Skaneateles 10/23 + Keuka Lake 10/24
Skaneateles 10/23: I was on the lake most of the day from around 10 am till dark. Fishing was good – not great, but steady for smallmouth bass and yellow perch. I landed one rainbow trout around 17″ casting hairjigs, and I missed another on a tube jig. Fish still appear to be off dropoffs for the most part – I didn’t encounter many trout moving up yet, though some certainly have. At 2 pm I picked up the Hermans and we headed back out. John got into some nice bass while casting tube jigs – we were positioned in 40′ of water and he was casting towards shore, working the jigs back. A fish just shy of 18″ and a 17″er made it to the net (and were released.) Some nice perch and a laker were also caught using tubes and hair jigs. H2O was around 55 – so the cooldown momentarily has slowed.
Keuka 10/24: I guided Mike and his friend Mark for lakers. We jigged the bluff area and fishing was very, very good from the get-go. We were the only boat out jigging that I could see at the bluff area. The guys landed a bunch of lakers – probably around 14 or 15. That was great. The fishing slowed for an hour or so, then on a Shaker jig, Mike hooked a big laker under the boat – down maybe 30′. I got a glimpse of it and figured it was 7 or 8lbs – since most Keuka fish are somewhat small. But it was much bigger and barely fit into my Cabela’s Super Magnum Rubber landing net! It was over 32″ and much fatter than the 32″ 12lb fish I landed years ago on Seneca. This female was clearly loaded with eggs and possibly bait. Mike couldn’t even roll the fish in his hands for a photo. We took some good shots and released the slob unharmed (it jetted towards the bottom.) Beautiful fish and it was a great way to end the day. Bass fishers I talked to reported excellent smallmouth bass action. Perch are also hitting well.