Seneca Lake 6/20 AM + Owasco Lake 6/21

This past weekend was basically "A Tale Of Two (or perhaps Three) Lakes."  Here's the breakdown:

Seneca Lake out of Geneva 6/20:  Guided Bernie and his niece Lily and nephew Riley for a 1/2-day trip starting at 8:30 am.  They had a 3 hour plus drive to get here, hence the later start.  Our late start didn't hurt us at all, the fish didn't start biting until an hour or so after we set up.  And bite they did!  We had a terrific day with a couple of doubles hooked and numerous nice fish to 31" making it to the net.  We had one follow from a large salmon or rainbow that appeared to be around 26" to 27".  It was a stellar bite and we left them hitting.  A decent sized bass tournament was going on and we wanted to beat the bass boats in.  Waiting in line at a two ramp launch behind 30 bass boats plus people trying to launch was not how we wanted to end our day!  Fish came from 45' to 90'.  Numerous colors worked.  Great trip!

I cleaned 4 lakers for the crew - two for me and two for them.  They were full of alewives, no gobies.  These Seneca Lake lake trout are excellent eating.  They have a cleaner flavor than the Cayuga fish, which I think are good, but not on a level with the Seneca fish.  The Seneca fish are as good as Keuka/Skaneateles lakers but bigger on average!  I love these fish on the table.

Owasco Lake 6/21:  This trip was originally scheduled for Monday but after talking to Erick, we decided to bump it up to Sunday.  Having a potential inch of rain dumping on us didn't sound like a whole lot of fun.  Erick was accompanied by his 10 year old son Eliot.  We started at 7 am.  A lot of fishermen were out on Owasco Lake today with the annual South Shore Marina Derby taking place.  The sheer volume of boats did affect where we were able to fish today and when.

Fishing wasn't easy.  We wound up the day with three good lake trout, two at 27" and one slightly smaller.  Erick let Eliot fight the 2nd laker and man did it pull!  That was a great fighting fish.  The lake trout were in excellent condition.  Erick was staying with his family on Seneca Lake.  When he booked this trip, around 6 weeks ago, I felt that Owasco Lake would give us the best chance at bass and lake trout, which are what he wanted.  In hindsight, I probably would've been better off doing Seneca Lake.

We did some smallmouth bass casting with soft-jerkbaits.  I worked a lot with Eliot on casting and technique.  On his second or third cast, he had a big smallmouth bass follow in his lure and take a half-hearted shot at it.  The guys had perch following and hitting pretty consistently.  Erick also managed a big rock bass and lost a decent smallmouth.  I think a lot of smallmouths are probably still spawning.  We tried a bunch of different stretches for bass and trout and had a lot of follows from trout, but not a lot of grabs.  Perhaps a Ned Rig or dropshot would've been better for bass, but I wanted to have the guys learn one technique really well.  On the bright side, towards the end of the trip Eliot was casting great.  If the fish aren't cooperating or we can't find them, all a guide can do is help impart some tips.

Cayuga Lake generally fished good this weekend from what I heard. It is amazing how these lakes can fish so differently at the same relative point in time.