Sk8man

As far as I know Seneca has only frozen completely a couple times since the late 1800's. I think the last time was about 1976 or 77. It is a very deep lake with a lot of undercurrents so it takes a lot to freeze up even sections of it at the extreme ends of the lake where it is shallower. Usually extreme cold coupled with low to no wind for a while where it may freeze up for a few hundred yards from the ends of the lake. It also depends on whether they are pulling water down the Seneca River at the north end of the lake and that area of the canal near the yacht club can be quite dangerous as the ice can vary greatly in thickness even a few feet from where there may be "safe" ice. Prior to the new marina being installed at Sampson ice fishing occurred there too.

Already sent my Seneca diary in to DEC so have to wait a bit to answer that. but I don't have a vested interest in painting a rosy picture either. Take a look at the derby results numbers-wise and it tells a lot more than my diary entries too which have been way down last few years from years past. Admittedly, I don't fish it as frequently as in the past when I lived right in Geneva. The opinions I have expressed are just that....opinions and I don't necessarily have the market share on accuracy

I too hope for the best as Seneca is and always has been my "favorite" lake. It is encouraging to hear about healthy pike as for quite a while they seemed as though were in short supply with the radically changed weed availability. Hopefully a good balance can be maintained between the predator/prey relationship with the perch population. I don't believe they have treated for the lampreys in back to back years but I sure hope the DEC steps up their efforts to reduce their activity. I also hope that environmental conditions (i.e. Mother Nature) affects the ancillary smaller streams along the lake shore on both sides of the lake by not having sufficient water flow to support the lamprey larvae as they aren't treated, but this is complicated by the fact that young fish also inhabit some of them that maintain water flow during the summer/fall. The deltas in front of the streams are potentially the major problem though. On the bright side despite the fact that Seneca is so deep and large it does gradually cycle the water over time down through the Seneca River as it is not "locked up" like some other lakes or ponds helping in a "come back". Cayuga seems to have done it so lets hope this is a good start

My above comments were directed at the overall lake fishery as contrasted with many previous years, and not with respect to a single species or particular location.

Yes I have fished this lake since the early 60's and the past few years the trout fishing has been off from things in the past. There has been a lot of fishing pressure on the perch especially at the north end so it is very different as well. Bass fishing is very off and on out here especially with the water clarity for much of the year and there have been some die-offs that I think affected the fishing. As with the other Finger lakes the Zebra mussels have messed up the food chain. With that said there are some decent lakers and rainbows if you are very familiar with the lake itself. Brown trout are few and far between but there are some big ones when they are caught. One of my friends who is a guide has had some good success jigging for lakers out fairly deep in the Fall and caught some real nice ones. The south end can be decent through the ice when it is safe enough to get out on but sometimes it isn't thick enough to get to the spots where you wish to be and the water can be gin clear under the ice making the fish spook easily when you do find them (mostly perch and gills). The chain pickerel are very heavily populated right now in the lake which adds to the problems with the perch fishing.

There are a few hearty souls that fish it by boat mostly for perch when weather permits and the launch isn't iced up. They usually remove the docks with the exception of the handicapped accessible one.. Usually just the extreme north and south ends freeze up enough for ice fishing and sometimes not even they freeze sufficiently.It is quite a long walk out to decent water at the north end especially for ice fishing there (much shorter walk with no ice). There have been years that have been exceptions but recently not many with the up and down temps. It needs to be very cold for an extended period with little to no wind for good ice fishing to occur.

Yes and even if they started today it will take many years before significant results really take shape given successful treatments as only the larval stage is affected by the treatment. It was a similar scenario in the 70's as far as the lampreys are concerned. Thye are a major factor in the problem but it is a complicated situation involving nutrient levels, and disruptions of the food web (e.g straining of the phytoplankton and zooplankton by Zebras and Quaggas decimating the key food elements above that young fish depend on at early stages). I don't think the previous problem on Cayuga a few years back was as complicated it was more related to lamprey levels per se. and it took awhile for the fishery to come back.