Cayuga Lake out of Taughannock 11/25
Launched out of Taughannock again for a half day trip today targeting trout/salmon. The lake level is dropping but folks are still able to launch at Myers and elsewhere. Given that today was forecast to be the “good day” of the week, I was surprised to see only one other trailer in the launch when I arrived to meet Chris and his dad Bill just before 8 am. We got underway around 8:15 and worked four different areas (zones if you will without trying to sound too pretentious.)
We had zero signs of fish in our first area. Area 2 produced our first hits and the guys saw what to expect and what they needed to do. Chris was fly-casting a full sinking line with one of my buddy’s sculpin patterns. Bill was casting stickbaits and tube jigs. The third area proved to be paydirt and we got into some fish. The gear really shined today. Conditions were somewhat calm and that tends to get the lakers hanging near the bottom. Yesterday’s wind resulted in lakers really chasing the moving baits – today they were more locked in on the jigs, which made fly-fishing difficult for Chris. Bill lost a few fish and had various hits but he managed to land three solid lakers, one of which was a real beauty and wound up tying his personal best (or perhaps beating it by 1/2″.) It was a 30 +1/2″er which put up a great fight on the medium spinning tackle. Bill also broke off a big pickerel that bit off his tube. Chris managed to catch it (or a different one) a bit later – a solid 24″ to 25″ fish. We tried another area and fish were dropped there.
Bill has more history on the lake than anyone I’ve met. His dad and grandparents (if I remember right) fished the lake going back to the 1940s! So I was able to receive some clarification on the names of certain spots and some history on the area and the fishing, which was cool.
After the trip I fished for around 2 hours on my own. The wind had died and fishing was slow for what I wanted to do but I did manage to scout a few areas out and field test a new rod of mine. I caught one smallmouth bass around 12″ which was a good sign. I am gradually seeing more smallmouths and more northerns on this lake than I had encountered over the past few years. When I got back to Taughannock Park quite a few people and boat trailers were in the lot.