Cayuga Lake 12/3 + 4
Got out for some fishing on Cayuga Lake out of Myers yesterday with my buddy Mike and solo today out of Taughannock. Unless we get some serious rain, I will be launching either out of Taughannock or Long Point from now until the lake level is raised in the spring. Myers is launchable but barely – you’re motoring out through a foot of water and plenty of debris. Forget about Union Springs too!
12/3: Met Mike at Myers at 10:00 am and we headed out with casting gear and fly-gear in tow. Conditions the whole day wound up being glassy and flat. Tough conditions in my book for fly-fishing, though there was around a half dozen guys fly-casting from shore at Taughannock, so not all were discouraged. We had very good action with our gear casting various jigs – both hair and plastics. We wound up with 9 solid fish landed. Mike anchored the catch with a really solid brown that was 24″ and likely 6 to 7lbs. Incredible battle! We had salmon to 20″ and a few lakers up to around 24″ as well. I wanted to explore a few areas that produced for us late last season but that proved to be a bust.
12/4: My plan was to try Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen today for salmon and pike, but the NWS was predicting winds in the upper teens by the afternoon gusting into the 20s. No thanks. So I launched over at Taughannock. Launching is good here but you have to watch for the bubbler hose, which is near the surface in places. You also want to stay on the south side of the channel to avoid bottoming out when going out or coming in, especially in choppy conditions.
I tried some pike fishing on the day and only drew follows from two pickerel – one which struck and wound up being a very nice 25″ chunky fish. Weed growth is intermittent likely due to the muddy water we experienced from March – July. You may find some good pike but it will likely take a bit of searching. Cayuga’s pike fishing is a shadow of what is was back in the late 1990s up through at least 2008. During that time frame, it was amongst the best in the region for size and not bad for numbers. Hopefully we’ll see a good class of fish produced after this year’s high spring water level. I much prefer Owasco Lake this year for pike size and Seneca Lake for numbers in terms of guiding.
Fly-fishing was a lot of fun. I nabbed a fat brown that went 22″. He engulfed my fly and bled all over the place so into the livewell it went. I didn’t weigh it but it had to go over 5lbs. I thought I hooked a big drum – I didn’t know what to think. Tremendous battle! Also got a 24″ wild laker on the fly along with a salmon around 15″. Water temp was 46 on top. All fish hit bionic smelt flies fished on Intermediate lines.