Seneca Lake 6/7 + Sodus Bay 6/8
Got out on Seneca Lake with a friend of mine trying to see what the pike were up to. Not great conditions out there with a swirling westerly. We fly-fished northern around the south end of the lake on both shores and didn’t get much except one 25″ fish. The water temps were all over the place with cold water on the west shore and warm stuff on the east.
We had better action further north towards Glenora and Peach Orchard. I dropped 2 pike, both quality 35″ to 36″ + fish. One of which broke my 8 weight fly-rod! Again, the winds made covering water a chore. We had follows from a laker and salmon as well. Not a great day, but the fish are there and it’s simply a matter of finding better conditions – like a south wind. I expect great pike fishing for at least 3 weeks or more on Seneca. The weeds are just coming up.
Sodus Bay was a sheer riot! The most fun I’ve had all year. We fished drum for a bit. This bay is absolutely LOADED with sheepshead. We only hooked 5 or 6 and landed 4 total, but it was fun since each one is like fighting a big smallmouth that doesn’t jump. Compact shad colored crankbaits did the trick. Jigs would have worked as well.
The hot bite was the longnose gar. I usually don’t fish gar until the summer time, but conditions were perfect – hot and low water – so we went searching for them. We found a massive school of gar with a significant number of BIG fish – fish pushing 40″ to 45″ or better! WOW! Every single one jumped when hooked. The big ones fought great, the smaller ones not so great, but they are always exciting. Rope flies did the trick. We landed 20 fish and took a lot of photos. I hope they came out, and I hope to have them up within 10 days or so. They are beautiful fish – I don’t care what people think – and they are one of the most fun fish to catch anywhere. Next week we could target lakers, pike, walleyes – whatever, but we’ll probably go after trophy gar again.
Bowfin were active in the coves. These fish have absolutely NO FEAR and were coming right up to the boat to investigate!!! I’m being serious here. They literally swim up to the boat then disappear like the primitive ghosts they are. We saw 7 or 8 fish materialize then just vanish in the weeds! Next time we’ll try to catch them. Live sunfish usually work well, though some people like using cut-bait. We tried the cut-bait but really didn’t put in the time or find the best areas. Stay tuned on this one! Can’t wait to get a few in the boat. Yiikes!