Keuka Heading to Keuka in 2 weeks

[tenatureboy]

Renting a cottage for the week and looking for some starting advice for trolling for laker, bows or browns on Keuka..... 

Boat is rigged up for LO salmon with downriggers and fishhawk...  

I have the standard spoons, spin dr and flies arsenals.

 

Areas of lake to focus?

Do I need cowbells? color?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Tom fratick]

Fish out front of collage very early in the morning bite last till 9:00 9:30

East side 100 feet of water set down riggers 57-63 down silver and blue stick baits plenty of Lakers I start at the Red and green boey head north to college stay in 100 ft of water

Good luck

TOM

 

 

 

[bulletbob]

 Bows or Browns on Keuka??.. Good luck with that... They technically still exist in the lake I think, but a report on someone actually catching one is pretty  rare.

 

Most of what you will catch trolling is small, very skinny lakers... Typically this time of year, they are suspended deep on points.. They can be anywhere in Keuka north end to south, but  last few years have seen more on the south side of various points for some reason on this lake...

[tenatureboy]

Thanks Tom!  We are going to be on the West Y just south of the Park so we can run over  as needed to the College area.

[Trouthunter]

Good luck trying to catch anything but lakers very few of anything else take boat to next lake over better luck for other species

[adesalvo]

I follow the Ketchum charter on the Facebook and they have been having good luck with bows. I will be there for the week starting aug 6th staying on the bluff. We should share Intel if your interested.  

[jk1]

I dont troll and I dont want too.  But rainbows are not to be found there by us using jigs.  We also fish the bluffs and dont go far from there but have not seen a rainbow in years.  Occasionally, once every five years a brown and have found some in the stomachs of the lakers but no rainbows.......jk

[whaler1]

What do you catch other than lakers?


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[jk1]

Once in a while a bass.  The lakers are feeding shallower that usual and that is because they are eating perch.  We have found some 6 and 7 inch perch in them.   We have not caught them shallow though.   We fish where we see them on the depthfinder and that is usually 100 feet deep.  So to answer your question we catch nothing but lakers so far this year.......jk

[Sk8man]

Keuka has deteriorated dramatically over the past several years. I used to keep DEC diaries until a couple years ago for Seneca, Keuka and Canandaigua and they have all taken a hit for complex reasons but Keuka seems the most extreme at present and the Rainbows, browns and Atlantics have been decimated in comparison with previous years and the catch rates have reflected it . Even the ice fishing sucked this year there for perch and panfish The baitfish population has totally collapsed. The few Cisco they recently put in were probably scarfed up shortly after they arrived because the predatory fish are desperate. They have been sucking down the perch for the past few years and I have seen it with my own eyes while ice fishing for perch  and catching lakers one after another in 20 ft of water and having them spit up tiny perch and bass all over the ice.

 

Keuka used to be a stellar lake for trout and salmon and way back when I routinely caught rainbows even while jerking copper. Some of my best catches came from there in the 70's 80's and nineties. At one time the state record brown trout came from the Hammondsport area (22 lbs?). There may be a few of the silver fish left in there but they are very few in comparison with the state of things even 10 years ago and it is sad and this probably won't be corrected any time soon because the problems are several leading to the baitfish collapse and the current state of things. The perch fishing is way off now as well and the lakers are in large part stunted in growth. Keuka is like three lakes in one because of its unique three separate branches each having its own character and currents etc so some of the spots may be affected differently too.

Edited July 27, 2021 by Sk8man

[tenatureboy]

Thanks for the inputs!  This is not a serious fishing vacation so a couple of lakers during the week are fine with me.  It will just be nice to be on the water in the early morning and not a work!

[Sk8man]

That is the right attitude