Reports

Guided back-to-back half-days on Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, here’s how things went:

3/22 AM Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen:   Guided Derrick and his step-son Aaron for a half-day starting at around 9:15 am.   The guys have joined me for years, mostly doing lake trout trips.  Landlocked Atlantic salmon have eluded Derrick forever, so he was hoping to nab some or at least one good one today – unfortunately we did not get any fish.  How’s that Dr. John song go?   “I was in the right place, but it must’ve been the wrong time…” or “I was at the right time, but it must have been the wrong place!”  That’s how our day went.  I had two other contacts out on the lake that day and both had some success on salmon.

We started in a great area – one that has held the vast majority of the fish we’ve seen all winter long.  The guys were pretty sure they were getting some hits, but they never set on any fish.  We gave that about an hour and then worked elsewhere.  We were dealing with some time-constraints –  mainly a massive cold front that was scheduled to move through in the early afternoon, with winds amping up, snow, and temperatures plummeting.   We tried some other areas and after an hour so of tough fishing, we finally started seeing some follows and Aaron had a couple more hits, but no hookups.  The winds started getting stronger and fellow guide Kurt was getting into some fish where we’d started, so we moved back after another 15 minutes or so of finishing out our drift.  Unfortunately the fish were not cooperating by the time we got back to our initial area!  We saw a ton, but apart from some weak chases, they were turning very negative.  We gave it another good hour without any great hits (the guys had a few hits) and called it a day.  By the time I got onto Rt. 96 near Trumansburg, the snow was falling, the temps were below freezing and the winds were honking.  I was glad we quit when we did.

I expect salmon fishing on Seneca Lake to remain good to excellent for the next month or so.  The cold snap on Friday really set the fishing back in my opinion for salmon on Seneca.   My friend Pete and his crew nabbed a couple of nice fish early on Saturday, but I think the bite-windows were fairly short.  Water temps had dropped on the lower lake from 40.5 degrees down to 39.  Steady warming weather produces the best salmon fishing going into spring.

3/23 Cayuga Lake out of Long Point State Park PM:  Guided Jack, who in recent years has been the guy who has helped me kick off my deep laker jigging season.  He’s great –  during these early season cold weather trips he likes to catch a limit and then maybe one more to release, and then get off the water.  We had around 30 degrees to start today at 1:15 pm, but with the sun and windless conditions, it felt more like 45 degrees out.   We tried a couple areas then wound up getting right into fish.  Jack nabbed his 5-fish limit in an hour and ten minutes – then he lost what appeared to be a monster that hit not far below the boat (that’s when/where a lot of big lakers hit!)  He then nabbed number 6, let it go and we headed back in.

The lake is low, but word is that the Canal Corp. has shut the gates and is letting the lake come up to full pool.  Without any rain, it may take some time!  The fish looked pretty good today.  They are still a little bit thin and some have some healed lamprey wounds.  Baitfish are moving in already (that’s a photo-period thing, so it makes sense.)  We should see some top-notch lake trout fishing on Cayuga Lake from here on in.