Checked on Seneca Lake's salmon today. For what it's worth, I'm pretty much done with this season's ice fishing. If it had stayed cold, I certainly would have fished Canandaigua Lake again, but with this thaw and rain in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, that was a definite "no-go." The big question for me today was "how hard or easy would it be for me to get my snowed in boat out of the driveway?". Fortunately, it wasn't a big deal.
The water level on Seneca Lake is better than it was a month ago. It's at more of a regular winter low, than at the drought level we had going into December. Water temperature was 38.5 degrees on top. Despite all the cold winter weather and single-digit lows, Seneca Lake never got below 37 degrees around the Watkins area. The wind forecasts weren't calling for an ideal salmon day weather-wise, but I wanted to get the boat out and do some scouting. I had great conditions for the first hour of my trip (I started at around 1 pm) and was getting a lot of hits from mostly 14.5" to 15.5" fish - at times it was a hit every cast. I did hook a couple of larger 20"+ fish and landed a fat 20"er on gear, before switching out to the fly-rod. These fish were looking up and in short order I landed a fat 20"er on a streamer. I had plenty of other hits too, until the wind died down and the fish scattered. Oh well!
After that, it was exploration time. I worked a stretch that I do not salmon fish often. I did not have any action. I was about to head off of the lake when I decided to try one more point. (This was with my spinning gear.) I had a hit first cast and then landed a nice 23.5" chunker that jumped a couple of times. Great fish! I had another good one follow then hooked and lost a pike in the 27" range.
Overall, the size range and numbers of salmon out on Seneca Lake this season have both been exceptional. It's as good a year for salmon fishing as I have seen out here in a long time. We'll see how the rest of the winter/spring season shapes up! Expect some 8lb-plus fish to be caught during the Memorial Weekend Derby.
