Doing something very wrong on Keuka..... any help?

[Lone Star]

17 minutes ago, bulletbob said:

 It is a  township ramp, but I don't believe its a "residents only" ramp..  I have used that ramp for many years.. you just back down the ramp, make the  left after launching and park along that road.. NEVER have had a problem or angry word.. On the contrary all the residents around there have been very nice and friendly.. Just don't leave any garbage, and watch your language etc.. I would use it.. It is NOT suitable for a big boat at all especially when the water is super low... bob

The water is very low at that launch right now, my prop can verify. And I'll second your thoughts on the great neighbors who very much appreciate quiet, clean, respectful boaters.

[JJBat150]

 It is a  township ramp, but I don't believe its a "residents only" ramp..  I have used that ramp for many years.. you just back down the ramp, make the  left after launching and park along that road.. NEVER have had a problem or angry word.. On the contrary all the residents around there have been very nice and friendly.. Just don't leave any garbage, and watch your language etc.. I would use it.. It is NOT suitable for a big boat at all especially when the water is super low... bob

Was down there a few years ago, and was launching the kayak from the yard next to the old power plant. One of the locals stopped by to chat. Thought he was going to give me a hard time for launching there; instead helped me carry the yak down the hill to the lake. Told me I was more then welcome to use the boat launch- its not private, but town managed. Also said as long as I'm respectful of the lawns, there’s now problem parking to the north. Returned the favor by helping him pull a few docks out in the fall.

Following those rules, the locals have always been friendly when I've been there.

Like Bulletbob said, it definately a launch for smaller boats.



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[chugbug]

Thanks for the info , was thinking more in the fall when we use to get that good fall bite , it was a cold run down the lake from penn yan .

[jk1]

We spoke with the young lady who was emptying the garbage can at that launch on the east side near the bluffs (town of Keyuka 300 yards from the old water plant(hydro electric with water to come form Lacoma/Waneta lakes)),   It is a public launch open to all.  Please be courteous to the neighbors, be quiet as possible, park to south along the street.  We used to park at the water plant, but two years ago no parking signs appeared.  That is where we parked for ice fishing also.   Is it still no parking there?     We almost went up Friday but the weather report was borderline to bad for our little boat.  We are all set to go somewhere real soon once we get good weather.  I have itch and have done well this time of year before.  Good luck all and keep posting. thanks.....jk

[chugbug]

so parking to north and south is allowed ? They dont have a specific parking lot for this ramp . 

[jk1]

PIKE LIKE chugbugs too!!!    No there is no dedicated parking lot for the ramp on the east side of the lake near the old hydro electric plant.  We are going tomorrow !!!!  yippie, finally but probably to the north end, will be first time there with a boat.  Now if the weather cooperates we will finally get out.  Launch around 9 maybe....jk

[chugbug]

The area right out from the keuka village ramp can be good in the fall not sure about this time of year though, I would would try Branchport first depending where your launching from.Good luck !!!

[jk1]

"keuka village ramp" I will call it that from now on.  Our plans right now is to go to the north end at the state park.  We will see what happens.  We have fished in front of the keuka village ramp a lot previously, last year  it was horrible there, for us anyway......jk

[jk1]

Well we went to the north end at the state park.  saw a lot of fish on the depthfinder (TV to us) a bit windy hard to stay on them my buddy did get one and lost one half way up.  Will we go back?  yes......jk

[guff]

Hit the north (Branchport ) end yesterday again. Lake trout still there in 75-100 fow but they had a serious case of lock jaw. Went into shallow water (20') for perch. First cast hooked into the Lac Ness monster or so I thought. Was actually my biggest Keuka Lake laker ever after fishing Keuka for 25 years. 31 inches (did not weigh). Sorry, not good with posting pictures. Ok - 20 fow, 2" long plastic perch bait, tiny tiny perch hook, solo netting job, and actually got him into the boat. This is after losing 5 lakers on last weeks trip. Go figure.

While loading my boat saw a guy at the state park launch hook into a big laker but he lost it. Looks like some big hungry lakers are in shallow water now. 

.

[Sk8man]

Nice going Al. The lakers in shallow in March on Keuka is actually  pretty typical and this holds for Canandaigua and Seneca as well. Sometimes the old timers jerking copper would nail a big rainbow or brown in there too.I used to get a lot of real big lakers toplining with heavier spoons (like the mid sized old fashioned daredevils off my outriggers trailed way back in about 12 to 20 ft of water during March and April. Every once in awhile guys get them through the ice too while fishing the perch....unreal on those little jigging rods with real light line. A few years ago I saw a guy on Canandaigua get one in on the ice that went 12 lbs on 2 lb test line in about 12 ft of water while after the perch (tip: he didn't horse it)

Edited March 1, 2017 by Sk8man

[jk1]

Guff that is great.  Out of the approximately 2000 we have taken NONE were over 29 inches and on perch tackle too.  The few we have caught in the last 18 months have been thin, looking more like stream fish in body build.  You had your wits about you that day.  Good job......jk

[Bosun Cowboy]

I Caught 1 off the Bluff couple years ago that was 31" and a little over 10lbs. True Giant for Keuka.


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[jk1]

We are slow learners, we went to the bluffs.  4 keepers but thin and smallish, none over 22 inches.   Never saw any bait but did see a decent amount of fish.  there were four other boat there at one time for a total of ten boats on the southern part of the lake.  All fish taken by jigging.......jk

[Sk8man]

I recently received my angler diary results report back from DEC for Keuka, Canandaigua and Seneca. A couple things stand out that folks should be made aware of:

There were 14 brown and 13 Atlantics total caught of 1,316 salmonines and all of them by ONE PERSON.

Here is the statement that follows "The original goal of the brown trout and Atlantic salmon stocking programs were to add diversity to angler catch. If the anglers in the diary cooperator program are representative of all Keuka Lake anglers, then the diversification goal is not being met. Serious consideration for discontinuing stocking is warranted and will be discussed below Only 6 rainbow trout were caught.all naturally reproduced (no clips).

Here  is what is mentioned "below" : "We are planning to have a Keuka Lake State of the Lake meeting in June at Keuka College to update conditions of Keuka Lake since our last meeting held in 2012".

One of the things that immediately struck me about their conclusion is that a) there are only 34 diary cooperators for Keuka snd even though it may be a large enough minimal sample statistically there is a major practical problem here in that most folks now fishing Keuka aren't TROLLING for multispecies they are JIGGING for lakers so this severely skews the results. For those of us fishing Keuka it may behoove us to contact Brad hammers the Senior Aquatic Biologist with input His email address is : [email protected]

Edited March 7, 2017 by Sk8man

[jk1]

Nice post you made.  Was anything mentioned about the lack of bait there?  Alewives specifically?   My thought mentioned before is the flood occurred during the spawn, but what do I know about alewives.   Last week at the north end we saw only one school and that was near the bottom.  The alewives used to be near the surface in the top 40 feet of water.  Get them back and I think the fishing should improve.  Not a scientific opinion just mine.  Please comment again when you find something else out that is factual, mine is personal observation and guess work.....jk

[lakebound88]

That may be an issue all together with the diary program Les.

Making your stories, Reel Stories, since 2011!!

[lakebound88]

That may be an issue all together with the diary program Les.

Making your stories, Reel Stories, since 2011!!

[Sk8man]

jk1 they did indeed have a comment about the alewives : " While the data analyses are incomplete, observations suggest that alewife abundance has significantly decreased, lake trout are feeding primarily on mysis or freshwater shrimp, lake trout abundance is at its lowest level in 30 years, and brown and rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon continue to be a minor component of the fishery" They further speculate that the combination of invasive mussels and cold winters have negatively impacted the alewives for some time.

Edited March 7, 2017 by Sk8man

[jk1]

SK8MAN I don't think that the mussels could have knocked the alewife population down that much in one year.  that is why I am thinking of the flood with the weeks of dirty water.  My timing might be off, dot know when they spawn or remember when the flood was but the water was instantly dirty and for a decently long time.  We went from seeing schools of bait being acres and acres, 10 to 20 feet thick (near the surface) to seeing nothing in one year.  Are the few schools we saw last year near the bottom alewife's?  I don't even know that, as I have said everything I have said is a guess.  Where in the water column is the shrimp located, 100 feet deep?  Tat is where the fish we caught were.....jk

[Sk8man]

I don't think the problems with the fishery itself are the result of any one year occurance - it is something that is multifacted and ongoing for quite a few years. I'm not so sure the DEC has a very good handle on what is actually going on out there either. From a common sense standpoint it could be  a combination of a host of things such as the 2013 and 2014 cold tough winters having adverse impact on young alewife especially, increased predation from too many lakers,  too many perch eating alewife eggs (they eat each others eggs by the way), but more than likely the biggest culprits are the Quagga and Zebra mussels and other predacious organisms severely reducing the levels of phytoplankton and zooplankton (and along with it levels of chlorophyl necessary for phytoplankton) necessary to sustain  the alewife population. The mussels may also be forcing the fish and bait to go deeper because of the mussel carpeted bottom structure and unfortiunately the Quaggas are deep water dwellers so there is no "escape". The unfortunate thing is that when things get greatly out of whack in the extremely lower levels of the food chain the organisms above that level usually gradually decline to a certain point and then really tank as they become less able or even unable to reproduce in sufficient numbers to maintain their populations. The foodweb is totally interrelated and  dramatic changes in any segmenrt of it can disrupt the entire process.

Edited March 7, 2017 by Sk8man

[Sk8man]

I hear you Nick and I agree.

Edited March 7, 2017 by Sk8man

[letsfish2day]

I didnt realize they still stocked Aylantics there? I haven't caught one there since early 80s...caught a couple small browns the past couple years but nothing like we use to get in the 80s...my father caught one over 16 lbs back in 1981...and i believe the state record brown was from keuka back then... We dont fish Keuka much anymore just to many 3 lb lakers...its a great lake to take a kid out though...hopefully it will come back around though...maybe Trump will make it great again...Lol

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[Bigfoot]

Diary reports don't mirror the actual state of the landlocks in Keuka lake. Finger lakes trollers fished there in May and 6 legal landlocks were brought to the scale. They fished there again in September and 2 more were weighed in. Most of those guys only fish that lake a couple of times a year and don't keep diaries on Keuka.

 

The fishing might be lousy, but not as bad as the diaries indicate.

[Sk8man]

I agree Bigfoot. That was one of my points above and it should be noted that  at the height of the diary collecting (1980 and 81 for instance) there were 70 or so diary keepers using various harvesting methods (e.g. trolling,stillfishing, pulling copper, jigging, and night fishing as well) and even 81 diary cooperators in 1995 but as of 2016 there were 34 and instead of over 2,000 fishing trips total  during the 80 and 81 and 94,95 years there were only 411 in 2016. The data therefore is very different numerically as well as with respect to the actual type of fishing going on now. When you generalize ressults from a sample of people it needs to be truly representative of  who they are and what they are doing  and it is my belief that the current results do not accurately reflect this. On top of this a lot of times diary information received is incomplete some of which can't even be used or included because of the omissions. Hopefully some of the suspected shortcomings of the process will become apparent to DEC either in emails submitted by fishermen or in the context of their intended public meeting in June. Although the conditions have changed greatly in Keuka and actually most of the Finger Lakes since about 1995 with some exception years it is my belief that there are still landlocks and rainbows and maybe browns but they are fewer in number and seem pretty scarce now and don't have the forage base they once had in the areas they generally inhabit and these areas are now covered with zebras.. As this has been happening (i.e. the decreasing numbers) most folks have either fished other lakes for them or they have switched to laker jigging and/or perch fishing. My hunch is that many of the diary cooperators may have switched gears along the way too because when I have fished there we were often the only boat trolling ...the others were moving around but seemingly "looking" for fish or anchored jigging out deep. Historically (I have fished there since 1968), most of the rainbows I've caught out there either came from Seth Green rigs out deep  or trolling with boards in the shallower sections while browns came from the more southerly areas  toward Hammondsport and largely stillfishing with smelt or sawbellies. The landlocks I've caught have come usually with lines run way back off boards or downriggers within 80 ft down to the surface. Jigging while drifting or anchored  (and often in very confined areas (e.g. the bluffs) would probably only catch occasioanl or "accidental" fish  compared with specifically targeting them trolling covering vast areas of water.The smelt seem to be pretty much non-existant now and very few folks seem to fish this way anymore andthe browns despite being opportunists and having aa varied diet may not have the food available in those areas anymore.  In the 70's and 80's many of the  old timers caught both rainbows and browns accidentally while pulling copper within 75 or less ft along the shoreline along with lakers but much of the really good fishing was still fishing at night and it was successful for nearly all species of trout as well as a few landlocks once in awhile and that is now a thing of the past as well and so is the potentilal data from it. Keuka used to have a  very strong nocturnal feeding population.

Edited March 8, 2017 by Sk8man