Conesus Lake is the western-most Finger Lake in New York State. It's 8 miles long (at its widest, 1 mile), covers 3,420 acres, and the maximum depth is about 66 feet. It's known as a big-fish lake, as well as a finicky one. You can fish a tournament one day that will require 20-plus pounds to win it, then fish another contest a few days later, with the same weather conditions, and only need 11 pounds to win. There's at least one tournament held weekends on Conesus, as well as a working man's tournament every Tuesday, along with a ton of fun fishing. To say it's a popular lake would be an understatement.
It was this setting that drew an angler to the lake one August morning at 0-dark-30. Temperature at the time was in the mid-50s, with a clear sky, and just the hint of a breeze. He started with a buzzbait in shallow water, which proved to be a no-go. Upon noticing some fish jumping..."big fish, tournament-winning fish," to borrow his words...he switched to a Spook.
"I had the wrong rod for it (prefers a 7-footer)," he said, "but made what I had (a 6-foot, 6-inch cranking stick) work."
He ended up having a total of eight hits but got only three in the boat: all 4-pounders, before the bite died after about an hour. He then went through a series of jigs, swimbaits, creature baits, Rage Craws, and finally a trick worm before getting another hookup, which he described as being "about a 3-pounder," which he lost while reaching for his ruler before he got the fish in the boat.
"The good," as he saw it, was figuring out what would work. "The bad" was missing five good hits on the Spook. "The ugly" was losing a good fish because, as he saw it, "I got ahead of myself."
Overall, he was happy with his day, which I think most other fishermen would have been, too, given the fact the three he boated weighed a total of 12 pounds.
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