Cayuga Lake 9/5 – 9/7
Did a full day laker jigging trip with Jeff K. on Friday. We had some hits throughout the AM but nothing super solid. Some of the fish were probably browns/salmon. We tried a bunch of areas and persevered. Lakers really turned on around 2 pm and Jeff nailed some (at least 4 or 5) nice fish in short order. Perserverance pays off!
Did the Salvation Army Derby with Jessica this past weekend. We fished hard Sat. from around 7 am till 5 pm or so. We landed around 9 nice lakers – incl. a couple 28″+ fish but nothing we felt good about weighing in. The bite was tough with fish hitting during brighter skies. On Sunday, we took it easy and got on the water around 9:45 am. We caught some fish, but again – nothing special. The wind on Sat. got ridiculous and we had “fun” boating through the 3′ to 4′ waves on Cayuga. It was as rough as it gets with the exception of major cold fronts in the winter!
The fishing is slowing down on Cayuga. Lakers are gradually getting into the spawn mode and the feeding binges are becoming spottier. Around 12 years ago when we started doing some jigging – this is the time of year we’d START. We’d snap jig spoons and bucktails around Taughannock Park. Some guys would get 30 or 40 lakers in a morning doing this type of fishing. I no longer prefer to do it. I’d rather chase fish in their feeding modes, so I’ll be moving a lot of my laker guiding over to Owasco and Keuka Lakes, where lakers spawn later in the year and the “pre-spawn feeding binge” extends into Sept. and Oct. respectively!