Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen 1/3/05
Got out on my own for some pike and perch fishing. The pike fishing remains excellent on Seneca Lake. Landed around 6 pike and one pickerel on the day. Had follow and hits from another dozen fish or so! The pike were all running from 31″ to 34″, probably 8 to 12lbs with one smaller fish around 24″. The only downside was that every pike(except the small one) and even the pickerel showed signs of lamprey eel attacks. Fish came from near the south end of the lake and large white streamers worked best fished on a type 6 sinking line.
Perch fishing was good as well. I only spent a couple hours perch fishing mostly around Hector Falls. The fish were deep – in around 40′ to 60′ of water. Double hook fathead minnow rigs worked well. Wound up with 18 perch for my efforts including some doubles, mostly 9″ to 11″ fish – slightly smaller on average than the usual 10″ to 12″ Seneca fish.
Water temperatures are all around 38 to 39 degrees. Marked a huge school of baitjust north of Hector Falls point. HUGE! Word is that perch have moved in to the Seneca pier area. The pier reconstruction is done and it looks great! Only drawback is that it blocks the view of the lake from the parking lot!