Guided Mike for a full-day trip starting just after 7:30 am. Post-Labor Day fishing is underway! Our uncrowded waters are even LESS crowded now and today we had the lake pretty much to ourself, apart from a couple other fishing boats, a working boat and a couple of pontoons - that was it for the full 8-hour day! Fishing was in top-notch form today - Mike had large lakers on consecutive drops in the AM. He dropped the best one after the line broke! This was not a knot-failure, just a broken line. Fish today averaged 27" long and ran to over 29".
The rainbow trout were really the story of the day. The action was spectacular with Mike (unfortunately) dropping 6 beautiful bows! He got a big thrill out of all of them, as did I. We had gorgeously colored fish jumping at least 2' out of the air on numerous occasions. They were 'tackle busting rainbows" - no cliches intended, that's what they were. The fish looked like perfectly colored fall steelhead (which is basically what they are, since Finger Lakes rainbows may have originated from steelhead stocks from California,) not only in coloration, but SIZE! These were large rainbows and I'm sure some big ones will be weighed in at the Barney/Bear's Derby this weekend. But they had nice pinkish/red stripes, some silver, some green and some blue - we both were hoping to get at least one big one in for a photo, but it wasn't to be. Either way, the memories are certainly burned into our minds!
Water temperature is around 71 to 72 on top. Fish came from 85' out to over 120'. Money Minnows did the trick today, although we had fish on black and Arkansas Shiner, as well as white/chartreuse tail. Solid double-digit day with some big fish lost! I think the New Moon phase contributed to the hot fishing. Seneca Lake was also good yesterday evening and today from reports I had, after a slower early part of the week both here and on Seneca. Looks like a few northern pike are showing on Seneca. I'll be checking things out there soon once we get some cooler weather.
My schedule remains open for trips. It's also prime-time for Skaneateles Lake smallmouth bass, and I usually start seeing walleyes this month (fishing the way we fish - no trolling or night fishing.)
