Cayuga Lake out of Union Springs 6/14
Got out with my old fishing buddy Terry for a full day. Terry was my first really good fishing partner and is a great multi-species angler, well-developed in walleye and bass fishing to name a few. We fished together a lot from the mid-1980s till the early 2000s when life got hectic for both of us, but I’ve always intended to get back on the water with him a bit once things settled a bit.
There are some major bass tournaments on Cayuga Lake this weekend, including the Chamber of Commerce Bass Tournament on Saturday and the NY Bass Federation on Sunday. I LOVE to bass fish, but don’t get a lot of chances to do it. My tackle is always in disarray and after all these years I still haven’t settled on certain things. But I intend to bass fish a bit over the next couple weeks before heading to Lake Champlain with my buddy Mike in July for 4 to 5 days. So this was a bit of a shakedown for me.
Terry hadn’t fished seriously in a couple years and wasn’t even aware of the year-round catch ‘n release season! He didn’t miss a beat when we started fishing. He landed a couple legal largemouths on topwater. I fished a Minus-1 crankbait and picked up a fish. In a nutshell, we had good fishing. 1/2 of the bass we landed did show signs of being caught before, like hook scars and mouth abrasions. Terry dropped a very nice largemouth on a Senko. We cranked up some fish and caught some on Havoc Baits (pitched and short casts) as well as SuperFlukes. We covered a lot of water checking things out (I have a buddy or two fishing the Fed, so I keep them posted on things.) Terry also landed an 11″ rockbass on a crankbait that I’ll use for my species page shortly.
From what I saw (and I’m not “Mr. Bass,” so take this with a grain of salt) I’d say that bass are fairly scattered. Many largemouths have already spawned and some are still likely spawning. I’d imagine that some are still pre-spawn down the lake, where the spawning is usually retarded due to cold water. The largemouth population looks good and healthy on Cayuga this year. A lot of limits will likely be brought in with the steady weather and good bite right now. A lot of techniques will produce fish. There are good bass from shallow (4′) out to over 12’. There’s an abundance of good weedgrowth, yet the north end isn’t locked up in vegetation like it was last year around this time. Water temps are in the 60s and low 70s. Pickerel were around, but not super-active. Lots of nice perch and big bluegills, sunfish and rockbass are around, so it’s a great time for family fishing with young kids.