I got out over the last couple days. It was nice to have a break in the winter weather.
Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen 1/14: I was pretty psyched to hit Seneca with my fly-fishing gear for some salmon. With the nice sunny conditions and light winds it should have been a question of how many fish I would catch, not if I would catch anything. I had clear sunny skies right up until I drove down the hill into Watkins Glen, when it became overcast. On top of that, the winds were up pretty good. A good rule of thumb for fishing out of Watkins Glen is to double whatever the wind forecast is. Sometimes I forget to do that. 5 to 8 mph out of the south will usually be around 10 to 16 mph. And that's what it was.
One boat was out trolling for salmon as I motored out. It was in a productive area, so I'd guess whoever it was did well. Overall I had good fishing but poor catching today. On my first drift I encountered around 6 salmon. I had two hits in one area and a couple hits and follows in another area. One of the fish was decent. When hits don't hook up with salmon (especially repeated hits) it usually means the fish are small. That appeared to be the case. I stuck with my fly-fishing gear for the most part. Conditions were very good for pike, but I kept at the salmon without any luck. Winds got worse and a little rain fell. Cloud cover also increased. It just wasn't my day for good salmon fishing. The good news was seeing the young fish. Salmon fishing should get better in 2021 and 2022.
