Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen 10/19 PM

Got out here on my own for around 5 hours for a little pike scouting.  The water level is as low as I and many people familiar with the lake have ever seen it.  That being said, launching is still easy at Schamels at the south end.  Weed abundance varied greatly -in  some areas where I usually see good milfoil beds, there were none.  Others were better than past years.  I only caught one pike - a solid 28"er.  The good fighting fish did not look healthy.  It wasn't skinny but had a bloody tail and various lesions on it.  Perhaps it was due to the stress of the hot summer.  I don't know.  I didn't encounter any other pike, so I wasn't able to tell whether the one I caught was an anomaly.  I did have a follow on a jerkbait in one area that might have been a trout or salmon.  Nobody else was on the lake.  Water temperatures were around 57.  The south end had upper 40s when I started, which was likely due to the strong south winds we had on Sunday pushing warmer surface waters north. Open dates are as follows: October 31st November 1st, 14th - 18th, 20th - 30th December - all of this month is open