Cayuga Lake 8/4 + Skaneateles Lake 8/5 AM
Great fishing continues on Cayuga Lake for lakers and bonus salmonids. Skaneateles Lake remains a solid bet for smallmouth bass action.
8/4 AM: Met John, John Jr. and Ben at Taughannock State Park around 6:30 am. These guys have been going fishing with me for longer than I can remember. They have roots in the area as well as some land, but now reside a ways away. We’ve always done well on our trips and today was no exception.
We spent most of our time around the Power Plant “Flats” and bait numbers and action was exceptional. A troller remarked that they’d caught a couple rainbows, salmon and lakers. We started talking rainbows and sure enough, in short order John Jr. landed a stocked 18″ rainbow! Wild coincidence! First one on the lake for the guys and our first one of the year here guiding. We took good care of this uncommon fish and released it after a quick shot or two. Laker action got better and better throughout the day with the guys even experiencing a triple! A small salmon was also landed. No luck with the “Grand Slam” as we weren’t able to hook any browns. But a terrific morning with around 19 fish landed if I remember correctly. Very few boats were out either.
8/4 PM: Met Mike, Jeffrey and Sarah at the ramp and we checked out some areas as we worked north. The wind had died and action had really slowed. Jeff had a bump on his first drop, but Sarah hooked the first fish. It was a brown! Unfortunately it got off before it was in netting range. Then she landed a laker with attached lamprey. The bite had slowed noticeably from the AM and not much was happening, even though on my FF (fish finder) some fish were still moving for the jigs – which almost always means that they are catchable. By this point in time the guys had really laid back and weren’t giving it a good effort. Mike missed a few hits due to some technique issues. Sarah hung in there and she hooked another fish. I had to play cheerleader for awhile. I implore people to fish hard, especially on 1/2 day trips – because as much can happen during the second half of the day as the first.
Everyone but me jumped in the lake for a quick swim/cool off. I felt that fishing was good and we needed to stick with it. I was marking a lot of fish and they were active. While they were in the lake, I took a couple drops and managed to land a laker. We were 3 hours into the trip (half days run 4 to 5 hours.) Sure enough, the action had clicked back on like a switch and everyone started landing some fish. Another 4 to 6 fish were landed before we headed back in. I give Sarah a lot of credit. Usually the guys fish hardest and the less hard-core fisher-people quit. She kept at it.
8/5 AM: Picked up Robert at his place on Skaneateles Lake at 7:30. His place is right around one of my favorite areas to guide. He does a good amount of drifting with crayfish and usually does well. I mentioned our 21″ bass from last week and he informed me that he and his buddy have caught a couple fish at 22″ over the past two years! Some of the bass in this lake are really starting to get bigger, though most are still on the small side.
I showed him my three favorite late spring to fall bass techniques on the lake. The tube, soft jerkbaits and dropshotting. Everything worked but the Fluke stuff was the most fun and Robert really enjoyed the sight-fishing aspect of it. We had a good trip with around a dozen bass landed – some being nice 15″ range fish. Very few cars were in the State Ramp lot, which was nice to see.