Reports

7/15: Did an evening trip on Seneca Lake with Brian and his dad Don. The great thing about the laker jigging pattern is being able to show up on a lake during the middle of a hot sunny calm afternoon and catch fish right off the bat! Brian had his limit worth of fish in about 90 minutes! He landed 4 nice fish. Don had some good hits and opportunities but just couldn’t convert. The bait from Monday AM had moved out, but some fish were still around. A good time was had by all.

7/16:  I got to Sodus Bay a couple hours before my scheduled 11 am guide trip for gar. I wanted to try out my new Canavan Custom Dropshot rod. I worked out to around 30′ of water and caught a few rockbass and a goby. Gobies were pounding my dropshot baits. I might have seen one or two bass (or trout) jump. If I had more time, I’d have worked out to 50′ – I think many bass might be deep. The Canavan rod was fantastic! Great ergonomics and a nice action.

At 11 am I picked up Arti and Beck and we checked on the gar. Our predicted “gar hot” sunny calm hot day didn’t quite materialize. We didn’t see much to start but after around 45 minutes some gar began to show themselves. Fishing was off and on for the afternoon, but Arti had the hot hand landing 4 nice fish up to around 43″. Most of the fish came on deep LC-13 fly-fishing setups.

Nothing I know of in freshwater compares to gar fishing – NOTHING! It’s the closest thing to a saltwater-like experience you’ll find in freshwater. We were fishing in 15′ to 20′ of water and the gar were acting like pelagic fish! Schools of fish are cruising around showing themselves from time to time and we chase them around. The hits are aggressive – basically violent slashing bites! It’s like catching a dinosaur – these fish have been around unchanged for over 100 MILLION years! Their scales are like armor – interlocking. Their bill is bony and full of teeth. It’s like fishing for reptiles! Gar fishing will continue through the summer.

bass fly-fishing longnose gar Seneca Lake Sodus Bay