Skaneateles Lake 5/23
Did a full day with Chris and Mike, who’ve been fishing with me since my first year guiding. It was an awesome day on the lake with pretty much everything hitting except our target species – big carp (just kidding.) The guys worked my home tied jigs in 4′ to 25′ of water and landed at least a couple dozen nice smallmouth bass (incl. around 4 to 5 in the 18″ to 19″ 3.75 to 4lb. range), at least a dozen jumbo perch (from over 12″ up to almost 15″!), a nice 20″ laker, a 21″ rainbow and 3 legal landlocked salmon from 17″ up to 21″. Other trout/salmon were missed and one nice salmon lost. It just doesn’t get much better. The beautiful thing about fishing this time of the year is the mystery involved – any cast with a jig can produce just about any species of fish that swims in the lake; the water temps are amenable to most species. I would expect and hope this fishing will hold up for another week or two. Perch are in the serious spawn mode, with pre-spawn, spawn and post-spawn fish hitting. Bass are in their pre-spawn feeding mode. Water temps ranged from 45 to 49 degrees – it’s still darn cold water!
I’ve got a ton of photos of this season’s catches ready to upload, but I need to find a good resizer program for Microsoft Vista. There are also some prime dates still available this month – I have May 26th, 28, 30 and 31 available for half or full days, and I can squeeze in 1/2 days on the afternoons of 25th and 27th (on Cayuga) if interested. The weather forecast is looking good! If I don’t book my open days, I’m planning on checking on Otisco Lake for Tigers, Oneida Lake for walleye, drum and bowfin and possibly Sodus Bay/L. Ontario for drum/bass- so it’s a “win-win situation” for me 😉 Stay tuned for full reports! I also need to get out to the northern flats of Cayuga to check on laker action, which I expect to be good to excellent.