Took the two-hour drive today over to Canandaigua Lake for another 1/2-day ice-fishing excursion. I'm 60 years old, and this lake has only frozen in its entirety a handful of times during my adult life. I'm guessing it froze around 2015/16, 1979 and maybe a time or two that I'm forgetting. It's the fourth largest Finger Lake, behind (in order,) Seneca, Cayuga and Keuka Lakes. Keuka Lake tops out around 180 feet deep, so it freezes more often than Canandaigua. Owasco Lake also tops out around that depth. Canandaigua, which is similar in size, depth and shape to Skaneateles tops out at 276'. Skaneateles hits 300'. So the bottom line is, who knows when I'll have a chance to ice-fish this lake again?
I took the southern route to get to the lake, going through Watkins Glen and Penn Yan and then around the southern end of Canandaigua. The Woodville fishing launch was pretty packed with ice-fishermen. There were parking spots available, but I was very impressed with the numbers of anglers out there. Reportedly, there's around 11" of ice. Guys are targeting lake trout. The launch area is along a very shallow flat and you have to walk a ways north to get out to lake trout water for this time of year.
I had never been to Onanda Park but had heard about it for over a decade. It was apparently a YWCA camp and then the town (I think) acquired it. It still has the old camp buildings and it still functions as a camp. There's a boat launch there which is only open in the winter when launching isn't possible from the massive launch at the north end of the lake. It's situated right on a point, and you're in 100' of water with not much more than a stone's throw. Canandaigua is the only Finger Lake I've ever seen, where there is a lake house with a diving board mounted right off of the shore, as opposed to the end of a dock!
There's a ton of money on this lake! Danny Wegman and his ex-wife (or wives) have places here. Tom Golisano, founder of PayChex I believe has a place here. Marvin Sands - who own Constellation Brands, an alcohol-based conglomerate with notable brands Corona Beer and Robert Mondavi Wines (which are top-notch California wines,) owns a literal castle on this lake, maybe two miles south of Onanda Park. His name is featured prominently in the concert venue CMAC here. There are also plenty of other wealthy people on this lake. You're not living here unless you're at least in the top 1% of earners. Gone are the days when it was predominantly sportsmen and people with young families who would buy cottages on the local lakes. Now lake houses for many people are places to race around on jet skis and "performance boats", show off wealth, entertain family and friends and enjoy wine and charcuterie while watching the sunset. That being said, people are protective of their docks and boat houses here, so there are bubblers all over the place in order to prevent ice formation. That can make things tricky!
A friend of mine works nearby and last week told me there was around 5" of ice on the lake off of Onanda. I probably had 6". People had been getting some lakers here. I arrived around 1 pm and was fishing by 1:30 pm. A couple of anglers were working the area nearby and one of them filled me in on how things were going and what depths were productive. I set up and within maybe 45 minutes after drilling 3 or 4 holes, scored on my first ice fished Canandaigua laker. It was around 24" and a challenge to fight and get through my 6" hole. If we see some more brutal winters, I'll definitely get an 8" auger, but for my purposes these days, the 6" is doing alright. I worked out to over 175' without any definite signs of fish. Lakers winter notoriously deep in this lake and I really wanted to get out further, but I thought that with the sun getting lower, there might be a decent shallow bite. The guys I'd met earlier, had slow but steady fishing shallower so I moved back to the hole that I nabbed my first fish in, and on my first drop, nabbed another. After that, I gave it 30 more minutes and called it a day as it started to get dark.
Both fish were clipped and one of them had a well-digested alewife in its stomach. Conditions don't look good for much more ice-fishing on this lake this week. I may be done for the season with it now. We'll see. But with all the bubblers, mini-tributaries all over the lake and warm temperatures along with some rain in the forecast, it'd be pretty crazy coming back out here. Fun day and I hit my fish on plastics. I was also happy to have 12lb. Seaguar Invis-X flourocarbon leaders and was able to get the fish out of the holes without breaking the line.
