Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen 3/12
Got out for a 1/2 day guiding with Esocid fanatic Perry – who brings the floats and minnows. The forecast called for sunny skies clouding up and light winds from the south. A few things to remember regarding winds in the region:
1.) My buddy Craig warned me that on Oneida Lake – Forecast Southwinds = East winds. So beware. (Just an out of context Oneida tip from an angler very familiar with the lake.)
2.) When fishing out of Watkins Glen, double the speed of any forecast south winds. So if you see “South Winds 5 to 10 mph” that really equates to “South winds 10 to 20 mph.” And so on.
The winds were not bad today. We worked areas from 4′ of water out to the outer weedlines with very little action. Perry might have had a fish or two fooling with the minnows, but it isn’t something we’d bet on. We spent a lot of time out in 8′ to 12′ of water- but zippo. Unfortunately I had classes to teach this PM, so we had to leave before the evening bite and before we could check out some other areas.
I remember tough days perch fishing in March and April and occasionally we’d lip hook negative, lethargic northerns on the bottom using really light line and perch jigs – like 1/16 oz jigs with twister tails tipped with a fathead minnow. My guess is that the pike were fairly inactive, or we just never found them. But we did move around a lot and had three lines out, so I’d have to believe we were around some. A few are being taken on the pier.
Surface temps are over 40 degrees and the tributary temps are getting higher than the lake temps – which means it’s just about time for some good nearshore fishing. A few trollers were out today and around 1/2 dozen boats were perch fishing. We saw one salmon or trout caught by a troller. Perch guys were moving around a lot – I’d guess the AM wasn’t real productive for perch, but that’s just a guess.
Despite the tough bite, it felt great being on the lake with the warm air temps. It felt like MAY out there!