Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen 7/19

Reports

Got out with my buddy Chris starting around 6 am. I wanted to check on a few things around Seneca’s south end. We drifted a bit with jigs in hopes of some salmon activity. I picked up a dink around 14.5″ and Chris nailed a solid wild lake trout around 24″. I did have a decent salmon follow my jig – a fish around 3lbs or so. Plenty of baitfish abound.

We quickly checked a couple areas for bass and managed to have one pretty nice one follow in a fluke, but overall Keuka, Canandaigua and Skinny over much better bass opportunities if you want smallmouths these days. (Jon Evans is a great guide to contact for smallies on Keuka/Canandaigua.) Looked for some gar too and didn’t see any but by that time the sun was intermittent and it wouldn’t have been easy to spot them. The south end does have a small population of them. Milfoil is very high in areas. Water temps were in the low to mid 70s on top. Cold water wasn’t far from the surface around Watkins Glen.

Stopped in at the Watkins Bar + Grill afterwards. The short rib sandwich was great and you can’t go wrong with the Reuben over there either. Highly recommended. Great homemade potato chips too.