Reports

Guided Mark I. for a full day starting at around 8:30 am. We were the only boat I saw on the lake during the entire day.  Skies were overcast and winds were out of the south.  A little rain fell in the afternoon.  Water level was low but not ultra low. Water temps up top were around 42 to 43 degrees.  We spent the first two hours of the day fly-fishing for trout/salmon with no signs of anything.  I’ve been taking clients to different areas over the past month in search of fish.

Parts of the lake were very muddy after the big thaw a couple days ago.  Mark did some fly-fishing for pike/pickerel and picked up one decent pickerel on a floating line  with a Clouser minnow.  We tried a few different areas without any action.

Gear fishing for lake trout was the best pattern.  In short order Mark had some very good action on fish running from 23″ to over 26″ long.  Tube jigs and blade baits did the trick.  He kept one fish that I cleaned – it had nothing in its stomach.  Shallow lake trout continue to be on the thin side.

As a general rule, gobies go deep in the winter.  It was very surprising to many DEC biologists and other researchers that we had been catching goby fed salmon, brown trout and lake trout over the past few winters that were roaming the shallows.  We’ll see what the rest of the season brings.  No matter what – it will be interesting!