Lakers

[Dmargeit]

Went on a scouting mission first time targeting lakers thru the ice it was a sucsess

[Sk8man]

Nice going. I'll bet that ice looks like swiss cheese right now there with all the holes How is the parking situation there now?

Edited March 2, 2015 by Sk8man

[Dmargeit]

This was Saturday lots of people parking lot was almost full

[bondouley]

Swiss cheese is putting it mildly. It looked like vitale park at conesius this weekend there were so many people. Time to go back to my private access where its quiet

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[Gator]

Good luck with that 

 

We hadn't had any other guys off the point we fish until this weekend; there was a group of six on Sunday whooping and hollering every time they hooked a fish. Actually, it was great to watch them having fun. 

 

I think that with safe ice two years in a row, more guys are trying to take advantage of it. Usually, with a ten year lull between opportunities it takes a while to build momentum. I've never seen so many guys on Keuka as this winter. It was like somebody took their foot off the brake and size of the crowd burned rubber.

 

It may very well be that this is just what that lake needs. The fish seemed stunted the past few seasons, and it was rare to catch one over five pounds. And they tended toward long and skinny. I'd say that the population seems healthier now. IMHO. I'm going to guess that the bite will slow down significantly in the near future, though.

[Sk8man]

Yes Keith I hope a ot of the lakers are taken out of there. DEC is still thinking over whether to keep stocking browns and landlocks in there because of the poorcatch results and they attribute a good part of it to too many lakers there, I sure hope they don't stop stocking. There have also been significant problems with Cold Brook spawning for the rainbows according to the diary summary.

[Gator]

April 1 was the first "real" fishing I ever did with my Dad...caught an 18" rainbow in Cold Brook and I was king of the world (at six). From what I've heard, the run hasn't been strong in 20 years. I know that the laker fishing wasn't like this when I was a kid. We'd troll an entire morning for a couple fish, if we were lucky. There were some big browns, though: remember, the state record brown used to come from Keuka. My best guess is that the smelt crash changed things significantly. Coupled with zebra mussels, this is an entirely different fishery from when I grew up.

[Sk8man]

I agree - but then again all these lakes are VERY different than when I was a kid. I fished Cold Brook from the time I was in High School, many of the streams on Seneca with no names and the named ones, and Naples Creek and smelted in many of them as well. All that has changed as well as the lakes. Back then there were small perch, bass, sunfish, and a multitude of minnows right next to shore and around the docks and marinas all through the season in each of these lakes. Now you are lucky to spot ANYTHING in those areas other than brief stays during or around the spawning cycle for the gills, or perch in some marinas. One of the things that has happened and is still happening is that the Zebras and Quaggas have strained out most or all the zooplankton and phytoplankton that the smaller fish depend on and this has severely disrupted the food chain above it. Lakers are in some ways more adaptive than some of the other species in that they will eat almost anything and when grown  can compete with pike and pickerel and other trout for available food sources. I have found all sorts of things in their stomachs over time sunfish, perch, other trout, baby pike or pickerel etc. as well as a small rusted flutter spoon. The rainbows, and landlocks can't out compete them and may become "history" as soon as they enter the lakes from the streams and my hunch is that the browns don't get a chance to come up to size before they become a food source probably right after stocking when they hang around the stocking sites etc.. The traditional spawning streams like Cold Brook and Catherine's have had major environmental  and structural problems, flooding and other factors inhibiting spawning and continued habitation of the rainbows. All these things taken together have devastated the fishery as it was once known and the continued stocking of lakers which live a much longer life span and which may be more "adaptive" to these particular environments than the other trout has added significantly to the problem in my opinion. When the DEC diary results are looked at for Seneca, Keuka and Canandaigua it becomes apparent that the trout fishery in each of these lakes "tanked" around the mid to late nineties and haven't recovered to this point and I believe this is about the time the Zebras etc. were detected living in these bodies of water. The period leading up to it in the mid to late eighties through mid nineties were pretty stellar trout fishing.

Edited March 3, 2015 by Sk8man

[Iron Duke]

Was our first time giving Keuka ice fishing a try and we went out of Branchport too .. We got there extreme early and had an awesome bite til about noon and packed up cause our arms were tired lol.... Lots of fun I can tell you that... Lost track around the 15th Lakers but caught a few more than that.. It definitely was tent city when walking back in...

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[Dmargeit]

This is better picture showing the size