Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen 2/14
My boat was all set up and ready to roll last night, but when I looked at the Ithaca forecast, the highs had changed from around 42 to 37. Only a few degree difference, but psychologically it was enough to make me think twice about going out. But the Elmira/Watkins forecast still called for highs in the low 40s and sunny conditions emerged around 10 am, so I headed out. It was tempting to fish Cayuga, but I decided on a surer thing and headed to Watkins.
Action was excellent on smaller salmon today. I spent a lot of my first hour or two on the water feeling grabs from dinks and pulling the fly away from them. A few nicer fish were around, but it took me a while to hook up with any. Clouds moved in and the bite slowed a bit, but then started up again despite the overcast conditions. I wound up landing a 1/2 dozen salmon to around 21″ in around 3.5 hours of fly-fishing. All but one were legal. The biggest one and an 18″er fought great.
A few boats were out trolling and I saw one boat have exceptional success, while many others didn’t fare as well. I tried for pike a bit, though I accidentally left most of my pike gear at home. An hour of casting (without my top lures) resulted in one hit and one follow from a pickerel. Water level is up a little bit from the last time I was here. Water temp is around 40/41 – still warm for this time of year. This winter has featured some terrific fishing!