Skaneateles Lake 5/9
Got out on my own today at noon. Worked some N. end areas for bass and trout. Landed one smallmouth on a jig up there. Water temps were in the low 40s. Water levels are very high. Warmest water was on the west shore N. of the launch, but I didn’t fish it. Worked further downlake, hoping for some perch. I landed a couple decent ones and marked a good sized school, but had trouble working my jigs in the wave action and deep water. I was too lazy to rig any bottom/heavy rigs today, so I did the best I could. I was pleasantly surprised to catch a fair number of chunky smallmouth bass today, mostly running 15″ to 16″ on jigs. I used MTO 1/4 oz. olive/green bucktails. (Bill Alexander doesn’t just pour my laker jig heads – he makes some great bass/walleye jigs!)
Pretty tough fishing overall. Just before I left at around 7 pm I hooked a very nice fish in fairly deep water. I thought it was a big laker at first, but caught some glimpses of silver. After some drag-peeling runs and back-reeling, I netted a thick bodied picture perfect rainbow around 23″. It nailed a tube jig. Great fish and it’s still swimming out there. Rainbows appear to be moving away a bit from shoreline areas. I had one other follow of a rainbow. I fly-fished around 2 hours for them with no hookups.
Things seem to be around 2 weeks behind on Skaneateles Lake. I expect excellent mixed bag fishing there over the next 2 to 3 weeks. Lakers, rainbows, salmon, bass, rock bass, pickerel and perch – they’ll all be in the mix!