Reports

I arrived at Sampson just after noon today and fished until around 4:15 pm.  The days are getting quite short!  I fished for pike in a bunch of different areas.  Water temperature was 47/48.  A couple of boats were out targeting perch.  The only people I see here targeting perch these days appear to be locals – likely people with houses on the lake.

Pike fishing was good today and I managed to land 5 nice fish and I lost/missed another 5 or so.  I had one of the fiercest hits I’ve ever had from a pike today!  My rod was nearly yanked from my hands and the fish bit off my entire wire-leader and part of my heavy flourocarbon!  I’m not sure what happened but it was weird.

Anyways, my two best ones were 32″ers.  I had one fish that looked kind of sickly, but the rest looked very good and they varied quite a bit in size.  Fish seem to successfully spawn here year after year.  The effects of lamprey control have become evident here within just one year. I did a few guided trips here for pike last fall and if I remember correctly, fish topped out around 31″.  Most were smaller and nearly all the fish had lamprey wounds on them – certainly all the 25″+ fish did.  I’m still seeing scars this year, but overall, the fish look better, and they are getting bigger.  Hopefully in a year or two Seneca Lake will be producing decent numbers of quality 32″ to 34″ fish like it did 20 years ago.