Seneca Lake out of Watkins 3/13
It felt great getting out on the lake today. What a gorgeous day! Picture perfect conditions for salmon fishing with a light chop and some sunshine. Water temps are hovering between 37 and 38 degrees. Lake level is low. After around 20 minutes of casting I hooked up with a nice salmon around 23″ long. The fish beat me fair and square and came off the hook after a jump filled fight. I managed to miss a handful of hits and in another area I landed a 17″ landlocked. The fish had a very fresh lamprey “hole” going right through its intestine, and it unloaded waste matter via this new hole all over the place when I landed it. I kept it – mainly because it was hooked deep in the tongue area. And I was overdue for a fish dinner!
I managed to land a nice chunky clean 18″+ brown trout a little later on and one more (tiny) salmon. Nice to see a brown on this lake – I think I only caught a couple last year and they weren’t very big. The landlocked Atlantic Salmon fishing now happening on Seneca rivals some of the better fishing I’d seen on Cayuga in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I don’t think Seneca has the sheer numbers that Cayuga had back then, but the actual fishing experience (when the conditions are right) is every bit as good as what I’d experienced on Cayuga (apart from the occasional “epic days”.) The brown and salmon both had alewives in their stomachs. I also jigged up a quick laker that I’d marked. Had the fish up near the boat before the hook pulled out. It was in 95′ of water.
I will try to get out on Cayuga soon, but it’s hard to not want to fish Seneca again ASAP!