Cayuga Lake out of Long Point 6/24 + 25

Reports

Did back to back full days here on Friday and today (Saturday) starting at 6:30 am. Friday was with Andy and his dad Randy. They wound up having a great day with a bunch of solid lake trout landed and a nice salmon lost. Most lakers were clean and fat. They averaged 25″ to 27″. One lamprey came up. The dropped salmon was a very solid fish – likely around 24″. Great jumps. Boat traffic was fairly light. Fishing started out slow but picked up and basically cycled on and off through the day. I don’t recall the numbers but I think the guys landed around 20 fish. We kept two fish that were maimed and/or unreleasable. One fish was very fat and just wouldn’t go down. It rarely happens for us. I burped it out a few times and after a while we just kept this bloated fish. It turns out that the laker was full of mature, ripe eggs! I have never seen that before – a ripe laker (probably was ready last fall but didn’t spawn) this time of year.

Today was a full day with Greg. We were able to get most of the trip in without getting too wet from isolated showers/storms. The bite (again) started out slow and then really ramped up around 8 am. Then it slowed again and get very hot (a fish nearly every drop) after the first storm passed through. Fish ran to 29″. Greg landed and released one salmon around 20″ today. We had two live lampreys show up on lakers today. Greg landed around 23 or 24 fish today. Simply excellent numbers and good size too! It’s as good as I’ve seen Cayuga for lakers in terms of sizes, numbers and “the bite.” The year 2005 comes to mind as being similar.

Wild fish have been more of a component in our catch this past week. Numbers are still low – maybe 10 to 11%. DEC has accurate data on wild fish rates with coldwater assessments done every 3 years plus the annual egg take.