Canandaigua 10-30-13 Afternoon

[Sk8man]

Went out at 12N with my buddy Mike on his boat trolling for rainbows. Started at German Brothers trolled to Notre Dame - Zip....picked up and went to just north of Pelican on east side trolled to point south of there - Zip Picked up and went to north of Seneca Point....out in 207 ft water leadcore out 8 colors takes off mostly pumping the rod but not the drag....wondering is it small one or what? Got it in and it was a pickerel....Question: What the heck was he doing out in over 200 ft of water? Trolled over to Vine Valley -Zip

Picked up again and motored to north end just south of pump house....bunch of gulls diving and feeding so dropped downriggers and leadcore and top line with few large splitshot and stickbaits...trolled the area from 50-80 ft. Picked up 4 bows 2 on leadcore and 2 on downriggers all about same size about 2 lbs and all came on sticks ...nothing on spoons or jointed rapalas at 29 and 30 ft over 75-78 ft each time. The really interesting thing is that in 5 hrs. of trolling in many spots in the lake we did not mark one fish nor did we mark any bait either suspended or on bottom...unreal...on vacation someplace or what?   Another beautiful day to be on the pond though....

Edited October 30, 2013 by Sk8man

[Nautitroller]

Great job Les!  I hope I can get the boat out on Friday if the rain holds off or not....  Thanks for the inspiring post.  Looked great out there! Do you think that there was a lot of activity right on top where the fish finder can't see ?  Just a theory

[Sk8man]

Thanks. You know I was wondering that  too....but Mike said his depth finder even consistently marks the thermocline well and stuff just below surface and we couldn't see any significant "clutter" even (it was quite calm today) or anything subsurface that looked like fish or bait so it is a real puzzle. Usually in the deeper spots we were in there are almost always lakers out deep on or near bottom but we didn't see them either. Yesterday I didn't mark anything on my finder either except my weights

[Xxx]

Looked like nice weather, not very windy, that could explain the no fish scenario. As far as the pickerel, I think he was looking for the party also LOL nice pics. Les keep at them, you'll catch up with them sooner or later.