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Roy's Marina Seneca Lake Info

Located within Ontario, Yates, Seneca, and Schuyler counties, Seneca Lake lies in the geographic center of the Finger Lakes. At the northern tip of the lake is the City of Geneva, and at the southern tip is the Village of Watkins Glen. Seneca lake has the largest volume of water of the Finger Lakes.

Physical Features:

Elevation: 445 feet
Area: 43,343 acres
Length: 38 miles
Maximum width: approx 3 miles
Maximum depth: 618 feet
Thermocline: 60 to 125 feet
Volume of 4.2 trillion gallons

Water Quality

Seneca Lake is generally clear and well oxygenated at all depths, enabling fish to occupy both shallow and deep water habitats.

Plant Life

Much of Seneca Lake's perimeter supports a narrow band of rooted aquatic vegetation - primarily Eurasian milfoil. Other species represented include pondweeds, waterweeds, plantain, stoneworts and muskgrass.

Fish Management

Seneca Lake is home to the following species of fish lake trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, landlocked salmon, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, yellow perch, northern pike, chain pickerel, rock bass, crappie, sunfish, bullheads, bowfin, white suckers, channel catfish, lake sturgeon, carp, alewives and smelt. The state does an annual stocking of lake trout, brown trout and landlocked salmon. The lake's rainbow trout population is sustained entirely by natural reproduction in Catherine Creek and its tributaries. So catch and release of rainbow trout in Seneca Lake is greatly encouraged.

Traditionally, lake trout, smallmouth bass and yellow perch have been the mainstay of Seneca Lake's fishery. In the decades since the first survey of the lake in 1927, other species have also contributed prominently, including rainbow trout, browntrout, landlocked Atlantic salmon, northern pike and largemouth bass. Alewives, known to be abundant in Seneca at the time of the first survey, and smelt, introduced in 1909, have provided a dependable forage base for salmonids.

Seneca's excellent fishery has benefitted greatly in recent years for steady annual stocking of hatchery-reared lake trout, brown trout and landlocked salmon. The lake's rainbow trout fishery is sustained entirely by natural reproduction - mostly in Catherine Creek and its tributaries.

An important factor in recent resurgence of the Seneca salmonid fishery is DEC's ongoing control of the parasitic sea lamprey. The control program involves applications of the highly selective chemical lampricide, TFM, to known sea lamprey nursery areas in Catherine Creek and Keuka Lake Outlet at the three year intervals. The continued quality of Seneca's excellent trout and salmon fishing depends heavily on DEC's ability to apply this management tool at critical times in the future.

An ongoing angler diary cooperator program for sportfish provides DEC fisheries staff with useful data on population trends.

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