December's been a tough month to get out fishing, no question about it. I just got back from visiting my parents and brother in Phoenix so I was jonesing to get out. I fished from around 12:30 pm till 4 pm. Water temps are up around 41 degrees. The water level is average - almost as high as summer pool; the 2" of rain we got last week definitely brought the lake level up. Lots of people were out fishing today - both in boats, at Taughannock and at AES. I wasn't able to get any reports from others, but judging from the crowds I'd have to say people are getting fish. 2 years ago, there was nobody fishing AES for the most part - now it's always busy.
I hadn't jigged any lakers in a while so that's what I started with. I'd like to do a batch of chowder. I worked depths from 75' out to 180'. The most fish were very deep - around 150' to 180'. I didn't check any deeper. I got one suspended fish down around 70' over 170' and that was it. There are plenty of fish around, but they weren't very active - or at least weren't chasing what I was using. A medium sized white Lunker City Shaker did the trick on the post-spawn laker. I did some fly-casting for salmon and might have had a hit, but it also could have been debris.