Reports

Seneca Lake out of Geneva 8/21 AM: Started off Saturday meeting Mark, Cathy and Tom at the Geneva ramp around 6 am. I had a couple slow guiding days around Geneva over the past couple weeks, but both were on overcast borderline rainy days. We marked decent numbers of fish on one of those trips. We also had slow fishing elsewhere on the lake during those trips – which convinced me that it was more of a day-to-day weather phenomenon, than a general slowdown. Lastly I also had a call from a client who mentioned marking and catching some good numbers of lakers around Geneva a couple days before my first tough trip there. But NWS changed their forecast Friday night to 15 mph south winds – so I wasn’t particularly optimistic when we set out. I don’t like being on the “wrong” end of the lake with 15 mph+ winds!

The early start saved our day. Tom caught a laker on his first drop and we had great fishing over the next hour and a half to two hours. A few doubles were hooked and the day was topped with Mark’s 32″ beauty which we released unharmed! Great AM, which slowed considerably once the winds got stronger and the day went on. 85′ to 105′ was best, with excellent action in 85′ to 90′. Around 7 or 8 nice fish were landed.

Skaneateles Lake 8/21 PM: I was hopeful that the cloudy conditions and threatening rain would leave me with some parking options at the small State Launch on Skaneateles Lake. It did. I can’t wait for the passage of Labor Day weekend when parking will no longer be an issue here. There is a Town Launch at Mandana, but it’s a trickier launch than the State ramp with a long walk added in. I met Jack and Gary – both from Texas at around 12:30 PM and after a bit of a wait we launched the boat. I like Jack a lot – he was one of my first clients and is the most successful businessman I’ve ever met. He’s given me some great business and life advice and I always hope and wish the best for him. Gary works for Jack and had never fished, period! So I set us up behind a large point and taught Gary how to cast and work a dropshot rig, a Superfluke and a tube jig. He caught a rockbass on the dropshot so we got the first fish out of the way quickly. Jack favors his spincast gear and brought that. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is what he says, but the last time we were here he forgot his spincast gear and did just fine with my spinning tackle! In a nutshell fishing was pretty good with the guys landing 9 nice legal smallies. Most were 12 1/2″ to 13 1/2″ or so, with one around 16″ or 17″. Some bigger ones got off and many hits were missed, but it was a good day. Gary caught the largest which was awesome. It’s just a great smallmouth fishery and it’ll only get better as the Fall approaches!

bass Seneca Lake Skaneateles Lake