Cayuga Lake Reports 7/27 – 29
I’ve been jonesing to fish some bass on Cayuga Lake and got the chance on Friday 7/27 with some fun bassin’ and some guiding for bass. Saturday and Sunday were guided trips for trout.
7/27: I knew the steady weather would make for some good bass action. Had a trip scheduled with Joe around 3 to 4 pm and decided to do some pre-fishing. At around 11 am I headed out of Long Point and went to an area that tends to fish well during hot summers. On my second cast with a crankbait I landed a chunky largemouth around 17 1/2″. A couple casts later I caught another that was being followed in by yet another solid fish! I worked down the weedbed and landed one more by short casting plastics before moving on. Another area yielded a small smallmouth, which is a good sign.
Picked up Joe at the launch around 4pm. He’d driven in from the city and it took a little while to get out. He’ll be fishing the tourney in August and I took him around and showed him a bit of “the lay of the lake.” My hot area had cooled off (that’s bass fishing) and I had him work some other areas. He insisted I fish (he’s actually a guide) and we did locate a few bass (including an 18″er) and some big pickerel. Swimbaits, crankbaits and plastics are all good baits on Cayuga this time of year.
7/28: Did a full day with Rick and his brother Tim out of Myers. The bite was very slow for the first 4 hours or so with one laker hooked. We ran north and the fishing got a little bit better with Rick landing 3 decent lakers and Tim landing a beautiful 24″ landlocked salmon. Tough day, but the guys made the best of it.
7/29: Guided Gary for an abbreviated full day out of Long Point. Went down and worked some mid-lake areas with a very good laker bite. Gary landed 7 solid fish to 30″ and lost/dropped some good ones too. Plenty of different colored plastics worked well. 75′ to 95′ worked well. We had a great time.
Regarding Depths for lakers: The thermocline often sets up at different depths. On the east shore it can be different than on the west and areas further north vary from areas south. There are also springs along the bottom of these lakes that will change water temps and attract lake trout and other species.
When I give a depth range for lakers, it’s what my depthfinder is reading while we’re catching fish. But 75′ of water on the depthfinder along a drop-off can actually be 90′. The first strong signal reaching the depthfinder’s receiver generally gives the “bottom reading.” If 60% of the transducer beam (think of a flashlight beam getting wider the further the distance is away) is hitting shallow water, and 40% is hitting deeper water – you’ll still have the shallower depth reading show up as “the depth,” even though the jigs may be hitting deeper water. Trenches or holes along a flat also won’t mark. So if you’re working an 85′ hole surrounded by 70′ fow, your fish finder will read 70 feet.