Seneca 8/30, 9/1 and 9/2

[vicarious]

After a month in NJ reading Finger Lakes fishing reports, I was excited to get back to my parents place on Seneca and try some new equipment and technics... unfortunately, things got off to a rough start.

8/30 - My uncle met me and my father at 6 and we were on the water by 6:30. As I was letting out my new wire setup, I had the drag too loose which resulted in a nice birds nest (strike one ). 10 minutes and 30 feet of wire later, we retied and deployed without any issues.

After about 90 minutes with no hits, we wanted to change things up, tried to pop the line from the release on the port rigger and my brand new (first trip) eagle claw starfire snapped in half... strike two!

We reset with a different rod and a small warrior spoon that the Iron Duke recommended. Things picked up from there. We took our first hit on a dipsy out 310 at 8:30 with a nice 3 lb laker. As I was resetting, I got the line out to about 305 when it started screaming. I set the drag and the fight was on with another cookie cutter laker.

After about an hour of running the warrior spoon, we decided to switch it up, and when I pulled it in, we had a 6" LL on. Put back down and 30 minutes later, we repeated the same process with another 6" landlock.

We took a couple hits on the port dipsy with a red and green spoon higher up (targeting silver fish), but never did hook up.

As we were about to call it quits, I bet my father a drink that if we headed to 110' fow, we would hookup. We hit 110', I sped us up to 2.6 gps, my unlce pointed out a fish on the graph and 20 seconds later, the 81' rigger fired with a nice laker.

Ended the day 6 for 9...

9/1 - Same scenario... Me, my father and uncle were on the water by 6:30. We had a steady pick of lakers until 9. Nothing over 5lbs, but some fat, healthy fish.

Decided to pull lines at about 9... as I grabbed the starboard dipsy, the port one fired. I reeled mine in while my father was fighting his fish and the rigger fired. We finished with a double. Again, went 6 for 9 with 5 of the 6 coming on the same f/f combo.

9/1 evening solo... decided to head out at 6:30 for a solo trip. I replaced the LJ sz 0 dipsy with a walker 124 to see if I could improve the catch rate on my new wire setup and it payed off... I hate the 124 because it is so heavy, but it gets deep and catches fish.

I didn't even put the third line in the water when the walker out 200 fired with a 2lb laker... game on after that... I reset and the other LJ sz1 dipsy out 330 fired. Got about 50 feet of line in when the walker fired again... solo double! Boated the first, a nice 5 lbr, burped and released, then started fighting the second fish... got about 100 feet from the boat and spit the hook.

I was out for an hour, never had a chance set the third line and went 4 for 7.

9/2 morning... the early bite seemed to be off all weekend, so my father and I slept in, then headed out at 8. Only ran three rods, 2 dipsy's and one rigger (the other one quit sat morning, strike 3), but we had our hands full from the start. Went 2 for 4 between 8 and 9:30 when the bite turned on.... over the next 90 minutes, we had two doubles, of which, I dropped my half of each, and caught a bunch more lakers in the 2-6 lb range. Finished the day 10 for 15 with all 3 rods taking fish... all lakers. Very surprising because the sun was high and hot, but the fish were on the feed!

We were fishing over 100-140 feet of water with fish hitting 90-110 down on dipsys and riggers all weekend... only produced 3 fish on spoons, the two small lls and a nice laker on a bfuller UV spoon. The f/f bite was good with seneca special and reel hooked up fly being hot all weekend. Also took fish with mtn dew spin dr with white fly and mtn dew spin dr with lap dance fly, and did a few on nuclear white spin with white fly. Most fish were c&r, but I did keep a few on Sunday to take back to NJ.

This is my first year running wire, so I'm still learning, but it seems like I'm dropping a lot of fish... about 30% seem to come unbuttoned... not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if "it's just fishin!"

Finished the weekend on Sunday night with bbq at my unlces house. He cooked up the back straps from the buck he shot last season and my father made good on our bet with a few pitchers of margaritas! The perfect way to end a great weekend!

My father with a few from Sundays catch...

[lakebound88]

Good report. Sorry for the inconveniences you had bit sounds like the fishing was worth it...

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[Iron Duke]

Great job and great report glad some of the tackle suggestions worked out for you....

Mike

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[BrookTrout]

Glad you got out and had a productive weekend, great report.

[Gill-T]

Keep the drag light on the wire. No stretch will rip hooks out easier.

[vicarious]

Thanks guys!

And Mike, thanks for all your help.

Gill, I think you're probably right. One of my setups is a Daiwa SG47LCX. Its supposed to have the saltist drag, but I have a hard time gaining any line on even the smallest fish unless I really tighten the drag. Otherwise, I turn the handle, but the reel doesn't actually engage... I'll have to take a look at it. It's new this year, but doesn't seem right.

[cdgn troller]

Hey Brad, does your dad and uncle still think your a genius;) Glad to see your having luck. Its all about the mojo! We'll have to get out next year when I have a few toys on the boat to show you!

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[vicarious]

Hey Brad, does your dad and uncle still think your a genius;) Glad to see your having luck. Its all about the mojo! We'll have to get out next year when I have a few toys on the boat to show you!

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LOL... No, they know that I'm just repeating what you taught me (and what I learn on LOU)!!!!

We've been able to increase our catch rate dramatically since you took me out last summer....

We're still learning, and simply getting out with my Father and Uncle is awesome... having productive trips is the icing on the cake!

I'm looking forward to the spring already, so definitely drop me a note when you get out... still lot's more to learn!