Reports

Did what wound up being a 6-hours guided trip today with Bob and his friend Matt.  The guys joined me (along with Bob’s father) for a great vertical jigging trip back in late-August.  Today the guys were looking forward to trying Seneca Lake for the first time, as well as having a chance at some landlocked salmon.  We had some very good conditions for late-December – highs in the upper-40s to perhaps 50 degrees, winds out of the southeast at around 7 to 10 mph and some sun, although it was mostly cloudy today.

We got off to a good start with some salmon encounters in short order.  A lot of fish were around – mostly smaller ones running 12″ to 14.5″, but we also had bigger fish showing up for the lures.  Matt nabbed the first (sublegal) fish, but also caught a nice 17.5″ salmon that the guys kept for dinner.  Bob hooked a nice fish that fought well!  Was it a salmon?  Nope, it wound up being a beautiful wild Seneca Lake rainbow trout around 18″ that he released.  It did have a couple of lamprey marks, but seemed to have recovered.  We worked areas uplake and Bob switched out his leader to 4lb test and worked a favorite “finesse” jig of his.  He hooked a large fish and after a good bit of running and dogging, he landed a lake trout around 24″/25″.  It was in around 20′ to 25′ of water, probably feasting on gobies.  Some more small salmon were caught as well throughout the day.  We had a lot of action today in terms of hits and follows.  We saw one other boat out, and one group of duck hunters – that was in for the day.

After 6-hours on the water, Matt got a bit sick, likely due to a convenience store breakfast item.  On top of that, I was getting a lot of water in my bilge, likely due to some hoses that need to be refitted/replaced.  I ran my pump all day, and kept getting water in.  I have an idea regarding what’s causing it, but it will likely sideline me for the month of January at the very least.  Once we get a good thaw after the Rochester Boat Show, I’ll pull my 2020 boat out of storage and let Silver Lake Marine do some needed work on my 2013 rig.  There are a few other things I want done, so the late-winter/early-spring will be a good time to get things ready.  Looks like we’ll be in for a deep freeze in January for the foreseeable future!