Cayuga Lake 9/2 + 9/3
Guided a full day on 9/2 with David and his dad Bruce. It’s always great seeing Dave and the guys fished hard despite a somewhat slow AM. Dave probably missed his first 6 hits, but the lakers started coming. The guys wound up landing 8 nice fish. Bruce had two or three follows from some huge browns, which made for some excitement. Nothing new to report – fish are all over Cayuga Lake right now and around 75′ to 95′ has been really good. We are marking good #s of fish out to over 110′, which is common this time of year. Bait is everywhere.
9/3: Guided a half-day with Bert, his wife Vicki and son Dylan. Bert works over at Cornell and is a regular at Teagle Hall where I do a lot of my swimming. He lives on the lake and was interested in learning the jigging. The gang doesn’t fish a whole lot except occasionally off their dock. Things went great today – very hot bite from the get-go. I think the guys had hits on their first few drops, whether they knew it or not! Wound up landing a bunch of nice lakers to around 27″. We kept a couple nice ones. Vicki had a hold of a nice salmon – likely 4lbs or more near AES. It got off, but it was exciting. Some days the jigging just seems too easy. But it can be very humbling at times!
Ran into my fishing friend Jeff who was having a great day with his buddies. They landed a few bonus landlocks and a rainbow along with a bunch of lakers. You never know what you’ll get this time of year on Cayuga Lake! It arguably has to be one of the top inland (non-Great Lake) freshwater fisheries in the Continental U.S. for year round great lakers, LL Atlantic salmon, browns and rainbows. Where else can you catch browns averaging 4 -12lbs or better (with fish possible upwards of 17lbs,) rainbows to over 10, salmon to over 8 and lakers upwards of 15lbs from January through December, without ice fishing? These fish reach trophy size in a matter of 5 to 10 years, not decades like up in Manitoba. These lakes sustain HARVESTS of good sized fish. Lake Champlain is coming on, but Cayuga still has better lamprey control. We are very lucky here in the Finger Lakes Region! Add in the amenities and wineries/great restaurants and there’s no better place for a couple to relax and fish! This isn’t just an area for “the boys.”