Grady95

I took the kids out for chicken wings tonight and we just got home. Too late to call. I'll call you in the morning. By then, I should know what my office schedule looks like. Grady95

Geez Louise! You guys must have looked like the Keystone Cops out there! Dale, you're making it very hard to get motivated to get the chores around the house here you know. I'm going to have to invent a strain of hay that cuts and bales itself cuz' if the fishing is like this, it's going to be a while before the equipment gets reconditioned! You win. I'll call you later. You're going to have to explain this to my wife!! Grady

So, that's what a day of fishing is supposed to look like! Good for you. Hope to be putting up some pictures to match soon. Best of luck on Monday. Let us know how the day goes. Grady

Good for you. Glad you found something was cooperating. That lure has always been a go-to favorite for almost everything. I have a few that look like they were run through a blender! The pike just kill that thing. Right lure, wrong week I guess. Hope you got some nice perch as well for a fish fry. May get to Erie in the fall. I'll look you up. Grady

This one is pretty easy. The pike are in the weeds. If you can either see or read the weed edge with your electronics, fish the edge . Do this with shallow diving sticks or stuff like Frenzys, Bagley B's, or one of my favorites, the Rapala Countdown. Spinnerbaits are good for this too. We do well with either red/white or firetiger patterns. We call pike, "poor man's lobster." Filet them, take out the y-bones, cut the meat into chunks and boil them for 5-7 minutes in water with lemon in it, then serve them with melted butter like for lobster. First time you do this you will swear never to throw a pike back again! Good Luck, Grady

I'd have to say that's a Laker with one happy kid hooked to it. Nice job Dad! Grady

Looking forward to having you out on the hard water. Out there, tip ups are one way to fish, but they are the icefishing equivalent of anchoring your boat. For learning your way around, you will want to travel light and have some essentials. As stated, a couple good jigging rods, a sharp 6" hand auger and some form of shelter would get you started. There are some cool electronics, better shelters, powered augers, etc available. Ice fishing is becoming as much a tackle lunky's game as regular fishing. To get started, you can do a lot with a little. Ice fishermen are, for the most part, some of the friendliest and nicest people you will meet in the outdoors. We share knowledge, bait and tackle and hell, you can come fish in one of my holes if you want to! Ice fishing rules. You'll love it. Grady

The Genny is full of fish. The areas pointed out here are the best for 'eyes IMHO. Firetiger patterns do work the best. You will get into big cats and sheephead. You also might have trips where you catch all of those plus LM and SM bass, northerns, rock bass and some perch. It's like a grab bag up there sometimes. Personally, I have been "upriver" many many times. Despite what I hear, I have never had any trouble with people. We're all there for the same thing which is to catch fish. If you are in a boat, just show some respect and courtesy for those casting from shore. Often, I'll find someone casting who wants fish and I'll give them what I catch. Anyway, I suppose the potential for trouble exists and maybe I've just had a run of luck, but the concern for personal safety might be a little overdramatized. To each his own, I guess. The walleyes are going to feed up there pretty heavily in the last hour of daylight and into the early dusk. Suggest you fish then and get back before pitch black dark. My bigger concern for personal safety really has to do with hitting something at night on the way out. You'll see trees floating in the water on the way in. Take one of those million candlepower lights on the boat in case you stay late and need to see these obstacles coming back. Anyway, it's a fun place to fish. Don't know how much jigging I would do unless you love snagging the bottom a lot. There's a strong current in there. Casting plugs will get you fewer snags. Good Luck, Grady

Sticks and jerkbaits are good. That north section is good, especially outside the weed breaks. I've taken several Tigers this time of year casting crankbaits for bass. Good Luck. Grady

Yes, the perch are hitting on Seneca Lake. If you have fished the lake in past seasons, those patterns that have produced for you in the past will probably reward you again. The run happens every year, everyone knows it does, but nobody wants to talk about it. I can't quite figure it out either. Check the board Myfishfinder.com. There is more reference to this on there. Good Luck, Grady

Way to go there buddy, Nice to hear that the little lull in the lake has ended just as fast as it started. There has been a pretty large gathering of people out there off Trident lately. That ice is still pretty stable and has not been affected by the black hole I assume. I would suggest that folks stay away from that hole in the middle of the north end. You can't be sure of gas pockets and weaknesses near it. With such good fishing in safe areas, fortunately we don't have to take that chance. Best of luck to you, Grady

Just an FYI for you, I hit Honeoye pretty hard in the winter and usually do pretty well on the panfish and walleyes. Someone shut the switch off a few days ago down there though. I have had several very unproductive outings in the last week. I have no idea why the fish are in such a negative feeding mood, but something has shut them right down. Certainly, this is just a phase, and will pass as it always does, but for now, I just wanted to try and give you one guy's honest perspective on this lake right now so you would be able to make an informed choice of where to spend your ice time. If you do go, there is a public boat launch on the south east end where a lot of very nice people gather and fish panfish. I've never met anyone out there who would not gladly talk to you and give you a few pointers. It's a nice community, and besides, that's a really good location for fish. That south end seems to concentrate them in the winter. Good luck. Let us know how your trip goes. Stay Sharp, Be Safe Grady

Suggest targeting these in Oneida Lake as stated earlier. They are bottom dwellers for the most part so stay down. I have caught them jigging, but they will hit your basic walleye setup. Good Luck, Grady

There's a patch of open water near the north west end but that's it. Yes, as of today, there are 4-6 inches of good clear ice under a crust of snow pretty much everywhere else. The sleds and ATVs were out today. No reports of mishaps.

Sliderman, 1/8 leadhead with a twister in white, yellow or chartreuse is one effective combination. This weight may seem light, but this helps in being able to cast and retrieve it along the tops and sides of weed beds and edges. Also, as someone pointed out, there are some prerigged softbaits. They are called swimbaits and they are great for fishing drops and ledges. An example: the first major point on the east side of Conecus north of the public launch has a bay, a shallow and a drop. Their are some big pike on that drop. These heavy swimbaits have been effective in such a situation. Just be ready to cast some weight if you use them. You could probably take out a windshield with one of these things! Grady

C4 and a waterworthy fuse maybe. Seriously, favorite lure has to be the leadhead jig. I've caught everything from perch to tuna on the thing. Nothing against the choices of others. Everyone has their favorites and with good reason. They're all good. When I need to get it done though, it's going to be some kind of jig. How about the rest of you? What do you like most? Grady

Pete,I Bay is an interesting fishery. There are catchable populations of most game fish in there, ranging from panfish to salmonoids. The walleye fishery is a target that you can have success with if you spend the time. There are enough to go around, they behave pretty much like you'd expect them to in terms of location, times, baits etc, and yes, they can get pretty darn big. There are also many other good walleye fisheries in this area, so if this is your game, you'll be able to stay busy out there. As always, stay sharp, be safe, and best of luck to you. Grady

I can wait!

Yea, I just looked at the long range forecast Looks like some good icemaking nights are coming this week. We may get another chance out there. NE corner if I-Bay is likely to go back to ice along with the south end of Honeoye. Which of these usually gets hardened up first? This is great news. I can't wait to get back out there. BTW - Make sure you have your license on you especially on I Bay. They have been checking. Grady

Perch?

I went down on the weekend looking for perch and found pike again! Like you I was on the north side to start with. The toothy buggers took hold of all my perch presentations. I actually spent a few hours moving around the lake trying to find a place where I did not catch pike! They are up where you described. They are also down the lake around Sampson, over by Kashong, by Reeds, by Reeders Creek, by Smiths, and around Glass Factory. I am still not catching perch. Neither are some of my buds down here. Can't wait for that to finally happen. For now though, if you guys enjoy a good day of pike fishing, listen to Key Largo and go down to Seneca and have at them. Gas is over 3 bucks/gallon though and you won't need to troll to get these. You can box out pretty easily fan casting plugs. HuskeyJerks, Thundersticks, Rogues, Ripsticks; anything like that will do the job. Have fun... BTW- Thanks for the update KL. Good Luck to you and hope to see you out there some time. Grady

Hey, I'll trade you the bass for the critters! They're are a lot of schoolies in the 22"-25" range, but some larger stuff is there. If you are looking for good eating fish, these make nice table fare. You can box out in an hour if it is like what I hit into on Sunday. There are probably bass as well, but I can't get to them. Good luck...

My fingers hurt. I'm cut up from handling the toothy buggers. My boat is slimy and stinks like heck. It's northern fishing at it's best! They're just on the outsides of the weedbeds all up and down both sides of the lake right now. Spinner baits, thundersticks, soft swim baits, frenzys, or whatever you have in the box that you are willing to risk losing will work. Have fun. Take band-aids! Grady

Up there, walleyes like worms down near the bottom. Go ahead and use a jig to get them there. If you are fishing in the wind and the boat is drifting, if you have a bottom bouncer, that will help keep the bait in the strike zone. Go ask the guys in the bait shops to give you a suggestion for a good place to start. Last hour of the day and into the early evening, walleyes start to turn on and feed a lot more agressively. Make sure you are out on the water working at this time if you want to improve your odds. Walleyes can be tough fish to catch at times, but these are at least some basic ideas you can start trying for them with. I hear the bass fishing up there has been pretty good also, so maybe you can do that during the day, and then switch over to walleyes at evening. Good Luck.

Wow! You got some rockies? Congratulations! Maybe I'll go over to Canandaigua and try for them. Seneca has been ice cold for everything lately also. Yesterday, I was going to go out for a morning bass run at the north end. On the dock, there were largemouths hanging around in the shallows. Just for laughs, I threw a few soft shelled crabs out. Not on a line mind you, just tossed in to watch them feed. I stood there dumbfounded and watched as the bass stared at the crabs sinking to the bottom right in front of their noses. We're talking soft shelled crabs here. Normally those fish will jump on the dock to get those! I couldn't believe it. They never did eat them. A friend of mine was just coming in off the water (8:30 AM) after being out since sunrise looking for trout. This is a guy who NEVER goes fishless. He said he was coming in because he was so disgusted by the lockjaw. So the trout are apparently not willing to hit either. With gas at an all time high, bait costs up due to vhs, and fish so scarce, I'm guessing the cost per pound of fish has to be about $300/pound these days! Much as I love it, I may be giving it a little rest for a while until this wave of fish apathy passes. Need to straighten out my tackle and work on the boats anyway. Keep me posted. :?