Reports

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. Spoons (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!

keuka lake