Cayuga Lake 7/5 – 7/9
I don’t have the energy now for a “play by play” reportbut here’s what’s going on in Cayuga Lake re: lakers. The best bites are generally in the morning – usually they start by 6:30 or 7:00 am. Sometimes the bite goes till 9, sometimes later. Evening fishing has generally been good to excellent – it was on Thurs. night, but it was tough on Sat. night. There’s baitfish everywhere – from north of Dean’s Cove down to Myer’s and probably further south. Lake trout are all over the place, but they can be tough. At times 4 fish may chase the jig, then nothing over the next 2 hours. Playing with lure type, color and jig head weight can help. Find the right day, and fish hit all day long. The wrong day and it’s a struggle. There isn’t much rhyme or reason to it.
One of the high points of the week was fishing with Mark Dombroski – who’s joined me on some fantastic fishing trips. After some very good morning fishing for 25″ to 28″ lakers, he cracked the 32″ mark with a 10lb. + beauty caught near Dean’s Cove. The fish was good for $250 and 7th place in the Red Cross Derby. The “evening bite” was tough Sat. but we only needed one fish – the right one! Kind of like marriage….
It was great seeing Mike Canavan take lunker AND first place AND fifth place (? – good for over $2800!!!). Mike and his dad joined me for a guide trip last Sept. He needed no help jigging then, and he certainly doesn’t need it now! BTW – Mike does my custom rods and builds some of the finest rods I’ve seen.
The waterfleas are getting worse by the year and trolling is becoming tedious at times. Now’s the time to get into jigging these fish if you’ve been “on the fence” for awhile. A 1/2 day trip can change your life! At least your “fishing life”!
The jiggers dominated the lake trout board (50%)with perennial jigger Toby Wood placing 2 fish on the board, along with Mike – who at one time had 3 lakers on the board! Awesome…. We dropped a couple good fish, but it’s doubtful that any would have made the board.
Smallmouth bass were following Mark’s jigs out in 50′ to 80′ of water! Bass finish spawning just as the alewives move in. It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out why smallies move out come summertime.
Over the past week we’ve had fish in Cayuga as shallow as 35′ and as deep as 90′. Most of the time 50′ to 70′ has been best, but it varies from shore to shore (east vs. west) and from day to day.