Cayuga Lake out of Taughannock 8/14 + 8/15
8/14 AM – Guided Jeff, Abby and Randy for a 1/2 day starting at 6 am. I started my day with a quick encounter with Bambi while driving through Taughannock Park. Damn! Fortunately the truck wasn’t damaged too badly, and luckily the same panel I dinged last year was hammered by the deer, so things should work out!
It was windy and fishing/boat control wasn’t easy, but we managed to hook some good fish N. of AES. Fishing slowed a little around 8:30 am but picked up around 10 am N. of Taughannock. Abby nailed a 32″ beauty (laker) that we landed, photographed and released. Everyone caught fish and it wound up being a good morning of fairly steady action with one double. Randy kept me entertained with some hilarious stories of working as a nurse in a busy urban hospital.
8/14 PM – Guided Joan and Barry for a full day starting at 11 am. I was optimistic regarding the fishing after the late rally during the AM trip. Joan and Barry have done a lot of spectacular fishing throughout the world, but have a fondness for the Finger Lakes region and Cayuga Lake in particular. They trolled here a lot over the past two decades. We had some good laker action with each landing 3 solid fish. Joan got things started with 2 beauties N. of Taughannock. We covered a lot of water and despite the strong winds we managed to stay on fish. We quit two hours early. Really nice day! Interestingly, Barry has run a collision shop for over 30 years and he helped me get my passenger door opening after the Bambi run-in. What a coincidence – 6 years of guiding, probably nearly 200 people,600 trips and the one time I hit a deer I wind up with the only collision repair guy I’ve ever guided. Take what you want from that one….
8/15 – Guided Todd (who didn’t fish much) and his sons Jacob and Connery for the full day. Fishing was pretty good from the get-go with Jake landing a 29″ solid laker to start. Jake paid his dues on Thursday – he missed a couple fish as he was learning the technique, but then continued to fish hard without much action. Today he made up for it. He landed another, but trash-talking his older brother came back to bite him. Connery landed 5 nice lakers – incl. three 27″ers in a row near Taughannock. Another day of solid fishing. The guys did a great job; they landed every solid hookup. Todd managed a fish as well while one of the guys took a break.