Cayuga Lake out of Myers Park 9/1 (AM), 2; Seneca Lake out of Sampson State Park 9/3 AM

I got off to a good start with September guiding, despite some rocky weather conditions.

9/1 AM:  Guided Mark and his friend Rich for a 1/2-day trip.  We started at 8 am, due to rainy conditions and possible storms in the area.  We had to deal with some weird currents in the area I started us off in, so we wound up moving around.  The morning featured a somewhat slow pick of fish until 11 am.  Once the sun came out, the fish really started to bite well and I got busy with the net!  We had a nice rainbow give us an acrobatic routine before it threw Mark's jig!  That fish really put the bow on the trip, pun intended.  The guys originate from Austin Texas and were really knocked out by the beauty and amenities of the region, as well as the fishing.  That's what it's all about in the Finger Lakes - there's some of the splendor that you'd expect with more remote lakes as well as the ability to target relatively uncommon species (like landlocked salmon), all within an area full of natural beauty, world-class colleges, restaurants and more.   There's nothing like it anywhere in the world from what I gather.

9/2:  Today was Day 1 of two scheduled trips with Dominiek, his son Herbert and Herbert's father in-law Doug.  The weather forecast was very ominous today with chances of some strong storms coming through - mainly forecast for noontime.  Next to nobody was out - there was one other trailer at the launch and it was a researcher doing some hydrilla surveying.  There was a strong south wind blowing to start.  With today's radar technology, it's pretty easy to mark the progress of developing storms and fronts moving through.  I spent a good portion of the morning checking the weather map.  Fishing wasn't easy to start.  Doug had the first hookup which got off.  He then hooked another laker that made it to the net.  By that time, storms were approaching, so we had to get closer to Myers/Taughannock in case we needed to take shelter.  We saw some distant lightning and I started getting an ominous feeling as we became enveloped by clouds, so we ran back to Myers, tied off the boat and took a break for around 45 minutes to an hour.  The guys were able to get a bite to eat.  I did the same around one of the shelters at the park

We had some good fortune - the front blew through after maybe a 1/2 hour of heavy rain and some lightning.  Condition got calm and the storms were all to the east.  We were good to go.  I made a good run and the guys started getting into some good fish.  A few were dropped including a nice rainbow Doug hooked.  Dom landed a big laker and a good 25" rainbow!  The wind cranked up again and we made another move.  Other lakers got off right up until the end of the day.

All in all, a challenging day but we wound up with a respectable number of fish in the cooler and a fair number of lost fish too.  Part of it was the funky bite.

9/3 AM:  Today I met Dominiek and Herbert at Sampson State Park just after 7:30 am.  Originally Doug and Herbert were going to fish together and we were going to target some lakers and smallmouth bass, but Doug had a momentary set-back, so Dominiek joined us.  He was first out with me back around 2011 or so out on Seneca Lake, so he was familiar with it.  He's part of the same crew that I had on board that pulled the kayaker out of Keuka Lake in April of 2015 or 16.  Herbert lost a bunch of lakers yesterday, so we decided to give them a good go.

Fishing wasn't hot and heavy today, but it was fair with good moments at times.  Very few anglers were out first thing, although we saw a few boats as the day progressed.  The guys wound up landing a 1/2-dozen good fish up to over 28".  In the 2000s and early 2010s, that was a limit of lakers, but since that time, the number limit has been increased to 5 per person. Because my guiding originated during the 3-fish laker limit, I still feel that a half-dozen good lakers for 2 guys is a decent half-day.  I like to see more, but 6 is better than 5.  A friend fished a different part of the lake and reported somewhat slow action as well, so it was a lake-wide phenomenon, not necessarily us just not being in the right place at the right time.

My availability remains good at this point in time for the remainder of the season!  Fishing remains good and should get better as the weather stabilizes.