Cayuga Lake Dean’s Cove 7/16 + 7/17
7/16 – Today was a guide trip with Matt and his brother Mikah (hope I spelled that right!). Pretty good southerly wind to start and it would only get stronger. Nice chop, overcast and sultry out this morning. Things got off to a very good start with the anglers hooking a double! Drifting in 45′ to 60′ of water ended up producing 6 nice lakers. In addition another 4 to 5 fish were lost. Not bad for a half day! This fishing is at its best right now! A thermocline has set up in around 45′ of water and the fish are STACKED along it.
7/17 – After watching my clients catch fish yesterday it was my turn today. I messed around with the lakers quite a bit on my flasher. Basically teased and tormented them like the nice guy I am 😉 Lowered the jig, watched them follow it down – raised it and watched them follow it up. I tried to see how far they’d follow the jig up then how far back down! Fun stuff, but it didn’t really put any fish in the boat. I caught a bunch of nice fish today on white flukes and a jigging spoon inserted into a white tube. The “spoontube” was excellent. Only problem is the fish often suck it in deep and get hooked badly. A plain jigging spoon worked pretty well, but the addition of the tube was a noticeable improvement. I also spent some time searching the shallower flats hoping to tie into some suspended smallmouths – the “Holy Grail” of the Finger Lake region. Learn to catch and most importantly, find them – and tournament domination will be at hand! I have been catching a few unclipped lakers lately. Maybe the natural reproduction of them is increasing on Cayuga? It’s possible. They are running about 10% wild if this is the case. The other possibility is a lot of missed clips at the hatchery….