Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen 4/10 – 13

Guided two full and two half-day trips out of Watkins Glen over the past four days.  The lake remains at a low level flood stage with some debris still around - including some trees floating (in some cases, barely) in the water.  Boaters beware.  Fish are widely distributed and in general, we have had to work (that is fish) hard for them, but the lake is producing some nice fish.  Landlocked salmon, brown trout, rainbow trout, occasional lake trout and even a few northern pike have been in the mix.

Water temperatures should keep the inshore casting bite going for a few weeks longer, but how the fishing will shake out as the lake warms up remains to be seen.  Fish are feeding on both gobies and alewives.

4/10:  Today was a full-day trip with John and Rocky (who lives in Alaska!)  The trip started out slow, but within an hour or two the guys started getting into some nice fish.  We had a couple of beautiful browns today, salmon to 25"+ if I remember right, a couple of rainbows and even a laker!  Rocky wound up with a Grand Slam of all those species.  Everything was released today.  Fish came on jigs, bladebaits and stickbaits.  We had a great time and really had some terrific angling.

4/11 midday:  Today was a 1/2-day trip with Nate and his father Gary.  Nate's been a fan of this website for awhile and has fished the Finger Lakes a bit, along with the Buffalo area (including the Niagara Bar) as well.  Lake Champlain is his new home lake.  It was great hearing about those fisheries from him.  We had northwest winds forecasted and wind speeds were all over the map.  On top of that, the lake was basically at flood stage.  Fortunately, we wound up getting a perfect drift on the day with sun, and light-to-moderate north west winds.  We covered a lot of water and had some terrific fish.  Seneca Lake's browns, rainbows and landlockeds are really thriving this year.  The lake is as good, and probably much better than I've seen it.  I didn't fish it in the 1980s for trout/salmon - just perch and bass, so my timeline doesn't go back that far.

4/12:  Today was a full-day with Jim and his son Matt.  The guys both are avid anglers who fish the southern tier a lot.  It showed in their casting, lure-working abilities, patience and fish-fighting skills!  Action started out slow today after I made a long run.  Eventually some hits were had.  Within two hours of the trip, fish appeared to bite better.  Cold nights in the spring slow down the bite.  Yesterday, I felt we did very well given the cold nights we had.

Jim managed his first-ever landlocked Atlantic salmon, a 26.5"er!  Wow did that fish fight!  It did everything salmon are famous for - fast runs, crazy jumps and some wild digging!  Great fish!  Clean as a whistle too!  Matt nabbed a colorful male rainbow in one area that went 22".   We had more salmon as the day went on and Matt also landed a 28" pike.

We encountered a fair amount of debris in the lake today, including some real "lower-unit busters."  Not a good lake for bass boats to fly down at this point in time.

4/13 AM:  Today was a 1/2-day trip with Steve and Dave.  It's always great to see these guys and two years ago we had some stellar laker jigging.  Last year was brutal for us on the laker jigging, but we got some payback on day two on lower Cayuga Lake with some browns and Dave's nice salmon.  Seneca Lake made up for last year in spades with a nice steady pick of fish today, anchored by Steve's 28" rainbow!

A few dates remain open in April.  May still has some dates left.  June is currently wide-open - take your pick!  I'm expecting Seneca Lake to keep fishing well for the next two weeks or so.  I'm talking casting and fly-casting.  Lake trout jigging should be in great shape once the winds and rain subside.  I also expect some fun fishing on Keuka and Skaneateles Lakes coming up.  If I get time, I'll take a run up to Lake Ontario for some personal fishing/casting.  Canandaigua is also on my list when I pick up my other boat from winter storage.  Stay tuned...