Sk8man

I just returned about an hour ago. Fished the east side from 8 -47 ft of water jigging. Only managed a few perch and one pickerel. Three guys I talked to on the way out caught a dozen or so early in the AM then they shut off. A lot of huts but most of the folks that quit when I did did about the same as me. The perch seemed to be hitting minnows today and in fact the perch I cleaned Saturday all had either partially digested minnows or nothing at all. 90 percent were females too. The water is crystal clear and I could see bottom clearly in 25 ft. There were quite a few huts out there way north of me.

Mike -Sweet! You confirmed my hunch from today too that we were fishing too far north and not nearly deep enough today...I'll bet those kids will remember that day for a long time maybe forever! Keep up the good work! Les

Nice work Tim. Anyone for poor man's shrimp? Les

I think Otisco would be a great venue. It is the only Finger Lake that I have never fished....I'm up for it....would be a nice get together...summertime camping and trolling would be great. Les

My son and I fished it today from 6 ft. of water to 22ft. The dinks were at the22 ft level and instead of following my intuition and going deep for the big guys I opted to try a bunch of previously successful places from the past in shallower. ....mistake. ... a couple keeper perch and one decent pickerel (fun jigging on 4 lb test) that my son wanted so we kept it....not a very impressive day and I think I'll stick to Honeoye and Canandaigua for now.....here is what the ice looked like facing south from the park.

Nice going Bondouley - You are a lucky dude to have your girlfriend ice fish with you....my wife did too when we dated until we got married...that was it for the fishing I guess we should have fished Honeoye today Keuka (Penn Yan end) didn't treat us real great....vast wastland today.

Go Seahawks!!!!!

Ah....wow it looked like it was "toast" from the road (below the steps) How did you make out with the perch?

Think I'll start my chicken wings.....

I think folks will have to come back in from a different place than in front of Butler or get wet because it is open water there now.

Hey guys I just went by Butler Road a little while ago on the way back from town and there were two fire trucks and all sorts of rescue folks there. The shore ice is all broken up....not sure what either happened or is going on but a whole bunch of huts out there entered the lake at that point and is now open water.Les

Hey Jimski just to underscore the great point you made regarding the importance of taking kids fishing.....the "kid" I referred to is 35 years old and has fished with me since age 2 1/2 years old. He has been my fishing partner since that introduction and unfortunately I taught him too well because he out jigs me all the time now Fishing is a great "common bond" for kids and parents and can make a huge difference in family relationships because it is REAL quality time spent together in pursuit of a common goal and a true SHARING of the experience.

ontherise - spooky because of some clear spots mixed with chunked up ice with multiple fractures that have frozen in many places...it's like walking on refrozen ice bergs turned up on edge and very rough surface. Thanks guys....a fun day even with my kid kicking my butt on keepers

Thanks Mark. It was all refrozen chunked up stuff so it varied from about 5 inches to 10 or more...some was a little "spooky" though

My son Mark and I went out about 9AM this morning on the east side and fished until 6:30 PM with pretty steady action all day. Started in 5 ft water because we saw school of perch through a clear patch of ice. We caught about 12 in there and then moved out deep because of "dinkitis" We went out to 14 ft and I fished the same hole all day despite drilling a bunch of holes when we arrived. We jigged with waxies and spikes mainly. We caught over 100 plus dinks apiece during the action and threw them back as we went along. We ended up with 84 perch altogether (my son limited out) ...I kept 34 including a nice jumbo in the last hour. Mark caught a keeper pickerel and I caught a sucker of all things on my jig which I threw back. I took a few pics of my fish earlier when it was light but Mark was in his hut so I didn't get any of his. The biggest of my perch was about 14 1/2 inches

Depends on where on north end. If going out from the Kershaw Park area (long walk to "perchville") the lot next to the bathhouse. If the area around Squaw Island park near the pier. If going from the east side the pull off area a couple miles up the lake on the east side. The best place is from one of the cottages on the east side if you know someone who lives there unfortunately I don't.