Reports

Guided Curt and his daughter Tennessee for a 1/2 day trip getting underway around 11:30 am.  He likes to fly-fish, so he fly-casted and she used gear.  Cayuga Lake has been awful for landlocked salmon over the past year, but oddly, a bunch of them showed up a few weeks ago in the lower third of Cayuga Lake.   Where they were prior to that is mystery!  A friend caught an 18″er in November while perch fishing up around Union Springs.  Maybe they’ve been deep.  Maybe up lake.  Whatever the answer, they were somewhere on Cayuga.

Curt likes to fly-fish but hadn’t done any in a year – when he was last out with me, so his casting was a bit rusty.  Fortunately, he managed to nab a fish just under 18″ in fairly short order, which was great.  We had a pretty slow go for much of the afternoon.  At around 3 pm or so, Tennessee’s stickbait got nailed by a nice salmon!  It jumped a good three to four times then wound up going under the boat.  The hooks got caught in my net- while the fish was outside the net(!) and fortunately I was able to flip the net under the fish, just as the hooks came out!  So at least they had dinner!  Apart from that we had no other hits, although we did see a massive salmon hit the surface in one area.

If you’re a diary keeper for Region 7, keep in mind that some salmon are being fin-clipped.  Some fish are being lake-stocked while others are being stocked in the tribs.  From what I’ve seen and heard, it seems like both groups of fish are doing well.  Their survivability is quite variable according to the DEC.  But all info helps, so please check salmon for fin-clips if you are cooperating.