Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen 4/15
After Thursday’s tough fishing and strong North winds I wasn’t sure if Watkins Glen was the best call for Friday’s fishing, but the winds were forecast to be a little lighter. I was thinking lake trout jigging Keuka Lake would be the call for Tony and his two boys, Jon (10 y.o.) and Dan (13 y.o.) But Tony and his boys really wanted some browns and/or salmon. The air temps were in the upper 20s (28) as I drove over to Watkins around 7:15 am. The wind was blowing too. I don’t do 3 ppl casting trips but we decided that only 2 people would fish at a time, so that was manageable.
The launch at the Bar + Grill (Schamel’s) was full of dock planks (with nails) and other assorted wood and debris. The marina guys were nice enough to clear things out for us and we were underway. I’d be lying if I didn’t say the boys got cold and had difficulties with the casting and fishing. We started on the west shore and it was pretty rough. A move put us into calmer conditions. South end temps were warm and fish were around. Tony and I took some casts and tried to get the boys into some fish. It didn’t take long to hook into some browns and salmon. As conditions improved and I worked on casting a bit with Jon, the boys were able to fish effectively. Tony took turns with Dan and things went well. Tony managed a beautiful 25.5″ landlocked salmon. The guys caught two browns and another 4 salmon. We kept a good portion of the fish and were aided by another angler who’d landed a nice brown and small salmon that took the hooks deep. So Tony wound up with some good eating. As has been the case this year, lampreys were abundant – we even had one on a 17″ salmon and a fresh scar on an 18″ brown. The big salmon had a live lamprey attached too.
BTW – The kitchen has opened at the bar and grill. The food there is very good with a nice array of sandwiches and finger foods as well as homemade potato chips and some good beers available too.
Tony also managed a first for my boat. He hooked into a seagull! I snapped some photos and fortunately for us and the bird, the bird got off before we had to deal with it. Weather conditions improved as the day went on and it wound up being very pleasant. After I dropped the guys off I checked on a couple different salmon jigs and lures with my gear fishing and managed to land a couple. I’ve adapted some fly patterns to jig fishing and I’m pretty happy with them. Water temps ranged from 39 to 51.
Angling Zone friends finally picked up a good salmon on Cayuga Friday after Thursday’s tough day. Another friend got into the perch at Seneca Lake well in around 70′ of water! For whatever the reason, Thursday was really tough. I agree with Rich Zaleski (www.richz.com) when he says that in general for fishing, when the weather does what it’s supposed to do – i.e. in spring -days warm; in fall- days cool, the fishing is best. Cold nasty weather in April or May after a bunch of warm nicer days doesn’t seem to make for good fishing -of course, there are always exceptions. In the fall – apart from laker jigging, cooling weather seems best. Food for thought at least.