Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen 11/30
Did back to back 1/2 day trips here for pike, though we did some salmon targeting during the PM trip.
AM: Guided Alan and his young son Zach starting at around 7:30 am. Alan bought a nice boat around a year ago and has booked a few trips this year learning different patterns on the FLs. Today pike were the target. Pike fishing was decent this AM. Alan managed to land 4 solid northerns ranging from around 27″ to 32″. Spoons and stickbaits did the trick. We kept a deeply hooked fish around 31″ for dinner and it had a couple partially digested alewives in its stomach. Other follows were had including a nice fish that almost hit Zach’s spoon. Late season pike fishing isn’t necessarily easy and takes some adjusting from the early season and mid-season stuff. Use the same retrieves and tactics you use in May, June and September and you might not get a strike.
PM: I had a call from Carsten on Saturday and he booked a last minute trip. He has spent most of his life still fishing, so today was an opportunity to learn how to work some lures. He also got adept at casting a baitcaster. The catching wasn’t great for our PM trip. We started with a pike around 24″ to 25″ (it got off just before I went to net it.) It hit an X-Rap. We did a drift for salmon (and some pike.) Carsten hooked a couple salmon, but both were in the 12″ to 13″ range. Nice young, clean fish, which bode well for future fishing. He had a solid grab on a spoon as well, but no hook up.
I will be guiding throughout the winter, weather depending. I expect continued good pike fishing, decent salmon action, good laker jigging (throughout the area) as well as decent rainbow trout action (on Skaneateles Lake.) This is a great time to fly-fish, so if you get tired of the crowds on Salmon River and would rather target fish in feeding patterns as opposed to spawning run fish, let me know!