Reports

Well the Halloween weather forecast felt like a “treat” today, but when I arrived at the launch at Sampson State Park I felt “tricked”. Shades of last Friday – with hauling 20+ mph winds from the south. So much for the “5 to 10 mph” forecast. I met Connor and his dad Dick at 8 am and we took the nasty run across the lake. Pike fishing was very slow for us this AM. Connor nailed one small pike that looked like it had scoliosis or something like that. Another hit was missed and that was it. The wind appeared to diminish and we went back across the lake, but it picked up again. Another couple pike were landed incl. Connor’s nice 32″ fish (on a Rat-L Trap.) Some fish appeared to have moved shallower (10′) into the murky water on the first break. Before releasing his nice pike, Connor wanted his dad to snap a photo. I handed him the pike and showed him how I like to hold them. After a quick photo (or non-photo as we found out later!) Connor wanted to release the fish quickly since he saw some blood. We had a problem “detaching Connor’s hand” from the fish! Turns out his hand slipped up the gill rakers a bit too much. The blood wasn’t from the northern! It was from Connor!

Dick wound up landing a pike then we tried some other things w/o luck. Connor suggested a little laker jigging, so we gave it 2 hours. We found nice numbers of fish S. of Sampson (and near Dresden) in 85′ to 100′. Dick was the “laker man” and managed to land 2 nice 20″ wild fish. Both hit on the retrieve and one came from around 35′ to 50′ of water! So the jigging isn’t bad at all now. Water temps are around 51, so lakers can be anywhere. All in all not a bad day, despite the very slow start this AM. The lake calmed down too and the afternoon’s forecast 20 mph + winds never materialized. We didn’t encounter any other boats fishing today.

Northern Pike Seneca Lake