Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen 4/19
Got out for a full day with Brian and his friend Puneet. The goal was to fly-fish for Landlocked Salmon but the guys were up for whatever might offer the best action. It was tough deciding whether to fish Seneca or Cayuga Lakes, but I thought the wind forecast might set up better for Seneca. We started around 10 am with a bit of laker jigging. There were loads of fish around but as has been the case for the past couple weeks they weren’t too active. Brian did manage a 20″er in fairly short order in around 140′ FOW. It had a small lamprey attached, but overall was in good condition.
We tried a bunch of areas for salmon and one nice fish followed in a stickbait on a point. We didn’t get a good look at it, but it was dark and large. Maybe a brown. On the south end, Brian got hammered by a solid fish! He played it expertly and after a couple jumps and some strong digging I netted a beautiful salmon – we kept it and it wound up measuring 26″ and weighing 6lb 10oz. Incredible first salmon and on a streamer to boot! It doesn’t get much better than that! We tried more laker jigging and Puneet dropped one. Later, a 14″ fresh wild rainbow was also landed (on a stickbait) and of course released.
We haven’t been encountering many small or sublegal salmon this season yet. Earlier this winter my buddy Mike did get into some further up the lake, so they are out there. It remains to be seen whether these Sebago strain fish are as widely distributed as we hope. With luck, there are plenty of small salmon scattered around the lake that we just aren’t around. Time will tell. Great day and we have some terrific photos too. It’s been an interesting season to say the least. Stay tuned!