Reports

Guided Mark I. on Seneca Lake for a full day.  The weather forecast didn’t look great wind-wise but we decided to go for it.  We spent most of the day targeting pike, both on the fly and with conventional gear.  Fishing was tough today.  The lake is virtually at flood stage.  Water temperatures remain well about normal for this time of year – at 52/53 degrees.  Weed cover is also heavier than usual in many areas.  Mark nabbed one pike on the fly – a 21″er.   He was testing out a new pattern (to him) that he just tied.  As the winds started gusting into the 20s he switched to gear.  Another two fish were landed on the day – a 26″ and a 28  1/2″.  Heavy winds limited our areas and presentations to some extent.  We also had a lot of debris i.e. some wood but mostly leaves to contend with.  In one area, a nice salmon charged after Mark’s spoon.  We tried some salmon areas without any action.  We are still a few weeks away from solid salmonid casting action over here.  The pike looked good, which was encouraging.  One of the high points of the day was spotting two bald eagles perched side by side.  It was a pain trying to get a good shot with my phone, but I was at least able to capture a photo of them.

It’d be nice to have a good 35 mm camera with a telephoto lens for shots like this but for now my Samsung Galaxy will have to do.

In terms of the weather, I’m hoping that we don’t receive too much rain tomorrow.  We could be looking at another quarter to half an inch.  With the ground completely saturated with ample standing water, we don’t need this rain at all.  I have never seen a fall with as much rain as late in the season as this one – certainly not since I’ve owned a boat (and paid attention to these things.)  This is usually one of my favorite times of year to fish but this fall has been more of a challenge than anything else.  Stay tuned!