As I write this, we're looking at the first major winter storm that we've had in quite a while coming through tomorrow. All of this snow, once it melts will help get our lake levels back up to normal after last summer and fall's drought. This website is working well, although my green tags at the bottom of my reports have temporarily disappeared. They are good ways to cross-reference species. I have updated the lakes and species pages. There wasn't anything to change on the more off-beat species that I don't target much, but our main targets in the Finger Lakes have been updated to reflect recent observations. Lake pages have also been updated although I didn't have much to add to Canandaigua. I did not add any new photos to the lakes or species pages, but if this winter stays pretty brutal, I'll likely do so! I also have a tremendous backlog of old photos going way back to when I started guiding in 2005. Occasionally I'll add some of those to some of the old reports in the "archives," especially if they're noteworthy fish or days (like pulling the kayaker out of Keuka Lake way back when, or catching a sturgeon on Cayuga.)
Moving forward - the Rochester Boat Show is this coming week - from Thursday through Sunday. I'll be there with Silver Lake Marine Friday afternoon and from around 11 am until 7 pm or so on Saturday. I'm sure glad the show wasn't this weekend!
Rates will stay the same in 2026 for my trips. I'm tallying up my numbers from this year and surprisingly, I only did one guided trip on Skaneateles Lake this year. I know that's a record for me. I used to do upwards of 10 to 15 or more trips there a year and in recent years around 5 to 10. I'm not optimistic about tiger musky prospects on Otisco Lake going into 2026 (that's explained on both my tiger musky page and my Otisco Lake page.)
This is the year for salmon on Seneca Lake and browns on Cayuga Lake. I expect good browns on Cayuga Lake throughout the summer. 2027 should be even better! Seneca Lake's fishing just keeps getting better and better and I think it'll be a great year over there. Owasco Lake is also really coming on for lakers, browns and rainbows. Keuka Lake will be a big question mark in a lot of ways with round gobies now found there as the result of an illegal introduction. Lake Ontario should be interesting too. There was terrific, way above average King salmon fishing there in 2023 and 2024, but 2025 was much slower. Jigging was very tough! I thought perhaps weather patterns (like the crazy cold and winds in April and May) had the Kings out deep or in Canadian waters, but returns to Salmon River were just fair from what I heard. This winter has been a brutal one in terms of cold and that could really set back Lake Ontario's alewife hatch and overall alewife population.