Reports

Heavy winds over the past three days caused me to reshuffle my schedule around. I was off Wednesday and looking forward to some fishing but the hard south winds and rain put an end to that plan.  Thursday and Friday AM were trips which I had to reschedule.

With a fairly full calendar for the remainder of October, I can’t pick my angling days.  So I decided at the last minute to check on Seneca Lake for pike.  I also motored around with my electronics for an hour or so looking for possible lake trout or perch.

Strong north winds yesterday and this AM pushed warmer lake water south.  I had water temps in the mid-50s on Seneca’s north end.  Ideal pike conditions although I didn’t need the heavy winds.  Pike action was very good to start with some solid fishing but poor catching.  I probably whiffed on eight good hits, including 2 on my first 5 casts.   My hooks were sharp and I was prepared to set, but for some reason the fish either weren’t grabbing my offerings well or I just had some bad luck.  I finally connected on a couple northerns.  The first was a 30″ clean fish and the second a 31″er that took my spoon deep.  It bled a lot so I kept it.  Pike are pretty tough fish but they are good eating and I’d rather eat one that might die versus potentially letting it rot away on the lake’s bottom.  The fish had nothing in its stomach.  These fish hit ridiculously hard!  I love the strikes of pike.  It’s probably why I like pike fishing much more so than musky fishing – big fish (i.e. muskies) are great but I love experiencing that rock solid hit over and over again.

The pike above was the 31″er.  It had a few old lamprey scars on it.  It was on the thinner side but not particularly skinny.

I did a little searching for lakers and perch – not a lot, but a little and didn’t see much.  I did mark some bait and tried a couple drops of a laker jig but had no action.  The lake looks great.  Water level is at full pool and the clarity is excellent.  I saw one other angler out fishing.  Far cry from the old days out on this lake.