Reports

Friday June 15th out of Sampson: Started the day with a full-day trip with Jeff and his dad Dan. Jeff fishes a bit, but Dan doesn’t get out too much. We targeted pike and bass and the conditions weren’t easy in the morning with the bluebird skies and good wind out of the south. I took them to a few sheltered areas that have produced recently for us. Pike action was decent – not great, but not bad and the guys caught a fair number of them. The highpoint of the morning was a huge largemouth hooked and dropped by Dan! This may have been the best Seneca largemouth I’ve ever seen – at least 4 to 5lbs! It hit a stickbait and did a classic jump, shaking its gills and throwing the lure. The fish won! We encountered some bass and large sunfish. A fair number of big perch are shallow and Dan caught one and lost a huge one (maybe 15″) near the boat. Trout jigging was slow, but the pike bite picked up late in the afternoon. A couple small largemouths were taken during the day if I remember right. Their population is definitely going up in Seneca Lake.

As the afternoon approached I got a call from Kelly, who had a trip booked on Sat. He wanted to get out for a few hours with his son Mike. So at 5pm I met them at the Sampson docks. A north wind was blowing and things clouded up. This got the lake trout bite going and we fished trout for an hour with a couple fish lost quickly but nothing hooked for long. The guys had never pike fished before, so off we went. The pike action was great. The winds died down and apparently some baitfish started moving in. They landed around a dozen and a half fish, including a 31″ fish by Mike. We had a trip scheduled at Dean’s Cove on Cayuga for lakers the next AM, but the guys wanted to continue pike fishing. Who could blame them?

Sat. June 16th AM out of Sampson: We started on Saturday and I took them to the same east shore area we’d worked the night before. I knew they’d want to fish there; I also knew that it wouldn’t produce well due to the change in conditions, but I knew we’d have to “scratch the itch” otherwise fishing that spot would be in the back of their minds all morning long! After 15 minutes of fruitless casting I took them to an area less affected by the south winds. Action quickly picked up and we were back into the pike and a couple bass. Pike fishing was very good and the guys landed quite a few fish (I think it was around 15 to 20). One of the bass was a very nice fish. We were checked by DEC for our safety equipment, licenses and fish. At 12:30pm I pulled the boat out and headed over to Dean’s Cove on Cayuga to meet Barry and his daughter Julie.

Sat. June 16th PM out of Dean’s: I hadn’t been on Cayuga since a slow trip on June 11th, but you can’t keep a great lake trout fishery down for long and I was optimistic re: our results. As I approached the launch I could see that conditions looked great – some clouds and sun and a nice breeze blowing out of the WNW. I explained what we’d be doing and started searching for bait and fish. What I saw on the graph was a huge relief – lake trout marks and baitfish everywhere!!! It didn’t take long to hook up and within about 3 drops of the jigs Barry hooked and lost a nice fish. I was up front working with Julie and she got the technique down in short order. She managed to land the next 4 fish! I filleted them out and we kept fishing. The bite slowed with the sun breaking out and wind change but we perservered. Around 6:30 pm the bite picked up. It was classic “June jigging” on Cayuga. A nice night bite awaited us. Barry picked up a fish or two and Julie also added some more. We wound up with 7 for the day including a couple 28″ fish. Lakers were crashing bait on the surface in 68 degree water during the evening! It was neat to watch the lakers momentarily leave temperature to grab the warm water loving alewives. Fun trip!

cayuga lake Northern Pike Seneca Lake