Oneida Lake 8/3 PM
I fished Oneida Lake on my own from around 1:30 pm until 6:30 pm. As tired as I was, it felt good getting on the water and actually fishing instead of guiding. The drive up was arduous at times between traffic, having to stop for a funeral procession, and having some road construction delays.
The usual summer algae bloom was taking place here but it wasn’t bad. The clarity was good – it certainly wasn’t the “pea soup” that I have seen here at times. Water level appeared good. I had 72 degrees on the surface, which may or may not have been right but seems to be about what it should have been given the cool nights we’ve had lately. My old depthfinder’s temp gauge can be suspect.
I worked a bunch of areas for walleyes with various lures including bladebaits, jerkbaits and jigs. I didn’t have much action with the deeper bite with the exception of a real dink walleye and a giant drum (that I foul hooked on a bladebait.) It was dead flat and sunny, which didn’t help much. Moving shallower later in the day was the ticket and it didn’t take long to get a limit of walleyes. They were all in the abundant 16.5″ to 18″ range – so not much to “write home about.” I lost and missed some good fish as well and also caught another giant drum.
It was fun fishing and hot out with the lack of wind. This lake really gets a lot of fishing pressure. People laid off the lake around midday when I arrived, but by 6 pm a lot of boats were out. Of course, walleyes hit better late in the day into the night so it makes sense, but I was still impressed by the number of boats out on a weekday.