Skaneateles Lake 4/14
Got out around 1 pm today and fished till almost dark – around 7:30. Days are noticeably longer now, which is very nice. It didn’t get dark until about 8 pm. I worked all over the lake and started out with the fly-rod. An olive conehead bugger produced 2 nice 21″ spawned out rainbows for me (who needs to stream fish?) and a 16″ salmon in short order. Later I switched to hairjigs and fished slow and deep. I landed some more nice fish including a 19″ bow and a couple more salmon and another bow. I kept two (out of the eight legal sized) fish and they had nothing much in their stomachs. No bonus species – which was very suprising.
Overall I’d say that the catching was very good yet the fishing wasn’t great. Huh? What I mean is that the fish were very lethargic, and I’d just feel some weight. I felt lucky catching what I caught and the fishing experience wasn’t what I’d expect given the sizes and types of fish. The fish fought decently – some nice dives and runs. No acrobatics with the cold water and no hard strikes. Fish were very non-aggressive in the 35 degree water. It was subtle stuff!
Very little angling pressure on the lake for a nice Saturday that was surrounded by poor weather forecasts. I’m glad to see that! Traffic on the roads wasn’t bad either. I think people are a little bit freaked out about the impending storm. Lake level is full-pool.