Cayuga Lake/North End 6/18
Guided Dan and Dan today – things started out rainy but calm. We started with bass fishing south of the State Launch. The shallow fish of last Sunday had scattered a bit, but the guys each managed nice largemouths around 17″ – maybe 2.75lbs or so, and some pickerel, a smaller bass and a couple misguided small perch/bluegills. We tried the new shallow running X-Rap – it’s a sub-surface spook type lure (can’t remember the official name of it.) We did see some baitfish (alewives) up shallow, so I’m sure the fish are feeding heavily. H2O was in the 60s and eventually reached the low 70s.
The cloudy conditions were prime for lake trout jigging, so after around an hour and a half of bassin’, we headed south. During my first couple years of guiding I fished different areas all the time and wasn’t very “spot oriented”. We caught a lot of fish and some beasts up to 34″ to 35″. Eventually, I became “spot oriented” – mainly due to a lot of 1/2 day trips – I felt a need to fish “where they were” and take people there. I realized that this compromised our fishing a bit, so today I had the guys fish a bunch of areas I never fish much – we approached the lake like a new lake and the day like a new day. The approach paid off and Dan’s (aka Dan #1) second laker was a 32″ beauty! We found good concentrations of fish in some “new” areas and the guys managed to fill their limit as well as release the pig and drop/miss a few nice fish as well. I’ll be keeping this approach – I love it!
I expect terrific lake trout jigging in July on both Seneca and Cayuga Lake the way things are shaping up! I intend to fish Canandaigua once I get an open date.