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

[Bigfoot]

I can't add much to your well written reply.

 

You mentioned getting lures away from the boat. Keuka is one of the clearest lakes and I have spooked fish that were 70 foot down by merely trolling over them. Small lures on light line fished way back sometimes works when little else will.

 

Besides catching browns in the South end, I have seen times when they were present in large numbers in the extreme North end of the Branchport arm.

[Sk8man]

You are right about the water clarity and necessity to get the lures away from any turbulance or commotion and I have never caught fish there on real big lures like magnums either.  The browns do frequent the area you mentioned in the Spring especially probably with the hopes of scarfing up on some rainbow spawn from Guyanoga Creek. I used to fish it before they posted it up making it impossible to enter or navigate without tresspassing now but there used to be browns mixed in with the rainbows there during the rainbow spawn. They may also have been stocked near that area at  the state launch ramp so returns in the Fall are also possible.

[jk1]

 We are jig fishermen and almost only get lakers, one big brown 5 years ago for us and a buddy got one about 7 pounds maybe 3 years ago.  For several years we were up every week no matter what.  This is for  a batch of guys from our area of Pa.   My boat must have caught 2000 lakers.  We have seen a dozen small browns in lakers stomachs in the last two years only.  We haven't caught a smallmouth in several years either.   We have noticed that if we run the gas motor  irregular or turn it quick side to side that the disturbance does attract lakers.  When leaving an area we leave one line down and start the gas engine, circle that line then leave.  This has produced an additional fish occasionally for us.  About the bait population we are still confused about the sudden decline of alewives.  We fish totally by seeing fish on the depthfinder......jk

 

 

 

[chugbug]

JK , what part of Pa are you from , I use to run up almost every weekend from the Dushore area , not as much now  .

[jk1]

Dushore route 220 and 87.  Been there a lot I am north of Williamsport in Warrensville but all my friends are in Ralston, Marsh hill area..  And again Chug Bugs re for PIKE!!!!!!   Been to Canada almost 75 times.....jk

[jk1]

SK8MAN please explain the angler diary to us.  I would gladly fill something out if it helps fishing.....jk

[Sk8man]

To get started you contact the DEC in your region (e.g. Region 7, 8 etc.) and make the request to be a Diary Cooperator. Tell which lake(s) you fish and they will send you the recording booklet, If you fill them up just call them and ask for another before the first one is finished. Tip: Don't forget to record ANY part of the data or they consider it useless and it doesn't count. It is easy to forget something like the end of time fishing They really need folks on about all the lakes and they base many of their decisions on the data so it would be advantageous for folks to get involved.  Thanks.

 

Sure. It is called Trout and Salmon Fishing Diary For Angler Cooperators. The DEC enlists volunteer fishermen to record data Regarding their catch of trout and/orsalmon on a given dtae. The data includes:

# of anglers (say you have 2 people in the boat it counts as two people in terms of data so they double the hours fished etc. as though it was two separate fishermen)

Date

Water Fished: Specific Body (e.g. Keuka lake)

Area Fished: (Bluffs, south end Hammondsport etc.)

Time Started: (Times are important to the data collection and should always be filled in and either AM or PM circled))

Time Finished: (Times are important to the data collection and should always be filled in and either AM or PM circled))

Type of Fishing: (put X in box - options are: Boat, Shore, Ice, and No fish caught)

Target Species: LT, BT, LL, RT etc.

Fish kept or released

Total Length

Tag Number (if any)

Weight: (only for fish kept)

Missing Fins: (Any fin clips) Make sure to WRITE "NO MARKS" for unclipped fish if it is left empty the assunmption is that you didn't look or else forgot to record)

Remarks:

Edited March 9, 2017 by Sk8man
pgs added

[Sk8man]

I forgot to add that at the end of the season you send your book in to the DEC office  in Avon and a couple months later they send you a detailed report about stocking plans/levels, results of other fishermen as well as yourself, totals of fish and you are a number not a name so it is anonymous. They include data for all the previous years as well as a breakdown of species totals caught etc.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Sk8man

[Ricbme]

I have slipped my boat at Harbor lights for the past 12 years and 6 years prior in Hammondsport.  The last 5 years have significantly declined in not only catch rate but also size.  As reported by others most of the fish are very thin.  Probably 80% of the lakers I caught had empty bellies, the rest had small perch and/or some kind of vegetable.  Since the flood waters, I have "Fishing" days not "Catching" days as my grand kids used to always say "Let's go Catching"!  I hope those days come back as I had more skunked days last year than in all the others combined.

[chugbug]

SK8 very good report on the diary program it is very important that more people get active and fill out a diary they base quite a bit of there stocking on it  . Doesn't matter if you only fish once or twice a year also doesn't matter if you don't catch any fish still fill out the report , its still useful info  . But be accurate as possible especially with fin clips they do regenerate and it might look like a good fin but if you look real close you can see its not exactly right size wise .We copy pages from the book to take out on the water with us so as not to ruin the book which is pretty easy to do in a years time of fishing then when you get back from fishing fill out the book , don't forget the small adipose fin on the back rear of the fish . If you ask they will send you a key to the fish clips and you will be able figure out the age of the fish you catch and when they were stocked .

 

[chugbug]

Sk yeah we come up from Rickets Glenn on 487 and turn onto 220 in Dushore  then its a straight shot north to Cayuga lake .

Chugbugs for pike !!! , don't usually think of topwater plugs for pike will have to remember that , I know the bass love them !!!  What part of Canada did you fish , did you ever try Hay Bay for walleye !!

[guff]

Anyone know the date of the Keuka Lake DEC meeting that is supposed to be held in June?

[Sk8man]

chugbug good points. As far as keeping the book dry I just keep it in a heavy duty Ziplock storage bag on the dash in back of my depth finder (protected by the windshield too

Edited March 10, 2017 by Sk8man

[jk1]

I just sent an E-mail to sign up for the diary program.....jk    Chugbug, you live around Ricketts Glenn?   You have some squirrely roads there to travel

[Sk8man]

Al I didn't see a date on the report itself. Just that it would be held in June at Keuka College.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Sk8man

[keukadude]

This string of posts is terrific Keuka fishing info.  Thanks guys.  I have a cottage on the East side halfway between Hammondsport and the Bluff. As I recall there were two very cold winters in a row 2013/14  and 2014/15, right? The alewives seemed to disappear after the second cold winter, right? That’s when the laker fishing got tough. I go after the marks on the FF by jigging with a 2 oz trolling weight inside a white tube, like the bass guys use. Usually pretty effective, but I had to put more hours into each catch the last 2 seasons. I usually go no further than a mile from my cottage, so I’m intrigued by the posts here that imply that you guys tend to cover a lot more ground searching for them. I always figured that they were fairly evenly distributed throughout the lake.  No?  

A neighbor does real well pulling copper up and down the East side near me.  I’ve tried it, and I always get Zebra mussels on the hook of the Sutton copper puller’s spoons.  I’m going to try it again soon and instead of the Sutton spoon, I’m going to try a floating surface lure without the diving lip.  I figure if I put a 10’ fluorocarbon leader on the end of the copper, and drag the copper on the bottom, then the floater will rise up off of the bottom a little and not catch so many Zebras.  What do you think?  I bought a Strike King KVD Sexy Dawg for this purpose, but it’s 4.5” long.  Maybe that’s too big, although it’s about the size of an alewife.  I also put a Storm Chug Bug 08 in my Amazon cart hoping it’s a little smaller, but it doesn’t even say how long it is.

 

Almost all the lakers I’ve caught in the last two years have had empty stomachs.  But the DEC diary newsletter said that they are living off of Misis, which are a freshwater shrimp?  These are tiny, so I’m thinking they don’t take long to digest, and the stomachs appear to be empty. But they are thinner than before. I wonder how long they can last on such skimpy rations.  

 

I did well jigging off the points in November and December and there were lots of marks on the FF.  So I hope they had a successful spawning cycle.  I’ve seen posts on this forum that sounded encouraging when guys reported seeing more schools of bait lately than the last 2 years.  Maybe their natural reproduction and some help from DEC stocking will return us to the good old days.  The DEC letter said that the Zebras and Quagas were eating the phytoplankton that the alewives need, but Cayuga Lake has Zebras and they have tons of alewives.

[jk1]

Can't disagree with anything you said.  I have not hear of professional opinion on the disappearance of the alewives.  A combination of those clams you mentioned the icy winters you said and maybe the dirty water from the flood occurring during the spawn but that was my idea and now think the bait disappeared before the flood.  We all are mostly in agreement with you........jk

[Bigfoot]

Apparently the Keuka alewife population crashed around 1967. DEC seined about 70,000 alewives out of Seneca and Waneta Lakes to reestablish the population. My source is DEC management of Keuka Lake through 2004.

 

Several people have mentioned the flood as a partial cause of the lakes decline. I would think that the opposite would be true. Keuka is an infertile lake. Floods wash nutrients into the lake, making the lake more productive. Last Summers drought should have exacerbated the mussels effect on the already stressed food chain. Just my opinion.

[chugbug]

One article I read from the fish comm. stated that alewives are at there most northern climate at which they can survive . They were talking about Lake Ontario at the time and the lack of alewives and that the younger ones are vulnerable depending on the winter  .But haven't they been surviving for a real long time there !! Seems like there has to be more to it or a combination of things including all of the invasive species we now have .   

[bulletbob]

 This might sound weird and it is actually, but somewhere in  the back of my mind, I am wondering if  those nasty, invasive Gobies would actually help the lakers in Keuka to have a a food source.. Of course if that happened a dozen other species would be gone from the lake in all likelyhood...

 I  hope the DEC gets on it and re establishes the alewives in Keuka.... bob

[keukadude]

One of the problems with the gobies, is that they are bottom feeders, and that is where the DDT is.  So they eat the DDT, the trout eat them, we eat the trout and that isn't good.  The DEC just recently decreased the warning level for human consumption of  the Keuka lakers because of improving DDT levels in them. It'd be a shame if they had to increase the warning again. I'll vote for another 70,000 alewives from Waneta and Seneca that Bigfoot mentioned. 

[Sk8man]

A major concern especially long term is the fact that the multitude of pollutants entering the water from the various water sheds and lands surrounding the lakes that end up in the lake bottoms also wind up in the Zebra and Quagga mussels as well as the gobies. These man made pollutants such as various pesticides used on lawns and drained into the sewer systems, run off of nitrates and other components of fertilizers used in agriculture around the lakes, pesticides from viticulture, petrochemical residue from inefficient burning or leaking from boat motors,etc. settle to the bottom of the lakes and they are filtered by the mussels and congregated and concentrated in them as well as the bottom feeding organisms including the gobies and when fish such as perch ingest either on purpose or by accident these highly concentrated toxins it potentially becomes a huge problem. Do I eat perch? the answer is "yes" but I also carefully fillet them to help minimize the  concentrations of potential toxins (as I do with the occasional trout or Atlantic salmon I keep). I am also old enough that this would be the least of my personal "worries". It is however something to consider and think about if you have young children or ladies of childbearing age regardless of the official "guidelines" active right now. Many of these contaminants accrue  or add up overtime and are not flushed from a persons body (eg mercury and other heavy metals etc.) Back to my second cup of coffee

[jk1]

A little off topic......Who all is going to the Watkins flea market next week?  Would to meet up with you guys after it is over.....jk   it has been great talking to you on this web site

[Lone Star]

Went back out Saturday. Jigging with a white tube jig from the Bluff up to Branchport in everything from 50 to 160. No hits whatsoever.

 

One small pickerel on a spoon right before I gave up after five hours. Free worms? "No thanks", say the fish.

 

Several boats launching out of the State Park. No problem with the water levels now. Lots of trolling going on, but I didn't see anyone bothered by trout. Bass guys hitting every dock on the lake.

 

Branchport was rough & windy while the Buff point was calm. Watch out for a debris plume as you approach the State Park & Branchport. Tree branches, weeds, dock parts, and lumber scraps have all collected in this area. Worst hazard was a mostly sunken log.

 

Hit a large tree branch on the way south, caught up in the prop, leading to one of those "What the Hell?" moments before discovering the problem.

 

I did get the motor tuned up, which was the actual purpose for going out.

 

 

[guff]

Sorry for the late report but did manage to boat 6 lakers (lost a couple more) about 2 weeks ago at the Branchport end in 55-70 fow on black painted 1.25 oz jig with green paddle tail. There was a good number of marks on the ff. Stopped at the park yesterday and saw a lot of brown water in that area so maybe the lakers have moved to cleaner water.

Also note post on a June Keuka Lake meeting.