Followed The Waves

For vertical jigging, I'm just running a basic Humminbird Helix 5 (sonar)---no GPS, no down imaging, no side imaging, no BS but I can follow my jig down well below 100 feet. The first damage shows my jig dropping diagonally from left to right with a few small fish on the bottom. The second image shows my jig going down through a cloud of bait and a laker coming up for a look.

F-ing crazy! I used to catch about 350 lake trout a season (jigging) in the mid-2000's until I sold my boat in 2011. Came back last summer and caught nine. I've been on Seneca since the first weekend in April this year and I've caught 11 so far this year. SAD!

Priceless!

Neat! I've picked up a few very nice "incidental" smallies over the years out in deep water. Seemed like they were a long way from home but they were out there.

Thanks Ray---it's been a while! Are you still camping in the truck and running the old red Lund? I can't believe what happened to Seneca while I was away. Sad…

The fish all looked nice and healthy---no lamprey marks!

Fished north of Sampson to the north end and back Saturday and managed five Lakers over 12 hours---all caught jigging out of the back of a 28 foot Carver. Caught a couple of little ones (19" and 21"), 2 @ 25", and 1 @ 28" (looked like a nice wild fish). I fished Sunday morning for a few hours north of Sampson and managed one @ 27". Also had a few hits and lost a few after a short fight (typical jigging stuff) on both outings. Still crappy fishing but Saturday was probably my best day since I got back on Seneca a year ago. Also learned how to use the timer on my phone's camera for a selfie. Here's the 28 incher...

I cry on Nick's shoulder back at the marina and I hate to be that old guy living in the past, but I fished Seneca from 2003 until 2011 when I sold No Clue. I used to keep a diary and reported about 350 fish a season---all vertically jigged up. So far this season, I am up to FIVE fish and I've been on the water since April 4. I am having good marks but from my interpretation on the TV, I think the fish I am seeing are small and for whatever reason, are less interested in a vertical presentation. In this pic, you can see my jig dropping and a couple of lookers but it's pretty rare these days to see them firing off the bottom and intercepting the jig 20 feet from the bottom. Back in the day, they'd come flying out of the mud and often chased the jig right to the boat. I rarely jigged up a fish smaller than 24 inches so I'm hoping that what I am seeing on the TV are little guys who will grow up to be big guys. A boy can dream…

VERY nice! Thanks for sharing.

Nice! I was going to check in and see how you did over the weekend. My buddy had enough abuse on Saturday so we bailed out Sunday morning but conditions sure looked good.

A buddy and I fished the north end of Seneca Saturday from 8:30 AM until 6:30 PM, jigging for lake trout. He was the lucky one---he had one hit. I can't believe this is the same lake I fished from 2003-2011. We had weekends where we jigged up over 50 nice lakers. I've fished Seneca six weekends so far this year and managed three lake trout. SAD!

RD, I was digging the moonrise too!

I got out Friday night for two or three hours and again Saturday afternoon for four hours for some jigging. Managed one Laker Friday night and one Laker Saturday afternoon. The one on Friday night was pretty chewed up from the lampreys. Saturday's fish was pretty clean. Both fish ran around 25 inches or so. Tough fishing---these aren't the good ol' days but at least the sunset was nice!

For us long-distance commuters, that would be great!

Yeah man! Back on the water. I bought an old Carver 28 footer last summer. Not exactly a hard-core fishing boat but I can live on it for a few days. No Clue was just sold again for the fourth time since I sold her in 2011. Seneca certainly isn't the lake I left back then. Fished 18 hours in the Derby and managed one fish. Sad! I hope you're well. Let's see a good report!