Seneca Lake out of Sampson State Park 7/24

Guided a full-day with Leo and Ada.  We fished "banker's hours" again from around 8:15 am until 4:15 pm.  Leo and Ada do not like to get up early when on vacation.   To me, I'd much rather start early on a day featuring heat indexes around 100, but we dealt with the heat today.  The breeze from the south, and then the west helped a lot.  The late start did not help us today, frankly it hurt us.  We had a good bite from the get-go with Ada losing a decent fish not far from the net, and then it was all Leo who managed to land 5 nice lakers, aka his limit.  And that was it!  We covered a lot of lake today and there were plenty of lakers available on both sides of the lake roughly from Long Point north to Geneva.  After 11 am, they were pretty much lockjawed.  We did an hour of drop-shotting up north for bass, fishing an area I hadn't bass fished in ages, or ever drop-shotted.  Leo lost a fat, gorgeous smallmouth bass in short order and had a few other hits, which was encouraging.  Keep an eye on this lake for bass! One question that pops up a lot, and that I've been answering from clients is, "What lake is fishing best right now?"  There is no good answer to that.  The main lakes I guide for laker jigging -Cayuga, Owasco and Seneca, more or less in that order of frequency, are all fishing halfway decently. The greatest potential for a tremendous day would be on Seneca Lake - it had the most fish although most are younger, running on average 22" to 25".  The greatest potential for getting skunked or having a tough day is also Seneca Lake!  Making a move can take a while.  You might deal with three-footers on the north end or at Sampson just from the morning thermal.  Water plateaus are massive.  You might have to fish 120' of water in one area and 55' in the next or in the same area on consecutive days.  It's not kid's stuff as far as easy laker jigging on a day to day basis.  It fishes large as my guide friend Kurt says. Owasco Lake is smaller and easier to cover.  If you aren't getting them on one side of the lake, you can fish the other - same with ends of the lake.  Bonus rainbows (and smallmouth bass) this time of year are the rule, rather than the exception.  We encounter nice rainbows pretty much every trip this time of year.  This lake has the most trophy potential of any Finger Lake to some extent - and I know Skaneateles and Canandaigua have coughed up some huge lakers over the years.  But Owasco Lake has no lampreys and tons of baitfish.  Can't beat that.   There are fair to good numbers of browns in this lake over 10lbs and some pushing 15!  It can also be tough, like anywhere.  It fishes small. Cayuga Lake for its size fishes fairly somewhat small.  It's not a hard lake to get a grasp on compared to Seneca.  There are relatively few vast flats and shelves.  Seneca has MASSIVE shelves and flats.  Cayuga Lake has plenty of baitfish and good lamprey control.  However it's been getting the worst algae blooms. Right now, Cayuga Lake has 3' to 4' of visibility in most areas.  It's been halfway decent.  Beaches are now open at Taughannock State Park.  Seneca Lake has been good this morning - much better than yesterday morning.  Owasco Lake was good, not great yesterday.  So it's a roll of the dice as well as personal preference regarding where to fish between these three lakes. July 31st is the only opening I have left in July.  I still have good openings in August and plenty in September.