Cayuga Lake Reports 8/9 – 11
Had a little bit of a slowdown on Friday after the cold front passed through. Started the AM with Greg who managed two nice browns. One took the jig deep so we kept it. It was a 27″er and weighed 10 1/2lbs. Solid fish. He also missed a couple and lost one. Wind and waves built up as the morning went on. After I dropped Greg off I picked up Kevin and Drew and we went after lakers. Kevin was nice enough to throw together a meal for me on a last minute trip. We had a lot of short hits and misses. Finally after around 3 hours the bite picked up and the guys landed 5 solid lakers up to around 28″ or 29″.
Saturday was Mark I. Strong north winds continued and we fished with what we were given. Ended up being a great day with 4 solid lakers landed to around 28″ and a couple beautiful browns up to 27″. Fun day with some great fighting fish – especially in the wind and waves.
Today was a lot of fun. I had Jim, Glenn and Will for a morning 1/2 day starting at 6:30am. I wasn’t sure how the laker bite would be after the nearly full-moon and bluebird morning. No need to worry there – the fish hit very well. The guys were first out with me around two years ago (except for Will – it was his first trip) and we had some fun mixed bag action with a nice rainbow and LL salmon. Today was a good laker bite with 10 solid fish landed including three at the 28 1/2″ mark. One of those was wild. I filleted around 7 or 8 fish today. One laker had a small largemouth bass in its stomach! You never know what these lakers will be eating. Quite a few fish were lost today too as well as the usual missed hits.
The algae bloom finally appears to be over. Wow, did that last a long time! I first noticed it around 7/9 and by 7/12 it was going pretty well – so it lasted for nearly a month. We had pretty good action during the bloom overall. At times the fishing was excellent. Blooms are not nearly as detrimental to the fishing as muddy water is. A few years back we had a lot of rain which really made action tough.
As is to be expected we wound up trying a lot of different colored baits during the bloom. For whatever reason we rarely got bit on Chartreuse Silk (Lunker City Color.) That color is usually one of our best. Funny enough though today I ran into my friend Mike Canavan who had done great on a chartreuse variation throughout the bloom, so I guess it really depends on what you drop down there and maybe a few slight color variations. Black 3.75″ Lunker City Shakers wound up being quite productive for us. There were days it was the main color being bit. With my gig, I get to outfit anglers with different colors and then switch them out amongst the anglers to see what’s most productive. Lunker City makes a nice 3.75″ bait that they were nice enough to send me last time I ordered. The usual whites and chartreuse tails are tough to beat. Over the years we’ve worked a lot of colors including purples, blues and blacks with varying levels of success but this might be the first season that I’ve kept one on a rod just about at all times.
Another hot bait for us over the past month or two (and continuing through now) has been Yum’s Money Minnow. I’ve used them occasionally since Jarrod won the 49th Annual Memorial Weekend Lake Trout Derby on Seneca Lake with one back in 2011 or 2012, whenever that was. They aren’t nearly as durable as the Lunker City Shakers and are more expensive, but there are times that they really seem to be the best producer out there. It’s well worth having them aboard. The paddle is a little more intense and the wobble is wider than the shakers. It’s a bait that is very productive when worked slowly as well as fast.
Lake level is normal full pool and the surface temperature is 75 degrees. Plenty of bait abouds and fishing continues to be top-notch. DEC is wrapping up two weeks worth of netting up here. I am looking forward to hearing the results. Preliminary reports indicate the laker population is as abundant as it was during the last netting four years ago. People need not worry about harvesting lake trout on Cayuga Lake. There are plenty around and they live a long time. Three weeks ago we had a 33″ fish with a dorsal clip that Greg caught. DEC hasn’t used that clip for lakers stocked here in over 20 years! That’s an OLD FISH!