Cayuga Lake out of Taughannock 7/24
Had a great half day with Ted, who owns Pike County Outfitters in Pennsylvania (near the Delaware River) and his daughter Jordan, who starts 7th grade this fall. Action started out promising, but somewhat slow at 6:45 am. We worked a lot of east shore areas with one laker to show. A move to the west shore paid off in hefty dividends, especially once the wind came up and clouds rolled in. We had “pre-frontal conditions” and the bite got hot!
Jordan managed a lake trout and a beautiful 23.5″ landlocked salmon. I believe that if we get ample rainfall, there will be some excellent salmon runs this fall on the Cayuga tribs. The fish are out there! The male salmon was developing a kype and was pretty clean. The lampreys seem to have spread out and dissipated after an ominous looking spring infestation.
High point of the day was Ted’s back to back trophy (for the Finger Lakes) lakers – a 32″ and then a 33″ beast! The 33″er fought superbly with 2 strong runs from 40′ down to 80′ in short order. I was very happy that we were able to minimize handling of the fish and get a quick shot or two then release the beasts to hopefully get bigger. 10 nice fish were landed on the day. Jordan was half-asleep through much of the trip, so the fishing was even better than that.
A side note: A lot of anglers try reviving lakers by moving them back and forth in the water, a la stream trout. Getting oxygen and fresh water through the fish’s gills seems helpful on paper, but when surface temps are a lethal 75 to 80 degrees, I don’t see this as a good idea. This likely stresses the fish even more and makes for a tough release. We take the lakers and plunge them headfirst into the lake. I watch them on my depthfinder and they head right for the cool water on the bottom.