Cayuga Lake out of Long Point 8/31 + Lake Ontario out of Oswego 9/1
Fun two days of fishing!
8/31 Cayuga Lake out of Long Point: Guided Greg and his dad John for 1/2 day. We found some great lake trout action here starting in around 90′ of water. Greg and John landed a dozen fish or so. The bite was really great in the AM and kept going for the most part. Most fish ran around 19″ to 27″. Greg picked up a 22″ landlocked salmon closer to the point. Greg did a trip with a couple of his buddies/relatives a couple years ago and we really struggled – one fish was landed, so this made up for it.
After the trip I spent a couple hours working areas I seldom fish – south of Long Point. Saw a few nice drum in shallow. Didn’t have much of my bass tackle with me, but I found good numbers of perch while dropshotting.
9/1 Oswego!: I made a mistake fishing Cayuga late yesterday, instead of catching up on some sleep. Taught swimming classes last night then tried to get up at 4 am. Heard some T-Storms and saw a bunch of nasty weather on the weather map, so I fell back asleep and wound up sleeping in until 10 am, when I received a call. But after a lot of consideration, the coffee finally perked me up and off to Oswego I went. The distance from Lansing to Oswego is nearly the same as Rochester was, so expect to see plenty of reports from here in the future.
(It turns out Oswego never did get any nasty weather this AM. The storms dissipated before they reached there. “When in doubt, go out” – I need to listen to my own mantra more often.)
I set up around 1 pm. A couple trollers I talked to didn’t have any luck out around 140′ this AM. Also had a slow bass report. I was impressed with the numbers of fish I was marking around 90′ to 110′ or so. I had quite a few fish (likely Kings) moving a little bit for my jigs today – incl. 2 to 3 at a time at times. Had a light hit or two. I worked for browns a bit and missed one due to my reel coming off my reel seat, then I had a brown hit 3 times lightly on the retrieve. I saw the fish and it was a nice one. Browns in Lake Ontario can be jigged just as effectively as Finger Lakes browns. No question about it. They are the same fish too (from the same hatcheries as far as I know.) Re: Chinooks – The trollers really hammered fish this evening. I saw bent rods all around including a few doubles. Basically 90′ to 140′ was the hot depth with fish down 80′ to 110′.
Most Oswego regulars know this, but the nearshore areas here are just loaded with brown trout. My last two outings here – on both north and south winds have produced hits and chases from big browns on the jigs. What I’ve seen with the Kings over the past two excursions is a reluctance for them to move vertically – hence the trollers’ successes. They don’t want to leave their comfort zone. Every other salmonid – whether browns, lakers, Atlantics or rainbows will move vertically in many instances.
I’ve learned volumes of good info re: jigging Kings over the past couple trips (and other trips over the past 7 or 8 years.) I’d like to get out here at least once more this fall. Then next year I plan on a lot more fishing throughout the entire season working Chinooks. Stay tuned…..
I can’t say I really get all the hype around Lake Ontario Chinook fishing – whether in a boat or in the rivers. I don’t think they are all that great to eat – whether health-wise or taste wise. But people come from all over the Northeast to fish the Kings. I think the draw is just big fish – plain and simple. When salmon are hooked via a 26′ or 30′ boat trolling, the boat is often kept in gear – so the fisherman is fighting the boat as well as the fish. I watched kids fighting salmon for 1/2 mile worth of trolling. And salmon in the rivers use the current to the same effect. I used to catch silvery chinooks right off the piers in Rochester. Great, strong battles – but after one or two fish my arm was worn out. I’d much rather jig any time. I know people who jigged Kings and didn’t think they fought as well when caught via jigging than they did when trolling. Interesting stuff. But the challenge is what keeps me after them!
BTW – Two of my favorite places are in Oswego. If you like chocolate, you need to stop by “Stone’s Candies” on the N. side of Rt. 104 on the west end of Oswego. Fantastic milk chocolate. For breakfast, it’s tough to beat “Wade’s Diner” on the east side of Oswego.