Keuka Lake out of Branchport 4/16
Got a chance to check out Keuka Lake for the first time in 2006. Lake trout are everywhere on this lake – between 60′ and 180′ (or more.) The fish were actively whacking jigs on the drop, the retrieve and the jig – basically all the way around! White flipping tubes and Zoom flukes in white and baby bass were the ticket. I caught a handful of nice fish in short order. I had one or two fish chase and whack my jig all the way up to about 10′ below the surface – from 110′ down! It won’t be long before I break out the fly fishing gear on these fish! The lakers are feeding on small alewives, and the fish are looking healthy – nice and plump!
I did manage some fly-fishing and I caught my first Keuka Lake fly-rod landlocked salmon! This fish was over 20″ and I caught it on a flashwing bionic smelt pattern (my own). I fished the fly on a RIO type 4 sinking line. Salmon aren’t real common on Keuka Lake so I released the fish. I hope to do more fly-rodding on this lake in the future, for both trout and salmon and pickerel/pike this year. Special thanks goes out to George Delcour – who has been kind enough to share his wealth of knowledge on this fishery with me. Every bit helps!
Lastly, I did a bit of probing with a hair-jig and picked up a decent smallmouth in around 17′ of water. H2O temps ranged from 41 to 47.