Seneca Lake out of Sampson 5/18
Started the AM with a half day with Gary and John. Gary has a place on the lake so I swung by and picked the guys up. We split the fishing time between lakers and northerns. Lake trout fishing was very slow. The guys had a couple hits but that was about it. Bait was starting to move back into the 50′ range – not a lot of bait, but more than what I’d seen out there recently. Pike fishing was good with a handful of pike, a pickerel and a smallmouth bass in the mix. Most pike were thin but are starting to look like the “post-spawn effects” have cleared up. Water temps were the same on both sides of the lake – roughly 49 degrees.
I did a PM trip with Jodi and James. The weather was supposed to get nasty, but it actually cleared up after a bit of steady but light rain. Pike fishing remained good with the usual pickerel and bass in the mix. Smallies are definitely starting to move up a bit. We hit the lakers again and in short order James hooked one and it got off just below the boat before we could get a look at it. Jigging remained slow; we could see how negative the fish were on the LCD unit. No other laker hits. The lake got nasty just as we left. Most pike/pickerel were in less than 12′ of water, with some fish still very shallow. Active fish remain medium sized – 25″ to 29″ or so.