Sunday November the 15th

[Batroun]

Finally, a day of sun and calm waters! I went to Rye side, Area 13 and the first thing that hit me was, "where are all the boats??" It would seem quite a few anglers placed boats where they did not belong, or allowed their tags to lapse. I'd guess about half the boats at 13 are gone. Opportunity to move mine to a better spot!

Anyway, went out with a dozen shiners and caught a 22" 4pound laker (not native; front right fin clipped) in the deep water, free-lining. A lovely fish--almost black skin, and the fillets are bright orange. Will smoke the planks tonight. Also caught a 2lb SMB and a 2lb LMB near outfall A close to shore. A nice day to be out on the water. I'm hating this goofy new rule about wearing a life-vest! It's going to force me to beg Santa for a low profile vest this year. Can't row or fish in the regular vest without it riding up under my chin.

Have fun out there guys.

[KenH]

Congrats on a nice size Laker. I was out trolling around the Route 22 Bridge Sunday and
landed 4 Lakers..3 of them undersized.
Its worth investing in a wear-around-your-waist type PFD. Or at the very least
the horseshoe type.

Ken
 

[ChrisM]

I was amazed there weren't more boats out yesterday too. Beautiful day. Glad to hear you guys did well. I got skunked as usual. Trolled and drifted shiners all around the bridge at different depths, tried some spoons, trolled a shad rap all the way to and from Area 1. Nothing, despite lots of life on the sonar. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I have yet to catch anything other than bass after many trips to Kensico. So frustrating.

[arkpov56]

I was there too, with my friend Steve, trolling shiners at grater depths (110' - 120').  The day was like a gift for my buddy - it was his birthday!  We've got 4 keeper lakers in 22" to 24" range.  The biggest two were not native with different fins clipped and dark.  The smaller ones were light colored and native "kensicers".  Interesting observation: three out of four were femails and they all looked like they've just spawned, with residual grains of roe inside.  Is this were and when they spawn?  I thought it should have been in September and at sallower depths???.
SMBs were abundant at different depths both in deep and in shallow, eagerly chasing our shiners.  We took just a couple, let go many more.
Here are the two my bigger lakers:

[KenH]

Ark;

Congrats on a fine catch! Find anything interesting in that bottom
Laker's belly?
Lakers spawn in 10-40ft depths when the temp hits 50F at that depth
between Oct-Nov. I caught a female 20 incher on Nov 1st that had
already spawned so I figured they were all done by now. I could be wrong
as it seems warmer than it should be for this time of year.

Ken

[yonkers26]

Fine catches guys. I'm eager for some consistent cold weather already so I can stay on shore

[elsewhere]

Beautiful fish!

I was there too, with my friend Steve, trolling shiners at grater depths (110' - 120').  The day was like a gift for my buddy - it was his birthday!  We've got 4 keeper lakers in 22" to 24" range.  The biggest two were not native with different fins clipped and dark.  The smaller ones were light colored and native "kensicers".  Interesting observation: three out of four were femails and they all looked like they've just spawned, with residual grains of roe inside.  Is this were and when they spawn?  I thought it should have been in September and at sallower depths???.
SMBs were abundant at different depths both in deep and in shallow, eagerly chasing our shiners.  We took just a couple, let go many more.
Here are the two my bigger lakers:

[arkpov56]

Thanks, guys.

I was mystified by that laker's big belly too.  Turned out it was full of air and water.  Apparently it swallowed some air while I was putting it on the string and than just swam belly up the rest of the day.  Looks like it happened as I gut-hooked this fish and the air got in before I cut the leader.  Sorry...  I felt bad for poor creature, but it made a perfect dinner, nevertheless.
Other than that the stomachs were empty.  The bass I caught in the flats had a crawdad in it.  I think jigging plastic crawfish in the shallows on the fallen weedbeds may produce a lot of good size bass now.  But hurry - these are the last two weeks of the bass season!

Good luck!

[Brooklynite]

Ark, Batroun,
Great catches guys. I took my visiting younger brother out today (playing hooky) and we caught a nice 15" Laker under Rye bridge from shore on a Kroc early which we released. You know, its a really beautiful looking, fish but not much fight. Maybe its too cold? I'm still looking for my first SM or LM. Gonna give crawdad artificials a shot next time but seems Bass season is just about done.

I found this pretty extensive info online about Lakers if anyone's interested...http://cayugafisher.net/pages/jigging/jigging_lake_trout_behave.php


Lastly, when my bro and I were fishing the Northside of the bridge an oldtimer came by looking for his friend. We switched to the Southside soon after and the oldtimer came down on the Southside. They seemed a little annoyed we switched sides I guess while they were trying to find a spot. If you're on the forums and feel we slighted you, just wanted to say sorry about that. We didn't mean to appear to race you to a spot you might have picked out. We had no idea you were heading there.

[VinnyH]

Guys,
Excellent reports. Seems like things are picking up on Kensico. Of course it rained Saturday so I couldn't get out. I'm scheduled for bass fishing this weekend but will go for trout over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Anyone want to go out Thanksgiving morning on the Big K? (my family get together is this Saturday)

Thanks,
Vinny

[Batroun]

Vinny, I'm going to BikK Rye side on Saturday morning, the 21st. the weather should be great. My wife is off to a baby shower so I'll have several hours to get a rowing workout and enjoy our wonderful trout "pond".