Finger Lakes (NY) report
I recently had a chance to return to my family's cottage on "The Keuka", one of the beautiful Finger Lakes in Central/Western New York. Though most of my trips back there as a kid were in the summertime, I have learned to appreciate the solitude and amazing fishing opportunities of springtime there. It had been eight years since my last trip back there, so I was really looking forward to it. It's a special place of beauty and many good memories for me.
This year, spring was a few weeks late in coming. The region had received tons of rainfall,and lake levels were very high. This time of year, bass (both largemouth and smallmouth), are normally be accessible in the shallow waters right in front of my cottage. But due to colder than usual temps, there were not in yet. Not having a boat presented a challenge. Most locals had not even put in their boats for the season yet.
After a couple of sunny days, I started to see a few largemouth cruising the shallows from dock to dock. But they were extremely skittish in the clear water, and I was only able to fool a couple of them.
With the LMB not quite ready to play, I amused myself by catching countless yellow perch and the odd pickerel on my 5wt off the end of my dock, some of which were quite chunky. But I knew that that wasn't going to satisfy me for long.
A quick web search solved that problem, and I found a great local guide in John Gaulke, of Finger Lakes Angling Zone. I could tell from his posts on a few of the forums devoted to fishing central and western NY, that John had great knowledge of multiple species and techniques that work them. John advised me that if I wanted smallmouth, we'd better head up to the extreme northern end of the lake, where warmer water could be found.
My brother Pete and I joined John on his 18ft Crestliner out of Penn Yan, and started off in an area known for for holding larger northern pike. We didn't find the pike, but a few pickerel came to the boat for my brother. Water temps were around 52 to 54 degrees and the weed beds were just tufts on the bottom. A mild breeze from the north was blowing, and air temps were in the low 50's as well.
With no pike showing up, we quickly shifted gears, and started a drift along the shoreline concentrating on creek mouths for smallies. The bass were on drop-offs in deep water, and not active shallow. I found fish from 15' to 30' or more, and my deepwater presentation (a la Striper fishing) worked very well. Long casts with olive over white Clouser Deep Minnows and Larry's Minnows fished on an 250 grain integrated shooting head did the trick. John hadn't seen anyone employ this technique so successfully before, and thanked me for putting on a fly-fishing clinic.
This was a day of quality, not quantity. I ended up with around 10 very solid smallmouth bass in the 3-4lb range, with my largest being a 4lb 3oz fish just under 20". I hooked, fought, and lost an even bigger one right at the boat. When it came up and rolled at the surface we thought it was a big carp or channel catfish. The smallies were almost all brutes. My top 3 fish all measured over 19". My gear-fishing brother didn't fare nearly as well. He ended up with a few perch, a couple small largemouth, and one huge pickerel - a 28" fish - the largest I've seen in a while. All in all, a great day.
Storms blew through for the next two days, but as soon as they passed, I was itching to get back on the water.
I called John again, and he recommended we head over to neighboring Seneca Lake to try for landlocked Atlantic Salmon. The conditions were prime for them, and Seneca holds some beauties. I'd never fished for salmon on the Finger Lakes, so this was going to be a new experience for me.
We launched out of Watkins Glen in calm, foggy, rainy conditions. Water temps ranged from 49 to around 53. The creek mouth at the end of the lake is another known area to connect with pike, as well as salmon when the wind drives baitfish into the area. Unfortunately for us, this was a rare windless day on Seneca - a lake that normally is best described as "Victory at Sea".
I was able to catch my first northern pike on fly, a very small fish.
I also had a bump that resulted in an impaled lamprey on my fly. John explained that this was a sure sign of a Salmon, as they often often roll over the flies when hitting them and wind up foul-hooking themselves. In this case, the lamprey that was attached to the salmon got hooked in the process. I felt good about ridding a salmon of a pest.
We headed up the lake, stopping on a couple creek mouths where picturesque waterfalls were flowing. We encountered some smaller salmon who were skittish in the crystal clear, glassy-calm water - and could not get them to go. But the scenery was sure amazing!
We ended up at Glenora, where my father had spent his summers as a kid. He used to tell my brother and I about all the huge smallmouth he pulled out of the creek there.
John trimmed his motor all the way up and took us us the little creek a ways to see if we could find any smallies. We were pleased to find there were still there. My brother and I landed around a dozen smallies from 10" -14".
I also ended up getting a new species on fly - a bullhead, no less.
Finally, the winds came up as was forecast, and the salmon got a little more aggressive. We found a stretch of shoreline that held good numbers of salmon. My brother and I had several follows and hits from smaller salmon, but they still weren't committing. The wind picked up a little more, and weed lines started to form. I cast a bionic smelt-pattern along the weedline and it got slammed as soon as it hit the water. Soon I had an acrobatic salmon leaping several feet out of the water repeatedly. I wound up landing a 24 1/2" beauty that weighed 5lbs. 6oz. Not bad for my first salmon, and what a great fight!
I landed another 17" fish and by that time it was time to go. Storms were threatening the area, and we ended up getting dumped-on. But we could have cared less...
The next day we grilled up the salmon I caught, and fed five people. It was a great way to put a bow on a great trip. I left knowing that I had to return again soon. Fall is another great time to be in the finger lakes, and I am strongly considering going back then.
If anyone gets a chance to visit the Finger Lakes region of central NY, and you want to do some fishing, I would highly recommend you look up John Gaulke. He is a great guide, who truly loves what he does, and it shows.
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Originally Posted by tailsup1
