Cayuga Lake out of Myers Town Park 4/17 + 4/20 PMs

Reports

The weather forecast isn’t looking very hospitable this week – colder temperatures and plenty of wind.  In recent years I’ve noticed warmer fall weather but colder weather in the spring.  Things have a way of evening out.

4/17:  Got out with my buddy Todd for some lake trout fishing.  I checked out both Myers and the Long Point ramps on Tuesday or Wednesday and found them both open.  Some searching online revealed that Cayuga County Boat Launches had all been closed due to the poorly written Governor’s order that I discussed in a prior post (were they referring to ALL launches or was this about what were construed as “essential businesses?”)  So I ruled out Long Point, since if it had been closed, we couldn’t have launched at Union Springs (which was not a State Launch or private business, thus legally could have remained open) and would have had to drive all the way back down to Myers.

I was hoping the conditions would result in good lake trout casting nearshore along with some shots at salmon/browns but deep lakers wound up being our call.  We worked areas north of Myers and went up as far as Kidders with one lake trout to show and another hit or two.  With the calm conditions we decided a run up to Aurora might pay off.  It did.  We marked some fish and started getting hits and hookups in short order despite harsh winds and some rain.   Todd had the hot hand and managed to land another four or five fish.  I dropped a couple.  Later we moved nearshore and I picked up all we needed (our limit) on a bladebait.

All the fish were hatchery fish. Stomachs were pretty full of various sized alewives and a few gobies.  One laker had a plastic worm (senko) in its stomach, which unfortunately isn’t an uncommon sight.

4/20:  I was happy to get out for around 4 hours plus today.  The forecast looked great on paper with calm conditions developing into light north winds.  When I arrived at Myers the lake was a bit “frothy.”   Winds were probably 12 to 15 mph out of the north.  The problem with those conditions is that you don’t decide where you’re going to fish, the LAKE decides!  So I wound up fishing some areas that weren’t very optimal and didn’t see any signs of fish.

Lake temps are up around 43 degrees with water into the high 40s on the south end.  I wound up down there and the winds finally calmed down enough to a.) fish and b.) fly-fish, so I broke out the fly-rods.  I had a hit in short order but wasn’t able to stick the fish.  Then I had three fish (one solid) all follow in my fly and not hit it, so I switched up patterns.  I never had any more hits and wrapped up.  A fair amount of boats were out today.  Lake level is close to full pool.  Looking forward to getting out again soon!