9/13 Lake Ontario out of Oswego, 9/14 Cayuga/Skaneateles Reports
9/13 Oswego!: Got out with my buddy Chris for a day of brown trout jigging and smallmouth bass fishing. My new FishHawk Temp probe made finding the fish easy. Within 10 minutes of setting up I was fast into a solid 22″ brown trout, likely 4lb to 5lbs. My buddy Chris hadn’t done the technique much, but he got the feel for it and managed to land a nice fish as well as have plenty of hits and follows. The best fish of the day was a 26″ FAAAATTTT beauty that I nailed on a Swim Fish. We only landed around 4 fish, but the action was hot and heavy with plenty of hits and follows. We took plenty of photos and once I get some bad weather blow-off days, I will post them.
Bass fishing wasn’t as hot as the last few times out, but we didn’t fish during the good wave action and likely missed the hotter shallow bite. Dropshotting Gulp Gobies in 15′ to 37′ yielded some fat bass including a 4lb beauty for Chris that was over 18″ long. We also hooked bass on tubes and crankbaits. Some bass were feeding on shallow crayfish whereas others were likely on gobies in deep water. We saw a couple big drum by the breakwalls on the way in.
9/14: AM on Cayuga – Guided Eric and his son Finn out of Taughannock today starting around 8 am. Rt. 89 just S. of the park was closed, so you’ve been warned. Fishing was tough today. Finn landed a 27″ laker near the Power Plant. A few other hits were had. Once the southerlies died and the winds shifted the bite got better with a couple immature 22″ to 24″ non-spawners gobbling the plastics. But it was tough fishing – we were over fish all morning long with very little to show, and the guys worked assorted plastics and hardware.
I much prefer targeting fish in feeding patterns over spawners, and with the spawning ready to start on Cayuga in about 2 weeks, most Cayuga guiding for lakers I do will be out of Long Point State Park targeting non-spawners for the most part.
PM: On Skaneateles Lake –Guided Ed and his friend Will on Skaneateles Lake for an abbreviated 1/2 day trip. We knew we’d have a chance of storms and some stronger south winds, but Ed wanted to give things a try. Bass fishing was very good on the N. end of the lake for small to medium sized smallmouths. Ed fly-fished and that was difficult, but casting topwaters and tubes yielded some nice hits and fish to around 15″. The storm system got close to us around 6:45 pm and we called it an early day.
H2O ranges from 69 to 72 on the Finger Lakes I’ve been fishing. Water levels are slightly lower than average. Angling pressure is light. Fishing, with the exception of lower Cayuga Lake for lakers has generally been excellent!