Skaneateles Lake 8/25 + Seneca Lake out of Sampson State Park 8/26

Got out on my own for around 6-hours on Skaneateles Lake yesterday and guided a 7 hour day on Seneca Lake today.  Here's the breakdown:

8/25 midday on Skaneateles Lake:  Today I got underway just before 10 am with some bass gear and a few walleye rods in tow.   I get asked a lot about walleye trips here and I continue to experiment with different methods to see if I can get anything consistent going.  For someone who doesn't troll, the most consistent casting on a super-clear lake like this one would be nighttime casting, which is not something I would do (except on rare occasions) or guide for.  So I try different locations and methods.  Thus far, I've had some consistent success in April/early May with jigs and from mid-September to the end of October on dropshots and jerkbaits.

I tried some deeper running lures today as well as some bass gear.  I caught a lot of bass, but most were small, which is common right after a front blows through (which is what happened today.)  No walleyes.  I did catch a bunch of rock bass and one small perch.  I did not venture offshore or look for suspended fish, which is probably where most of the walleyes are, unless they are lethargically laying on the bottom waiting for nightfall.  I figure that some walleyes will be in shore chasing rockbass, perch and crayfish.  I had the lake pretty much to myself today which was awesome.  I'll be back!

8/26 Seneca Lake out of Sampson State Park:  Today I guided Bruce, who joined me on various trips over the past two years.  He informed me that his wife loves eating the Seneca Lake lake trout and she was hoping he'd go out and catch some more!  So that's what we did.  I also brought some bass gear as a diversion.

We had a terrific day today with some very good and solid fishing throughout the entire trip.  The average laker this season on Seneca Lake has been running 22" to 26" long.  Today we found the bigger boys and gals!  He caught a superbly-fighting 31"+ laker as well as a couple around 28".  He kept a few around 23" to 27".  I reminded him that he could keep five trout/salmon total.  He was hoping for a salmon, brown or rainbow as the fifth fish and sure enough, he got whacked on bottom in around 75' of water by a fish that was fighting more frantically!  The silvery rainbow jumped on the opposite side of the boat and fought great.  I slipped the net under the 23"+ fin-clipped rainbow and he had his limit.

I had him do some drop-shotting for bass and he picked up a couple fat smallmouths.  Later on we went back to vertical jigging and the fish were still hitting.  He landed another good laker and dropped a couple.  We knocked off an hour early so he could take care of some tasks at home.  Great day with perfect weather!