Seneca Lake out of Sampson State Park 6/16 PM

Got out here for 3.5 hours to check on the fishing and conditions.  As a guide, I have to do my homework.  A fun trip for me might be heading to Oneida Lake or Oswego Harbor just to enjoy myself and poke around.  With a year like we've been having - front after front after front, I have to keep looking for the best opportunities.  Seneca Lake was at a low flood stage last week and had a boating advisory declared by the Schuyler County Sheriff Department. Right now, the lake is about one foot above the normal "full pool" level.  Unfortunately much of the lake is still murky.  There was some small debris around Sampson, but not much.  With all of the run-off we had, there are a lot of algae clumps (Cladophora I believe) floating around.  There's also a fair amount of cottonwood seed.   The lake does not look very pleasant! I tried some pike fishing without luck.   There was next to no discernable weedgrowth around mid-lake areas.  Pike will use whatever edges and camouflage they can find, however I had no luck raising any.  There's a lot of warm water "floating around" and despite there being no thermocline yet, lake trout temperatures were all over the place, and if you wanted 48 degrees, it was down over 90' in a lot of areas.  That being said, I had a crazy young wild laker around 17" hit my jig as I was just about to pull it out of the water in about 60' of water!  That was nuts.  I thought it was a salmon, but nope, just a laker that acted like a salmon. Had it been a little larger, I would have taken it home for dinner!  Anyways it was a nice clean wild fish.  I had a few other lakers show some interest in my jigs, but not much.  My guess is that a lot of the lake trout are still up north on this lake, and given the south winds and threat of debris, I didn't venture further north than Kashong Point. Overall I'd say this lake needs a good week or more to settle in.  I hope to see some good fishing here in July for lake trout.  I purchased my season pass from Seneca Resorts and am ready to roll!