Cayuga Lake out of Myers 4/26
I was going to head up to Lake Ontario today, but my fatigue and the weather forecast got the best of me, and I decided to fish Cayuga and do some “homework.” It was a good call – strong southerlies switching to westerlies didn’t sound too good for the big Lake. The plan was stay around the southern part of Cayuga and pinpoint some lakers and work some “new” salmon areas. AES is a long run from Myers, though it isn’t bad from Taughannock.
The boat was in the water by 8:45 am. I had nice sunny skies and a light southerly wind. The laker hunt went well and was a lot of fun. I really enjoy jigging lakers and managed to catch a few. This time of year, I typically catch smaller lakers in the southern portions of Seneca and Cayuga Lakes than I do up North. I’m convinced that the larger ones follow the bait and the small ones are more homebodies or localized fish. The good news was that the three lakers I landed were all clean fish – no signs of lamprey attacks.
Casting flies was a tough go on the salmon. I had three or four salmon encounters – follows and hits from some good fish, but no hook-ups. Most places I fished were not the usual salmon areas. One area I fished, I hadn’t tried in 7 or 8 years, so it was cool to see how things went. I found salmon over anything from 15′ to 40′ of water. There are salmon friendly temperatures on both shores of the lake from north to south. I don’t expect major concentrations of fish on the south ends of Seneca or Cayuga Lake. Those ships have sailed. Salmon move quickly and there are likely good salmon numbers up by Dean’s, Sheldrake and Long Point by now on Cayuga.