Reports

6/21:  Guided the Mariano clan out of Long Point for what started out as a half-day trip, but was extended to a 6-hour trip.  They wanted a 7:30 am start as opposed to my suggested 7 am start.  We had a decent bite early with four fish landed – two were in the 28″ range and two were around 24″ give or take.  Our bite then slowed down for a bit.  I took them to plenty of areas and we found fish and lots of bait, but the fish were pretty neutral.  I was getting ready to take the guys to one last area when Steve asked about extending the trip.  He wondered where I’d take them if they were doing a full-day.  I told him, and we went with a 6-hour day.  The move paid off and the guys wound up with a decent double-digit day.  They kept 10 fish and released a couple.  Nearly all of the fish I filleted had been gorging on alewives.  The guys were very happy with our results.

One series of questions I get asked an awful lot are, “What do you recommend?  A half-day or full-day?  How much better is the morning than afternoon?”

There are no right answers to these questions.  Conditions vary by the year, season, month, week and throughout the day.  Day to day variables like cloud-cover, the moon phase, the amount of “chop” and the length of daylight – just to name a few, all play a role in the fishing.  The species targeted, the body of water, water temperatures – the list of variables that can affect the bite goes on.

A full-day gives anglers the best chance at a successful outing.  If you just want to learn my take on the technique and some tips and tricks, a 1/2 day suffices.  This is something I’m happy to discuss when a trip is booked.

6/22:  Guided Ron today for a full day starting at 7 am out of Myers Town Park.  Needless to say, fish are well-distributed now around Cayuga Lake.  I’ll be doing more trips out of Long Point over the next month but will also be going out of Myers periodically.  By mid-July, I like launching out of Myers.  I will be doing some Owasco Lake and Seneca Lake trips shortly.  I also have a Keuka trip on the books, which I’m looking forward to.  We had a great day today with fairly steady fishing throughout.  Ron’s best laker was over 30″.  We also had a 14″ wild fish which was very encouraging.  I’ve seen some 20″ wild fish along with this 14″er.  It’s nice to see some wild production in the face of the goby invasion.  Many anglers miss clips.  A lot of fish have their adipose fish clipped.  A lot of fish also have fins regenerate.  Just because a fish has all of its fins, does not mean it was wild.  I will show some photos of re-grown fins in a future report.  No bonus species today.

There’s a huge kayak bass tournament going on shortly on Cayuga Lake.  It was cool seeing the very advanced, “tricked-out” kayaks close to the launch areas over the past few days.  I’m glad so many people enjoy targeting bass on Cayuga Lake, but boy, those bass never get much of a break!