Cayuga Lake out of Long Point 11/5
Guided Keane and his 13 year old son Jesse for 1/2 day lake trout jigging. Jesse had won the Bass Pro Shops sponsored trip at an outdoor show last spring and the original Charter Service couldn’t do it, so I received an invite from BPS and accepted. Keane told me he wanted to see Jesse catch a good fish. Jesse hadn’t fished from a boat before and had never caught lakers in open water before. Jigging Cayuga Lake looked like the best option for the guys, who weren’t up for driving much from where they live.
I’ve done some November jigging for lakers on Cayuga Lake, but not a lot. Usually I move my “operation” over to Keuka Lake or target different species. As much fun as jigging is, pike, rainbow trout and salmon fishing pick up in November and I like the change of pace. Bottom line is that I was looking forward to seeing how the bite was. I like sunny days in the fall for laker fishing and today was going to be sunny and calm.
Things looked good on my fishfinder – there are currently plenty of scattered fish from Long Point on north. Fish were moving for the jigs from the get-go and I knew it was a matter of time before we connected. Jesse landed his first and second lake trout within an hour and a half or so. Typical 18″ non-spawning fish. Then Keane landed a 23″er. But none of us were expecting what came next – Jesse’s rod doubled over as a large fish dug under the boat. After a strong battle – one in which Jesse had a tough time reeling, I slid the net under the 33″ large laker. That fish was “mission accomplished” and made the day. The guys caught a few more afterwards too.
Best depths were from around 75′ to 100′. There were fish deeper, but we stuck with the shallower fish. Bait is likely deeper now – we didn’t mark much. The bite was tentative – not great, mostly on and off with fish semi-aggressive. Fun day.