Skaneateles Lake 3/12 PM
First off, I want to say thanks again to all the people who came out to hear me speak at the Canandaigua Lake -Trout Unlimited Chapter’s meeting, held at the Orvis Shop in Pittsford NY last night. I probably should have publicized it on my website but wasn’t sure if the Trout Unlimited talk was open to the public. I enjoy talking about the Finger Lakes and their idiosyncrasies. It’s always nice getting back up to my old stomping grounds on the east side of Rochester.
I got home at around 11:30 pm last night – that combined with the switch back to Daylight Savings Time, along with the workout I had on Monday morning, made me pretty darn wiped out this morning. All that being said, I sure didn’t feel like sitting around on this beautiful sunny day. I headed out to Skaneateles Lake and made it on the water by 2 pm. The docks still aren’t in over there, so be ready to deal with the concrete abutments. The water level is fairly high. The water temperature was 39 degrees over most of the lake. Only a couple rigs were in the parking lot when I arrived and by the time I left, mine was the only rig there.
What is there to say? I enjoy fishing this lake every spring right around this time of year. It’s been pretty consistent for the most part over the past few years for me with mostly yellow perch and a few smallmouth bass in the mix. Rainbow trout and landlocked salmon remain uncommon. My conditions started out promising, but within 2 hours I was dealing with a calm, glassy lake. That’s typically tough fishing here. I managed to catch a few nice perch after the lake calmed down, but it was a slow go. What I like to do when the odds aren’t good is to try to make the day productive in other ways. I was able to see the bottom in around 30 feet of water, so I spent some time motoring around slowly just looking for different features in areas I tend not to fish often. I was able to find some areas worth checking out in the future. Fish watching can be fun and I spotted loads of carp in one particular mile stretch along with some large sucker schools and very occasional perch. I was hoping to see a few trout, but that wasn’t the case. I wound up with around a half-dozen nice perch to 13″ long. I actually let go a couple of the big females. I had one smallmouth that jumped a few times, which was great to see in the 39-degree water. No discernable follows from trout, but I didn’t have time to fish too many places given my late start.
Water levels on Cayuga Lake have risen by at least 6″. That half-a-foot can make a big difference at the boat launch.