Fished on my own for around 5 or 6 hours today starting just after noon. Conditions were good for fishing despite the forecast 15 mph southerlies. I wanted to check on pike and bass fishing, as well as try out some rod/reel combos I set up for smallmouth fishing. Water temps are around 54 to 56 right now. The lake level is still at full pool, though it's dropped a little bit.
I started working some stickbaits and swimbaits for pike. It didn't take long before I missed a hit; my next cast produced a hard strike from a gorgeous, thick bodied 29" northern. It was nice seeing no sign of diseases on this fish. I worked a couple other pike areas w/o any luck, but I chalk a lot of that up to the time of day and loads of chopped up weeds on the surface making presentations tough in some areas. I expect good to very good pike fishing on Cayuga Lake this fall - winter, and things will only get better as water temps cool and weed growth gradually dies off. A nice 16" largemouth and 14" smallmouth gobbled my X-rap while pike fishing.
The smallmouth bass fishing was very good! I had a hit from a behemoth smallie - it hammered my jerkbait like a bluefish! I felt its weight, then it got off - but it had to be a very large fish, maybe 20" or better. I wound up landing some nice smallies - fish up to 18" on the jerkbaits.
Some small salmon (12") have shown up around Taughannock and there are plenty of salmon further up the lake still over deep water. I expect some good salmon action by the 2nd week in November given the cold forecasts for the upcoming week. Great bass, pike and salmon on Cayuga - sometimes I wonder why I go anywhere else!