Lake trout derby on Seneca - 2nd place

[Mikeyman104]

They say it's better to be lucky than good, and that's exactly what happened for us this weekend. 

 

My buddy and I were looking forward to chasing after some fish after he had just gotten his boat in the water from it's winter nap. The weather almost made it feel like winter still with a decent west wind and temps around 48 with scattered showers on Saturday. With the weather reports all over, we weren't sure how the morning was going to shape up so we didn't get on the lake till about 830 after deciding to give it a go. Plan was to focus on the west side of the lake out of the waves and wind. There wasn't much happening on Saturday as we fished till about 2ish with only 2 small lakers making it to the boat and losing another. The 2 we did get were probably about 2-3 lbs and bit a Hinkley and a death trap with some home made spin 'n glows my buddy rigged up. 

 

Sunday was much of the same weather wise. Less rain and slightly higher temp but was I was still rocking my ice fishing jacket on the boat. We started out around 8 by pulling some copper cause what we did the day before obviously wasnt working to well. On the copper we had about 4-5 bites but only managed to land one which was about 5 lbs. Great fish by our low standards but nothing worth entering for the derby. 

 

We switch tactics and throw out some more Hinkleys on dipseys and land a couple small lakers in about a 15 min span. After that it went quiet with no action for a few hours. We switch tactics again and basically give up hope of getting something for the derby and wanted to catch a brown or Atlantic to take home and eat. We put some more spoons out and bumped our speed up a bit trying to entice a sucker for dinner. We were still fishing shallow compared to where we usually fish, but had a downrigger with a reel rage purple ale at 35 down with about a 30' lead. 

 

I'm driving the boat at about 1230 and the rain had just made a quick pass again. My buddy gets up to grab the downrigger rod but doesn't say anything. I turn back to see him fighting a fish but don't think much of it cause it seems like he's bringing it in pretty easily. I got back to driving until I hear a "...Mike!?!?!". I take that as my cue to grab the net and go to the back of the boat. I can now see that it's a good fish but still not thinking much of it as my buddy walks backwards to the front of the boat so I can net it.  Get it in the boat and of course the lure pops out when its landed. We can now see that it's a nice fish but I pick it up and guess it weighs around 7-8 lbs. Buddy thinks it's more but is worried about weighing it and keeping it out of the water too long, cause we weren't planning on keeping lakers. We grab a scale and it's showing about nine and a half pounds. We think, alright we should at least go enter this thing to say we entered a fish because someone had to have entered something bigger than the weights we were seeing yesterday. 

 

We throw the fish in my buddy's very small cooler and pull the rest of the gear in. This fish is basically shoved into the cooler cause it's so big, yet this cooler works for about 99% of the fish we catch. We run up to Stivers and all we can think is they must think we're trying to weigh a dink with this cute little cooler. We pull the fish out and lay it on the board for the length and it comes in at 30in. It's starting to seem like a legit fish now. He then puts it on the scale and it's reads 9.59lbs. Mind you, neither of us had looked at the leader board yet so we're still oblivious. The folks are smiling and saying great fish but we still don't ve a clue. One of the folks at the station says, "well this changes everything" and we're like what do you mean? He says we're in first and neither of us could believe it. Lots of fist bumps and "holy sh!ts" were exchanged. Here were these 2 knuckleheads who if they dont get skunked it's considered a good day, but are now leading the Seneca Lake Trout Derby. Lots of laughing and just shaking our heads in disbelief as we head back to his place.

 

Fast forward to today and we're just hoping it holds and refreshing the live standings tracker frequently. Alas it wouldn't hold, but we did end up coming in second overall with the 1st place laker. Congrats to Josh with his winning fish! Still very surreal and fortunate for us, but heck of a good time even with the lousy weather on the days we fished. Thanks to the folks that put on the event and thanks to my buddy for taking me out, but I just might retire after this one cause it will be hard to top 😄

[Gill-T]

Awesome 👏 

[T-Rok]

Congratulations on the win! But, did you say that 9.5lb was the biggest laker of the tournament? That's crazy if it's true! 9lb lakers on Cayuga and Owasco are not uncommon. They almost definitely arent going to win any tournaments. Safe to say that seneca is no longer the "lake trout capital of the world"... not even lake trout capital of NY.. not even lake trout capital of the fingerlakes. 

[JBoock]

Congratulations!!!  

[shaneo19]

Thanks for the story and congratulations! 

 

I was out before sunrise until after sunset the first two days and from before sunrise until the final minutes yesterday.  My boat ended up with 60 total lake trout.  The biggest was 8.38 which was knocked out of the money on the last day.  

[Mikeyman104]

4 hours ago, T-Rok said:

Congratulations on the win! But, did you say that 9.5lb was the biggest laker of the tournament? That's crazy if it's true! 9lb lakers on Cayuga and Owasco are not uncommon. They almost definitely arent going to win any tournaments. Safe to say that seneca is no longer the "lake trout capital of the world"... not even lake trout capital of NY.. not even lake trout capital of the fingerlakes. 

We were in the lead with our 9.59lb laker for a bit, but the winning fish was a 11.76lb laker 

[Gill-T]

Tough to tell if your fish had any fin clips but the fish we caught Saturday all had fin clips. Perhaps the issue is reduced natural reproduction or survivability to create larger fish in Seneca. There seems to be bait around to support 

[Roys Boys]

Awesome! glad to see Tom enjoying the new boat!

[GAMBLER]

21 hours ago, Gill-T said:

Tough to tell if your fish had any fin clips but the fish we caught Saturday all had fin clips. Perhaps the issue is reduced natural reproduction or survivability to create larger fish in Seneca. There seems to be bait around to support 

The lamprey population getting closer to being in check is the reason fish are getting bigger IMO.  

[GAMBLER]

Congrats guys!  

[MADDIE]

does anyone have a picture of the derby final results they can post?

[Frogger]

[Gill-T]

Nice weights on Atlantics. Those are quality fish. 

[Ahab]

Congrats. It’s always good to read a good fishing story. Gives hope for next year.

[shaneo19]

On 5/27/2025 at 1:22 PM, Gill-T said:

Tough to tell if your fish had any fin clips but the fish we caught Saturday all had fin clips. Perhaps the issue is reduced natural reproduction or survivability to create larger fish in Seneca. There seems to be bait around to support 

Funny you should say that because the couple times I got out before the derby I was catching a majority of wild born unclipped fish.  I found that quite encouraging.  Then when the derby started it switched to catching a majority stocked fish.  I guess the wild fish must have an inherited gene that tells them when the derby is going on each year.  Just kidding but it was strange.  I have probably boated close to 100 lake trout this year and have had no lampreys attached.  And only a few had noticeable lamprey marks.  This is north end of lake.  So there are some positive signs going forward for trout on this lake.  

[Pair of Jacks]

Glad to hear lampreys getting under control and Seneca trout are showing less scaring.  Unfortunately cannot say the same for pike…I caught and released this female with a big hole in its side May 15th east side near Valois.

[lakebound88]

Good job. Our customer, was bummed you guys knocked him out of the lead with that fish! But he still finished with a 1st place for the juvenile! Great weekend of catching!

 

We grabbed that 3rd place laker at about 5 pm Sunday, should of went straight to the scales, live and learn. See ya next year!

 

Congrats to all!