Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen 2/25 PM
Got out on Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen today to check on landlocked salmon fishing. I’m out guiding tomorrow for lake trout and Tuesday through Thursday are looking pretty windy this week, so this looked like a great day to give it a shot. Of course, I was hoping to have a good day fly-fishing and possibly spin-casting if the conditions were too windy for the fly, but the main reason I checked it out was to see if I’ll be doing any more salmon guiding here this winter/spring after the slow day Mark and I experienced here on the 9th.
When the salmon are doing well on Seneca Lake, we often can have a couple mile stretch of good salmon fishing. Fish show themselves. I wasn’t thrilled when we only found one group of fish when out here back in late-November. Fishing was spotty after that but really slowed down, from what I’ve seen and heard since the high water we had after the last thaw. Unfortunately today was very poor fishing for me. The wind was up, but I had conditions that are generally very favorable for good salmon fishing. I fished from 1 pm until around 3 pm with my fly-rod, then gave spinning gear a shot for the final two hours of my day. I might have had one light hit, but even that was doubtful. I never had a single follow. I saw one fish under my fly swimming away in one area – very close to where Mark I. and I had seen a similar thing happen. Despite working the area a few more times, I never had any other action.
I had two reports from the lower end of Cayuga Lake today and both were encouraging with lakers being up shallow and one rainbow caught shore-fishing. Despite the nice weather today, only one other boat went out of Watkins Glen and they appeared to be targeting perch. Seneca Lake is a HUGE lake and the salmon could be just about anywhere. The problem is, for casting, I need to have areas where I can pinpoint fish and although I do have some areas up lake, it just doesn’t make sense for me to do 5 to 15 mile runs to maybe have a shot at nabbing a salmon or two today. This lake is awfully big water and the winds were hauling today at times – up around 20 mph or more. When guiding, I’ll do those runs if I have to, but truth be told, they rarely pay off.
Water temperature was 40 degrees up top. The lake level was good. I’m looking forward to getting out on Skaneateles Lake once the gate is open, which should be early this week, given the warm weather forecasts. I may even try some fly-fishing up on Lake Ontario for spring browns/cohos if I get motivated enough. Keuka Lake with the fly-gear is also on the docket.