Conesus Lake 6-23

[Fishin With Phil]

My dad is coming from CA this week and really wants to catch his first muskie. I told him we have to travel far, or be incrediblely lucky, but we can hope for the next best thing... Tigers in Conesus!

So I decided to do a little scout trip. Had to drop the gf at work so didn't get on the water til abuot 9. The breeze was already goin steady so I used it to propel my drift over the weedy flats in the north end. I was workin a spook and on the third cast I saw the boil. I fought the instinct to set the hook immediatly and waited for weight. After a good fight pulled up this guy...

Nice fish, but not what I was searchin for. I was throwin a big firetiger mepps hopin for some toothy ones. Had a decent one follow it and worked the lure under my yak, but no hit. I was workin the lure really fast over the weeds when I felt like I hit a brick wall! It took me a second to realize it was a fish. He was fightin really hard, but no match for my heavy stick. After a couple minutes I see him. He was a big big pike! I have never seen one that big. Get him close to the yak and kinda scared of what I am going to do when I get him on my lap! Just as I had him a few feet from the net, he shook his head on the surface and threw the hook! If you heard someone yelling around 10:00 it was me! I normally loosen the drag before netting anything big in case they want another run, but I forgot. Still probably would have thrown it.

Oh well! I bought minnows but it was tough to fish with them with all the weeds. The best rig I could think of was a 1oz. striper bucktail tipped with a shiner. I would drop this in the holes but no love. I put it in the holder 4 feet under the yak and it didn't get hung. While workin the spinner I notice it gets a few ticks and look and see a decent sized pike hittin the minnow. He was really smart and would not hit the hook and jug, just the minnow. He ripped it off the jig and took off. I thought of usin a stinger, but realized I would get snagged too often.

After a couple hours of no love, I decided to try shallow. I figure bluegills on bed have to be esay prey right? I put on a bluegill sized spinnerbait and headed over to the west end and immediatly picked up a nice smallmouth in 3' of water...

Nice fish, but not what I wanted. A little later workin the drift I get hit hard in 4' and thought it was another bass... wrong! I get him to color and see it is a pike! Just as I get him near the boat I am near a dock and had to push off with my net and just grabbed the fish with my hand and pulled him in. I was wrong about it bein a pike. It was a tiger!

The markings on his back are very similar to the ones on mine from poor sunscreen application the last 2 times out...

Once in the boat I put him in the net to keep him from jumpin out. Not huge, but as my first ever tiger, I was pretty stoked. He measured around 20'' Took some pics and let him back in. Fished another hour and called it a day. All fished released.

So now when my dad gets here, I'll have an idea of how to target these guys. Hopefully get a biggun. Look for us on our blue kayaks in a couple days.

Thanks again Waylander.

Phil

[skipper19]

Once again a very nice post. Beautiful pics, love the tiger markings. Had one come to my ice jig last winter, saw him on the under water camera. Came outa nowhere like a torpedo thru the weeds, stopped short and turned sideways just hovering there near the jig, showing off his markings in the sunlight coming thru the ice. He moved on after a minute. I was thinking the bluegills were really starting to come around and then they disappeared just before the tiger showed up. A wolf among sheep so to speak

Mark

[tcon]

Great Post Phil,

Best of luck with your father!!

[Fishin With Phil]

Well we tried two brief outings. No love from the toothies.

My 62 yr old dad had a tough time fishing out of a kayak and could only last a little over an hour. We tried from shore a little too. All I got was a bass.

It was still fun fishin with him again and am looking forward to fishin the California Delta on his nice boat in August.

Phil