Keuka reports

[jk1]

Had computer problems for a while. So how far down that arm have you fished. Eggelston (sp?) point, first point above the old power plant is the futhurest up I have been. We do well there but only small fish up to 22 inches, really we have done very well there and hardly ever have any competition either.....jk

[Tg8]

I go all the way up to the points near the Viking hotel, I found 136-140, the deepest areas of that arm are right in front of the major east side points that are near sturdevant rd. So far only two small bites. Very slow, seeing lots of bait fish and fish around the bait pods, but not many bottom oriented lakers.

[jk1]

I don't know that section as I might have said before. We have caught fish in 140 jigging by the way, South west of the bluffs a mile about. BUT seeing bait schools is a good sign for the future. The last two years we saw very few schools of bait. Some of what we did see we assume is those troutperch minnows, just near or right on the bottom and hazy maybe 5 to at the most 10 foot thick. I do not know that for a fact, just assume it. Until three years ago there was ACRES of alewives in the top 20 or 30 feet, looking down you would see the hundreds of little diamonds of reflected light flashing below you. Then the last two years nothing. But things are looking up. Keep us informed of you success and findings. Any thing you see will be a help to someone, that is why we are here. I will probably be there tomorrow(but I want to go to Cayuga-hint Mr Guff).....jk

[Topwaterfrog]

I'm at keuka lake for a week mostly fishing off a dock and was wondering if you guys recommend any baits for bass and if I have a good chance at catch something. Also have boat for two days so any spots you guys recommend?

[DavidWP]

Had good luck with the perch and largemouth using Smithwick Rattling Rogues last night and today. Not bad for our first time at this lake. Haven't tried out of the boat yet. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

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[Tg8]

Another tough day, hit the water at suboptimal times, here and there, found tons of bait fish, hit the bluff too one bite today. I might troll tmrw, to see what I can drum up

[jk1]

Topwaterfrog Like your name, if it was mine there would be chugbug instead of frog. Really like most all the storm lures for Canada pike and walleye. Does your boat have an electric trolling motor? To us that is very important, we use one battery and half way through the second by the time we quit. If stuck at one area of the lake, you absolutely need a good depthfinder too, but if in one spot start going straight across what ever part of the lake you are on looking for fish. You can get the lakers, you have to try and they do taste good too. Jigging is fun and frustrating at times.....jk

[jk1]

Well stuck at home but have a chance for tomorrow to Keuka. Again 'puter problems, have to type everything and wait to see if it as I wrote it.....jk

[Sk8man]

Sounds as though you have something running in the background like an antivirus program either updating itself or scanning while you're typing.

[jk1]

It also jumps around, staying on the same post but going up several comments and stopping there. Right now type this, it types in ten or so letters then stops and a blue circle 1/2 inch dia comes on. You are right, that what the circle indicates, something is running. Will have my neighbor check it out when he comes over...jk

[Tg8]

I could not get this one to bite. Darn it!

[jk1]

Lots of chasers out there, you gotta make them bite, speed up the retrieve, real slow the retrieve, do the wounded minnow flutter and then if that doesn't work go find new fish. By the way it looks like there is a second fish there on the bottom. Try for him. We fish almost totally by what we see on the finder. Some spots where we always get fish we will blind jig but most time we find um on the finder reverse the gas motor and go electric and chase them backwards. If we scratch one or get a bumbie that does not follow through we go find new fish after just a few more trys.....jk

[Netbender]

Good Day, I pulled a couple nice size Lakers on sticks 90 down from the West branch North of the bluff in 135' trolling this morning. A little grass but I found this time of year fishing just outside the current is some what successful.

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[Tg8]

Thx guys, I switched it down to small kastmasters, first silver with white feather then Gold. I cast it out and let it sink twitch sink twitch, to try to get the fish in the upper 40ft to bite. Not one touch. Then I used them for vertical retrieve and bottom based retrieves. Again I hit the water randomly from 10-4pm as we are in full out family cottage mode. So not optimal times.

[Lively1]

I jig for lakers in the Penn Yan arm mostly. It is always hit or miss it seems. Last weekend I got three up to 22" and consider that a decent day (day being 6-8 AM usually).  Next day hooked one before sunup, then nothing.  Following and not hitting is very typical in my experience. In this arm I think the fish are pretty widely distributed, you can see them just about anywhere you look for them. I usually jig in about 100 FOW closer to one side or the other, then again I have taken some from the 'deep' which is 130-140 there. I used to switch up different baits, jigs, spoons etc. but never found anything magic there. Now I just use a 1 OZ jig with a white plastic paddle tail or twister tail. The guy who fishes the bluff from a small pontoon almost every day seems to always catch something.. he's a jigger. Maybe if he's on here he will offer some advice..

[Tg8]

Thq lively1 I have to 100% agree with everything you said. Action turned up today around 4ish for about 1.5 hrs I finally pulled up an eater.

[jk1]

TG8, I have never fished that late in the day. And Lively1 can't argue with what you said, did you fish here several years ago? The fish were bigger by 5 inches and anything worked . this post really covers it for us.....jk

[Tg8]

Had more bites today, twitched on bottom for 30-60 sec then 3 lift reel lift reels. I found hooks that came off the bottom that ffinder couldn't.

[jk1]

Yes that is what I meant by blind jigging. Not weeing fish but they show up anyway.. These fish are either off to the side further away than the water is deep and look like they came form the bottom or were so close to te bottom that the machine could not tell them from the bottom. My feeling is most are om outside the viewing area off bottom but appear to come from the bottom......jk

[Tg8]

Pulled 2 in this morning, seems hot bite is 7-9am. Have to be patient hopping bottom, then escaping.

[keukadude]

Hermit,

 

About that picture you posted on July 30th with the stinger hook,.......   I tried something like  that a couple years ago, because I kept getting hits without hook ups.  I gave up though, because the stinger hook kept getting caught on the line.  I kept bringing it up with the stinger hooked around the line, which doesn't allow it to swim very nicely, and I was catching any fish.  Have you had that problem?  I think my stinger was a treble.  Maybe I just had 3 times the likelihood of catching the line.  

[Tg8]

I use the stinger and lightly have it stuck under a piece on the top of the soft plastic to hold it in place.

[hermit]

keukadude, yes that does happen sometimes! I forgot to mention that.

If you do what Tg8 says it helps a lot, but it can still happen- if it is, either allowing the boat to drift slightly or using a gentler jigging motion seems to help, but the best solution is to thread it through the plastic as close as possible to the end of the tail without affecting movement. Envision trying to make the jig float up and down like a sine wave rather than popping pyramids on the FF. That's also why I went with 50 lb powerpro rather than 20 or 30, it's stiffer.

But I always had trouble with mono/fluoro being too stiff and with the knots it never worked right for me. I keep thinking I never tried the right knot or setup to get that right. There is probably a way to do it with m/f or a better way in general but after several variations I settled on that. There's also the pre-made stinger trebles which you can bury in the tail to keep in place, spinnerbait trailers, etc.

Edited August 14, 2016 by hermit

[jk1]

Darn Little league BB. It is played here and we were supposed to go fishing probably to Keyuka but his grand kids are now coming up to go to a game. He would rather go with the grandkids to a BB game than go fishing with me-hu go figure. He does have great G-kids. Next week.....jk

[Tom fratick]

Just got back from bubba bait shop great place ready to start fishing tomorrow morning Monday thru Friday gotta wake these fish up

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