Canandaigua/Seneca Lakes Tues. April 5th.
There’s a trout tournament on Canandaigua Lake this Saturday and I was thinking about fishing it, so off to Canandaigua I went this AM with a friend. Water level was high, somewhat murky and cold. 35 degrees. We fished for around 4 hours plus and didn’t see much of anything – visually or on our electronics. There are some very nice flats and lake trout jigging areas on this lake – without a doubt. Visibility is what I think killed us today – this is normally one of the clearest Finger Lakes around with Secchi disk readings around 7 to 8 meters – roughly comparable to Seneca or Keuka. Yesterday I could barely see down more than 3 meters. Naples Creek at the south end is still pumping in a bit of mud and debris, so we didn’t bother trying for crappies at West River. I’ll be back on this lake soon!
Decided to at least get into a few fish so on the way home we gave Seneca Lake a 2 hour try out of Sampson. There’s remnants of the high water there too- some small debris and murky water here and there, but overall Seneca remains very fishable and clear. I timed things as I had supreme confidence in my area/presentation and I literally got a fish within 1 minute! First drop with my jig and a 22″ laker was in the boat. Fishing wasn’t that fast over the next 2 hours but we managed to land 3 fish and lost a couple. Water temp is 37. Both lakes are very high, but not flooding…..Things will only get better from here on in (at least they SHOULD!) 😉