Guided Tony and Pete for a full-day on Skaneateles Lake. They've been fishing various waterways throughout the area with mixed results. I talked to Tony and thought that Skaneateles Lake would be the best bet for them to learn. I showed them the entire lake from its north end to south end and we fished throughout. Tony is 100% fly-fishing; Peter only fishes gear. That can make for challenges as a guide! I was hoping that fish would be gobbling surface and near-surface lures but that only worked sporadically.
Tony started us off with a nice smallmouth on a topwater fly, but once the sun got up our topwater bite fizzled. I spent a lot of time helping Pete learn drop-shotting. The drop-shot fishing was excellent today and he had hits just about everywhere we fished. The most interesting moment of the day for me was when Tony cast a large fly up onto a point and was followed in by what appeared to be a couple of large walleyes! It was amazing to see walleyes follow in a large fly in a crystal-clear lake in August with a fairly high sun and not a lot of wind.
In most instances, e.g., landlocked salmon fly-fishing, I can have spin fishermen cast/fish alongside fly-anglers, with both fishing effectively. Had the fish been chasing up high today, that would have worked great. Today was tougher with a lot of switching gears. In some areas, the bass were down 20' to 30', in others, we found fish in 5' of water. Pete could get off 3 casts in the time it took for Tony's sinking line to get down; I dealt with a lot of that today. I'm happy guiding mixed fly/spin casting trips, but it's important to consider the trade offs. Had I spot-locked Tony in one area so he could be thorough with his fly-presentation for deep fish, Pete would have been making the same casts over and over again to the same areas. Two fly-fishermen can work well together if they are both good casters. One fly guy with one gear guy works, but there are a lot of trade-offs at times - today was one of those times.
The weather forecast for rain and possible thunderstorms kept boat traffic at a minimum here today. I really like guiding this lake from September through November and again from April through early June. Summer fishing can be great here, but the launch fills quickly and the lake can get crowded. All in all, a fun day and Pete told me he caught more fish today than he had all season long! In addition to bass, he also caught perch and rock bass.
