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29 Sep 2024 0

Tags, tags and more tags!

Articles

FLAZ

No, this isn’t about tagging fish – it’s about this website. Over the past year, you may have noticed green “tags” at the bottom of my reports. Most of you probably know, that with a WordPress website like this, I can tag articles/reports as reference points. So if we have a bowfin encounter, I can tag the bottom of the report with “Bowfin” and perhaps “Sodus Bay.” If you then click on the tag, you’ll get a list of all the reports (and articles) with mentions of bowfin. So if you are new to fishing or the area, and would like to see my experiences with chain pickerel, you’d just click that tag in a report. Sometimes this winter, I’ll tag all my species pages so it’s easier to do.

You won’t see any tags for “lake trout” since I do so much of it. But if you’re interested in “Deep Jigging” for them or “Fly-fishing lake trout,” you’ll have a tag for that. I also didn’t differentiate largemouth and smallmouth bass, there’s just a “bass” tag. I also didn’t tag “rock bass” since they are so common.

I have a thumb drive from my old computer (that I owned from around 2008 until 2015) with hundreds, if not a thousand-plus photos on it. I added around 50+ photos to my old reports, mostly from the time-frame of 2013 up to 2017. Maybe during the winter, I’ll feature some of the better fish and photos on my “home-page slider.” It was fun looking back on the 2010s and uploading shots like the kayaker that we saved on Keuka Lake as well as some nice salmon, brown and pike photos. Once the weather gets crappy, I’ll get another 50 to 100 photos up. Ideally, I’d love to have all the old reports accompanied by whatever photos I have, but that might be a bit of a stretch. It’s very hard to categorize shots that I don’t have dates and names for. Once I went digital – again, in the mid-2000s, it became much easier.

We pulled the kayaker out of Keuka Lake on 4/13/14. That was a miracle!

My first King on a jig was on 5/3/2012. My second came on 5/29/2015 and my third sometimes around 2018 I believe. You can click any of the reports mentioned above and then click on the green tag that states “Jigging Kings” or something like that. You’ll see the numerous times I struck out on the big lake trying to jig salmon! I paid my dues on those fish! We had a good brown on Mexico Bay on 7/28/2016. My 50″ Waneta Musky from 11/7/13 is up. I have my best pike, taken on a fly on Cayuga on 2/24/2011. Greg’s legendary (between me and him!) fat-eyed brown trout came on 8/20/2011. The Will Burford 15/16lb brown was on 8/14/2019. Stoney Point/Lake Ontario lake-trout jigging is up as well. These are some of the highlights that I wanted to get posted. More to come….
16 Aug 2024 0

Hydrilla vs. Elodea

Articles

FLAZ

If you launch a boat in the Finger Lakes region or along Lake Ontario and elsewhere, you’ve probably been interviewed by some of the attendants hired to inform people and check boats for invasive species. Cayuga has had some hydrilla in it for quite some time. It’s mostly contained as far as I know, but there’s some in the marina at Myers as well as in the private marina over there and around the cove by Wells College/Long Point area.

When I got back in to Myers marina today after my truncated morning trip, I saw some Cornell and DEC personnel docked at the marina. I had talked to them before and knew that they were motoring around the lake looking for hydrilla. One of the guys was nice enough to spend a little time with me and showed me some hydrilla in the marina. It looks a lot like elodea, which is a common (I believe native) plant found throughout the region. He pulled up some of each weed and showed me how to differentiate the two of them. They both look a lot alike, but the main difference is that the hydrilla leaves have a serrated edge to them.

Elodea is on the left; hydrilla is on the right

If you look closely, you can see that hydrilla has a serrated edge to its leaves. Elodea’s leaves are smooth.
11 Aug 2024 0

Keuka Lake Bass Fishing

Articles

FLAZ

I’ve been on Keuka Lake a handful of times this year, guiding some bass on a couple of trips – nearly all as tutorial/locational trips. I’ve had a number of great reports on the bass fishing here this year, from guide Jon Evans, to homeowners on the lake as well as people that have been renting cottages and/or just fishing the lake. Bass fishing has generally been excellent.

If you pay attention to this website, and more importantly understand the dynamic of predator/prey relationships, you shouldn’t be surprised, and I called this years ago right on this website – and I’m no rocket scientist (or biologist.) So what’s happening? The most important factor is that alewives have mostly disappeared here. We know that alewives destroy walleye natural reproduction, via preying on their fry (Conesus Lake is a prime example, but there are many more – Owasco Lake is another) and by causing some thiamine deficiencies, even in walleyes, although usually that deficiency doesn’t result in catastrophic reproductive failure like it does for Atlantic salmon. Alewives don’t help yellow perch at all either. Conesus Lake was one of the best perch fishing lakes NY State until alewives showed up in the early 1980s. Then it became one of the worst within just a couple of years! As Seneca Lake’s alewife populations increased, the perch fishing has gone down (although it is coming back slowly.) Lake Ontario is another prime example. As alewife populations have decreased in the big lake, the perch (and walleye) fishing has improved.

Alewives also do a number on smallmouth bass fry. Don’t believe it? First, it’s not really disputable – you can see the research. But if you don’t believe it, tell me why Skaneateles Lake, with no alewives has had by far the best smallmouth population in the Finger Lakes for its size? On Keuka Lake, bass are thriving and are now being caught using more traditional bass techniques. You can throw a Mr. Twister here and catch plenty of bass. In Owasco Lake, which is full of alewives, a good portion of the bass spend August and September suspended over deep water chasing alewife schools. The bass act more like stripers on bait here. Try traditional bass techniques here like drop-shotting and Ned rigs and I’m sure you’ll catch some, but it’s nothing approaching close to a Canadian or Adirondack or Maine lake for that matter. It doesn’t touch Skaneateles Lake for numbers.

Alewives arrived in Keuka Lake back in the mid-1800s. Most sources say that the reason why is “unknown” but in the mid-1800s, a canal was built connecting Seneca Lake at Dresden to Keuka Lake at Penn Yan. Thankfully, no lampreys made it to Keuka Lake (or if they did, they died out without reproducing,) but I’m guessing that’s how alewives arrived there. That makes the most sense. Alewives nearly disappeared on Keuka Lake in the early 1970s and at that time, DEC seined alewives from Waneta and Seneca Lake and brought them over to Keuka Lake. They did pretty well there until the 2000s, when they started getting scarce. Keuka’s huge lake trout population (i.e., an army of small wild fish! Dare I say, an army of “dinks”) knocked them back. Some anglers ask me why DEC couldn’t do that again – seine bait and reintroduce it, but that wouldn’t be possible due to regulations/viruses and so forth. In addition, alewives multiply very quickly and can quickly establish themselves in a fishery. Alewives can still legally be used on Keuka Lake as bait. There are still some in Keuka, so clearly they just can’t get past the predators at this time in history on Keuka. And that is a good thing, especially if you’re a bass or perch fisherman. Walleyes for better or worse, can reproduce now in Keuka Lake, so there’s also that to consider. Hopefully the cisco re-introduction will prove successful on Keuka Lake, or else like Skaneateles Lake, yellow perch fry will support the entire fishery for the most part. We’ve seen how skinny the lake trout and northern pike are here. It isn’t a great thing, but harvesting trout here certainly can help. A couple of hard winters that result in heavy ice-fishing pressure would certainly help knock down the lake trout population here a bit, but just like we saw in 2015/16, the lake trout bounced right back within a few years, despite that heavy harvest through the ice.

Chris with a skinny Keuka Lake northern pike caught earlier this summer

Skinny lake trout caught in the winter on Keuka Lake

Keuka Lake walleye - doing just fine!

Nice Keuka Lake bass

Another nice one from this year
23 Jun 2024 0

What did people think about lake trout on the table back in the late 1800s?

Articles

FLAZ

Over the past twenty years that I’ve been guiding, the topic of lake trout on the table comes up a lot. Many of us anglers have heard it all, ranging from people who think they’re terrific eating to those that don’t think they’re good at all. Some of this talk depends on the where you’re fishing. I know on Lake Ontario, a lot of people don’t care for them. Of course a lot of people don’t care for eating steelhead or salmon up there either, depending on who you talk to. Alaskan salmon are a different story – nearly everybody loves Sockeye Salmon from Alaska as well as Silvers and Kings. Halibut is loved by everybody, and I think it’s because it’s white, firm and tasteless. It tastes like the butter you cook it in. Many people love tasteless fish. I’ve often heard people ask (regarding fish,) “Is it fishy?” What’s that supposed to mean? Does it taste like fish or like nothing? I understand that spoiled fish gets a “fishy” taste, but I don’t think that’s what people mean. They don’t want any flavor other than the salt, pepper, lemon or tartar sauce and breading that the fish is usually covered with!

One thing I noticed shortly after moving here, and I’ve touched upon this in the past, is that peoples’ opinions vary a lot from lake to lake. Talk to anglers on Keuka Lake and Skaneateles Lake and most like eating lake trout. On Seneca Lake and on Canandaigua, most people also really enjoy them. Cayuga Lake fishermen are divided and I think a lot of Owasco Lake anglers don’t care as much for the Owasco Lake fish, although I’ve heard some people call them terrific eating. I haven’t been around Lake George or the Adirondack lake trout much, but I’d imagine people love eating them up there. On Lake Champlain, people tend not to like them.

We hear the debates on wild game too. Venison good, venison bad. A lot depends on where the game is taken, how it’s taken, what they were eating, the age and condition of the animal and perhaps most importantly, how it was processed, preserved and then prepared.

All that aside, let’s look at what was written about the table qualities of lake trout back in the late-1800s, courtesy of the book “Fishing In American Waters/1888.” It is a collection of essays from the 1800s – both scientific and written by anglers. The book was compiled/written by Genio C. Scott and published by Castle Books in 1989.

On page 263, there is a section of “The Trout of Seneca and Canandaigua Lakes.” It says, among other things:

“It’s qualities, outlines and superficial marks are as varied as are its edible qualities. All anglers know that these depend much on the quality of the water they inhabit and the food they eat. In the latter particular, they resemble all animals and fishes. There are salmon-trout (aka lake trout – JG) in nearly every lake within the State of New York; but the fish of Seneca, Canandaigua, Skaneateles and Long Lake are infinitely superior, both as game and for the table, to those of Lake Ontario and the other great lakes.”

Lake trout are revisited on page 480 of the book, this time with some more interesting observations:

“I therefore (after talking about the geography of the fish – being found primarily in the northeastern US, Canada and Alaska – JG) – and for other reasons- believe all lake trouts to be non-migratory, and to partake of peculiarities produced by habitat. For example, the Seneca and Canandaigua lake trouts are far more beautiful and finer flavored than the Cayuga Lake trout. The reason may be that the two former lakes are more profound and of mineral bottom, while the latter is shallow, with vegetable bottom….The trout of Moosehead Lake and of a few lakes in New Brunswick are said to be the best for the table. They are scarce, and are never found south of the Boston fish markets.

Food for thought here for sure! One takeaway we can all agree on, clean cold water produces fine eating fish!

Interesting book that should be available online at the very least!
23 May 2024 0

Lake Champlain State of the Lake Meeting

Articles

FLAZ

This meeting has been time-stamped and posted on YouTube. Just check out the “Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department” channel, or do a search on it, and it will come up. I pay attention to this meeting every year. There are biologists there from Vermont’s Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, New York’s DEC and also U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Feds.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSiEwiaCJDs

There are a lot of management similarities between the Finger Lakes – mainly Cayuga and Seneca Lakes and the management of Lake Champlain. Both lakes (thinking of the two largest Finger Lakes as one lake) are “two-story” fisheries, featuring lake trout (both stocked and wild), landlocked salmon and other salmonids. Both are nationally renowned bass fisheries. Both have storied histories of great fisheries and then habitat degradation, over-fishing, invasive species – notably lampreys, Dreissenid mussels, cormorants, waterfleas, gobies (in Seneca and Cayuga) and more.

Largely because of the involvement of USFWS plus the fact that Lake Champlain is located on the borders of two states (and Quebec,) it receives a lot of attention. Lamprey containment and eradication methods used here are cutting-edge. Landlocked salmon are a very important component of the fishery and a goal of the Feds in terms of restoration. You can be sure that issues and opportunities as well as new and successful methods used here to help manage the fishery will make their way over to the Finger Lakes.

They are now dealing with more wild lake trout production (Seneca Lake in the late-1980s/1990s anyone?) Alewives displacing rainbow smelt (we’ve had both here for a while), complaints about poor Landlocked salmon fishing/runs (Cayuga Lake – “hold my beer…”) and much more. Bottom line, is that if you’re interested in Finger Lakes fisheries, you’ll find this presentation informative, entertaining and fascinating. You also appreciate the Finger Lakes even more than you already do!
14 Apr 2024 0

Recap of Silver Lake Marine’s “Lake Life Celebration”

Articles

FLAZ

I had a good time at Silver Lake Marine’s Lake Life Celebration last Saturday. I wasn’t sure how the turnout would be due to the cold, windy weather, but it was very good. The area around Perry and Mount Morris really has the best characteristics of small-town America – lots of nice, down-to-earth people and a great sense of community. I was pleasantly surprised to see Jeff Harter there, whom I had met at the Rochester Boat Show. He’s the Dealer Account Manager of the Aluminum Boat Group for the Brunswick Corporation. Crestliners have become very popular boats in New York State and his dealers do a great job making his job easy. There are no major changes upcoming in the Crestliner boat lines. We’ll be seeing some more consolidation – that’s about it.

State Park Police were there from Letchworth State Park along with one of the Park Managers. I never realized that Letchworth State Park was 17 miles long! It’s a great park and if you’re in the area, it’s well worth a visit. That’s another reason to check out Silver Lake Marine – you’re a very short drive away from one of the top State Parks in NY. There’s a gorgeous set of waterfalls on the Genesee River over there, along with a swimming pool and other attractions.

There was some live entertainment, a food truck, ice-cream truck and some terrific baked goods, along with some of the area breweries and businesses. Silver Lake Marine has some nice Crestliners in stock if you’re looking for a boat. They are also a Mercury and Yamaha dealer if you’re looking for a motor.

I had a chance to meet some area anglers and got caught up on Conesus Lake fishing from one of them. By the way, NYS Operations still hasn’t put the docks in at the State Launch at Silver Lake, so a lot of the fish have been left alone. (Keep in mind that it’s very likely that docks may still be out for many state launches.) The lack of easy lake access (due to the docks being out) along with the very limited ice-fishing season, should make for some good crappie and northern pike fishing in Silver Lake this spring/summer.

I still have some openings in April. This Thursday and Friday remain open, along with Sunday. The weather forecasts are calling for some rain later this week and then highs around 49 on Sunday. April 23rd through the 26th are open as is Saturday the 28th, then we’re into May.

Enjoying the day downstairs in the showroom - the service area also had activities going on. SLM was even running "shuttles" between the two areas!
11 Apr 2024 0

Silver Lake Marine Lake Life 2024 is this Saturday! Plus some odds and ends…

Articles

FLAZ

After the success of last year’s grand opening of the new service center at Silver Lake Marine, Quinn decided, “why not make this an annual kick-off event for the boating season?” This Saturday at the marina there will be live entertainment, baked goods, craft beer and cider, a food truck and other activities going on. Silver Lake Marine will also be kicking off their biggest boat sale of the year. They’ve got plenty of room inside the new service center and showroom incase the weather isn’t good (which it doesn’t look to be.) I’ll be down there tying some jigs and flies. Silver Lake Marine is very close to Letchworth State Park, so if you’ve never seen the falls on the Genesee River, you can check those out as well.

You can get more details on their website: https://www.silverlakemarine.com/

I spoke to Region 8 Fisheries and it looks like the region will be adopting the same liberal walleye regulations that are currently on Skaneateles Lake, on Keuka Lake as well. I can’t say this with 100% certainly, but it appears that the state is heading in that direction. Walleye populations are expanding on Keuka Lake and every one of those fish can live upwards of 20 to 25 years. The alewife population on Keuka Lake is very low, so perch fry and freshwater shrimp are the main forage in the lake. Even if you don’t care one iota about Keuka Lake’s trout population, the facts are what they are – this lake really can’t support another predator given how little food there is over there for gamefish. I think this is a great call. This won’t get rid of all the walleyes, but it will allow guys that are out perch or bass fishing from the late-fall through spring to keep any walleyes that they catch without breaking the law.

I still have some open dates in late-April! The weather is finally predicted to get better. This is one of the best times of the year for catching big lake trout on Cayuga Lake. Cayuga and Seneca Lakes are fishing fair to good for landlocked salmon (along with shallow lake trout on Cayuga). Skaneateles Lake fishes very nicely this time of the year for large perch, bass, trout and even a few walleyes. Fly-fishing lake trout is available on Keuka Lake and I can also do a deep jigging trip on Canandaigua Lake if you like to fish over there. Pike season opens on May 1st.
2 Mar 2024 0

Region 8 Diary Summaries

Articles

FLAZ

I just received my diary summaries in the mail on Friday. Here are the takeways:

Canandaigua Lake: This lake continues to provide excellent lake trout and rainbow trout fishing. It took cooperators targeting lake trout an average of 1.1 hours per legal fish. That’s a great catch rate. No word on what the largest lake trout taken was. Twenty percent of Canandaigua’s lake trout taken were wild. Rainbow trout catch rates were also excellent, at 1.4 hours to catch a legal rainbow. All rainbows in Canandaigua Lake are wild fish.

Production of young fish in the Naples Creek system remains excellent. Young-of-the-year production has been lower than in past decades, but age-1+ production is amongst the best it’s been since sampling records from the 1960s.

Diary cooperator numbers increased to 25 anglers, from 18 the prior year. Canandaigua Lake will be surveyed this coming summer.

Keuka Lake: Cooperator numbers are at an all-time low here, with only 20 anglers keeping diaries. Because of this, trip numbers were also low this year, with only 296 trips recorded. For comparison’s sake, in 1995, 81 cooperators recorded 2,342 trips! That’s a huge difference by any account. Not much has changed here – lake trout catch rates were slightly slower than in year’s past, with 1.6 hours to catch a legal salmonid (all being lake trout, with the exception of two rainbows.) Kept fish averaged 19.4″ and 2.4lbs a piece. Sixty-one percent of caught lakers were kept here – it’s probably the highest harvest rate in the Finger Lakes. For my money, the Keuka Lake lake trout are the best tasting and are the perfect size to eat. Salmon and browns haven’t been stocked here since 2018, so they are pretty much non-existent except for a very rare wild brown that may drop down on occasion from Cold Brook.

A few walleyes were taken by cooperators – the largest being over 8lbs! The forage base, like Skaneateles Lake, is mainly young perch. Alewife numbers are very low in Keuka Lake. Speaking of forage, the Bath Hatchery cisco-raising facility has now been completed and it’s hoped that production goals of 100,000 fingerlings per year will be met this year. Cornell and DEC are trying to find ways to help their survival upon being stocked in the lake.

Seneca Lake: Like Keuka Lake, cooperator numbers here are at an all-time low, with only 18 cooperators. Trips were also at an all-time low, with only 157 trips recorded. Back in 1991, 143 cooperators recorded 4120 trips!

Catch times per legal salmonid in 2023 were 3.3 hours. Thirty-two percent of lake trout caught were wild fish. About 1/3rd of the catch was harvested. The average harvested lake trout weighed 4.5lbs and was nearly 23″ long. That’s a well-fed fish!

Only 27 landlocked salmon were caught. Around 2/3rds were released and about 2/3rds of the fish caught were legal sized. No rainbows were caught by cooperators and only a few browns were landed.

Forage netting showed a very abundant alewife population. Round gobies also showed up with 128 being collected of various year-classes.

More bass sampling was done, with most fish collected being sub-legal. Larger adult smallmouth on this lake are mostly pelagic, which is probably why relatively few legal fish were sampled (this is my opinion here, not a statement from the DEC report.) Legal sized bass here were 23% of bass collected.

The first perch sampling done in recent history was conducted in order to procure some baseline numbers. DEC reported good numbers of 1 to 2lb perch here, which would constitute a “medium-high population.” I think perch numbers here were much higher in the 1960s through 1990s. Fishermen don’t seem to be taking too many perch here now, given how few boats are out and how often I do see the boats out perch-fishing moving around. Either way, rest assured, if guys are doing well on perch here, they aren’t going to talk about it!

Lamprey control efforts (sampling and treatments) are slated for this year. Wounding has been decreasing on adult salmonids over the past few years.

Many anglers I know are now keeping DEC diaries. What I am seeing on Seneca and Keuka lakes, are very few anglers fishing at all. The only real trout/salmon pressure I see on Seneca Lake is during the Memorial Weekend Derby. Overall, I don’t get the impression that there are a lot of serious anglers out on Seneca and Keuka Lakes that aren’t keeping DEC books. People are just fishing Canandaigua and Cayuga Lakes instead of Keuka and Seneca Lakes respectively. Lake trout fishing is really getting good on Seneca Lake – we had great catch rates there, especially in June, July and early-August. Even if you’re only fishing a few days a year on Keuka or Seneca, it’s a good idea to keep a DEC book. Otherwise, with fewer inputs, the picture of what’s happening on the lakes becomes less clear.
13 Feb 2024 0

A good reason to keep a DEC Diary for Region 7 on Cayuga Lake

Articles

FLAZ

A lot of anglers, including myself, have been disappointed with the landlocked salmon fishing over the past few years on Cayuga Lake, especially after they did so well there after NY State changed back over to the Sebago strain of salmon around ten years ago. It’s easy to complain about it, but survival of landlocked salmon throughout the decades has always been variable. We’d see a good year or two and then some poor years. The quality of stocked fish, water temperature, forage availability, number of predators – both fish and birds along with countless other factors all can help to make or break a year-class of fish.

DEC has been experimenting with stocking salmon in the tributaries of Cayuga Lake and directly into the lake itself. THEY ARE CLIPPING SALMON. Fin-Clipped fish were direct stocked whereas the tributary-stocked fish were not clipped. DEC can check fins at the fish ladder in the fall, but this would only offer a small sample size of salmon.

If you keep a DEC Diary on Cayuga Lake, make sure you check your landlocked salmon for fin-clips. Mark “no clips” if they are unclipped (do not leave the “fish icon” blank – that would indicate that you did not check it!) If they’re clipped, you know what to do – circle the fin that was clipped in your fish drawing in the diary.

If you care about salmon fishing on Cayuga Lake, you should seriously think about keeping a diary – at least while this assessment on stocking locations/strategies is being made. You do not need to reveal your fishing location in the diary book. You can just write in “east or west shore” or your launching area (e.g., “Taughannock”) so there’s nothing to worry about in that respect.

Best way to get into the program is to call the Region 7 office and speak to a fisheries technician or biologist. I have heard of quite a few people emailing the region and not receiving a response over the years.
3 Feb 2024 0

Booking Trips in the Winter

Articles

FLAZ

I’m happy to say that I am completely booked up this coming week from Wednesday through Saturday – that’s a first for me in February – and this is my 20th year guiding. We’ll see how long the mild weather lasts. I’ve had a decent number of inquiries regarding winter fishing and all I can say is that the best thing to do is look at the extended forecasts. When a day appears to show fishable weather (meaning something that you’d like to fish in), let me know. I will typically take a deposit and pencil you in for the date. If the weather conditions wind up being worse than what we hoped for, or somewhat unfishable, I’ll either refund your deposit or we can sit tight and wait for another opportunity.

If your availability is minimal, you can send me a deposit and send/text me a list of open dates (typically three or four) and I will put those down on my calendar while watching the upcoming weather.

Unfortunately, unless I have no inquiries for a date, it is often tough for me to reach out to clients preemptively, although I do try at times. Oftentimes when the good weather days show up in the forecast, they get snapped up fairly quickly. So please keep an eye on the long-range (10 to 15 day) forecast and reserve the date. You have nothing to lose!
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