Seneca Lake out of Sampson State Park 8/4 + 8/5 (AM)

Guided a full-day yesterday and a half-day trip today. Fishing was slower for us on lake trout, although we spent half of yesterday's full-day trip targeting bass.

8/4:  Guided a full-day with Mark I.  We started just after 7:30 AM targeting lake trout.  We found good numbers of fish from 120' on inwards, with some as shallow as 55'.  Fishing was slower for us today than it had been on recent trips here.  Fish were around, but not hitting very well.  Mark had some hook-ups that got off and quite a few short hits.  He wanted to keep one fish for dinner and that wasn't hard to accomplish.  He caught a now-becoming-rare wild laker as well that we let go.

Angler pressure has been going up on this lake.  I'd say there's been a small "fleet" of boats out here in the past few weeks.  We stayed away from them.  It's an odd sight after so many days out here over the past few years only seeing a couple boats fishing at most.  People are catching fish trolling and jigging.  After about 2 hours on the water with so-so lake trout fishing, I checked my electronics as we drifted shallower and marked some fish (I use standard sonar only, no live-scope or down/side imaging.)

Mark enjoyed the bass fishing here last month, so I had drop-shot equipment along.  We spent half of our day today bass fishing.  Mark had a hit in short order.  A little later, he hooked into a very solid fish!  After a great fight, I netted a 19.5" fat goby-fed smallmouth.  I'd guess that this fish was around 5lbs, but I didn't weigh it.  Mark caught a monster in B.C. last summer while on vacation, but this one was his best one caught in the U.S.!  We ping-ponged between bass and trout fishing.  In our next area, he landed a 15" smallie, and shortly thereafter, a 17.5" smallmouth.  All came dropshotting from around 20' to 30' of water.  Mark had a hit and set into what we thought was perhaps a bass around 13" and it wound up being a bullhead!  Fish love Berkely Gulp, that's for sure!

We finished our day with some lake trout fishing and Mark nabbed another.  So a bit tougher day for lakers today.

8/5 AM:  Today I guided Tim and Barbara.  This trip was a referral from guide Mark Moskal, who operates Summit To Stream Adventures, loosely based out of Watkins Glen.  I have never met Mark but he does a lot of different types of outdoor adventures including fly-fishing, fly-fishing lessons, charter fishing and all kinds of kayak/paddleboard stuff.  He's been around doing these activities for a long time.  Check out his website if you're looking for a Finger Lakes Adventure!

We had our own "adventure" today right from the get-go!  The morning thermal really was blowing today and I took my time getting across the lake so we could get somewhat out of the wind.  We had no problems finding fish today, but getting some solid hits was a challenge.  Both Tim and Barbara had hits as soon as we got fishing.  Barb had a momentary hook-up that got off as well.  We moved around a bit and she had another hook-up in warmer shallower water that was likely a brown, rainbow or salmon.  They had a great attitude, which helps me relax and focus.  We tried one of my more recent favorite areas and again, had a couple of hits and this time Tim had a hook-up that got off (some of these are smaller fish.)  Once we got our little bite window, Tim managed to nab three lakers fairly quickly.

I had one Cayuga Lake report today that featured hot fishing.  Over the years, I've noticed that Seneca's hot lake trout action tends to peak in July, and Cayuga's in August (I'm talking apart from the hot early season "deep-bite" on Cayuga.)  We had some great September/October action on Seneca Lake last season, so it's always a great option, but I'll probably start doing more Cayuga trips this month and into September.  All will depend on how the fishing continues to unfold for this season.

Seneca Lake is on the docket for DEC Region 8 Fisheries research this year.  They rotate Finger Lakes every three to four years. Cold water (lake trout) netting was just wrapped up.  I talked to the biologists running the netting in person and they reported very good to excellent numbers of fish on Seneca Lake this year.  Netting took around 2+1/2 weeks.  Most lakers ran 22" to 26" I believe.  I'll double-check on that later this fall.  Best fish at the time we spoke was around 11.5lbs.  Numbers had improved a lot in the southern third of the lake.  Excellent numbers were had mid-lake.  I expect good number in the northern third.  Lamprey wounding was low.  Natural production is currently very low on Seneca Lake.  With the large alewive population, trout thiamine levels are very low.  I'm glad Brad Hammers raised stocking numbers a few years back!  That was a good call.  This population of lake trout is building and next year I'm sure that we'll be seeing a lot more 25" to 27" fish.