Cayuga Lake out of Dean’s 3/16 + 3/17
3/16:
I got out for a couple hours in order to check my electronics out and try to find some fish. I had a couple “lookers” and chasers, but no contact. The folks at Barrett Marine re-checked my electronic hook ups and they re-did them. All’s copacetic, though I still wasn’t getting much of a signal.
3/17:
Well I figured out the problem with the Eagle Unit. My transducer wasn’t totally horizontal. Not a big deal in 30′ of water – virtually unnoticeable, but in 150′ of water – VERY NOTICEABLE!!! I fished for a couple hours before my guide trip today and marked some fish/had chasers but no hookups. I spent most of my time N. of Sheldrake.
I picked up Cy and Kip at the launch at 11 am. When we set up the trip yesterday, I figured we’d be looking at the fishing action as a “3” on a scale between 0 and 10 with 10 being the best. But Cy wanted to learn the technique for future use. The lake trout jigging now is as challenging as it gets! Fish are still in a winter pattern and fairly dormant. Water temps range from 35 to 37. Lake trout are scattered everywhere – from probably 70′ on out to 200′ or more. Maybe a few are shallow too. There’s very little bait in less than 180′. No thermocline. Negative/neutral fish. Not much to”grab onto” out there!
Cy has a lot of fishing experience, some with jigging fluke in Massachusetts. That was helpful. Cy landed the first fish within around an hour. A 28.5″ laker just under 6lbs (yes they are thin right now – plus the fish had a lamprey scar.) Kip got the second, a nice 21″ clean fish. As Cy was bringing in his line in order to get out of Kip’s way, he hooked up! So we had a double going. But his (apparently big) fish got off. A few more hits were missed and that was it.
I enjoy deep jigging. If you learn how to detect bites and hook/land fish in 150′ of water, you’ll find the rest of the year’s jigging to be a piece of cake. Once bait moves up these fish will feed hard and the lakers will be some of the heaviest fish of the season – just loaded with bait. Expect things to improve by the week. Best action today was N. of the Dean’s launch, pretty much in the middle of the lake.