fishing - lots of effort and if you get one or two fish you're doing well.   Casting for these fish is a real thrill - it's not usually going to produce numbers, but you get to feel the hit and every bit of the battle!   Fly-fishing is also very effective for salmon.   I love it!    

Re:  Custom rods - they aren't for everyone, but they can be surprisingly affordable.  If you aren't happy with what's out there in the stores, or you do a lot of specialized techniques - let's say you do a lot of casting with 1/3 oz. spinnerbaits, or lake trout jigging you may find a custom rod the answer.  Plus it's cool as heck to have a rod with your name on it! ;-)    Mike can be reached at (570)888-0280 or email him at flytier@hotmail.com   

Got out for around 3 1/2 hours of shorefishing on Sunday PM.   Had some great perch action landing 17 beautiful perch (at least 5 were over a pound, and the best was a 15" 1lb. 13.5 oz female - so I almost hit the legit 2lb mark.)   Fish were deep - probably around 50' of water.    Good old fathead minnows did the trick.   It was windy as heck on the lake and I was happy not to be in my boat.

Today I fished with my buddy Mike and we got out early and fished hard for perch again.  The bite was much tougher with us landing only 9 fish.  Mike got 8 of them!  I just couldn't hook up!   Same deal as 12/14.   Later on we switched gears and did some pike fishing.   We landed 4 total - Mike got one on a bunny fly and I got the rest on gear.   The best fish was a 30"er that hit a swimbait.  The others were hammerhandle - 20" to 22" fish.   It's good to see some successful spawning on Seneca with the pike (not that it's a surprise!)    Another shoreangler reported a small landlocked salmon - so it's good to know of a few of those around.   I plan on fishing Cayuga for salmon ASAP.   They should be there.  

So what do Seneca Lake yellow perch eat?   We've kept around 50 fish over the past couple weeks.   (I've got enough perch in the fridge and freezer to last me a couple weeks!)  Many of our fish are coming from water so deep that they are regurgitating their stomach contents before we can examine them.   But here's what we've found - sculpins, mysis shrimp, lake trout eggs and crayfish - along with a few of our fatheads.   So they are eating anything they can find - the fish we're catching are not selective!   The key to Seneca perch this time of year is to find active fish - fish that do what we call "eating stupid".   It's no fun fishing for neutral to negative fish.  

Wow, what a day on Seneca Lake!  We didn't "crush the fish" - far from it, but it was a record breaker for me.   The absolute coldest day I've ever spent in my boat!   My buddy Mike and I launched the boat before 7:30 am.   It was brutal - air temps in the low to mid 20s augmented by a 15 mph southerly wind with 2' to 3' waves and a blue sky (for a while.)  Wind chills had to be in the teens and our minnow bucket started "slushing up" after a short time on the water!

Mike didn't bring gloves and he paid the price.   Baiting hooks - even just pulling in drift socks or an anchor was an invite to get your fingers feeling like they were being stuck with pins.  

Overall this was pure exploration for us.   I started fishing perch in Seneca Lake back around 1986 and it was a different ballgame back then.   More color to the water, shallower fish.   Skaneateles Lake fishes like Seneca did 20 years ago, but the fishing there isn't as good for big perch as Seneca used to be.  On Seneca fish are often deeper now and more of a challenge to catch.   I know a lot of good areas from all my time on the lake, but the perch patterns and how they relate to wind and water temperatures are all things I need to categorize - esp. on Seneca Lake.   So that was the goal today.

We had 44 degree water on top.  We spent a lot of time working the electronics looking for structure and fish.   Presentations on deep windblown flats were very difficult and poor at best.   We worked a couple major areas - limited by the strong winds and waves, and started on our last area by around 3 pm.  Of course, we never had a hit UNTIL we hit the last area.  I nailed a nice fish in 20' of water.   Then Mike nabbed one.  Then I got 2 more.  Then nothing.   We moved deeper (out to 45') and Mike thought he had a big fish - I figured he had a double.  I was right.   Then he thought he had a laker, until his rod load lightened up a bit.  He had a double of 14" to 15" fish, but one got off!   That was it - we'd had a few other hits but had to go due to my final classes (this week at Cornell.)   So we found the fish, but had to go.   The upside about Seneca fish is the size - they were all from 12" to 14.5" and hefty.  So catching 7 perch is like catching 7 bass.  

Fun stuff despite the cold.  The weather did moderate by 1 pm, but the winds kicked up again by 4 pm.  We never saw another boat on the water today.    

Got out today from around noon till dark.   I worked the southern portions of the lake, primarily for pike.   For some reason, the fly I had on wasn't triggering any good grabs for me.   I had 4 nice fish follow in my fly and not hit it.   One fish does that and I think "it's the fish";  more than one and it's a "me problem".    So I tried a few different things.   I eventually went to a chartreuse/gold deceiver tied with bucktail and an epoxied head.   I was just getting ready to motor up the lake when I decided to take a couple more casts and the fly got hammered!   I was in around 10' to 12' of water and could tell it was a really good fish.   I had it hooked solidly in the corner of the mouth and landed the fish - it was a nicely proportioned 38" beauty.   I think that's my 2nd. best pike on Cayuga.    It had a musky look to it - no spots; it was kind of blue and faded looking, but definitely a pike.   I took a couple quick photos and released the beast unharmed.   That was it on the day.

Around 3 or 4 years ago (check the reports from 2005), Cayuga had a strong class of 25" to 27" northerns.    The fish that are still around are probably  34" to 40" beasts by now!   If my buddy Mike and myself combine our last 3 fly-fishing trips for pike on Cayuga, we've caught a 38", 35" and a 33" fish.   Those are good pike!   We clearly don't have the Seneca numbers on Cayuga, but the size here is better on average.   I'm certain that Cayuga Lake currently holds some 40" plus fish pushing over 20lbs.   I did see a few bass cruising the shallows today.   Once we get some steady north winds I'll be giving the landlocked salmon a good go.   

11/27:  I plan on doing a lot more perch fishing this winter than previous years (since I've been eating a lot more fish this season), so I bought a bunch of minnows a couple days ago and did a shakedown trip on Cayuga Lake for a few hours on Thanksgiving Day.   I tried a few different areas without a hit, then in my last spot I picked up one perch.    The water level is low on Cayuga, but it's still launchable.  Water temps vary from 44/45 midlake to 36 up north near Cayuga State Park.   The lone perch came from 17' of water.   I had no luck shallower.   

11/28:  I was going to hit Seneca today, but as I drove past the stack at AES I could see what appeared to be strong westerlies, so I went back over to Dean's.    I wasn't in the right mood to want to deal with strong west winds on Seneca!  It makes drifting tedious.   Anyways, I started right where I left off on the 27th and had some generally good perch fishing with some superb moments thrown in.   Using fathead minnows on double hook rigs I found good numbers of fish averaging around 9" on the lake's west shore.   I had a pretty steady pick all day, with some action from good schools (quite a few doubles.)   Wound up with around 25 or 26 decent fish.    Best fishing was in around 20' of water, though I'm certain I caught some as shallow as 17' and some around 25' to 27'.   

Cayuga Lake isn't a bad perch fishery.   It's just next to impossible to open water fish most of it in the winter with the freeze up on the north end and draw down making launching prohibitive at Dean's.    The fish run smaller than Seneca, Skaneateles, Keuka or Canandaigua - they are more like Owasco sized fish, but there's a lot more protection from nasty winds than on Seneca Lake.  I realize that wind triggers good fishing, but 3' to 4' waves on Seneca in the dead of winter doesn't strike me as being worth it for perch.   There are no crowds to deal with and plenty of fish.   

Cayuga's biggest perch are amongst the biggest in the Finger Lakes.   My friend's father in- law caught an 18 1/2" perch on Cayuga a few years back (the photo is on the bulletin board at Bass Pro Shops just past the fish tank on the right hand side below the stairs!)  The Cayuga perch could use some harvesting - 95%+ of the fish are between 7" and 9".   In May/June the bay just north of Sheldrake loads up with perch and it isn't hard to catch 100 fish in a day.    We caught around 30 to 40 in an hour or two this past May/June on plastics!    Fish were everywhere from 4' of water out to 23' or more!

Spend some time checking out a couple of my favorite shorefishing areas on Seneca Lake (I didn't have enough time to do the boat justice!)   Nothing much to report.  Lake levels are still good.   The lack of wind didn't help today, but it felt good getting out.    There's no reason the shore angling shouldn't be good now.   More cold temperatures can only help.   Tribs are low and clear.   

For those of you that bypass the homepage to check on reports, I do have some rods and reels for sale on the homepage.   Good lake trout jigging rods that are also good all-around baitcasters - good for bass and pike.   I also have a few RH baitcaster reels available.  Good way to get into a quality baitcaster at a low price.   It's all good stuff, but after spending around 4K on fishing tackle this year, I can't justify buying any more stuff until I get rid of some of the stuff cluttering my apt!

Did full day trips yesterday and today, here's what happened:  Fishing conditions weren't great on either day.   On Saturday we had zero wind and mostly cloudy conditions.   The Hermans did well on smallmouth bass, some perch and some lake trout.   Water temps have come up a bit since last Monday;  we had around 53 degrees.   There were nice sized schools of lakers around some of the points on the lake.   Most of our fishing was done in around 5' to 30' of water.  

Today was Arti and his friend Steve.   They fly-fished 95% of the time and cast tube jigs and hair jigs the other 5%.   Sinking lines were deadly on lake trout, big perch and some decent smallmouth bass.   Arti used a Type 5 full sink line and Steve used my Rio Deep 7 set up.   Woolly buggers and leech patterns in olive worked very well.   We saw a few nice rainbows around the shorelines but they were spooky.  Another day with very little wind until late in the afternoon.   Water temps again were around 51 to 52.   A drop of 2 or 3 degrees should move trout in towards the shorelines.   We'll see!

A couple days ago I got a phone call from Perry, who'd emailed me on occasion in the past.   He'd put his boat away for the season, but was jonesing to get out on Seneca Lake for some pike fishing with his friend Dave.   "Sure" I replied.  He told me the only catch was that he wanted to use live golden shiners.   He just loves watching the pike take the bobbers down.   I don't have a problem with live bait at all, I just don't use it in my guiding for an assortment of reasons - mainly I haven't seen a need for it; it's hard to get in my area without a 40 mile round trip; it's hard to keep alive; and it's expensive.   But he brought his own, so off we went.   Last year he'd done great on minnow - ran out actually.   He's fished Seneca for pike for over 30 years too, having caught some monsters, but it wasn't to be today.

We never had a hit on the minnows today.   We fished them with slip bobbers in a lot of good areas.   It was hard pinpointing exact spots to fish - I nearly always drift and cast baits, so that was a challenge.   With swimbaits a couple fish were hooked and one landed.   But they just weren't gobbling the minnows for us today.   By the time we went to swimbaits our breeze had died - we were lucky to get what we got.   But the guys have caught hundreds if not thousands of pike before and they were happy to kick bait and still fish - enjoying the day.   So that's what we did.   H2O crept up to 53 in places.   It became pretty clear to me that a lot of the action we get on our artificials is due to reaction bites - aggravating fish, and not necessarily strikes out of hunger.  

Well the Halloween weather forecast felt like a "treat" today, but when I arrived at the launch at Sampson State Park I felt "tricked".   Shades of last Friday - with hauling 20+ mph winds from the S.   So much for the "5 to 10 mph" forecast.   I met Connor and his dad Dick at 8 am and we took the nasty run across the lake.   Pike fishing was very slow for us this AM.   Connor nailed one small pike that looked like it had scoliosis (sp) or something like that.   Another hit was missed and that was it.   The wind appeared to diminish and we went back across the lake, but it picked up again.   Another couple pike were landed incl. Connor's nice 32" fish (on a Rat-L Trap.)   Some fish appeared to have moved shallower (10') into the murky water on the first break.    Before releasing his nice pike, Connor wanted his dad to snap a photo.  I handed him the pike and showed him how I like to hold them.   After a quick photo (or non-photo as we found out later!) Connor wanted to release the fish quickly since he saw some blood.   We had a problem "detaching Connor's hand" from the fish!   Turns out his hand slipped up the gill rakers a bit too much.   The blood wasn't from the northern!  It was from Connor!  

Dick wound up landing a pike then we tried some other things w/o luck.   Connor suggested a little laker jigging, so we gave it 2 hours.   We found nice numbers of fish S. of Sampson (and near Dresden) in 85' to 100'.   Dick was the "laker man" and managed to land 2 nice 20" wild fish.   Both hit on the retrieve and one came from around 35' to 50' of water!   So the jigging isn't bad at all now.   Water temps are around 51, so lakers can be anywhere.   All in all not a bad day, despite the very slow start this AM.   The lake calmed down too and the afternoon's forecast 20 mph + winds never materialized.   We didn't encounter any other boats fishing today.  

If I said I was looking forward to yesterday's guide trip out of Watkins Glen, I'd have been lying!   The weather people were calling for "one to two inches of rain and winds at 20 to 30 mph with higher gusts" - or something like that.  I called Dave and asked if he wanted to postpone, but it wasn't an option.   They know what they were in for - clients Dave and Rich turned off the weather radio halfway through the forecast!   But this was their only day to fish, so we had to chance it and keep our fingers crossed.    On top of this, add in the slow action we'd experienced out of Watkins over the past month and we had our work cut out for us.  

Fishing started out OK, with a couple pike landed during our first 2 hours of fishing.   We were happy that the wind and rain stayed down.   Water temps were brutal at the south end of the lake, due to the Friday's strong southerlies.   We had temps as low as 39 on the surface - that's colder than what lake trout like!   The water LOOKED cold.  It was ultra clear and green.    So we had a decision - run up the lake and risk a nasty ride back, or stay and fish for lethargic pike in 39 to 44 degree water.   We ran up the lake - knowing that winds could come up and make for a nasty ride back down in potential 2' to 3' waves and 40 degree water splashing us incessently.   We were able to find water temps in the low 50s about 10 miles up the lake.   We worked a few different areas, then decided to fish a stretch that was terrific last year, but had been a big dud a couple weeks ago.   But a few weeks ago we had a tough high pressure day, with the usual bluebird skies and no wind.   The gamble paid off and we immediately got into nice pike and stayed on them for the next few hours.     As the trip wound down we headed south and fished the cold stuff, managing a few more fish.   Overall a great fishing day, though my "water resistant boots" let me down big time.   I was sloshing water all day long and finally took the boots off and wrung out my socks.   $500 in rain gear and I have soaking feet!   Go figure.  

My advice for anglers is as follows regarding pike in any Finger Lake - and most lakes in general.   Every year the weeds set up differently.   Last year's hotspot can be void of fish a year later - or even 2 weeks later!   I've seen a lot of this on Cayuga Lake.  You can't get married to "spots".  You need to keep moving.     Lure selection is not nearly as important as finding fish.   You need the right lure for the depths and the activity level of the fish, but staying in a spot that isn't producing and switching out lures every 5 minutes rarely works.    You're probably in the wrong area or fishing the wrong depth.   Keep the weather in mind.  Clear bluebird days often produce the best pike fishing early and late in the day.    Calm conditions can be tough in any clear lake.  

Dave from yesterday's trip got me going on the swimbaits a couple years ago and I'm still grateful.   These baits are easy on me, the fish and are versatile as heck.   We used 3/4 oz. heads today and chartreuse, mahi-mahi and atomic chicken (!) bodies.    Around 16 or 17 nice fish were landed.   And the predicted weather never materialized - we had winds under 10 mph all day long!

Got out on Otisco for much of the day today with my friend Jared and his buddy Kevin.   Kevin grew up in Chicago and is an avid musky angler, having fished a lot in Wisconsin and a bit on the Niagara/Buffalo Harbor and St. Lawrence River.   He's fished with the editors of "Musky Hunter" magazine as well, so I was psyched to have him on board.    We started around 7:30 am with cold air temps and plenty of fog coming off the lake.   I'm a musky novice and am eager to learn more about the sport.   Since this season I've been feeling good about being able to locate tigers on this lake and we set up on some deep weeds I'd found with electronics.   Within about 10 minutes Jared had a hit from a nice fish probably in the mid-30(s) inch range on a crankbait.    About 10 or 15 minutes later Kevin had a hit from a smaller, but still decent fish.    We worked a few different areas without luck.   Once we got back on the deeper weeds I had a hit and set into an 18" smallmouth!  Not what I wanted, but it was cool to catch a big bass on a musky lure.  A few more bass were caught incl. a nice 3lb+ largemouth by Jared. 

Water temps were around 59 - much warmer than usual for this time of year.  Fish seem to be in an early fall pattern.   As we continued working some mid-level to deep weeds Kevin was in the midst of a story when a nice sized musky grabbed his homemade bucktail right by the boat as he was "turning an 8"!   It made the day!   Jared netted the fish as I grabbed my camera.   The fish was stocky and measured a solid 36"!    After a couple photos we let the beautiful Tiger go.   After I dropped the guys off I fished a bit more and managed to raise a small Tiger (mid to upper 20s).    All in all a fun day and a great learning experience.   The guys wished they could have fished all day - but they had no idea the fishing would have been as good as it was, so they had made other plans for the afternoon! 

Did close to a full day trip with Michele, her dad John and Tim (aka "the lamprey eater";-).   I told Tim he was on his way to becoming a local legend!   I've been tired of running down to the bluff or Hammondsport and told the gang that I was certain that there was a limit worth of fish in Branchport.  Over the years I've fished this area a lot for lakers and done well.   What often happens is that people (myself incl.) run all over the lake and start catching fish at say 11 am.  What people don't realize is that the fish were inactive and simply started hitting at that time.    It can be hard to stay put and just fish until they start hitting!    At least if you run around you feel you're doing something!   I've known this for awhile, but it can be hard to put it into practice!

We stayed up there near the north end of the arm and we did well from the get-go.   We had a decent laker within 15 minutes and within the first hour Michele dropped 2 nice fish on spoons.   By 11 am we'd landed 7 nice fish up to 24", incl. two doubles.   Things slowed up over the next hour and 2 more were landed.   By 1:30 pm the bite quit and we called it a day at 2.    As usual, a lot of the Keuka fish are suspended.  Bait was scarce.   Best action was from our start at 8 am (so they were probably hitting well at first light) till about 11 am.   The steady barometer probably helped our fishing a bit.   Sppons (3/4 oz. Silver Kastmasters + 1 ounce Hopkins/Stradas) worked well as did the usual flukes and Lunker City Shakers in white.   H2O ranged from 60 to 63 degrees.   Fish are nearing the spawn, but are still actively feeding.   We had lakers with alewives (and even a small bluegill!) in their stomachs!

10/11 AM:  Did a 1/2 day trip with Matt and Mike.   Fishing started out promising when Matt nailed a nice pike on his first cast.   Another good fish and then a smaller pike were landed and despite our searching, that was about it.   We checked a few areas for lakers, marking a few but not getting any hits.   I'm not seeing the overall numbers of pike on Seneca's south end as I saw last year, but it's still early yet.   It was loaded a few weeks ago!

PM:  Picked up Paul and Mark at the launch.   We headed up the lake and checked out a bunch of areas.   Mark landed a nice northern within an hour or so and Paul lost one.   Fishing remained slow with the bluebird skies and lack of wind.   Conditions were perfect for lake trout so we set up for them.   It didn't take long for Paul to nail a nice 20" fish.   Then he landed 2 more and lost one - all solid 4 to 5lb.+ fish.   We went back to pike fishing but didn't find any takers.  Many lakers are still around bait and feeding.

Watkins 10/4 AM:   Did a 1/2 day trip with Jodi and James.   Pike fishing was very good in the AM with a half dozen decent fish landed.   Many of the smaller (25") pike are showing signs of stress or something.   Some fish have what looks to be abrasions on them and are thin.   One pickerel was also caught.    The action was best early and in the fog; things slowed up by 10 am.  

10/4 PM:   Did a PM trip with Trent and Ed from Cornell.   Action started out very slow with nothing to show for the first couple hours.   We had a hit or two and Trent had some follows from some "silvery fish" that I didn't see - maybe juvenile salmon or rainbows.   To their credit, the guys kept fishing hard and stayed with "the program".  Action picked up late in the trip and at least 1/2 dozen nice pike to 32" were landed.   A bunch were missed/lost as well.   Swim baits and a Rat-L Trap did the trick.   Lots of boat traffic out of Watkins - probably due to the nice weather!  It's downright gorgeous out there!  The great evening bite was a sign of things to come....

10/5 out of Sampson:   We got a late start today as Barry and his daughter Julie misjudged the time of arrival.   Fishing started out good with Barry having a follow from a very nice pike over 32".   Action was decent in the AM with at least 1/2 dozen fish landed.   We tried some laker jigging with a few hits but nothing special.  Plenty of bait and some fish were in 80' to 110'.   Better jigging could probably be had earlier in the day or downlake.   The PM pike bite was fantastic.  We had a bunch of doubles and another dozen or more fish landed (we stopped counting.)  The fish were all quality - mostly 29" to 32" well-fed healthy pike.   As usual, we released nearly all fish - keeping a few smaller fish for the table.    Best action was from around 8' to 15' or so.    Swimbaits dominated!   Lunker City Shakers with the 1/2 oz. Sworming Hornet jig/spinners have been terrific.   Water temps are at 62.   In my opinion, that's the upper threshold water temp for super pike action in the Finger Lakes.  Fish are fighting great too - terrific surges and some surface acrobatics!   It was Barry's birthday and the lake gave us a great present!   Combine the active pike with the great foliage and it's heaven on earth for fishermen in the Finger Lakes right now!

Whitney Point Spillway 10/2:   I took my Cornell fishing class over to Whitney's spillway.   The water flow was minimal.   Visibility was about 1'.   1/8th to 1/4 oz. jigheads with chartreuse twisters produced some smallmouths.   Mostly undersized fish, but a couple were legal.  I'd wait a couple weeks before fishing here.

Canandaigua Lake 10/3:   I arrived at the State Launch around 10:30 am and was underway shortly thereafter.   I think I saw one other boat fishing on the day!   Foliage was looking good as I motored out.   The goal was to fish some "alien areas".   I am finally getting a lot of this lake locked into my brain.    It's fairly similar to Skaneateles Lake structurally.   Water temps were 63 on top.   The winds were strong out of the west.   I started on the west shore around an area I'd seen some smallmouths at last month.   A few casts with a white X-rap produced a couple good hits.  I set into a nice perch around 11" in 10' of water.   I worked further up the lake and had 2 to 3 nice smallmouths come out for the stickbait in one area but I couldn't get any grabs.  One of the fish had the bait right up to its mouth.   I tried tubes and other tactics to no avail.   I motored across to the windy portion of the lake and worked the X-rap and a tube jig.  In one area a school of around 8 or 9 nice smallmouths followed out the X-rap, but no hits!   It was pretty wild.   I kept covering water and as the wind started whipping I nailed a nice 18.5" smallie on the X-rap.   Another decent (15") fish came on a tube.   Rockbass and perch were also hitting and I managed another 3 good 10" to 12" perch.    After a front blew through I had a tough time buying any hits.   I switched to a jigworm and tried some other tactics.   Hooked another couple (small) bass and that was about it.   I kept the small smallmouth and all the perch.  The bass and perch had crawfish in their stomachs.   I wound the day up at 5:30 pm.   The last 2 hours were very slow fishing.   Most bass/perch came from 10' to 20" FWIW.      

Did a full day with Mike and Andy.   Fishing started a little slow but picked up and remained decent all day long.  Best action was from 80' to 110' or so.   Fish are scattered on the N. end flats.  Bait pods are scattered as well.   The usual 1 oz jigheads and white shakers worked best.    The guys landed around 16 fish - all lakers up to 26".  The fish were in good condition - well fed.   Drifting produced the best action, and the bite before impending storms was best.  Water temps are down around 63 degrees.   If anyone thinks bass fishing in Sept/early Oct. is easy here they should check the results of the Rochester Bassmasters tournament here last Sunday:   http://www.rochesterbassmasters.com/pages/2008owascoresults.htm

There are some excellent bass fishermen in the club and some of them did some serious "pre-fishing".   Like many of the alewife driven Finger Lakes, many of the smallmouths are pelagic in the summer/early fall and are offshore chasing baitfish.   Later in October and November, inshore bassin' will pick up.  

Seneca Lake 9/27:

Did a 1/2 day trip with John and Roger.   These guys do an annual Canadian trip for pike and were looking forward to some good pike action on Seneca Lake.   The fishing proved to be tougher (more "challenging" ;-)  than expected.   We started with a fairly good fog and calm conditions.    A hit here and a hit there were missed.   A few pickerel or small pike chased and hit Roger's spinnerbait, which he worked just off weed edges and in shallow.   Eventually John hooked a decent fish which got off after I tried grabbing it around the gill plates;  it was no big deal, since the guys were C & R anyways, but John didn't want to count it!   The guys provided me with coffee, a beer and cigars, which goes a long way to ensuring a successful outing.    I was handed a rod and told to help get the skunk out of the boat.   I managed to hook and land a nice 29" northern in about 10 minutes on a swimbait.   So I earned my one beer!    I kept on the guys like the harsh teacher/guide I am and we worked a bunch of areas.   Some wind came up and we hit one of my favorite areas which I hadn't fished all fall.   We found the pike!   Around 1/2 dozen fish were hooked in short order and maybe 3 or 4 landed.    Fish ran from around 29" to 30" and were well-proportioned.   The guys hadn't caught deep pike before often, so they did have a good learning experience (at least I think they did.)   The swim baits came through in 10' to 15' of water.   I went out afterwards and tried a few new things with OK success on the pike.   H2O was 64.  

Keuka Lake 9/28:

Got out with my friend Dave B.   The goal was to hit some "alien areas" on Keuka Lake and see what the bass were doing, as well as get a few lakers for dinner.   My "new" areas provided some fun fishing and in some moderate to relatively heavy rain me and Dave had a lot of action - mostly on small pickerel and bass.   I got a 17" largie on an X-rap.   Dave nailed a few 12" to 14" largemouths.   Then I had a SLOB follow in my deep running crank to the boat.  This bass appeared to be at least 4 to 5lbs and over 20" - maybe 21" or 22"!    We also caught a few perch and chunky rockbass.    A couple smallmouths were hooked - a couple small ones and one decent fish.   We didn't get the chance to work any smallmouth areas thoroughly.   We had some good hits on lakers near the Bluff area but didn't capitalize.   A run to Hammondsport produced one 20" laker.    We lost track of time and weren't able to get onto the lakers at 10 to 11 am - which has been the hot bite time.   I didn't mark much bait anywhere - even in Hammondsport.   Few boats were out and H2O was around 66.   The lake has re-loaded itself with small nuisance pickerel.   I hadn't seen so many since the early 1990s.  

Skaneateles 9/20: 

Did a half day trip with Steve Jr. and Steve Sr. on Skinny Sat. AM.   The best area I'd scouted last week was virtually fishless, so we went into search mode.   Things were slow for the first hour or so then Steve Jr. started getting some hits on a jig/worm and tube jig.   A few fish came to the boat and we started to find a pattern.   In one area, a few small salmon or rainbows were hitting Steve's tube jig! Working X-raps worked well for smallies running from around 10" to 13" with some bigger fish mixed in.   What the smallmouths lacked in size, they made up for in aggressiveness.    Steve Jr. was an "alumni" of the Lindners' "Camp Fish" back in the 1980s.  He also was a counselor there and knows the Lindners, having fished with Ron and Jim.    So it was a fun trip hearing some firsthand stories about some of my favorite anglers.  My Al Lindner impression passed the test with the guys as well.  So that was a highpoint of my day!

After the trip ended, I went back out on my own and worked some areas I hadn't fished in a while as well as some "alien areas".   Working new areas is one of my favorite things to do in the world.   I pick a landmark and say to myself, "I'm going to work from here to there" - or something of that nature.   Things went well.  During one cast with a jerkbait I had 4 to 5 nice smallmouths (14" to 17"+) come out of the woodwork chasing the bait.  I hooked some good fish and they got off.  Finally landed a 17" and a 15.5" fish, after losing a couple nice ones.   The best areas I found were shelves in 10' to 15' of water with plenty of small smallmouths and YOY (young of the year) perch on them.    I feel I'm getting these Skinny smallmouths dialed in.   Canandaigua/Keuka are next!

Owasco 9/21: 

Day 2 with "the Steves" started similarly to our first day.  Action was kind of slow in the AM on Owasco.   We started at 8 am.  My buddy Jarod was on the lake and called me up with a up to the minute report!  That's always helpful.  We started off nailing a few fish in around 70' of water.   Then the wind came up a little and some misty rain moved in.   We worked our way out to deeper water.   As the wind subsided the fish started hitting aggressively and coming off the bottom "Owasco style!"   The guys wound up nailing just about a dozen lakers to 26" before we wrapped up our 1/2 day.   After the trip I went back out trying a few different things w/o any luck.   I ran into a good bass fisherman I know from the Rochester Bassmasters and he reported catching around a dozen pike on the day.  Not much doing on the shallow/mid-depth smallies yet.   Jarod encountered some bass in the depths, but they weren't hitting great.  H2O is around 66.  Water levels are starting to drop.  

Had a lot of fun on Canandaigua Lake today after a circuitous AM of driving.   I arrived in Canandaigua just before 7 am and decided to launch at the State Launch on the south end of the lake at Woodville.   The goal was to nail a quick limit of lakers then do some exploring.  The Canandaigua lakers are delicious.  Exceptional eating as far as I'm concerned.    As I drove down Rt. 21 I knew something was wrong when I saw a truck with a boat trailer heading north!  Sure enough, I arrived at the launch and found that it had recently been repaved and was closed for a couple days!   So I headed back north - having wasted about an hour.  

I scrapped my previous plans and decided to spend my AM exploring "alien areas" of the lake.   I found a superb deep flat, and on my first drop with a jig I was attached to a laker!   But it got off, as did about another dozen fish/hits.   It was a fun AM, due to lots of "action" , but only one 24" laker landed.   Fish were hitting hard, but I couldn't hook them, or couldn't hang onto them for long.   I think we're nearing the spawn and fish aren't grabbing really well.  I did hook fish on bottom and chasers, but most obviously weren't hooked good.    I explored the area for bass and hooked a beautiful largemouth around 3lbs or better on a crankbait.   It got off after 1 1/2 jumps.   The lake was gorgeous and there was very little boat traffic.   Water temps were around 68 to 70 and a few perch boats were out.   Not a great day catching, but I had very good action/activity all morning long, and I'm sure I'd have landed some more fish had I been on the water at 7 am as scheduled!  I'll be back soon.

Did a 1/2 day with the Hermans.   Fishing started out promising around 7 am when Eleonore landed a solid laker on her first drop with the jig.  We fished N. of AES and fish are still abundant in 85' to 90' of water.   A couple more fish were landed and one solid one lost (due to a broken line.)   Bait is still abundant.    Surface temps were 69 degrees and I'd expect them to drop fairly rapidly with the cool nights and windy/cool days. 

Shore fishing (with the usual eggsacks and slip sinkers) is producing lakers off the walls at Taughannock Point.   It's a good opportunity for catching lakers for the non-boat owner or shorefisher with little time. 

Did a full day laker jigging trip with Jeff K. on Friday.  We had some hits throughout the AM but nothing super solid.  Some of the fish were probably browns/salmon.   We tried a bunch of areas and perservered.  Lakers really turned on around 2 pm and Jeff nailed some (at least 4 or 5) nice fish in short order.   Perserverance pays off!

Did the Salvation Army Derby with Jessica this past weekend.   We fished hard Sat. from around 7 am till 5 pm or so.   We landed around 9 nice lakers - incl. a couple 28"+ fish but nothing we felt good about weighing in.  The bite was tough with fish hitting during brighter skies.   On Sunday we took it easy and got on the water around 9:45 am.   We caught some fish, but again - nothing special.    The wind on Sat. got ridiculous and we had "fun" boating through the 3' to 4' waves on Cayuga.  It was as rough as it gets with the exception of major cold fronts in the winter!   

The fishing is slowing down on Cayuga.  Lakers are gradually getting into the spawn mode and the feeding binges are becoming spottier.   Around 12 years ago when we started doing some jigging - this is the time of year we'd START.   We'd snap jig spoons and bucktails around Taughannock Park.   Some guys would get 30 or 40 lakers in a morning doing this type of fishing.  I no longer prefer to do it.  I'd rather chase fish in their feeding modes, so I'll be moving a lot of my laker guiding over to Owasco and Keuka Lakes, where lakers spawn later in the year and the "pre-spawn feeding binge" extends into Sept. and Oct. respectively!  

Had a great time with my friend Mike on Champlain.   We were hoping for monster gar (I was optimistic that the hot weather of the last couple weeks would keep them around the surface) and some largemouths on top.   We didn't get what we wanted, but what we got wasn't bad at all.   We arrived at around 3 pm on Tuesday to a fairly empty boat launch at "Ti".    We motored right to one of my favorite gar hotspots and didn't see a single one.   Topwater bassin' only provided a few barely legal and sublegal bass.   We covered a bit of water then checked into the Sportsmen's Cottages at Crown Point in Vermont.  

Day 2:  We got out around 9 am (this is vacation!) and headed back out.   We worked an area a friend had suggested.   We spotted a few small gar - not the fish we came to Champlain for.   We kept trying for shallow, slop oriented bass.  Water temps were around 75!   Warm.   There was bait and young bluegills/sunfish present in the shallows, but not a lot (at this point in time.)   We worked the shallows throughout the trip - hoping for a "frog bite" but it didn't happen.   We moved out to some deeper water and started working crankbaits.  I had a solid hit and after a strong battle landed a healthy looking pike @ 38 1/2" - probably 13 to 14lbs!   A very nice fish!    After releasing the pike we continued working the cranks and checking the shallows.   Nada.

We fished hard, working a lot of different areas.   We caught some legal bass, but nothing special.   We worked around a marina and saw one decent 3lb fish but it chased half heartedly and didn't grab.  We did catch and see some bass around the marina in shallow, but again, nothing great.   We tried a creek and caught small bass and pickerel.   After trying and giving up (again!) on the frogs and topwater, we decided to do more deep cranking.   I took a cast around a steep dropping shore that Mike wanted to work.   I got distracted (maybe picking out a backlash) and had a quality 2.7lb (guessing) bass whack my crank on top!   Ironic, isn't it?  A day and a half trying topwater - we go to deep cranks and I get whacked on top.  Mike then hooked and lost a beauty on a crank - a solid bass of at least 4lbs that fought wildly.   It may have been even bigger.  We were in 18' of water casting slightly shallower.    We had a couple more hits then saw a disturbance.   My cast resulted in another beast of a northern - another 38.5" fish - but thinner.    Beautiful pike with the same colors the big gar have around "Ti".   Kind of faded - greyish/white.    Another small bass or two and we headed back in for food and a couple cold ones. 

Day 3:  We launched at the town of Crown Point.   We'd been comparing notes with our neighbors at the cottages and they'd done well on Day 1 fishing shallow water (bordering deep water) with Senkos.  They had a slow Day 2 highlighted by an 8lb bowfin!    We headed out and again tried some surface stuff.   Nada.  I nailed a nice 2lb+ fish on a spinnerbait.   Then I used my electronics to mark some weeds coming up around 5' in 10' to 12' of water.   We cast various lures and worked a fairly non-descript area.   I landed a couple more quality largemouths - 2lb to 2.5lb fish.   Trying a popular area, but away from shore resulted in a wild fight from a 18"+ smallmouth that was at least 3lbs.   A spinnerbait fooled the smallie, and cranks the largemouths.

Overall we had a very nice trip.   Teamwork kept both of us thinking and fishing hard.   We both knew early on that we were going to push the topwater thing.   When I first fished Champlain around 5 years ago, we had tremendous frog fishing in late September.    By AM of Day 2 I knew we'd probably do better in 8' to 12' of water or more.   That depth was key for the big northerns and I'm convinced we could have caught more by patterning those areas - basically steep dropping channels near shore bordering weedbeds.   We didn't spend all that much time on them - instead we kept working new and different areas.   Shallow bass were either non-existent, or more likely just inactive.  The lack of reaction bites made me think that there weren't many big fish shallow in the areas we worked, but I may have been wrong.   The amount of bait and active gills in shallow made us think we could do well there.   Like on the Finger Lakes (and Black Lake a couple years ago) the key areas in late summer/early fall were either the transition from shallow flats to deep water (with submergent vegetation) or just steep dropping banks.   Another day on Champlain would have been great!   We'll be back there next June or July looking for monster gar and bass.    

Did a full day with Mark and Charlie "going for gar" on the fly-rods.   This was as late (in the season) a gar trip as I've ever done and it went pretty well.   Tons of fish were "breaking" in the morning as we set up around 8:15 am.   Mark nailed the first one at 9:30.   The bite never really got going great, but it had its moments.   Most of our fish came from 15' to 22' of water, down around 10'.   I've learned a lot about gar over the past couple years and continue to learn.   We wound up with 7 or 8 fish landed up to around 37".   It was a fun day with spirited discussions about lots of stuff.   Now it's time to get ready for Champlain! 

One of the high points of the day was when Charlie noticed a large bald eagle flying overhead.  What a majestic bird!   I'd only seen juveniles in the wild before in Alaska.    

Did 2 one-half day trips on Owasco Lake yesterday.  Started the AM trip with Bob his son Hunter and Hunter's 9 year old son Robert.   The forecast called for occasional showers and that's what we had until we got out onto the lake.   Then it poured!   Robert was well-dressed with his $1.95 poncho (I'm not kidding here - he stayed very dry!)   My Cabelas Guidewear was great except I wore sneakers, which got soaked.   Hunter and Bob also got drenched.   But after around 1/2 hour the rain eased up.   This trip was meant to be about Robert and that's how it went.  Young Robert did a great job with the fishing and he outfished everyone, landing 5 nice lakers on his new favorite - a spoon!   Fish were caught by all, but the crew (apart from Robert) were pretty much soaked, so we wound up a little bit early.   It was a fun trip apart from the rain.

My PM trip was with Alex and his younger brother Oliver.   They live near the Ottawa River!   One of the great fisheries in North America as far as I'm concerned.   (Check out www.jeffcyr.com/  if you want to see what I mean!)    They do some laker fishing up in Canada but hadn't jigged them before.   We had some very good fishing - nice steady action, and picture-perfect weather!    A nice bunch of lakers were landed, and we also found a group of smallies, with Oliver landing 2 up to almost 20" and Alex losing one.  The guys might have dropped another good bass or two as well.   Fun day and Alex is really passionate about fishing.   Fishing remains best (at least for us) on the west shore mainly S. of Buck's Point.   We caught fish from 60' out to 110'.  Don't neglect the "deeps" on Owasco Lake this time of year.   Oftentimes when the shallow bite dissapates, the deep bite gets going.   Both bites were going at the same time this AM.

Cayuga today was a trip with Steve and his brother Stu.  They were out with me earlier in the season out on Seneca Lake hammering lakers.   My first trip with Steve entailed plenty of hard fishing with mediocre results.   This was maybe 2 or 3 years ago.  The fish Gods have rewarded us handsomely since then!    We started out with slow action on lakers, but Stu hooked and landed the first fish - a nice 23" landlocked salmon!   After that, the laker action was quite steady and we landed fish until we quit at 2:30pm.   As a matter-of-fact, the last drops produced a double!   At least 16 to 18 lakers were landed from dink size (one) to 29".  Most fish were 23" to 28".   Another fun day with fish being caught from 75' to 100'+.   The park was mobbed on the way back - just a ton of boat and people around for the last "hoorah" of summer.  Both shorelines produced fish today for us.

I took out Syracuse Post-Standard columnist Dave Figura and his photographer Jim C. today.  The day started out with overcast skies and a good chop out of the south.  The guys got the basics of the jigging technique down and managed to land a few small lakers N. of AES.   We had hold of a couple bigger ones too.  On the West shore we hooked a triple!  Fun stuff - and a couple fish were landed.  Jim got some great photos that will be up on the Syracuse Post-Standard's outdoor section on their website.  Expect a jigging article around a week from Friday.   Dave interviewed me and I gave him the "lowdown" on the jigging technique.   I had a lot of fun chatting and laughing about stuff with Dave and Jim - they are great guys and I hope to see them on the water in the future.

PM:  Did a guide trip with Dennis, who joined me last year on Owasco Lake in late August.   The fishing went from good to very good/excellent as the wind declined.   He caught a bunch of beauties incl. a 32" fish that probably weighed 11lbs or better.   We kept the smaller/med. fish today.   Fish were on bottom and chasing very aggressively at times.  We got 'em around 80' to 90' today - a tad bit deeper than the past week.  Plenty of bait is still around and fish are still gorging themselves.    Dennis did a great job hooking and playing fish.  He lost 2 pigs that were probably over 30" given their fight - but he did things well, the fish just got off - it happens.

Did a full day trip with Pat, John and DJ today.  We had a lot of fun from the get-go!  Despite our late (8:30 am) start, the fish cooperated all day long.  The fishing started with calm conditions and occasional chasers and fish on the bottom.  As the wind came up, fish began to chase more often.   The fishing never got "hot n' heavy" but it stayed steady enough to keep us all focused.   All lakers landed today and the guys wound up landing around 15 or 16 nice fish.   We released a 30"+ wild laker along with a few of the dinks.  Most fish ran 22" to 27".    One of the high points of the trip was getting John going on these lakers.  I specialize in working with people that struggle at times with their fishing and he started out struggling but then came through with some very nice fish!    Fish are still feeding heavily and the stomachs were fairly full of alewives.    Best depths were around 75' to 85' with one fish taken in around 56'.   One nice brown followed up John's jig, but didn't hit it.   It's safe to assume that browns are well distributed along the west shore from Sheldrake south to Ithaca!   

Lunker City Shakers produced nearly all the fish, though a white Reaper (available at Wal-Marts) did entice one or two.   These days the Shakers have become our "bread and butter jig" thanks to a suggestion from Mike Canavan.   On some days the broader profile (but less action) of a white reaper (www.arkiejigs.com/)  can produce as well or better, though the long tail with result in some short strikes.   Zoom flukes and Lunker City fin-s fish are also steady producers of nice fish.   There's always a place for spoons like a 3/4 or 1 oz. Kastmaster or a Hopkins/Strata type of spoon.  I have seen days when the spoons outproduce the plastics, but it doesn't happen often during the summer bite.   Plus the treble hooks on the spoons tend to maim more fish than the single hook plastics (yes I realize I could change out the spoon hooks ;-)

I get asked on occasion about our jigging gear.  I prefer 7' rods in Medium or Medium Heavy for jigging.  Baitcasters get the nod due to their superior line control on the descent, great ergonomics and the ability to easily let out more line or reel some in.   Flipping switches are great when you can get them.   I look for reels with smooth retrieves and drags.   Garcia/ABU, Bass Pro Shops (Rick Clunn Reels) and Quantum/Shimano make some fantastic reels.   The Rick Clunns get a special mention.  I've used the same LH Rick Clunns for 4 years of guiding and the drags and reels in general still perform great!   The ABUs are also solid as heck!    Great rods include Fenwick HMX and HMGs and Bass Pro Shops Extreme or Johnny Morris Rods.   My line for guiding lakers is 14lb Smoke Fireline (8lb diameter) with a leader of Spiderwire XXX mono testing 12lbs.  The leader is around 14' long and double uni-knotted to the braid.  I check knots thoroughly and have yet to have a double-uni fail (after I've made sure it was strong from the get-go.)   My favorite rods are the ones that Mike Canavan makes for me.   They are designed for jigging lakers and are super comfortable and light to fish with.   Jig heads are custom poured 1 oz round and Erie heads.  Lighter weights also work fine, but I like the one ouncers since they are easier for beginners to feel and they produce more "bang" on the bottom of the lake!  Jigs are tied on with Trilene knots (Palomars are also great) and the line is checked (I try to break the knot) after every fish and every few missed hits.  

Back out of my home port for 2 one-half day trips.  Started out with Chip (from last week), Paul and his 9 year old son Josh.   The wind was out of the NW so we stayed on the west shore as much as possible.   Fishing started out with a quick bang as Paul landed a 22" laker.   But hits were few and far between for the next hour or so.  We quickly checked out the east shore, but it appeared that fish were negative all over.   3 more nice lakers came and one was dropped - all in short order.   The last two days have featured some small "bite windows" then things slow up.   Top fish were two 29"ers.   Josh did well with the baitcaster but wasn't able to hook anything.   :-(   Oh well, it happens - he remained positive throughout the trip and the fish Gods do owe him!

My second trip was with Dave and his daughter's husband Kevin.   I tried to switch the trip up to Owasco due to the increasing wind gusts, but Dave and Kevin were already close to Taughannock by the time I called.   We decided to give Cayuga a try, then possibly move to Owasco if necessary.  I played a hunch and worked some areas I rarely ever take people to.   Basically places south of the park.   The hunch paid some big dividends!   We managed a couple very dinky lakers, but in short order Dave set the hook into a "big fish".   After a fun and thrilling battle we boated a 24" 6lb. 14 oz brown!   What a little slobola!   This fish was in full spawning colors with a big hooked jaw!   More fishing yielded a 22" laker and another dink or two.   Then Dave hooked up again - this time we landed a 24" 4lb. 12 oz Landlocked Salmon!   Another great fish - especially for jigging.   Trollers catch their share of these nice fish, but to catch them fairly consistently jigging is super cool.   If someone had told me 10 years ago that we could catch beautiful coldwater species in August with nothing more than a med. bass rod and a jig, I'd be all ears!    Be ready for some explosive fall runs of salmon, browns and rainbows in the Cayuga tribs and then some spectacular FLY-FISHING for these salmon come November!!!   It's going to be the best in a decade if all goes as we hope it can!

Did a 1/2 day AM trip with Kenny and his son Zack.   We started at 6:15 am and worked the east shore.   I'd fished the west shore yesterday and decided to try the east to start.  It was a good call.  The guys (esp. Kenny) got the technique down in short order and it wasn't long before we were into fish - mainly in 75' of water.  Kenny caught some beauties today - fish up to over 31"!   All were released.   We had a great time and he was really digging the fishing.  Zack nailed a few nice fish as well.  I did procure another big lamprey eel - so I will try to document with detail how to cook these things.    I know that 95% of those of you reading this are probably gagging (!) but once you behead the eels, they look like something you'd eat!    We did try the west shore today but conditions were pretty windy/rough over there.    The bite seemed to slow by 10 am. 

Well I finally made it down to Lake Erie after years of wanting to get over there.   I had a slight problem on my Yamaha motor so I stopped over at Silver Lake Marine on Tuesday, had them order a part, and then had it put in on Thurs.  In between this maintenance I fished Erie.  

Most people will say, that the biggest problem with fishing Lake Erie is a four letter word - W I N D!   According to the weather forecasts, I should have had a beautiful 3 days on L. Erie, but the "less than 1' waves" turned into 2 to 3 footers or better on Tuesday afternoon.  So I didn't go out.   There's a big Cabelas PWT (walleye tourney) happening on Erie out of Dunkirk this weekend, so there were walleye guys everywhere.   As I gazed onto "white cap filled Erie" a couple brothers walked down towards me and we talked.  They were tourney guys from Michigan and also decided against going out.   They had been up for two days and still hadn't launched their boat (a big boat I might add.)    I reserved a cottage at South Shore Cottages and worked on my tackle before getting to bed early.   I didn't have the energy for Chautauqua Lake - my back up plan.  

On Tues. night the lake calmed down and I was stoked for Wed.   I launched at 7 am out of Barcelona.   For those of you unfamiliar with Barcelona, it's more the "walleye/lake trout" launch for Lake Erie, though Kotaro Kiriyama of BASS did great there on 5lb. smallmouths during the Elite Series tourney a couple weeks ago.   The wind didn't lay down for long and I had 1 foot waves out there in no time.   I motored out due east of Barcelona and headed out.  I marked a fair number of fish on my way out.   The activity zone seemed to be around 40'.   I dropped down my temp probe and was surprised to see the thermocline was so shallow on L. Erie.  The temp change was from 40' to 50'.  Below 50' the water temps were in the mid-40s.   I tried an assortment of lures on the deep marks - jigging spoons,  spoons inserted into goby colored tubes, dropshot worms/goby lures, and fluke/shakers.    Not much doing.   Working marks for the first couple hours didn't pay off at all.   It's a hard call on Lake Erie, because there's so much diversity "species wise".  A mark could be a carp, catfish, bass, drum, white perch, burbot - who knows?    I decided that I'd be better off working some cover/structure - like a dropoff or hump.   Everytime I decided this and motored off, I'd run over a school of fish or a few big hooks - so it was frustrating in a pleasant way.  

I worked some areas with my goby dropshot rig and started getting a few hits.   A rockbass was the first fish of the trip in around 25' of water.   The lake started getting nasty with NE winds around 10 knots or better.   Occasional waves came over the bow.  It wasn't fun - it was basically the same conditions as the day before.   I worked around Van Buren Point.  Excellent structure out there!   Before I knew it the clock said 1 pm and I still hadn't caught much of anything.   I decided to "stop screwing around" and took my boat back out to 40' of water where I'd been marking the most fish and where the thermocline met the bottom.   I looked for the widest 40' flat/shelf I could find.   In the moderately heavy wave action, I settled for whatever I could get.    I figured something would start hitting sooner or later.   I dropped my BPS Goby down on my new Canavan Dropshot rod and felt some weight as I picked up!  Paydirt!   My first Lake Erie bass - it was a nice 18"+ smallmouth!    From 39' of water.   I took my time bringing it up so I wouldn't have any air bladder problems.   I snapped a quick shot and released the fish.   Before I knew it my boat had drifted way off my area.   Eventually I got back on 40' and felt another heavy weight on bottom.  This fish rocketed right up from the bottom and jumped around 30' away from the boat!   Another solid smallmouth - this one bigger than the last.  It dove back down a couple times - what a great fight!   This fish was 19 1/2" - a solid 4lber I'd imagine.   I released it and felt I would be in business.   But the wave action kept intensifying and I didn't hook any more fish.     I worked my way back to Barcelona w/o any more fish.   The ride back was nasty, but not dangerous.  Lots of 2' to 3' waves with an occasional 4 footer.

I got interviewed for the Lake Erie DEC Creel Census at the launch.  It was nice getting some fishing info re: walleyes, lakers and bass from the DEC person.  Some boats had done well on walleyes today, others struggled.   I weighed a 9lb walleye caught by some Canadian anglers.   The walleye guys were some of the nicest fishermen I've ever met.  Every single one I talked to was personable and friendly, as well as open with information.  

That evening I met up with John Sander for a bite to eat in Fredonia.   It was great catching up with John and as usual I pestered him about when the Finger Lakes Edition of the Sanders Guide would come out.   Let's hope next year sometimes!  Most of it has been done.

Today I drove over to Dunkirk, where there's generally better bass fishing from what I've heard.   Unfortunately the launch was overflowing with walleye boats.  There was no parking to be had anywhere!   So I drove the 15 miles south to Barcelona again.   The lake was calm, but it was sunny and bright as heck out.   I decided I'd work out to 130' of water - hoping for bass and maybe some lakers.    The flat areas off Barcelona aren't very conducive to much great bass fishing as far as I could tell.   I marked a lot of bait and some hooks.   I had some hits, but no hookups.  I even had hits down 60' over 120'.   But nothing solid.  Trollers scored on walleyes, drum and white perch yesterday at 40' over 60'.   Today's reports were much slower.  A guy I talked to hammered walleyes on the NE wind, and only had one to show for todays calm/onshore conditions.   I fished until just after noon, then had to get back to Silver Lake Marine.

So basically tough fishing for me on Erie.    2 albeit nice bass and one rock bass to show for a day and a half of fishing.   I felt good about what I'd found on the smallmouths, but wasn't able to return back to my areas.  It would have been a time consuming 15 mile run today and I wasn't up for it.   A couple more days on Erie would have been nice, and I will return - probably in the spring or fall and I'll work Dunkirk to Buffalo Harbor - generally better bass areas.   I did see quite a few dead and dying drum.  I hope it isn't VHS, but I'm skeptical.   These trips make me appreciate the Finger Lakes!  My buddy Jared called me when I was fighting waves on Erie.  He'd fished Owasco the day before and nailed around 15 lakers and a 26" brown trout in a half day of fishing!   The bass we catch on Owasco are Erie sized fish.   The wind is only a factor on the rare occasions.  We don't have many blow-out days on the Fingers!  Lakers are also easy to find with our terrific shelves and basic structure.  No need to comb miles and miles of featureless flats!    When I lived in Rochester I would take steelhead trips over to Salmon River or drive to Oak Orchard Ck. for browns.   I usually did better when I came home - fishing Irondequoit Ck., Webster Ck. or the Genesee River.   I keep learning that lesson over and over!

Did a 1/2 day with Paul and his wife Karen today.  Paul wanted to fish Owasco for bass and I was reluctant to do it "traditionally" knowing how many fish suspend out in open water.   But we decided to do 2 hours bassin' and 2 hours on the lakers.   The wind made me hopeful.   We started out working a weedy shelf and worked shallow to deep.   Nothing was happening shallow for us.  So we hit the deep weededges.   Karen did halfway decently with a big deep running crankbait.   The first fish was a dink rock bass, but at least there were fish around.   Then came a 15" to 16" smallmouth.   Then she hooked and landed a solid pike - a 29" northern.  Nice fight.  Nothing was hitting Paul's Senko, spinnerbait or jerkbait.  We went out for lakers and the action was very good.  

Karen again had the hot hand nailing a couple nice lakers.  Many fish were hooked and lost but both Paul and Karen got their share.   No bonus bass/trout.   Another solid day on Owasco Lake.   I'm not seeing a lot of bait on this lake, despite what I've heard from others.   Small bait balls here and there.     

Did a full day trip with David and Carol today.  We met at 7 am, a little later than I've been starting lately so Carol could get some extra sleep.   It was a picture perfect day with a nice light breeze and some sun to start.   Fishing started out a bit slow and we tried a bunch of areas so I could see how far south lakers and bait had moved.  We wound up fishing the same areas where I'd been taking people recently.   Some hits were missed as Dave and Carol worked on getting the jigging technique down.   Dave wound up nailing the first laker and while he was reeling in the fish, Carol hooked up!   So we had a double.   I landed Dave's fish, then checked his line and jig and dropped it over the gunnel as I landed and took care of Carol's fish.   After landing Carol's fish I looked over at Dave as I heard some splashing!   He had a big silvery fish on right by the boat - thrashing by the surface.  It got off.   What happened was that as Dave went to grab his rod, the fish was already on!  It had hit the jig as it dangled overboard!   I see something new just about everyday!

Dave landed another nice laker.   On the east shore Dave lost a beautiful LL Salmon around 22".   Carol managed to land a nice laker as well, that had a lamprey on it (Check out "Tips/Articles" under "The Fishing" to read more about that lamprey!)  All in all a successful day though we had quite a few missed opportunities.    Jigging can be tough to learn when the fish are hitting on bottom and subtlely.   If you're only catching fish on the retrieve, there's a good chance you're missing a lot of hits.   

Unfortunately, all my reports from mid-July to mid August disappeared when I switched my webhosting and domain registration.   Oh well, things happen.   For those of you who like to check out these reports for an idea of "what's happening, where and when" for future reference here's what was going on:

Cayuga fishing was fair to very good and downright excellent at times in the AM.  In general, the AM bite (starting at "dark thirty") was most productive with lakers available mostly midlake up to Dean's from 55' to around 75'.   The flats N. of AES produced volumes of fish.   A few bonus browns were also showing up.

Seneca Lake was also producing fair to good fishing - both AM and PM.  The bite wasn't as good as in 2007, but fishing was still decent.   Best action for us was the mid-lake Sampson area, but we took some fish around Severne Point.   We didn't do much pike fishing, but it wasn't easy in general.   Windy days and an early start produced some decent pike action - but it took some skilled fishing to be able to deal with the neutral fish and weed clutter.  

Owasco fishing was decent.  Not great but not bad for jigging lakers.   Sodus Bay produced good gar fishing and OK largemouth fishing depending on the day.  Lake Ontario was tough for us for smallies, though in all fairness we didn't put in a lot of time on the big lake and only went out of Sodus.      

Otisco Lake 7/18:

Got out with my buddy Jarrod at 5:30 am.   We worked our musky lures hard, mainly on the north end of the lake.   Didn't have a hit or follow.  We worked the south end and Jarrod had a 25" fish grab his swimbait, but he wasn't able to hook it.   He caught a decent white perch on the N. end and we decided to fish for those around noon after 6 hours + of no musky action.   I set up a dropshot rod and he went with a blade bait.   Wouldn't you know that he caught a 17" walleye  and I caught some bass?   It's a good example of how "multi-species" angling helps make an angler better!    Word is that a 44" 21lb. Tiger was trolled up on the 17th.   So the big fish are in there!

Seneca Lake 7/19:

Fished with Chris and his daughter Kristen for 1/2 day.   The laker bite was pretty good in the AM off Sampson in 75' to 90'+ water.   Young Kristen lost her first couple fish, but landed a nice 30" laker with a little "battle help" from Chris.   Chris landed 3 nice eating sized (20") fish before we headed in.  After the trip I did a little casting for pike and picked up a nice one on a swimbait in around 10' of water amongst a lot of weeds.  Lakers picked up and I managed to land a few in short order on the west shore in around 80' to 90'.  Plenty of lakers are around in the mid portions of the lake.   Surface temps are around 76!  Who says Seneca Lake doesn't warm up?  

One of the reasons I love fishing Cayuga and Seneca Lakes is that the fish are safe to eat.   Testing is done around every 5 years on Finger Lakes fish.   Trace contaminents show up from wineries, but they are below Federal Guidelines.   Results just came back from Cayuga's lakers and not only are they safely below Federal Guidelines, the levels are LOWER than they were 5 years ago!  That's great news for the FL Angler.   You can feel good about eating fish out of Cayuga Lake!

Did an evening trip on Seneca Lake with Brian and his dad Don.  The great thing about the laker jigging pattern is being able to show up on a lake during the middle of a hot sunny calm afternoon and catch fish right off the bat!   Brian had his limit worth of fish in about 90 minutes!  He landed 4 nice fish.  Don had some good hits and opportunities but just couldn't convert.  The bait from Monday AM had moved out, but some fish were still around.   A good time was had by all.

I got to Sodus Bay a couple hours before my scheduled 11 am guide trip for gar.  I wanted to try out my new Canavan Custom Dropshot rod.   I worked out to around 30' of water and caught a few rockbass and a goby.  Gobies were pounding my dropshot baits.   I might have seen one or two bass (or trout) jump.   If I had more time, I'd have worked out to 50' - I think many bass might be deep.   The Canavan rod was fantastic!   Great ergonomics and a nice action.   

At 11 am I picked up Arti and Beck and we checked on the gar.   Our predicted "gar hot" sunny calm hot day didn't quite materialize.   We didn't see much to start but after around 45 minutes some gar began to show themselves.   Fishing was off and on for the afternoon, but Arti had the hot hand landing 4 nice fish up to around 43".   Most of the fish came on deep LC-13 fly-fishing setups.

Nothing I know of in freshwater compares to gar fishing - NOTHING!   It's the closest thing to a saltwater-like experience you'll find in freshwater.  We were fishing in 15' to 20' of water and the gar were acting like pelagic fish!   Schools of fish are cruising around showing themselves from time to time and we chase them around.   The hits are aggressive - basically violent slashing bites!  It's like catching a dinosaur - these fish have been around unchanged for over 100 MILLION years!   Their scales are like armor - interlocking.  Their bill is bony and full of teeth.  It's like fishing for reptiles!    Gar fishing will continue through the summer.

I spent a lot of time on the water over the past week/weekend.  Here's what happened:

Seneca 7/11: 

Had a slow day with Tony on Friday.   We went out of Watkins, since he didn't think he'd be able to meet me further up the lake due to transportation issues.   I thought pike would be a good option out of Watkins, but he hadn't caught a lake trout yet and wanted to, so that's what we did.   The winds were the usual strongish morning southerlies.   As I demoed a jig on the south end I had 2 hits - browns, salmon or rainbows maybe?    We worked a lot of areas up to Valois and then across to Severne.   Fish were around but very negative.  Our predicted sun never showed up (it actually did - but around 4 pm!)    Tony gave things a great effort and finally landed a decent laker near Severne.  After another quick hookup and a couple light hits we thought things might pick up, but it was not to be.   We kept trying, but fish just weren't grabbing.   He worked very hard, but nada.   We worked back down the lake and tried for carp on the fly a bit.  While trying for carp we saw a nice sized gar!   Shapes of things to come on Seneca maybe.  I don't know.  Old timers say gar were common on Seneca's south end back in the 1970s.   They appear to be coming back.

Tony's a very accomplished fly-fisherman and we just had tough fishing - no two ways about it.  He did things very well.  The tough laker action was a foreshadowing of things to come for the weekend.

Cayuga 7/12:

Kicked off the Red Cross Derby at Taughannock on Cayuga.  I was hoping to scout a bit earlier in the week but was exhausted so I didn't.   As I drove back from the Steely Dan show at 1 am on Friday night I wondered whether I'd have the "fuel" to make the derby, but after meeting my friend Jared at the launch, I felt a surge of adrenaline - so off we went at 5 am in the fog.   The flats N. of AES were mobbed.   I'd never seen so many boats there.   We worked the shallows (from 45' to 75' - mostly around 55') and found some decent fish.   We landed around a dozen lakers and Jared popped a 30" fish that was a bit thin, so we released it.   I then landed a fatter 30" fish and we decided to keep it for the smoker (along with some others) and possibly weigh it in depending on what the board for the derby looked like.   The bite quit for us early and we contemplated some pike fishing.  On the way south at around noon we stopped into Myers and I was shocked to see how low the laker weights were - so we weighed the fish.  Barney said "6lbs" when I brought the fish up to the scales - but I'm 6' 4" and the fish was 30" and fat, so I don't know what he was thinking - he's usually very accurate with his guesstimates!    But the fish weighed in at 9.8lbs (heavier than I'd have thought) and made 2nd place for the time being.  He re-checked the scale - and I tried my Tech Scale.  Both read around 9.8!   I knew it'd probably drop down to 9th or 10th by Sunday, but we couldn't help but wonder if the bite really was "that slow".  It was - from reports we got from some trollers.  We tried an hour of pike without luck (except Jared had ahold of a possible brown for a few seconds casting over deep water) and we decided to motor over to Seneca for the evening bite.

Seneca 7/12 PM:

I expected good things from Seneca since it's been great over the past month or two.   We grabbed some coffee and headed to Geneva.   5 + 20 were seriously backed up.  I thought there might have been an accident, but there was a massive Triathlon going on and the launch was closed off.  Major hassle!!!   We got out after an hour delay and I met a happy follower of this website who tipped me off on some good action further south.   We worked the N. end but found very warm water and a lack of bait for the most part.   We motored to Sampson and found fish but few grabs.   We finished up at 10 pm after rerigging.   17 hours of fishing in hot weather after 2 hours of sleep on Friday night and around 4 hours of sleep Thurs. night.   Yet we were wired and ready for Sunday after another whopping 3 or 4 hours of sleep!

Cayuga 7/13:

Sunday rolled around and we met at Taughannock by 5:05 am.   Very few boats were there, which made us (correctly) think that most boats had slow action out of there on Sat.   We worked on of my favorite areas for a while and nailed 2 fish.  We then worked some "community holes" and popped another 8 or 10.   But nothing big.   My fish was dropping on the board - it was at 4th place by 11 am Sunday.  We needed a couple big lakers but it wasn't to be.   A wicked storm came through and we thought action might pick up afterwards.  Most boats cleared the lake and fortunately the skies cleared of thunder/lightning.   We hooked a double and thought we might hit a hot "storm bite", but nada.  Just more lookers.   We tried some other stuff and wrapped up around 3 pm.   My fish dropped to 10th place and the Red Cross folks were nice enough to tell me that I didn't need to show up for the awards presentation.  They would mail my check.   I enjoy hanging out at the awards ceremony, but after so little sleep I was ready to pass out.

Seneca 7/14:

I told my client on Sunday that I expected these lakers to start hitting after being fairly lock-jawed for at least 3 to 4 days.   And hit they did!   Fishing started out excellent today out of Sampson with Jim's wife Phyllis nailing a couple nice lakers in short order.  85' to 95' seemed best.  Large schools of bait had moved in and fishing was very good.   Jim hammered a bunch of fish - I think over a dozen and Phyllis probably got 7 or 8.  Fish ranged up to around 27".   Lots of hatchery fish for whatever reason.   Flukes and Shakers worked very well.   If the derby had been held today, we'd have seen a lot of big fish make the boards!

Overall it was very interesting to see the progression of the laker "bite" over the past few days.  The going was tough just in time for the Red Cross Derby, which was weird.  The jigging thing continues to pick up momentum.  Overall, trolling will often produce more fish day in and day out.  Seth Greene was a commercial "meat fisherman" and his rigs work well, as do the modern set ups, but jigging offers the thrill of the chase and the fun of the bite, plus it produces big lazy fish and works very well when fish are inactive.   The jigging from around 6:30 am till 9:00 or 9:30am was very good all weekend long.   The key is landing numbers of fish.  A 30" plus laker is about a one in 15 to 20 fish on Cayuga and we needed to find more fish.   I had a great time and encourage others to participate in this annual event - which benefits a great organization.   Re: Jim from today - Jim's from near Pittsburgh PA and was very impressed by the Finger Lakes fishing.   I met some folks from Utica that have been having a great time jigging lakers out here.  

Got up to Cape Vincent around 10 am on Monday.   The last time I fished there was back in 1980 while up with my friend Chris.   We still-fished and trolled for smallmouths back then and did pretty well.   I was going to launch out of Clayton, but I couldn't contain my enthusiasm, so I stopped at the Cape.   There's a nice public town launch there so off I went.  

The river (or Lake Ontario) is wide there and there are plenty of shoals.  It's generally a good smallmouth area.   As I launched my boat the wind started picking up and the river began to whitecap.  Oh well.   I worked some smallmouth stuff around Carlton Island.  Didn't do much except for a perch.  I did see a nice sized drum.   It was hard to drop shot and work deep stuff with the wave action.  I settled for throwing bubblegum colored super flukes in the shallows south of the island and managed a decent 15 to 16" smallmouth bass and lost another.   Tons of perch were everywhere.  I jigged up one decent perch on a spoon in 40' of water.   Caught another bass off Millen's Bay on the fluke and that was it for the first morning/afternoon.   OK fishing - not great by any means - but a start.   BTW, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed in the rudeness of the pleasure boaters out on the river.  There is zero respect for "right of ways" , minimum distances between watercrafts and other "trivial ;-)" regulations out there.  People are just oblivious on the river.   I had big yachts and bayliner type boats zinging by at close range.  It's just the way things are up there.   I rarely encounter that sort of ignorance on the Fingers! 

I met my buddy Jared at Clayton around 5 pm and we set up "camp"on the ESF island and after a little tour and a bite to eat we went fishing.  He's done a ton of fisheries research on the river, mostly on muskies.  He also fishes it a lot and knows plenty of good areas.  I was psyched!   I gave him the helm and let myself be guided for a change - which felt great.  

He asked me if I wanted to catch some pike.   Of course I would.   So we went to a bay that featured a nice weedy flat surrounded by deep water.  He said we'd get a pike within 10 casts.   I threw my shaker along the outer weed edge with confidence.  The area looked great.  On my second cast I had a solid hit ala a pike or big walleye.   I set the hook and was surprised at how strong the fish was.    It beelined for deep water and I couldn't do anything but watch line peel off the reel - like hooking a big carp.  I was confident in my 14lb. Fireline and 40lb bite leader.   I tightened my drag a little bit.   The fish dogged me determinedly for a bit, then switched directions and ran again.  It ran near the boat.   I kept expecting the fish to give up or at least tire out.   I said to Jared "this isn't fighting like a northern".   It wasn't a big drum either, which would have been a good guess - except the fish didn't do the circular type of drum fight.   I kept repeating - "this isn't a northern".   I've caught a lot of pike up to around 16 to 17lbs - and this wasn't fighting like any of them.  I didn't know what it was.   I saw a brownish drum like flash and Jared saw a greenish flash and long shape.    Then my jig popped out of the fish's mouth!   What a bummer!

Jared then caught a nice fat pike - around 32 to 34" long and probably 9 or 10lbs.   We hit a couple other areas before it got dark.  I got a small pike and a bass.   We tried night casting for walleyes without luck.  The midges (small non-biting insects) were very thick out there.  I couldn't help but talk about the "one that got away".  On the next day Jared told me that he "didn't want to say anything, but felt that I probably had a musky".  I didn't think about it at the time I had the fish on, but that may well have been what it was.  It fought very much like the nice Tiger Jared had hooked a couple weeks ago at Otisco.  Strong runs, some herky-jerky dogging, then a run or two under the boat.    The other ESF people at the island had a 20lb+ dead musky in a cooler that was destined for Cornell for autopsy.  VHS is still around and some locals "called in the dead fish" after they found it.  Looking at the musky, I couldn't help but think that's what I'd hooked - though mine wasn't a 20lber - the fish I hooked felt like it was around 12lbs or so.   Hooking muskies isn't too uncommon around the area we fished in late June/early July according to Jared.  

We tried some largemouth fishing on day 2 in a south shore bay.  No luck.   We then worked a nice shoal for smallies.  Jared hit some nice fish there and I caught one or two.  Goby tubes on a 3/8th tube head did the trick.   He had a meeting to attend to so we took a break and I drop shotted another nice bass from the island's shore.   Rock bass and perch were everywhere - just like I remembered from 28 years ago!

Over the course of the trip Jared pointed out the hundreds of smallmouth bass beds all over the river shoals and around the islands.   He saw tons of big smallmouth bass spawning on them.   The weird thing about places like the St. Lawrence River and Black Lake (to name a couple) is that catch and release fishing really isn't that popular over there.   Guides are well known for their "shore lunches" and tackle stores are full of photos with happy fishermen grinning over big stringers of bass.   They harvest plenty of bass.   Jared recalled talking to a boater fishing around the ESF island who was wondering "where the bass went?"   He said they'd hammered them the week before.   Did you keep them?  Yeah we kept 10 nice ones.   Jared told him - "Well there was another 20 + boats that also fished the area over the past week and hammered and kept fish.  We'd seen around 50 bass total - so maybe you have your answer as to 'where the fish went' now!"

We hit a few other areas on Day 2 and Jared managed a big smallmouth on a wind blown shoal.  I kept the boat positioned.   He also took a couple more decent fish.   I felt out of the groove - just a day late and dollar short on every lure I selected.   It was a bit of a fishing rut - not making adjustments, having too many rods out and general lethargy.   But a good thing to deal with!

Overall, I enjoyed the river and the trip a lot.  Next time, I'd try further downstream.  I'd also get a Canadian License if I stayed longer.   The US side gets fished HARD!   Beautiful area, plenty of fish - though it can be challenging.   The current, big water, deep fish and wind make for challenging angling.   The post-spawn smallies can be tough.  DEC has netted smallies on bottom in 120' of water in the river!  Many fish are often in 30' to 50'.   Back in 1980 we often fished 40' of water - and this was BEFORE zebra mussels!    I wouldn't feel confident in any tournament with what we'd scraped up.   According to Jared, the fish were around beds a week ago and the fishing had been great - it wasn't hard to get 8 or 10 nice bass in one area.

It was great getting out on Canandaigua today.  At 6:45 am the first boat of the day was launching at the N. end State Launch.   The winds were blowing pretty good out of the south, which can make for tricky boat control on this beautiful lake.   For those of you who've never been on Canandaigua Lake - it's gorgeous.   Lush forested hills - higher than those on Skaneateles Lake!  It's basically "Skaneateles West" size and appearance wise, but there's much more development on it and the fish community includes alewives and smelt and no landlocked salmon.   The water quality is very high and the lakefront residents own some of the highest priced lake front anywhere.  Danny Wegman's house is on this lake!    The boat traffic gets ridiculous here in the summer due to the lake's proximity to Rochester and surrounding populated areas.  

Had I known my laker bite would peter out by 9:00 am, I'd have gone right to my best laker areas, but I hit some other areas first.   I nailed 4 nice lakers and lost probably another 4 to 6.   Most fish were 17" to 20", but my best was a 27 1/2" 7lb. 6oz beauty.  There are no lampreys in this lake.  That, combined with the super high water quality make these fish some of the best eating lakers in the region.   I kept after the lakers well after they quit biting, and had nothing to show but a couple missed hits/fish for the next 3 hours.  

I tried working some Super Flukes for smallmouth bass and had 4 nice bass chase my flukes in, but they didn't gobble them.   I didn't have time to try much else as I had an appointment in town at 3:30.   I did do some dropshotting in order to test out my brand new Fenwich Elite Tech Dropshot Rod.   A couple nice rockbass and sunfish quickly grabbed my dropshot worm.  The rod is fantastic and I can't wait to hit some good smallies on it.

When I got back to the launch at 2:30 pm the north end of the lake was the zoo I'd expected earlier.   The lake was churning due to all the boat wakes.   A good number of jet skiis were out as well (well behaved ones.)   But that's to be expected during a holiday week.    

About a week ago my schedule in July and August was looking pretty bare.   I think high gas prices and an uncertain economy have resulted in people taking a more "last minute" approach to vacation planning.   I've been kind of excited at the prospect of having a bit of fishing time to myself.   When I began "Finger Lakes Angling Zone Guide Service" in 2005 I figured that if I was lucky, by my 4th or 5th year I'd be doing 3 or maybe 4 trips a week.   I always thought I'd have plenty of fishing time and time to develop new patterns and learn or "master" ;-) new lakes.   But my wildest expectations were surpassed - thanks to those of you out there who book or have booked trips with me, and before I knew it I was doing 4 or more trips a week.   I just wrapped up 17 trips in 14 days a couple days ago!   I love doing all the guiding, but I do enjoy getting out and fishing on my own a bit.  Exploration and the thrill of discovery is what motivates me as a fisherman - not just doing the "tried and true".   My July schedule is now starting to fill up pretty quickly, so my "personal fishing time" is going to be a bit limited.   I'm still planning on fishing Lake Champlain/George, Lake Erie, the Thousand Islands and Lake Ontario (to jig Kings.)  

A goal of mine for a long time has been to figure out Otisco Lake and the fishing there.   I first fished the lake for walleyes in the daytime in the early 1990s on my buddy Terry's boat and found it tough.   We've always caught bass there, but I've wanted to catch a legal Tiger Musky for awhile.   I didn't go back until a bit later and the tiger musky population was down.   They are up again now and I've been fishing the lake more regularly lately.   Today I got up around 3:30 am and was on the lake before 6 am.   I had some good ideas on how I was going to target muskies and I couldn't wait to get on the lake!    There's nothing better than fishing with confidence!

I worked an area which produced a nice fish for my girlfriend and some action for my buddy Jared.   No luck.  I tried another area and had a huge bass go for my musky lure.   A bit later I had my first visible follow from a musky around 28" give or take.   I worked an array of different lures on flipping sticks and my musky rod including Musky Chatterbaits, 9" Sluggos, Giant Shad Raps, Swimbaits and other stuff.    I tried some other areas but felt a strong urge to return back to the top area.   After 10 minutes of casting my lure was 2 rod lengths away when in an instant a decent musky whacked my plastic!    I was prepared - having checked my knots and leader thoroughly, and after a couple wild jump/thrashes and two or three runs under the boat I landed a 32" Tiger Musky!   I took a quick (bad) photo or two and released the fish.   Over the past 3 trips on the lake we've had musky action everytime, so I feel I'm starting to get them dialed in a bit.   After throwing heavy baits on my Fenwick Techna AV musky rod, my flipping stick feels like a light spinning rod!   Musky "hunting" is a lot of fun - it's all about anticipation and expectation - the "thrill of the chase".   I'm looking forward to doing more musky fishing on Otisco, and hopefully Waneta/Lamoka, Chautauqua and maybe the St. Lawrence later this season.  I can only hope.   More new waters and experiences/patterns to come....  :-)

BTW - if the current good musky trend on Otisco holds up, I expect to be able to successfully fly-fish these fish.   I think the best fly-fishing will be in May before the weeds come up and possibly just before ice-up in November.   Time will tell!

Excellent lake trout fishing continues on Seneca Lake's north end.   Guided Matt and Mike on Wednesday and the guys did a great job nailing a bunch of nice lakers up to 31".  Fish hit best in the morning until around 11 am or so.   After the trip I scouted the shallows for carp with my fly-rod.  Found a few nice pods of fish, but no takers.  Carp fishing the lake is excellent sight fishing practice.  Today's client Richard was out on the lake a couple days ago and nailed a fish over 30lbs on a jig!   So he got me thinking...

Today I guided Richard and his parents for the full day on Seneca Lake.   Things started out a little rough with threatening skies, a choppy lake and tricky boat control.   I had lines tangle both my trolling motor prop and my Yamaha prop!   But once we got things straightened out the fishing picked up.  The winds calmed a bit and the fish started hitting in 55' to 85' of water give or take.  Richard really loves to fish and it shows - he's a very passionate angler.   Rich's dad Tony landed the big fish of the day - a 31" to 32" slob.  Around a dozen nice lakers were landed - they were all stuffed with bait.   Fun trip and a nice way to end this couple week guiding "run".   I'll probably take a day or two off before heading back out on my own.  

Seneca 6/21:

Launched out of Sampson with Jesse and Josh.  We started with some fly-fishing and spin-casting for pike.  Action was good first thing in the AM with a couple decent pike caught on each technique.    Fishing slowed and we headed north for lakers.  Lake trout action was very good to start then became excellent as strong T-storms approached.  I don't recommend anyone taking any foolish risks around storms, but the falling barometer can trigger feeding frenzies.   We caught some big fish then ran south and got off the lake just as the rain started coming down in droves!    Fish came on flukes/fin-S fish and shakers.  Best fishing was around 45' to 65'.

Cayuga 6/22 AM:

Had a good time with Paul and Charlie out of Dean's Cove.   They wanted to learn the technique and we worked hard on it - I gave them the full "tutorial".   They fish Hemlock Lake a bit and I'm looking forward to seeing how the jigging works over there.  It WILL work there.  Lakers are lakers and on the one time I fished the lake I had a chaser - and it was a poor day near the spawn.   Anyways, the guys landed 3 big fish and missed and dropped some.   I had a lot of fun talking music with Paul, who happens to be a bluegrass musician.

Cayuga 6/22 PM:

After the full-day with Paul and Charlie I was able to get in a 1/2 day with Dan from last week's trip.  Things started with dead slow laker action and after 2 hours we had nothing to show.  But I knew we had a good chance at a hot evening bite, so we stayed around Dean's, rather than running North for bass/pickerel.  Sure enough, as the sun sank a bit at 6:30pm Dan started hooking up.  He landed 3 nice fish in a 1/2 hour, then landed another 4 fish before we finished up around 8:30!  Perserverence paid off.    One fish was a 28" wild beauty.

Seneca Lake 6/23:

Today I did a full-day trip with Paul.  He wanted to see what the "region had to offer".   We started with pike and he had a couple hits and a bite-off.   It was fun to at least see a vicious attack from a pike.  There are a lot of shredded weeds on the surface of Seneca Lake and it made pike fishing a pain in the butt at times.   We went after lakers and the fishing was superb!   Pretty much as good as 6/19.   Paul landed around 8 to 12 nice fish - many in the 27" to 28" range.   He had a TON of hits and lost quite a few fish.   He was very impressed by the size, beauty and fight of the lakers.  He'd caught a 30lb striper earlier in the year and he felt some of the laker battles were reminiscent of striper fights!   He did a little piking at the day's end and picked up a northern.   Paul was a kindred spirit and the day was one of the most enjoyable days I've spent on the water.   I've met and guided a lot of great people this season - I absolutely love that aspect of guiding! 

I started this AM at 6:30 with my buddy Shahab.  We grabbed our deep fly-fishing setups and tried for some lakers.  It wasn't the best opportunity we'd had, since most fish were deeper than 40', but we tried anyways.  Shahab did manage one decent strike, but overall the fly-fishing didn't work out.   We did some conventional jigging while waiting for our lines to sink and had some good fishing.  

At 10 am I dropped off Shahab and met Chris and Dan at the launch.   They've been out with me before - Chris many times.   Lake trout fishing wasn't as hot as yesterday (we weren't expecting miracles!) but it was still very good and the guys managed to land over a dozen nice fish up to 30".  Fish are stuffing themselves with the abundant alewives.   We did some pike fishing and action was fair - Dan landed 3 and Chris managed one and lost a nice bass.   Weed growth is growing rapidly and the pike are starting to spread around a bit.   The key to good pike fishing now is to commit to it - the more wind the better in general.   There are enough pike in this lake to make for good fishing all summer long.   Water temps are in the low 60s and I think we'll see a thermocline shortly.  

There's good fishing and then there's great fishing and then there are the days you remember vividly for the rest of your life.   Kelly Rettig and his son Mike have been fishing with me over the last 3 years.   They've experienced some terrific pike fishing and very good lake trout fishing - today was the "end all Finger Lakes lake trout day".   Today we saw why Geneva christens itself "Lake Trout Capital of the World!"   The late Toby Wood used to love fishing the northern portions of Seneca Lake and it's easy to see why after today.  We got into fish right from the get-go and there were very few lulls in the action.  Just fish after fish after fish!   All our soft plastics worked - flukes/fin-s fish in white, white ice, golden shiner, smelt, chartreuse and 3 or 4 other colors.  Berkely Gulp.   Lunker City Shakers - you name it - the fish hammered it.   Fish hit on the drop, the jig and the chase.   5 to 6 fish chased at a time.  We caught bright fish, dark fish, wild fish and hatchery fish.  Old fish and young fish.   Healthy looking clean fish and scarred old fish that looked battle weary.   5 lampreys were brought aboard - and no, I didn't eat any of them ;-)   The guys landed over 70 lake trout!   We took a break with some pike fishing and after landing a couple pike we went back to the lakers.  I rarely fish on guide trips but I couldn't help but join in a bit.   It took no time at all to land 3 or 4 fish.   It just doesn't get any better!   Fish came from 27' to 80' of water - most were in 35' to 60'.  

The guys have wanted a 30"+ laker for the wall and I mentioned Ray Grander's fantastic replica mounts - each scale hand painted by an artist in every sense of the word.   A lot of taxidermists I've seen have a knack for making a beautiful fish look like a piece of plastic with large phony looking eyes and gaudy paint jobs.  Ray's fish look like they can swim off the wall.   His rainbow trout are unreal!  One look at your mount and you'll be transported back in time to the moment you caught the fish!  Check his replica mounts out at Pinewood Flies in Pine Valley NY - just north of Elmira and around 15 miles south of Watkins Glen.   Freshwater or saltwater species - Ray does them all and well.   There are photos of his mounts on www.flyfishingonline.com/  but there's nothing like seeing them in person! 

Guided Dan and Dan today - things started out rainy but calm.   We started with bass fishing south of the State Launch.   The shallow fish of last Sunday had scattered a bit, but the guys each managed nice largemouths around 17" - maybe 2.75lbs or so, and some pickerel, a smaller bass and a couple misguided small perch/bluegills.   We tried the new shallow running X-Rap - it's a sub-surface spook type lure (can't remember the official name of it.)   We did see some baitfish (alewives) up shallow, so I'm sure the fish are feeding heavily.   H2O was in the 60s and eventually reached the low 70s.  

The cloudy conditions were prime for lake trout jigging, so after around an hour and a half of bassin', we headed south.   During my first couple years of guiding I fished different areas all the time and wasn't very "spot oriented".   We caught a lot of fish and some beasts up to 34" to 35".  Eventually, I became "spot oriented" - mainly due to a lot of 1/2 day trips - I felt a need to fish "where they were" and take people there.   I realized that this compromised our fishing a bit, so today I had the guys fish a bunch of areas I never fish much - we approached the lake like a new lake and the day like a new day.   The approach paid off and Dan's (aka Dan #1) second laker was a 32" beauty!   We found good concentrations of fish in some "new" areas and the guys managed to fill their limit as well as release the pig and drop/miss a few nice fish as well.   I'll be keeping this approach - I love it!  

I expect terrific lake trout jigging in July on both Seneca and Cayuga Lake the way things are shaping up!   I intend to fish Canandaigua once I get an open date.  

Cayuga 6/15:

Did 2 one-half day trips on Sunday on Cayuga Lake.  The first trip started just after 7 am on Cayuga Lake after a foggy morning.   Laker action was alright - not great, but not bad.  I taught the jigging technique to Adam and Kyle and they did a good job with it, landing a couple nice fish.  A few good hits were missed as well.  Fish and bait were around in around 40' to 75' of water give or take.   Our best action was on the west shore, though we didn't motor around too much.  

My PM trip was with Barry and Julie, who joined me last year for some very good jigging on Cayuga.   We didn't have any luck jigging early on, so we moved to the north end of the lake for some pickerel/bass fishing.  Pickerel fishing was OK with a couple decent fish landed.  Plenty of nice perch and gills were around.  We found a nice concentration of bass incl. some very big fish in shallow.   Barry landed his personal best largemouth - a nice 19" fish on a superfluke.   We went back to Dean's and both Barry and Julie managed to jig a laker.   My guess is that the evening bite is good!  

Seneca 6/16:

Today Freddy and Nelson joined me for a full day of fishing on Seneca.  The lake was whitecapping as we left the Sampson marina.  Pike fishing started out slow for us, but picked up as the sun came out.  Daredevles and swimbaits accounted for the most fish.  Nothing over 29" and no pickerel or bass in the mix today.  Many fish appear to have vacated the extreme shallows.   The weeds are really starting to grow and the fish are using them.  Alewives were in shallow too and I'm sure the pike are chowing on them.  Laker jigging started out well with both guys having hits but unable to convert.   Nelson landed the first fish - a nice 3lber.   Freddy got a 16" laker then Nelson nailed a 25" fish.  A couple others were dropped.  Lots of fish were chasing on the sonar, but they weren't committing.   Both shores of the lake produced fish and a couple chased all the way to the surface!   30' to 75' was best.  

Today was a long day!  I met Gary at the State launch on Skaneateles Lake at 5:45 am.   So I was up at 3 am!   We went over a bunch of good smallmouth bass patterns.  He caught a lot of fish - mostly smaller 9" to 12" fish, but he did managed 4 or 5 nice 14" to 16" fish.  We saw a couple nice (big) rainbow trout around.   I don't catch too many rainbows on the green pumpkin tube jigs - they seem to hit streamers and hair jigs better - but a couple fish did show themselves on the tubes.   A couple rockbass were caught as well - they seem to be recovering from the VHS virus of a year or two ago.  Fish all looked healthy.   Gary used tube jigs, hair jigs, a spinnerbait, soft jerkbait and hard jerkbaits.  

After the trip was over I met my friend Jared at a convenience store  on Rt. 89 and we drove over to Sodus Bay.  Conditions were perfect for gar fishing.  High, hot sun, low winds and warm water!   We saw tons of gar - maybe 100 in one area.   We tried some gear fishing presentations and didn't have too much luck, but Jared coaxed one into hitting a soft plastic with a special rig.   The fish fought great - 3 nice drag ripping runs and some topwater thrashing.   I landed one small gar on a rope fly.  The gar were near schools of sunfish.   Conditions changed - we had a clueless water skier slaloming around in the shallows and the wind died down.   The sunfish went deep and our gar scattered and moving deep as well.   We've had some luck fishing deep gar but we decided to go after the abundant drum instead.   The drum were not in a positive mood.  We had a lot of follows, but few hits.  I landed one small drum and that was it.   We caught a load of nice largemouth bass - good fish.  Most had hook scars - there's clearly a lot of angling pressure on the Sodus Bay largemouths.  We worked a lot of drum areas with nothing but bass and a small pike to show for our efforts.   The heat and fatigue got to me by 6:30 pm so we got off the bay.  Water levels are nice and the bay temps are in the mid to high 70s.   The bass fishing is excellent!

Seneca/Sampson 6/9

Fished a full-day with Jesse and Jason.   Jesse fly-fished and did very well on northerns, a couple pickerel and a bass if I remember correctly.   A Teeny Line with a chart/white clouser fished on wire did the trick.  Fish were in 4' to 12' of water.   Jason managed his first pike on the fly, and he caught plenty of fish casting swimbaits.   We managed to spot some big drum, carp and sunfish in the shallows.   Some big perch are around too.   Laker jigging wasn't too bad and the guys managed to land a nice one.   Other hits were missed and we had a couple chasers.  Lots of bait right off Sampson in 30' and out.   Pike ran up to 31" with most the usual 25" to 29" - all nice fish!

Seneca/Watkins 6/10

Today was Frank and his son Tim out of Watkins.  Fishing started out good with a couple nice pike landed, then things slowed as we worked uplake.   A storm moved us back down and we sat it out for 10 minutes before things cleared.  After we got back out we had some very good to excellent action on pike up to 32".    We saw a lot of fish!  The guys go up to Canada around Georgian Bay/Lake Huron and we impressed with the Finger Lakes fishing!   Tim felt the fish averaged a bit bigger here - he was happy with the lack of "hammerhandles" aka "dinks".   Jerkbaits worked best for the guys, but swimbaits, a dancin' eel and spinnerbaits worked too.   A couple pickerel rounded out the day.   This lake is tops for pike - I'd guess it might be the best pike lake in the state in terms of average fish size and numbers.   Who knows?   All I know is that it's a lot of fun and everyone seems to be raving about it  :-)

Seneca out of Watkins 6/6

Did a full day trip primarily for fly-fishing northern pike with Lance and Jack.   I hadn't been out of Watkins pikin' in a while, so we did a bit of searching.   The weather was, and still is HOT.    We found pike just about everywhere we went, but the best pike fishing was concentrated in a couple areas.   A couple pickerel and a decent perch rounded out the species caught fly-fishing.   Fish were in 4' to 10' of water.   Both sink-tips (with Clouser Minnows) and full-sinking lines produced.  The usual swimbaits were also effective.   Jack's "cottonwood seed = poor fishing" theory was disproved on Friday both on the pike fishing and some hot lake trout jigging.  The guys caught 4 nice lakers in probably less than an hour!  We found plenty of bait and some nice fish shallow south of Lodi.   All in all a fun day and very enjoyable.    Water temps started at around 49/50 on top at the south end.   By late in the day we had 61 on top!   South winds had probably caused a momentary cool down at the south end.   We had low 50s further north.

Seneca out of Sampson 6/7

Did a full day with Chris and his son Brian.   We had some superb pike action on the swimbaits on Saturday working 4' to 15' of water.   Brian is 11 years old and had a great time catching his first pike and lake trout.  He managed a 31" northern and a 25" laker on his own.   He also landed a couple nice smallmouth bass.    I've known Chris since around 1973 and we fished together a lot when we were back in school.   The guys landed and released (unharmed) a lot of fish today!  Chris lost count after around 20 or 25 pike.  The pike fishing is simply excellent - the fish are nice sized running 25" to 29" on average.   Two pike and lakers were kept for dinner.   Alewives and sculpin is what we're finding in the kept fish.   Practicing a lot of catch and release ensures that this high quality fishing will remain for the forseeable future!

Otisco Lake 6/8

Met my friend Jared at the launch just after 5:15 am this morning.  I was tired as heck, but the thought of tangling with a Tiger Musky or big walleye was motivation enough to get up at "dark thirty".   We worked a couple points for 40 minutes or so without any action before moving up to the north end weedbeds.   Within 15 minutes or so Jared hooked a "good fish" on a lipless crankbait.   I got a glimpse of the nice musky before it ran under the boat.   Then it came out and jumped a couple feet into the air!   I won't forget that spectacular landlocked salmon like aerial!   Then the fish dug into the weeds and it was downhill from there ;-)   Jared's line wrapped around his rod tip and he was quickly able to unwrap it.  But the fish was wrapped in some heavy pondweed.   He decided to muscle it out, but the 12lb leaderless flouro broke and the fish was gone.   That was it on the muskies for the day.  He also had a nice walleye follow.   We wound up catching some nice (and some small) bass - large and smallmouths.  By 1 pm storms started threatening and we got off the lake.   We'll be back!   H2O hit over 70 today, boat traffic was light to moderate - esp. for a hot Sunday.  

Well the "Fish Gods" finally paid us off on Otisco Lake today.  After getting my boat inspected by the NYS Parks Dept (I'm a certified "Public Vessel") at 1pm, Jessica and I took the boat over to Otisco Lake, which is something I've wanted to do for a month now.   I've been trying to get a Tiger Musky there for a few years now - usually going once or twice a year.   The Tiger numbers are up now, so the timing hasn't been better in years.   We started throwing Lunker City Shakers, stickbaits and spinnerbaits in around 3' to 14' of water.    Within 25 minutes Jessica hooked a fish on a shaker.  It was fighting really well and I saw it was a nice Tiger Musky!   After a few great runs (incl. 2 under the boat) I got the fish into the net!  Gorgeous fish - 29" long.  After a few photos we released the sublegal musky (we would have released ANY muskies unless mortally wounded.)   Needless to say, Jess was thrilled at her first musky.  

We kept working and expanding on the area we fished.   I lost a big largemouth bass.  On our 2nd pass my shaker got hammered (after she caught the musky, I switched over!)   and I landed a 25" walleye, just under 6lbs.   So I got my first Otisco eye.   10 minutes later I landed another nice walleye - a 23" 4lb. fish.   Both fish will be "released to the grease" ;-)   A big smallmouth, a few small largemouths and a couple small perch rounded out the day.   We'll obviously be back to Otisco soon!   This lakes been tough to crack for me - usually just bad timing with cold fronts and tough conditions, but we made some headway today.  My friend Tyler at Bass Pro Shops gave me a good tip re: the lake that helped too.   Every bit helps.... BTW - the walleyes all hit Shakers rigged with 40lb bite leaders!  So much for "line shy walleyes".  The fights on the eyes were less than spectacular, though they hit hard.   

Did 1/2 day with Chris and Nicole.   Laker action started out good with a follow on one of the first couple drops.   Chris wound up nailing a couple nice fish and losing one under the boat.  Nicole also caught a nice fish.   There was bait and fish around in around 45' to 75' of water.   The fishing slowed as the morning progressed.  

I met Jessica at the launch around noon and we headed south looking for lakers.  We didn't find anything to write home about.   We took a break and did some perch fishing.  Perch action was tremendous, although most fish were short of "keeper size".  Great opportunities for kids though!   After perchin' we tried some other laker areas and the fish really turned on.  We landed 5 in around an hour - a couple were around 19",  a 25" and a couple 27"+.   Excellent fishing!   I did some fly-casting and had a BIG brown - probably at least 8lbs chase in a streamer in 35' of water.  When I get time, I'm going to keep working on the "offshore laker pattern".  It's something I've been trying off and on for years, but haven't gotten dialed in yet.  I just haven't had the time to do it.  But it's coming!   The next couple weeks should bring the right conditions for it.   H2O was up around 56.   BTW - plenty of bullheads are in the launch area or "harbor" at Dean's Cove.  It's full of them.  

Did 1/2 day trip with Steve and his son Micah.   Fishing was good for smallmouth bass this morning on hair jigs and tube jigs.   Fish came from shallow to around 12' of water.   Lots of small yellow perch were around and we had one follow from a trout.   It was cold out there and felt more like November than (almost) June.   The guys were mostly live-bait fishermen and they enjoyed working some artificials for bass.   It was a fun morning.

In the afternoon I fished with my buddy Phil.   The wind cranked up a bit and we worked some different areas than the ones we fished in the morning.   We found some excellent smallmouth bass fishing downlake and managed to land plenty (around 30+) of nice bass (with at least 4 from 18" to 19".)  Crankbaits worked, but the best lure was a tube jig.  One 20" laker was taken shallow and we also got a few big perch.   Fun fishing!  Water temps ranged from 48 to 50 degrees.   Very few, if any other boats were out fishing on this cold day.  

Today was a 1/2 day guide trip with Jim and Joe.  Jim joined me last year on Owasco Lake for some good jigging action.  Today was one of the toughest fishing days I've seen all season.   We started by working around Taughannock Park for trout/salmon by casting.  Water temps were in the low 50s and we didn't have the best winds for the day, but I thought we'd have good chances.   The guys may have had a hit or two (they could have been perch) but nothing solid.   We made passes around the park and just south with no sign of trout/salmon (Jim may have had one solid hit near the ck. mouth).  So our back-up plan was laker jigging.   We checked the east shore across Taughannock and north to above AES.   We marked a few lakers, but next to no bait.  No hits.   We shot across the lake to Kidders/Sheldrake.   This area often loads up with bait this time of year.   Zippo.   We then decided to extend the day and I motored all the way up to Dean's Cove.   Bait was everywhere and there were also some good marks but no hits.   We had one suspended laker (?) hit a tube but no hookups.   We fished around Long Point and Levanna too.  There was deep bait around - from 110' to 130' but no grabs.   

I met up with my buddy Phil at around 1:30 or 2 pm and we fished the southern portions of the lake till around 5:30.  Perch were everywhere and schools of them attacked my tube jig and superfluke.    Fly-fishing for pike was slow and I missed a couple good grabs/follows.   We didn't have time to work many areas.   It was a slow day all the way around for us.  

I didn't fish a whole lot this afternoon, but managed to motor around a bit with the electronics.   We dropped some jigs as well.  Baitfish and trout/salmon (I had a nice landlocked follow in a jig on my first drop today) have moved into the lake's west shore.   Lakers are scattered around the northern portions of Cayuga. H2O is in the low 50s.   I'm out guiding later this week and will have a better report.   I did jig up an 18" laker on the east shore.  We marked fish from 35' or 40' on out to 80' or 90'.   There are certainly plenty of fish in deeper water too.   The north end of the lake has plenty of active bass and panfish.  Pickerel and some pike are also around.  

Did a full day with Chris and Mike, who've been fishing with me since my first year guiding.  It was an awesome day on the lake with pretty much everything hitting except our target species - big carp (just kidding.)   The guys worked my hometied jigs in 4' to 25' of water and landed at least a couple dozen nice smallmouth bass (incl. around 4 to 5 in the 18" to 19" 3.75 to 4lb. range), at least a dozen jumbo perch (from over 12" up to almost 15"!), a nice 20" laker, a 21" rainbow and 3 legal landlocked salmon from 17"up to 21".   Other trout/salmon were missed and one nice salmon lost.    It just doesn't get much better.  The beautiful thing about fishing this time of the year is the mystery involved - any cast with a jig can produce just about any species of fish that swims in the lake;  the water temps are amenable to most species.   I would expect and hope this fishing will hold up for another week or two.  Perch are in the serious spawn mode, with pre-spawn, spawn and post-spawn fish hitting.   Bass are in their pre-spawn feeding mode.  Water temps ranged from 45 to 49 degrees - it's still darn cold water!

I've got a ton of photos of this season's catches ready to upload, but I need to find a good resizer program for Microsoft Vista.   There are also some prime dates still available this month - I have May 26th, 28, 30 and 31 available for half or full days, and I can sqeeze in 1/2 days on the afternoons of 25th and 27th (on Cayuga) if interested.  The weather forecast is looking good!    If I don't book my open days, I'm planning on checking on Otisco Lake for Tigers, Oneida Lake for walleye, drum and bowfin and possibly Sodus Bay/L. Ontario for drum/bass - so it's a "win-win situation" for me ;-)  Stay tuned for full reports!  I also need to get out to the northern flats of Cayuga to check on laker action, which I expect to be good to excellent.   

Started the AM with a half day with Gary and John.   Gary has a place on the lake so I swung by and picked the guys up.    We split the fishing time between lakers and northerns.   Lake trout fishing was very slow.   The guys had a couple hits but that was about it.    Bait was starting to move back into the 50' range - not a lot of bait, but more than what I'd seen out there recently.   Pike fishing was good with a handful of pike, a pickerel and a smallmouth bass in the mix.   Most pike were thin, but are starting to look like the "post-spawn effects" have cleared up.   Water temps were the same on both sides of the lake - roughly 49 degrees.

I did a PM trip with Jodi and James.   The weather was supposed to get nasty, but it actually cleared up after a bit of steady but light rain.   Pike fishing remained good with the usual pickerel and bass in the mix.   Smallies are definitely starting to move up a bit.   We hit the lakers again and in short order James hooked one and it got off just below the boat before we could get a look at it.   Jigging remained slow;  we could see how negative the fish were on the LCD unit.   No other laker hits.   The lake got nasty just as we left.  Most pike/pickerel were in less than 12' of water, with some fish still very shallow.   Active fish remain medium sized - 25" to 29" or so.  

Did two "2/3rd. days" with Fred from D.C. on Owasco.  He has a place on the lake and we did some fairly successful laker jigging last August.   I expected fishing to be good over the past couple days, but it proved to be tough for us.   We spent a few hours searching and jigging for lake trout with meagher results - basically a few hits and a chaser or two.   We searched a lot of water from 35' to 110' deep and marked very little bait and scattered, mostly suspended fish.   I used to catch a lot of shallow early-season lakers in this lake, but it hasn't been the case over the past couple of years.    My guess is that many fish are still in very deep water or just very scattered.  We marked lakers virtually from end to end of the lake.

On Thurs. we went after pike on the fly.  Fred had a few hits in the southern end of the lake and a follow or two, but no solid hookups.  He wanted me to fish a bit as well, and I did manage a 27" northern on a swim bait.  So at least a few fish were around.   On a point a ways up from the south end Fred had a good sized pike follow in his lure, but no grab.   The laker jigging was slow on both days.   After the trip ended I did some jigging myself without any luck.  I did land another nice pike near the north end of the lake on a tube and missed another.   Some decent sized bass were in the shallows, but they were pretty skittish with the calm water we had.  

Today the only real action was a couple of healthy 18" smallmouth bass on a tube jig.   Lakers remained slow.   My friend Jared did well on largemouths and a couple smallies working swimbaits and stickbaits in very shallow water.   He fished hard and he managed to land a gorgeous 16lb. 41" northern pike on a swimbait!   We photographed the fish for him before he released it.    What a slob!   I didn't expect any walleyes given our late (8 am) starts on both days.  However I did see some suckers and a nice walleye mixed in with them in the outlet in the morning.   The night bite should be picking up by the week.  Water temps remain very cold on Owasco:  49 to 53 degrees.  I was very surprised to not see any lakers in the mix - whether jigging or casting.   In 2002 and 2003 I used to pick up a lot of bonus lakers while working tube jigs around points and shelves when water temps were this cold or colder.  

Fred was interested in picking up some techniques and lure ideas for pike, walleyes and bass on Owasco Lake.   Here are a few lures that have worked well for me over the years:

1/4 oz. round head with a Bass Pro Shops shad colored tube:   This to me is THE lure for many applications in the Fingers - esp. Owasco.   My old fishing buddy Terry turned me on to these lures over a decade ago and I still love them.   They can be fished from 1' to 23' of water comfortably.   They require a good sense of feel to fish well, but virtually any fish in fresh water will hit them.   We've caught everything from bass, pike, walleyes, carp, cats, gar, panfish and trout/salmon on them.   Don't fish the Fingers without them!   I often use them as a search bait - it can be more tedious at times, but negative/neutral fish respond well to them.  I like to use them on 8lb test clear Trilene mono.

Rapala X-Rap - White, perch and the olive back are all good colors.  Smallmouths and northerns love them and salmon and trout will also whack them.   Fish them on braided line and a fairly stiff rod for best action.

Super Flukes:  These work great over the Milfoil beds that will be very common in a month or two.  Also good off ledges and in the shallows.  Great for bass and panfish.  Pike/pickerel will bite them off too.  Good when it gets too weedy for the X-rap.

Double Willow Spinnerbait:  Great over windy weedy flats for pike and bass.  Walleyes also hit them.   White and white/chartreuse and shad colors work well in clear water.

Swim Baits like a Lunker City Shaker on a heavy jighead are terrific for pike and even walleyes.   One of my clients, Dave Seegers really showed me what a great pike bait they can be.   They are versatile as heck and it's easy to de-hook pike that hit them, with minimal damage to the pike.  

Rapala Husky Jerks:  Awesome lure!  One of the best nighttime stickbaits to cast for walleyes.   Good pike lure and bass lure too, but if you're into a lot of pike it's often best to remove the middle treble hook, or switch to a swimbait in order to minimize the "maiming" that will take place.    

Guided 1/2 day trip with Irene and Ron.   Two years ago the salmon fishing was pretty slow on Cayuga Lake and I wasn't booking casting trips for them, but the fishing this season has been reminiscent of some of the better years of the past decade.   Ron was hoping I could get Irene into some fish she'd have to play out, rather than just crank in.    We did some fly-fishing, but the best option given the wind was using some spinning tackle.  Irene managed to land a nice salmon around 19" and a brown around 18".   They had some nice follows as well.   All in all a really fun day on the water and Irene was pretty thrilled with her fish.  We also worked on some fly-casting and that was fun as well.

After the trip ended I went back out with a friend/client Jesse.   I met him back when I worked at Bass Pro Shops and I always enjoyed talking fishing with him.  We did a fly-fishing trip on Owasco Lake last June for pike.   He brought me some venison today and we did some fishing.   We had some decent salmon action - and between the shore fishing at the park he'd done earlier and being out on the boat he landed at least 5 nice fish.   His flies and sinking line set-up and retrieve worked very well.  I managed to land one good salmon around 19" that really fought great.   We checked on some pike fishing and managed to catch a couple good pickerel incl. Jesse's 26" fish!   What a nice pickerel!   We then hit a few pike - Jess got a 31" and 32" and I got a 29" fish.   He had a couple follows of some good (maybe bigger) fish as well.   Cayuga is fishing like Seneca did 5 years ago - lower numbers of pike, but they are all beauties.    H2O was 49 to 52 today.   Great day out!

Got out on my own for a few hours yesterday on Cayuga Lake.  Fly-fishing for salmon was excellent around Taughannock Park.   I had a lot of follows and hits, broke off one nice fish and landed and released a 22"- beauty.   The fish jumped at least 4 times and it was clearly the most memorable battle of the year for me.   Other anglers also did well on salmon.   The water temps are perfect for explosive salmon action - 48 degrees.

Today I guided Bill and his son Nathan on Seneca Lake.   They wanted some good action and I felt Seneca offered up the best opportunities.  We started with lake trout jigging and it was pretty slow for us.  We didn't work out past 80', but bait was pretty scarce shallow.  Later in the day I marked some bait in 130' or so, but we wanted shallow fish - we didn't want to spend too much time probing the depths.   The guys each landed a laker around 19" to 20" in 45' to 55' of water on the west shore.    Pike and pickerel provided some exciting fishing today.   Find the right areas and these fish are swarming the shallows.   We had a few moments of two fish at a time moving in for our lures.   Lunker City shakers worked well, as did tube jigs and stickbaits.    The best action was shallow.    Perch were visible in a lot of areas - they are clearly around spawn-time.   We also spotted some carp and some bass.   Water temps varied from 47 to around 54 late in the day.  

Guided a full day with the Hermans on Seneca Lake.   Lake trout action was good, with John landing around 1/2 dozen fish from 19" to 25".   Many of the bigger lakers seemed to have moved out of the Sampson area momentary.   Pike fishing was decent with some nice pike and pickerel caught on tube jigs, swim baits and Rapalas.    One nice 3lb. 10oz smallmouth rounded out the day's catch.   The wind made jigging tougher by noontime.   Water temps are in the high 40s and low 50s.  Most pike are showing signs of spawning stress.

Today I fished Cayuga with my girlfriend Jessica.   The winds were strong out of the south and we fished around Taughannock.   Water temps were 48 to 50 degrees.   Smelt are reportedly still around with some fish still running the creeks.   We had some great fun fishing today, with lots of salmon action (chasers and hits) but few hookups.   Jessica did manage a gorgeous 25" 5lb. 4oz Landlocked salmon on a Rapala.   I missed fish on my flies (fly-fishing was nearly impossible due to the wind) and jigs/rapalas.   Fish are being caught from shore on minnows.  What a great salmon/brown trout year it's been on Cayuga!   I've been busy fishing other areas, but nothing's quite as much fun as chasing big landlockeds on Cayuga Lake - esp. on the fly when possible!  We kept her fish and it had a digested smelt in its stomach.  I may have to get the smelting gear out next season, hopefully it'll be even better then.  The next few weeks should provide some good to excellent fishing depending on the winds/weather.

Got out with Tad for Day 3 of his Finger Lakes fishing trip.    Today the target was pike on the fly.   We worked shallows on both sides of the lake.   We found good numbers of fish in around 5' to 12' of water.   Tad brought some Dahlberg Divers along and we had a good time watching the pike and pickerel follow them in.   Clouser minnows also worked well and we had some nice pike up to 31" and a couple pickerel on the day.   At times two pike were chasing the flies at once!  Fish are still recovering from the spawn and although the pike fishing is very good to excellent now, it should continue to improve (perhaps not in fish numbers/size, but in their aggressiveness.)

Over the past 3 days Tad was pretty impressed with the diversity of the fishing in this area and given that he'd  fished around the world,  it meant a lot to me.   I had a great three days of guiding and learned a lot about fishing and other topics while talking to him and watching his approaches.   

Got out for a scheduled full day with Steve and his brother Stewart (hope I spelled Stu right.)  I did a trip with Steve last year on June 2nd and it was a pretty tough day - so I figured that the fish Gods owed us one.   And they came through!   The lake was pretty choppy - or downright rough to start.  I watched a boat trailer pull into the parking lot and saw the driver walk out, look at the lake and turn around to leave!  It wasn't pretty out there, but the lakers were active from the get-go at 8am.   Water temps were 47 at Sampson so that's where we fished.   We marked a lot of bait so I was pretty psyched.  In a nutshell the fish cooperated and hit on the bottom and on the chase.  We used white flukes on 1oz. jig heads.   The guys landed 9 nice fish - most were 25" to 30".   A few fish were lost but not many.   The lake got really rough and we started getting some waves over the bow, so we called it a 1/2 day.   As I filleted the fish the lake calmed down, but we'd had our fill.   Stomach contents of kept fish incl. mostly alewives but one fish had a trout-perch and some sculpin in its stomach. 

After some contemplation I decided to re-launch and check on pike fishing.  I jigged up a couple lakers then cast for some northerns.  Hooked 2 nice pike on tube jigs.  Both were around 28" fish.   One had a fat belly - I'm not sure if it had spawned or not, but I let both go.  One bass also wound up on the end of my line - a decent 17" smallmouth.    There should be some great fishing over the next few months!  

Fished Cayuga with my old friend Mike on Tuesday.   We were going to postpone but said "what the heck".   Conditions were fairly brutal with 34 degree air temps in the AM and steady Northwest winds with speeds in the upper teens.   Wind chills were probably in the upper 20s or around 30.   We marked lakers from around 55' or 60' out into deeper water, but boat control troubles combined with scattered, suspended negative fish made fishing conditions and presentation very difficult.   I had classes to teach, so we cut the day short around 1 pm. 

Guided Andrew today on Seneca Lake.   We launched out of Sampson with light north winds.   Things started out very difficult.  We tried a bunch of areas for lakers and bass without seeing much of anything.   We worked from shallow to depths of over 160' without much more than a hit or two.   We marked a couple nice schools of fish in 140' and had some chasers and a momentary hookup.   Anyways, I'd marked some warm water (47 degrees) early in the day on the west shore but wrongly assumed (yes, I know what happens when you 'assume' ;-)  that it was due to the warm water discharge at Dresden.   We went back to the west shore close to the end of our day and hit paydirt on lakers.  Plenty of quite aggressive fish had moved up into the 45' to 65' range.   Fishing got hot towards the evening and Andy landed 4 nice fish and missed others.  We likely could have loaded the boat had we stayed out - we were constantly marking fish and chasers!   I had classes to teach, so we stayed out as long as I could.   There are plenty of fish from north of Dresden all the way up the west shore to the north end of the lake.  Great fishing at the day's end - it just goes to show....

We kept 3 fish and they were nice sized - up to 28".  The big fish was stuffed with HUGE alewives!   Fish were generally in pretty good condition.  

Guided 1/2 day with Wallace and Red.   Conditions looked great to start but my favorite most consistent areas on the lake didn't yield any fish for us.   So we went searching.  We finally found some trout and salmon and 3 fish were landed on jigs and a Rapala.   Two rainbows and one salmon - all nice fish.   We saw some beauties and had some nice follows.   The weather was gorgeous.  Temps on the north end of the lake were into the low 50s (on top at least) and further south it is still very cold - around 38/39.  

After the trip I went back out on my own and went back through one of my favorite areas thoroughly;  I thought maybe a little more sun on the water might activate some fish.   I had one hit - zero fish.  I worked some hair jigs deep and still couldn't connect.   I worked some stretches of water I rarely fish and still didn't see anything.   The fish seemed fairly lockjawed to me - or just in different areas.  I did not fish the area that produced our morning fish again.  Fish seemed very neutral to negative this week (in general).    That's what I love about fishing - no matter how often I go, it's still very unpredictable - especially when you start thinking you have things semi-figured out!   Fun week out there and very challenging. 

I've been contemplating catfishing for a while and today seemed like a nice day to go.   I've always enjoyed catching channel catfish - they fight great, look pretty cool and taste great.   Cayuga Lake seems to have a decent catfish population - especially on the north end, so off we went.

Jessica and I had a good time catching some sunfish/bluegills to use for cutbait.   The northern portions of Cayuga are loaded with panfish and some very nice largemouth bass (in very shallow water I might add.)   This was a shakedown trip - a day to figure out what we'll need when we make a serious attempt at catfishing.   We worked a couple areas for 2 hours or so with the cutbait with zero hits.   So we didn't give it long.   I met a couple other catfishers and they reported catching a few bullheads but no cats.   The water levels are low on Cayuga and there isn't much current being generated by the dam at the north end.   The mosquitos and various flies were out in full force and my truck and boat were covered as we pulled the boat out.   I purchased a heavier 2nd. anchor and an assortment of catfish tackle, so we will be trying again - probably after the next good rain.   Stay tuned!

Got out with Dave and his wife Sue for some deep lake trout fishing on Seneca.  Dave's joined me on a number of trips for lakers and some landlocked Salmon fishing.   He has a place on the lake and has done well jigging lakers, but the angling for late winter/early spring fish has been tough.   It was no picnic today either, but we managed to locate some good numbers of fish and have some good opportunities.  

We worked a lot of different depths but found most fish were between 125' and 160'.   Seneca Lake nearly always has some shallower fish and we marked some of those too.   Early season fish don't necessarily show up on the depth finder - a lot of times they are on the bottom, and they can be nearly anywhere - they aren't confined by temperature restrictions.    Dave lost what appeared to be a big fish off Sampson State Park and we had a lot of dropped fish;  they may have been small or perhaps just grabbing the tails of the jigs.   We managed to land a couple fish - one in 125' and one in 153'.   Some bait is around, but not much.  More bait should move up by the day.   Sue managed some opportunities at some good fish and she landed her first lake trout.   The high point of the trip was the abundant loons.  We could hear their calls echoing down the lake.   They were everywhere.   The weather was also fantastic.  

When I pulled into the State Launch today the air temp was 34 degrees, the wind was blowing out of the north at around 10 mph and it was snowing!   Only a few trailers were in the parking lot.   Gordon wanted to fish 1/2 day today so we gave it a shot.  He's an active member of the Long Island Flyrodders and we've done 4 or 5 trips together so far.   Rainbow trout fishing was very good today.  He started with a nice 17" fish around the northern portions of the lake.  Further downlake he landed 4 more fish - a 23", 22", 20" and another 17".   The fish fought great for the most part with a 17" fish taking some spectacular jumps.   The 20" fish was a picture perfect female with a beautiful red stripe.   The winds really cranked up around 3pm and we had a fun ride back to the launch.  The action was so good we wound up spending close to a full day out on the lake.  

The 22" rainbow was missing a huge chunk of it's nose/head.   Looked like some sort of animal must have gotten hold of it.  We could see all kinds of "stuff" where his head used to be.  I was amazed that the spawned out fish was alive.  The 23" fish was a spawned out female.   All fish were quickly released today.   Water temps were around 43 at the northend and 37 downlake.   I wore about everything I owned out there - heavyweight long underwear, jeans and a sweatshirt, a fleece jacket, down vest, winter jacket and a Browning Survival Suit.   The suits used to retail for $400 at Bass Pro Shops but they went on sale this past winter for $100.   Not bad at all!

Got out today for a full-day with Gary (from Thurs) and Todd.   Fishing started rather slow around 9 am.   The weather was much better than anticipated.   We marked plenty of fish from 135' to 150', but they weren't hitting well.   We tried a lot of different areas and the wind made fishing difficult.   As the wind died down around 1 pm the fish started hitting and the guys landed 3 nice lakers - all big fish from 27" to 30".    Hits were missed and a fish or two were dropped.   All in all a pretty good day.   The guys are now jigging converts.  

Early season lake trout jigging has a special appeal.  We don't typically get the numbers of fish that we get later in the season when fish move up and baitfish move in.   What's exciting is that the fish are so deep!   To catch fish in 130', 140' and even upwards of 170' of water by jigging is a unique experience in the region.   The fish run large and are stuffed with bait.   The key is to be on the fish when the "bite window" occurs.   Subtle weather changes can trigger feeding binges.   Some of the biggest lakers we catch are during this early season fishing, and if you can detect bites in 150' of water - you'll never think of 50' as being "deep" again!  

Got out yesterday with my friend Shahab for some salmon fishing with the fly-rods.  Conditions were harsh to say the least.   Winds on Seneca Lake started at around 10 to 15 mph out of the south then cranked up to a sustained 20 to 25 mph, with higher gusts.  I've never seen the south end of the lake so rough - and that's with south winds.   Water temps ranged from around 39 to 46 or so up Catherine's Ck/Canal.   We fished hard for hours and Shahab had one hit and I fouled one carp (on a jig - which I threw for 1/2 hour.)   Things weren't looking good, but we tried one last area and managed to get some follows from salmon ranging from 15" to 20".  We each landed a salmon and Shahab also landed a 30" pike.   The catching wasn't great, but given the brutal conditions it was one of the most satisfying days I'd had on the water in recent memory.   "Never give up!"

Today was the first guide trip of the season and it couldn't have been a nicer day.  Gary met me at the launch at 9 am and I had him start working the northern portions of the lake.  Most of Gary's fly-fishing had been stream fishing so we spent the day working on casting.   By the end of the day Gary was getting some good casts in;  he was throwing some nice loops.   The fish Gods were good to us from the get-go and Gary landed a couple nice rainbows within the first 90 minutes of fishing.  We found some salmon further down the lake and Gary managed to catch his first landlock.   A few other fish were missed.   I talked to a couple fishermen (Hey Ralph!) at the launch -both trollers and casters, and both reported very good to excellent fishing for rainbows and salmon.   Perch are also hitting well.  Water temps ranged from 37 to the low/mid 40s.  

Went to Cayuga/Dean's Cove to check on lake trout with Jessica.   We worked various depths and found decent numbers of fish around 135' to 140'.  As has been the case recently, she had the hot hand and caught her limit in short order.   A large white tube did the trick.   I missed/lost 3 or 4 fish.   The one fish we kept had freshly killed alewives in its stomach.

We had some time so we motored up to the northern flats of Cayuga Lake.  Plenty of perch fishermen are around.  We fished for carp and the marsh areas were loaded, despite the cold 46 degree water temps (carp seek out the warmest available water they can find.  Check out my carp article in the most recent "Mid-Atlantic Fly-Fishing" magazine available for free at area fly-shops.)    Fish were so thick we couldn't help but foul-hook a bunch, but we perservered.  I had a 5 to 6lb. fish hammer a clouser fly, which was a trip.  I hadn't caught carp on the retrieve while fly-fishing, so this was a first.   We kept it to eat!  Check out my account of this "experience"  ;-) in the "Tips/Articles" page of this website (go to "The Fishing".)

Perch fishermen are out in good numbers on Cayuga.   Sunday I wanted to fish Skaneateles Lake but I had a bug or two to be worked out on my boat, so off to Barrett Marine we went.   We tried Seneca Lake for a few hours since it was so close.  Perch fishermen are out in droves.  Can't say how they did, but there were boats all over the place.  We tried the northern portions of the lake - from Bellhurst to Roy's working deep water for lakers.   Finally shot down to Sampson, which is always good.  I missed 3 or 4 fish and Jessica landed one and we called it a day.  Fish were deep - around 135' to 150'.   The lake looks gorgeous - nice and clear with a green tinge to the water.   Water temps on both lakes vary from 38 to 42 or so on Seneca and up to 46 on the north end of Cayuga Lake.

What a terrific day to fish!   I fished with my girlfriend from around 12:30pm till 6:40pm.   It only took a few casts with my fly-rod (intermediate line/bionic smelt fly) to draw up a follow from a nice 20" to 22" landlocked salmon.   Unfortunately I couldn't get the fish to grab!   We continued our drift and I had another follow - this time on a Clouser minnow with a sinking line.   At the same time Jessica hooked up and landed a nice 20" salmon on a jig.  We worked one area for awhile and she also landed a 21" brown.   I kept fly-fishing and took a few casts with a jig.   We tried another area (on the east shore) and had 3 follows/hits.  

We wound up back on the west shore and I did some casting with a jig.  I hooked what felt like a very good fish - maybe something foul-hooked.  But it wound up being a beautiful hook-jawed male brown that was 24" and probably 5.5lbs or better.   We worked back up to the park and we hit another pod of fish.  Jess got another 20" and a 17" and I got a 18.5" salmon.   All fish but one salmon were released.   Lots of hook scars (marks) and lamprey hits on the salmon.  The salmon are in reasonable shape but not in the fat condition of the late 1990s/early 2000s.   I'm thankful for all the catch and release fishing going on out there.  It makes a big difference in the quality of everyone's fishing.   Water temps ranged from 37 to 38.  Cayuga is just fishing great for salmon/browns.  I'm lovin' it!  We got plenty of photos and I should have them up by Tuesday - gotta get them developed and put on disc.  Fish were generally lethargic today and action seemed to improve as the day went on.   

Got out from 2 to 6 pm today.  Tried some lake trout jigging for around 3 hours with no luck.   The overcast/dark skies probably were partly to blame for the lack of fish action.  I marked decent numbers of fish from around 80' to 150' of water along the lake's east shore.   Cayuga AES was packed with shore fishermen, so I didn't fish there.  My guess is that the action must be good over there.   At least 7 people were there all afternoon.

Tried a little salmon fishing with no luck.  The west winds are not good for my style of salmon fishing, so I wasn't surprised.   Expect good to excellent salmon action once the northerlies/southerlies resume.   Expect good lake trout jigging action on sunny days and further north towards the Dean's area.   Lake temps are at 37 degrees.  

Got out in the boat for 2 1/2 hours today with my girlfriend.   The water temps are around 37/38 degrees.  The water level is low but higher than the typical winter lows - launching was easy.   I gave her a white jig and I started with the fly-rod.  Fly-fishing produced a small (sublegal) rainbow trout around 10" long.   Maybe it's just coincidence, but over the past year we've seen more rainbows than in a long time.  I NEVER used to catch rainbows fly-fishing out in Cayuga Lake in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

We had a salmon follow near shore.   We worked some deeper water and I tried a jig and caught a nice 22" salmon that fought very well.   Jessica landed a nice 20" fish.   We released all the fish today.  Both salmon had lamprey marks.  One salmon had a hook scar.  That to me is kind of nice - knowing that someone else caught and released that fish so we were able to catch it today.   Salmon are very vulnerable to angling pressure - so it's always a good idea to release them.   Beautiful day and we had the lake to ourselves apart from the shore anglers.