Seneca Lake out of Sampson State Park 8/20 + 21 AM Trips

After a nearly two-week break from Seneca Lake, it felt good to be back here.  Here's the breakdown:

8/20 AM:  Guided Jake, his son Jason and friend Trevor for a 1/2-day trip starting at 7:30 am.  Last time I was out here, there were a lot of boats out.  Not many were out today.  At the launch I saw a couple of guys launching a nice wrapped bass boat - upon closer scrutiny I recognized BASS Pro John Crews.  I met John a good decade ago over at Union Springs during an Elite Series event held on Cayuga Lake.  He was a great guy to talk to then, and he was great yesterday.  The Elites were on Lake Champlain last week and had a good week off before the final Elite Series event of this season on the St. Lawrence River.  They were curious about the smallmouth bass fishing on Seneca Lake.  I wish I'd had more time to chat with him - he's a super-astute angler and one of the best around.

Given that I hadn't been out on Seneca in two weeks, we wound up working around a good portion of the lake.  We had some fish around just about everywhere we looked.  Each of the guys dropped a fish.  I should have had Jake's in my net - he did everything great and had the fish up top, but Trev had dropped his rod on the deck and the jig was somewhat wrapped around my legs.  By the time I straightened that out, unfortunately the fish was off.  It was around 22" or so.

We went a few hours without much apart from a couple of tail-grabs.  The fish were around but not hitting well.  At around 9:45 or so, we made a move and found more fish.  We had a couple more missed fish.  A client friend was fishing the area and he saw us in the distance.  He reported a good bite in the AM.  (Later on he nabbed a landlocked salmon jigging.)  Anyhow, things weren't looking good and then Jake hooked up again!  As I was trying to net his fish, Jason hooked up!  As I netted Jason's fish, Trevor hooked up!  That was the first time in over 20 years of guiding and well over 2500 trips that I've ever had a day go from nothing onboard after 3 hours, to a consecutive triple!

After that, we had some solid fishing over the next hour and change.  It wound up being a solid day and one to remember!

As I've mentioned before, I think these Seneca Lake fish are superb on the table.  They are better tasting than the Cayuga Lake fish.  The Cayuga Lake fish don't have what some people would describe as a "fishy" taste, but what anglers in the 1800s described as a "vegetative taste."  Fishermen in the late-1800s noticed that Seneca and Canandaigua Lake lake-trout tasted better than Cayuga fish.  They attributed the flavor difference to the mineral content on the aforementioned lakes.  Cayuga Lake always had a lot of wetlands (aka swamps) around it, so anglers may have felt that the weedy areas imprinted that flavor on the lake's inhabitants.  Interesting theory!  I enjoy Cayuga Lake's trout, but I think the Seneca ones taste superior.  Kate, the new Region 7 Biologist who manages Seneca and Keuka Lakes, likes the Seneca fish, but prefers the Keuka Lake fish.  I can't argue with her.  The Skaneateles fish are right there with the Keuka fish.  The only ones I haven't tried in the Finger Lakes are the Canadice and Hemlock lake trout.  I have to believe that they are probably excellent as well.

I just had a text from Spencer, who was out with me in mid-July.  Here's what he said:

 John, I just wanted to pass on that we have really enjoyed eating the lake trout.  It's been superb.  We've tried it a lot of different ways grilling it, baking it,           cooking it, Cajun fish stew recipe and it's been awesome.  

8/21 AM:  Today I had out Jim, who'd been emailing me on occasion going back at least 6 years ago (we hadn't been able to coordinate a date) and his friend Bob.  They had never been out on Seneca Lake before and wanted to give it a shot.  They certainly picked the right day!  Yesterday's running around gave us a good idea of where to go today. The fishing started out promising and just got better and better.  We cut the trip after 4 hours pretty much on the nose.  They were into double-digits within 2 hours of our start and the fish kept biting throughout the rest of the trip.  We had some doubles as well - fish ran to 28" and we had a flurry of wild lake trout in the mix.  One big rainbow followed up Bob's swimbait, so that was pretty cool.  Killer morning!  I would be remiss if I didn't mention both anglers excellent ability to hook, fight and land the fish.  That made a big difference today!  Reports from Cayuga Lake were excellent this morning as well, so it's likely the weather pattern.  Let's hope it sticks around!

Next week remains open for trips!  I postponed my Sunday trip, which was a full-day with some folks making a long drive - we didn't want to chance the iffy forecast.  It may wind up being a great day, since these forecasts change quickly.  I have a lot of fishing on my own I plan on doing if next week remains open.  Stay tuned!