Busy would be a wrong statement for this year. The weather has played havoc with all of our plans for projects, whether it's guiding or trying to get in a few hours of fun fishing.

We fished Skaneateles Lake on June 22nd. This was only our second time fishing there, so we went to the east side of the lake where we had caught smallmouth bass a few years ago. Right from the start we caught small bucks, but the bigger fish did not seem to be in this area. Moving to the west side of the lake, it did not take long to locate some quality smallmouths. Friends told us at dinner that they saw spawning bass at the south end of the lake.

We caught our bass on tubes, wacky rigs, swim baits and Stanley spinnerbaits.

Several guide trips on Honeoye have produced large numbers of bass, but few of the lunker variety. Most customers have not fished heavy weeds, so it is hard for them to get the bigger bass out of the weeds.

Be very mindful of the water depth. Rains keep bringing the water level up, only to have it recede in a few days. Where you fished in 12 feet of water last week, might be 11 feet now, so if you go to 12 feet, you will miss where you caught them before. Keep moving in and out until you locate bass, then try to refine what baits they want. Just the difference in one hook size can make a big difference in the number of bites.

Tuesday night tournaments are in full swing on Conesus Lake and it has been taking some big, three fish limits to even make a check. Last week they had a tie for second place with both teams getting a little over 12.5 lbs. Just over a four pound average in three hours of fishing isn't bad.

Last week we took our first trip to Waneta-Lamoka Lakes. A friend told us that the water was clearest in Waneta, so we opted to fish there, instead of Lamoka. We ran to a point and started fishing. It did not take long to find that the bass liked green pumpkin, and shortly thereafter we switched to baby brush hogs in that color. We caught around 70 bass and lost some bigger fish in the weeds, but what a fun day.

Good fishing,

Frank http://mudlines.com