Keuka Lake trout

Last Saturday we had a beautiful sunny day and my friend Dave and I set out for a day on the Finger Lakes. We packed ultra-lights and minnows for the perch.  1 ounce jigs and Abu Garcia round reels for the lake trout.

 We got our fatheads and wax worms on the way at the Outdoor Store.  There were 24 trailers at the boat launch in Severene with the water being crystal blue clear.  100 yards from the boat launch we could see 1000s of 6-8 inch perch in 20 feet of water.  They would only hit on the wax worms, but they were all dinks.  They would not touch the minnows.  We fished all over for the broad shouldered brethren of these dinks, but we could not find any big boys.  At noon we decided to hustle over to Keuka and try for lake trout.


As we drove by the Branchport outlet we could see it was all frozen with a bunch of ice fisherman on the lake.  Fortunately the other branch was open and we launched at the State park.  200 hundred yards from the boat launch at 166 feet of water we got into them.  We got 10 lakes in an hour.  They all were puking up alewives or ciscos when we got them to the surface.  Thanks to our favorite Finger Lakes fishing guide John Gaulke we were able to apply his jigging technique with great success!!!