Skaneateles Lake 7/10 + Seneca Lake out of Lodi 7/11
7/10 Skaneateles Lake: Guided Joe and his 10 year old son William for a 1/2 day on the second day of our two day fishing excursion. I had the guys throw tubes and Superflukes to start, though with the weather pattern (or just our experience) the bite was slow to start in the shallows. They landed a few fish including some rockbass and a solid perch, along with some undersized smallmouths. I could see that this wasn’t going to be the best way to go, so I had the guys fish some dropshot rigs. Action improved with Joe landing a couple solid smallmouths to around 17″ along with some more rockbass. I actually met Joe at a concert around 3 or 4 years ago and it’s always a treat having him and especially his son William aboard. Will does some great impressions far beyond his years! Water temps were around 70/71 and things went well at the parking lot with the anglers clearing out just as the pleasure boaters showed up.
7/11 Seneca Lake: Someday down the line when I write my book, I will certainly thank the clients like Greg (from today) that have enabled me to experiment on new patterns and techniques with them! It’s a gamble, but the rewards can be high. We were after brown trout on the jig today. Like Scott from earlier in the week, Greg crushed the browns out with me a couple years ago on Cayuga, so he knew what the potential was here.
Things started well around 6 am with some browns crashing bait on the surface near the launch. Greg had a follow from a 20″ to 22″er. Working other areas resulted in some grabs and follows (likely from lakers and smallish salmon respectively.) In one area, Greg had a big brown follow him. He slowed his jig and the fish grabbed it! Game on! The fish dug underneath the boat, ran upfront and then came up for the big jump! Then Greg’s heart sank as the jig came flying back sans brown trout. He was stoked, however, and this brown goes on the list of lost fish to be remembered for a lifetime. We had a good look at it and it was likely 7 to 8lbs or better. He later had another solid brown follow him along with some salmon. BTW – Angling Zone friend/past client Al reported a steady all-day bite on lakers at Geneva today.