Reports

10/1 Skaneateles Lake: I met the Hermans here at 10 am for a full day’s fishing. Smallmouth bass were the target and we started working the shallows with tube jigs with only a couple rockbass to show. Smallmouths were deeper – from around 15′ out to 35′ or so. Dropshotting was excellent with plenty of nice 12″ to 16″ smallmouths landed. I took a demo drop and landed an 18″ fish! Berkely Gulp is what we used. Yellow perch are becoming more abundant by the day and plenty of good-sized rock bass are available. Eleonore had a beautiful rainbow trout follow in her dropshot minnow in around 20′ of water on the east shore across from the State Launch. Water temps are in the low to mid60s. Expect 60 degrees by this upcoming weekend.

10/2 Keuka Lake: Guided Tony and Glen for the full day starting at 7 am. They fish the Adirondacks a lot and wanted to learn the technique. Glen nailed a nice laker on his first or second drop of his jig near Branchport. There are plenty of fish on the Branchport Arm near the State Park, but many are suspended over deep water – not the best jigging scenario – this will change over the next few weeks as fish move to the ledges to spawn. So off to the Bluff we went. Fishing started out somewhat slow, but by 9 am fish were hitting well. The numbers of fish available in 95′ to 115′ of water (esp. from 105′ to 115′) are staggering!!! I don’t think there are better numbers of lakers concentrated anywhere else in the region – it’d be hard to believe. We marked lakers like marking bait – big “laker blobs” or balls of lakers – piles of hooks, with scattered “hooks” joining the next blob! Fishing overall was excellent with the guys landing 18 nice fish and losing/dropping another 20 or so. We had a lot of fun on the trip – it was a laugh fest. Fish hit all afternoon, esp. when the sun was shining. A trip to Seneca Farms for dinner on the way back hit the spot! Another reason to fish Keuka Lake – very good fried chicken and ribs (available occasionally.)

10/3 Owasco Lake: Guided Greg – who’s joined me on quite a few trips over the past few years. Greg wanted a big smallmouth bass – something in the 20″ range. Last time we targeted smallies on this lake he caught two 20″ers! I warned him on the slower numbers here and the need for patience/perseverance. He’s a good sport! We started just after 7 am working mid-lake areas with Deep X-raps, Tubes, Superflukes, Jigging spoons and dropshot rigs. Fishing was tough. He caught some perch and rock bass and had a couple small (tiny) smallmouths chase him. It was windier than forecast, cold and clear out – with clouds and sun mixing during the day. We checked out a couple laker areas quickly and went back to bass. On a flat in 30′ of water on bottom Greg finally hooked a solid bass on a dropshot rig. After a great fight (the fish ran under the boat twice, jumped a couple times and jumped out of the net, I netted a fat 18″ smallmouth bass. That was it for the day. More rockbass and perch followed as well as some hits, but no more big bass. We marked a lot of bait and fish (bass and lakers in all likelihood) but they seemed inactive. I expect some very good to excellent fishing here once the weather gets more favorable. Fun but very tough day. Water temps were around 64 on top.

Overall we saw very few boats out on the lakes this weekend. We were amongst the only ones out on Skaneateles and Owasco Lakes – we probably saw two to three other boats fishing on the day! Very peaceful and colorful conditions out there. Apart from Owasco Lake today, fishing was great all weekend!

bass keuka lake Owasco Lake rainbow trout Skaneateles Lake yellow perch