Mid-Winter Lake Report: February 2025
Mid - Month Lake Report: February 2025
A Great Sacandaga Lake Report from a Guide Service and Fishing Charter’s Perspective. I've always loved Fuel N Foods report and wanted to piggyback off theirs and provide more fishing based reports and just help with sharing my observations, of lake conditions, fishing reports, great local business’s and anything else anyone can think of. My reports will never be 100% accurate as i am human but i will quickly correct them if pointed out. I will be posting these reports hopefully every month around the 15th of each month. You can also find my reports on my website at aaronsguideservice.net.
Quick introduction for the validity of who I am and the reports I give: My name is Captain Aaron Gaza and I run a full time, fully licensed and insured fishing charter on Great Sacandaga Lake. I spend roughly 300 days a year on the water/ice. I packed my life up and bought a house up here several years ago after spending many years on the lake prior to that.
Ok here we go! Its February 16th 2025 here in Mayfield, NY.
ICE REPORT: The Great Sacandaga Lake water level is currently at 750.20 above sea level. For those that don’t know the lake is VERY LOW right now however this is not historically low by any measure and by the agreements of the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District they can go as low as 740ft above sea level, so another 10ft down from here. Moving on, the ice thickness ranges anywhere from 5”-13”, ranging from, Northville, Broadalbin, Lanzis, and Mayfield. Ill Stop right there and say that's just from my observation. You are at your own risk and where you go on the lake is up to you and your own safety. That 5” thick part is out by the submerged islands west of Sand Island that was once open water last month and now closed up. My measuring by no means gives validity to drive ATV’s, SXS’s and cars on the ice. That is each at your own discretion. Obviously, last month we had the terrible tragedy of losing Billy Gifford outside of Cranberry Cove where his SidexSide vehicle fell through the ice. Thank you all who donated to his GOFUNDME. I believe they raised in or around $20,000 for his family.
The biggest challenge on the ice for those that are bringing ATV’s, SXS’s, SnowDogs and now even Snowmobiles on the ice is the 15”-20” of deep snow with roughly 5” of watery slush between the ice and snow. It’s causing many people to get stuck and not be able to navigate the lake. There is a huge pressure ridge growing from just south of Lanzi’s on the Lake (Jackson Creek) heading due east, where it zig zags just north of Sand Island into the Benedicts Bay area. For more ice heaves, hazardous areas and all other snowmobile reports you can download the Send It - HDRIII App on Android and Apple App Store. Ill leave the ice report at that as you all can leave any additional findings and comments.
Fishing Report: The Dead Sea is earning its reputation this winter as many of you are reporting long days of no fish especially as we enter the “dead of winter”. This is primarily due to the water levels being so low. Many of the most productive bays and locations you all have caught fish out of for years are either walking land or are in under 5ft of water. A few trophy Northern Pike are still being caught but out of the thousands of fisherman out there each weekend, the catch rates are way down. Anyone who has ever fished GSL knows you have to work so hard to find the fish and many hundreds of hours are needed to catch them. This weekend's Walleye Challenge had many thousands show up and many walleye were caught with some nice Pike and Perch as well. Downsized approaches are working well for the Walleye fisherman with small shiners and spikes used. Pike fisherman are using live suckers of great size as well as big dead bait and big shiners. All your fishing supplies can be bought right here in Mayfield at Jim’s Bait Shop where he always has an amazing array of bait and tackle available. For the Walleye focus on the deepest areas of the lake. Pike are sitting in 4’-8’ of water but are willing to go deeper to feed.
Great Sacandaga Fish Education; As the days grow longer and the sunlight grows stronger the Northern Pike will begin their pre-spawn feeding and movements in the next few weeks. Northern Pike spawn in Late March and Early April on Great Sacandaga Lake. Last year, spring came early and the Pike were beginning their pre-spawning in early February. This year the Pike have given no indication of the pre-spawn movements as of now and they are still out in the main lake areas and near deeper water. Regardless, studies show that most male pike are under 30” meaning almost all the 35”+ are female meaning they are full of eggs. One Northern Pike can lay as many as 50,000-200,000 eggs per fish. So if you have any respect for the future of Great Sacandaga Lake and the Trophy Northern Pike fishery, we ask that you please return the fish to the lake as quickly as possible. The lake once held the World Record Pike and I have no greater interest than for one of you to return that record to the lake. It's only possible if we start Catch and Release.
The overall size of the Walleye is still down with many frustrated fishermen catching so many walleye under 15”. Brian Henry and his students are doing an awesome study on why the overall population of Walleye are stunted on Sacandaga. My personal belief is as follows: for 9 months out of the year, roughly 75 walleye are kept per day on average. (Maybe 20 on a weekday and 200 on a weekend). That's roughly 20,000 walleye kept a year out of the lake. The stocking efforts are nowhere near that number and with the lake down this year, the natural spawning may not be successful as the bays and creeks will not be accessible for the fish. Research says a 20” male walleye is extremely old and rare. This means that most Walleye over 20” are female. Given that most of the female walleye are sitting in everyone's freezers right now, there suddenly is fewer and fewer walleye to spawn and more frustrated walleye fisherman catching undersized walleye. There are other factors that come into play but catch and release is the single biggest factor we can control. The health of the fishery is in the hands of the fisherman.
