Reports

Did another weekend of guiding lake trout on Cayuga Lake out of Long Point.  With the influx of warm run-off lake trout have spread out (scattered) widely.  The hot and heavy deep laker bite has slowed markedly.  We had to work a lot harder for our fish.

5/14 Cayuga Lake out of Long Point:  I did a half day with Denis and his friend Russell.  Denis was out with me before on one of the last really excellent days I experienced on Seneca Lake – around 2013 maybe.   We had decent numbers of old, big fish back then.   Fishing today was good.  It wasn’t super easy or hot and heavy but we managed to land 5 nice lakers fishing from 9:30 am until around 2 pm or so.  Another half dozen hookups were lost.  We had some really nice fish and if I remember right, our last one was a wild one.

5/15 Cayuga Lake out of Long Point AM:  Guided Sam and his wife Stacey for 1/2 day.  They keep a large boat down at Treman Park on Ithaca’s south end.  Our AM fishing was somewhat tough with one fish landed early on.  Fishing picked up about an hour before the end of our trip with Sam landing another 3 nice ones.  Stacey was a professional chef so the fish will be put to good use!

5/16 Cayuga Lake out of Long Point:  Did a half day trip with Joe starting at 8 am.  Fishing was slow to start for the first couple hours.  Joe missed a couple fish but they weren’t hitting great.  Eventually he landed a small one.  We made a move and had some very good action in around 50′ to 70′ of water.  Joe likes to fish a lot and really enjoyed himself today.

5/17 Lake Ontario out of Oswego Harbor:  Got out here from around 2 pm until 6:30.  Trout and salmon fishing has been slow out here.  I talked to one local that fishes here very frequently along with some guys that had been up for the prior couple days.  It’s been the same story as the last couple years.  Get the right winds (west) that move warm water which contains bait and then the salmon show up.  The winds switch and the vast majority of fish disappear.  Keep in mind that salmon can from one end to the other in Lake Ontario in probably less than a week, maybe even three days – they are used to swimming hundreds of miles (or even a thousand) out in the ocean.  Hot salmon fishing continues from the Niagara Bar east to around Rochester from what one of the guys told me.  There is a lot of bait around the harbor, where the warm river water is flowing in.  Trailering the nearly 3 hours to Olcott or Wilson Harbor is not something I’m interested in doing at this point in my season.

I spent most of my short day out searching for trout and salmon.  I had a couple fish that were likely lakers move for my jigs.  I marked a few fish that were probably Kings, but not many.  I wound up landing one chunky smallmouth bass inshore before calling it a day.  Water in the harbor is in the mid-60s temp wise.  The lake level is probably 2 feet down and people need to exercise caution when motoring around, especially when the lake was so much higher over the past two years.

My guide season has seen the busiest start I’ve ever had, so it’s been tough to motivate to get out on days off.  Something is always needing attention, whether it’s my truck, trailer, motor or trolling motor.

Open Dates:

May is fully booked – thanks!

June:  4th, 11th, 12th, 26th – 28th.

July:  1st, 3rd, 4th, 8th – 12th, 14th – 20th, 22nd – 27th, 31st.

August and onwards:  Most days are available from August through the end of the year.