Guided Joe and his friends Kevin and Larry, all of whom have been out with me quite a bit in the past. The lake trout bite has been pretty tough lately from what I gather from friends' reports. This is to be expected with spawning getting underway. I am guessing that DEC will be setting nets early next week. Usually they start on a Monday and go through Thursday - with the last day or two featuring fewer nets set. All will depend on how ripe the fish are.
We had a very solid, yet challenging day today with solid double-digits hooked and double-digits landed. It was not easy fishing and we were able to capitalize on bite-windows. We did not have any mambos but fish generally ran from 23" to 27" long. We had a few rainbow trout follow but no solid hookups from bows. The bite window started during the thermal then petered off a bit by noon. Larry had the hot hand throughout the day and caught our last fish just before we pulled up. All of the guys had decent action today, which is always nice to see. The lake level remains good. Foliage is just starting to turn. I had 68 to 69 degrees up top and laker friendly temperatures down from 85' on out. We had one fish today at 140'. A bunch of colors worked well, but Arkansas Shiner was probably the best. I have plenty of open dates - enjoy the great weather while we have it!
