Cayuga Lake out of Taughannock 8/13 – 8/15
I did quite a bit of guiding over the past few days. It’s been a very busy summer over here at the Angling Zone and things are finally showing some signs of slowing down a little bit!
8/13: Went out with Ken, Kenny and their buddy Matt for some laker jigging. A cold front moved in and air temps dropped a bit. The laker bite got tougher, but Ken still managed to nail some nice fish (a limit of lakers up to an 8.5lber). Kenny picked up one. Matt struggled a bit. I think part of Matt’s problem was using his own tackle – a braided line set-up with no leader. I don’t think lakers are line shy, but I feel that the braid tied direct to the hook limits the action of the jig on the fall – a crucial element of jigging success. Either way, a good time was had by all. Kenny had a couple smallmouths up to around 3lbs come up for his jigs. These bass were out in 75′ of water! No wonder a lot of bass fishers have trouble catching smallmouths in the summer!
8/14 AM: Did a trip with Tom and his son Mike in the morning. Mike had only fished around 5 times in his entire life. The guys had some good opportunities during the morning but things just didn’t go their (our) way. Tom’s son lost a couple decent lakers early on by not setting the hook quickly enough. Tom picked up a small laker early on. We fished the lake’s west shore and his son had a follow from what appeared to be a rainbow or salmon. Within a minute or two Tom hooked up! And what a fish it was! I saw it and didn’t have a chance to net it. Then the nice (5lb +) salmon jumped twice – coming out of the water around 3′ or more! Bad luck stepped in and the fish shook the jig! Oh well – these things happen. The salmon won the battle fair and square and we were left wondering how big the fish was and how nice it would have been to have landed it. A few more hits were had, but no hookups. Fun day fishing, but some more catching would have been nice.
8/14 PM: After a break I took Bob and his son Jamie out. Jamie is only 8 years old, but Bob assured me that he has spent ample time in boats and would be a good sport. Idiot over here forgot the proper life-jackets and had to make a quick run to his apartment. We got underway around 3:15 and I was wondering how things would go with the high sun and lack of wind – especially after the somewhat tough bite of the morning. Bob does a lot of fishing – he’s fished all over the country, and he knew what he had to do. Within about 15 minutes of starting Bob hooked and landed a very nice lake trout around 8lbs. I worked hard with Jamie and I watched him raise his rod and as he lowered it his line just curled up on the surface. “Set the hook!” I yelled and I helped him raise the rod. He was fast onto a nice laker! We managed to get the fish in – mission accomplished! Other hits were had and a couple fish dropped before we called it a day around 7 pm.
8/15: Got out with Ray this morning. We have a front coming in and I expected good fishing. We weren’t disappointed! It took a bit of time to get the technique down and Ray missed or dropped 6 to 10 fish early on. But he got into “the zone” and managed to land 4 nice lakers up to around 29″! We were both happy with the fishing and by the end of the morning he was jigging like a pro. After the trip I fished smallmouths a little bit and managed one 17″ fish on the west shore. The wind kicked up and it was time for me to head in and run errands and catch up on some much needed sleep!