Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen 11/23 + Cayuga Lake out of Myers 11/24

Got out for a couple days in a row.  Might as well take advantage of the nice weather (relatively nice that is.)

Fished Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen on my own starting at around 11:40 am.  My main goal was to check on salmon fishing and do some fly-fishing.  I spend a fair amount of time practicing my casting during the summer and it always pays off.  I worked a long stretch of lake with what I consider to be very good conditions and never had a hit or a follow. In terms of covering water, fly-fishing might be the least effective method, but it's usually good for salmon in clear water.  After over two hours of unproductive fly-casting I went through one area again with gear (spinning tackle) a little deeper and still had no luck.

I tried another stretch with a stickbait and got hammered by a 21" salmon that was a little beat up by lampreys.  The fish had a small lamprey attached too.  I kept that salmon for dinner. It had a large alewife in its stomach.

I then had another similar sized fish hit that I missed.  I took some casts with my fly-rod and hooked up and quickly dropped another one (maybe the same fish that took the shot at my stickbait.)  It had taken a swipe at my fly and fouled itself for a few seconds.

In my next area I got hit hard and had a fish peel out a bit of line.  After a great fight I landed a 20" wild rainbow, which I released.  Beautiful dark fish!  I felt fairly lucky having what action I had.  Given that some of the top producing areas I usually fish were not productive for me, I'd rate the fishing as fair.  We'll see how the rest of the season shapes up.  Before I went in, I did find a couple perch for dinner.

Cayuga Lake out of Myers:  The water level here on Cayuga is low - it's at around 382', which is launchable but won't be for long with my boat and a passenger or two.  Had some good fishing with my friend Todd today.  We worked fairly shallow water with tube jigs and bladebaits and managed some solid, good looking lake trout, a 20"+ salmon and even a bonus pike!   Water temp was around 46/47 if I remember right.