Reports

Over the past four days, I guided a couple of lake trout trips and a couple of casting trips for salmon on Cayuga Lake.  I’ve long contended that weather conditions are one of the most vital factors in fishing success.  In the spring, gradual warming nearly always produces the best fishing;  in the fall, it’s continued cooling.  Anything that goes against that, makes for a tougher bite – although I’d also say that a cold snap in the spring kills “the bite” a lot worse than a warming trend in the fall.  This year so far is unlike any that I have seen in a very long time!  We had an old school harsh winter (unlike most of the last couple of decades,) coupled to a more modern (aka cold) March/April. Water temperatures on Cayuga Lake are virtually the same that they’ve been since January!

4/11 Cayuga Lake out of Long Point:  Guided Ron and his daughter Rachel for a full-day starting just after 10 am.  It was not a pleasant day to be out, that’s for sure.  We had some light rain, highs in the mid-40s and some wind.  It was completely cloudy for most of the day.  These are my least favorite conditions for jigging lake trout.  We had to reschedule this trip before, since it isn’t easy for Ron and Rachel to coordinate their schedules, so we stuck with it.  Advanced forecasts didn’t look bad for today.   The fishing was tough.  We worked water from 110′ out to 160′ or so.  Finding fish wasn’t too much of an issue – getting them to bite was.  Ron had a nice laker chase his lure right up to the surface early on.  By about 4 pm we finally noticed fish getting more active.  Rachel, who had come through on numerous occasions with some big fish, hooked and lost two fish in short order.  Then she finally landed one.  Needless to say, it was a humbling day, but we didn’t get skunked.  On top of the fishing, I was dealing with muscle fatigue from a stomach bug I’d had nearly a week earlier, which didn’t help.  Water levels are rising on Cayuga Lake.  H2O temperature was 39/40 on top.  Plenty of loons were out!

4/12 Cayuga Lake out of Taughannock:  Started at 9:30 am with Ron and Rachel again, this time hoping to nab some salmon via casting.  This was going to be a 6-hour trip, but Ron changed it to a 4-hour trip at the last minute.  I like wind and sun for landlocked salmon casting/fly-casting.  Yes, we’ve caught them during overcast days and calm days but in this era, wind and sun seem to make the fish more aggressive and surface oriented.  Back in the “smelt-days” of the 1990s and early-2000s (I’d say the 1970s/1980s, but I wasn’t down here then,) some wind and overcast or rainy days could make for some awesome salmon casting/fly-casting.  Smelt would stage around creek mouths during that time-frame.

We had our work cut out for us and went at it.  We had zero hits or follows for a good 3 hours and change.  Lo and behold, in the last area we tried, Rachel lost a beauty!  She probably torqued it a bit too much, but either way we had found some fish.  Just like with yesterday’s lake trout, Rachel had dropped two hookups before landing one – well this time she just dropped one.  She landed her first landlocked salmon which was a hair over 18″.   The one she dropped was in the lower-20s.  Ron managed to nab two before they needed to get going.  So we got lucky at the end of our trip.  Rachel took her nice First Lite jacket and  lifejacket off for a minute to avoid sliming them.  Unfortunately I can’t put up the photo – since it’s a law violation.  Obviously nobody’s going to give you a ticket for momentarily shedding your lifejacket to take off a layer, but why chance it in this day and age?

4/13 Cayuga Lake out of Taughannock:  Guided Aaron and his friend Cal today for a full-day targeting salmon on the fly.  The guys are very involved in Trout Unlimited and Aaron actually won this trip with me at a raffle held last March (2024) up in Rochester.  Aaron does stream/river guiding.  The guys brought and used all of their own gear, including flies today.  During the course of the day they got a good taste of what’s involved in fly-casting for salmon in the Finger Lakes.

In our first area, Aaron got a hit.  Our second area didn’t produce.  I decided to get them right down to where I was with Ron and Rachel.  Maybe 1/4 mile south of that area, the guys nabbed 3 fish in short order up to over 20″!  The bigger one that Cal caught jumped a couple of times and gave a great accounting of itself.  We had another hit or two in that area then worked some other spots.  All of the later areas except our very last produced some hits and follows but no more fish landed.  The guys had pretty much “cast their arms off” so we knocked off maybe an hour or so early.  Mission accomplished!

Cayuga Lake out of Long Point 4/14 midday:  Guided Brandon and Ron today for a 1/2-day of lake trout jigging.  We had great conditions “on paper” going into today with sun and light winds.  Unfortunately the forecast changed to mostly cloudy conditions.  There was even a line of rain that came across the region before we launched.  Brandon’s been out with me a fair number of times.  He brings his own high-end saltwater equipment with him – e.g., Van Stahl reels and so forth.  Fishing was better than Friday the 11th, but it still wasn’t even close to what we expect on Cayuga Lake for this time of year.  The guys landed 3 fish and Brandon had lost one.  That was about it.  A few other hits were had.  We had a slight bite-window when the sun came out and winds diminished momentarily.  We were off the lake around 3:15pm.  By the time I was home – at 4 or 4:30, we had great sun and calmer conditions – I’m guessing that that’s when the bite might have really taken off.  I cleaned our three fish and they were somewhat well-fed with alewives and a goby or two in their stomachs.

As I gaze into my crystal ball (aka the long-range forecast,) I see things finally getting back on track next week.  We’re finally going to have some daily highs in the 60s and steady weather.  That should really help get the spring bites where they should be.  I have a few openings which I will list in a separate post.