Skaneateles Lake 11/9 PM, 11/11 AM, Waneta Lake 11/10

11/9 PM Skaneateles Lake:  Fished on my own for three hours today.  I've been busy lately taking care of some odds and ends, so not a lot of fishing as of late.  The docks were still in and the water was low.  I had 54-degree water on top.  The water temps are still unseasonably warm, but they will drop quickly this coming week with the cold temperatures in the forecast.

The wind was blowing good and only a few boats were out today.  Nobody was there when I launched around 1 pm and two other trailers were there when I got back at 4:45 pm.  Fishing was very good. I wound up nabbing a few big perch, 7 or 8 nice smallmouth bass, one 18" walleye and one lake trout around the same size.  Hair jigs did most of the damage for me today.

11/10 Waneta Lake:  Got out here with regular Mark I. for a shot at muskies on the fly (as well as some gear fishing.)  It was cold out last night and we were hoping that water temperatures didn't drop too much.  The dark Waneta water was around 54 degrees.  Not too bad for a shallow lake after a cold night.  We had some cloud cover and wind to start, which gave way to clear, cloudless conditions and more wind.  Not exactly the greatest musky conditions but as many a musky fanatic has said, "the best time to go musky fishing is whenever you can," and that's what we did.  About 1/2 dozen or more boats were out here on the day - some bass fishing and some casting and trolling for muskies.

We worked a lot of our favorite areas as well as some places we rarely or never have fished.  Not much action was had. Early in our trip I mentioned to Mark how I thought it was weird that he never picks up a chain pickerel or bass when casting.  Sure enough, Mark got a good hit (on a casting lure) and set into a fish.  Our initial excitement quickly dissipated when the rod's bend relented - he had a dink pickerel!  Ouch!  Oh well.  Mark fished hard as always and got clocked in one area.  He set into a good fish (likely a decent musky) but the fish didn't stay buttoned.  Oh well - that's musky fishing.  Usually he's had great luck landing strikes.

Overall it was a beautiful day on the water with a bald eagle sighted early by Mark.  We also found some new "confidence areas" that will help us out in the future.  Water level was launchable.  Not too low, but not great either.  We had the usual foot and a half to 2 feet of water in the channel on the way out to the lake.

11/11 AM Skaneateles Lake:  The forecast looked a bit ominous for today's half-day morning guide trip.  Winds gusting to the upper 20 mph range and heavy rain moving in were being called for.  I also figured the docks would be pulled by now.  They were.  (For those interested - DEC personnel told me that Otisco Lake's docks were going to be removed today.)

One the positive side, we were looking at hurricane remnant rain moving in conjunction with the low pressure.  That usually puts fish on the feed!  And it did!  We had a stellar morning today with generally non-stop action on smallmouth bass.  Jerkbaits were the top-performer by a mile.  Hair jigs and tube jigs also produced fish.  Kevin nabbed an 18" walleye on a tube.  Drew nailed an 11" rock bass.  We had a half dozen nice perch plus the guys combined for three 16" to 18"lake trout on the jerkbaits.  It was a great multi-species day and we had some very nice 15" to 18" smallmouth bass in the mix.  It's always a lot of fun onboard with Kevin and Drew and today was no exception.