Cayuga Lake Shorefishing 3/17
Got out on my own for some shorefishing today from around 1:30 pm till 6 or so. I worked three different areas. Fishing was very slow in my first two and very good in the third. My fish came on flies today, though I did throw some gear for a bit. Fish were biting in a peculiar manner at times, not really committing to the fly. I lost a very solid salmon, then missed a couple hits, lost another that hit after a bad “dump cast” then landed and let go one around 18″. Had another couple hits and I finally hooked up with a great fish. Some great runs (got me right on the reel,) a lot of turns, more runs, more dogging – just a classic nice salmon battle. I kept this fish and it was 24″ long and weighed 5lbs 3oz despite having a lamprey hit. The fish appeared to be eating small gobies. It’s my understanding that gobies don’t have quite the level of thiaminase that alewives have, so perhaps that is contributing to the vigor that many of this year’s salmon are showing. I don’t know. They’re also feeding a lot this winter, so that must help too.
I did not take a water temperature but would expect the lake temp to have dropped a degree (at least) during the high winds and major snowstorm.
Lake Ontario’s alewives still aren’t “out of the woods” temperature-wise this winter. A late winter with more cooling and uneven weather could create some issues there. We’ll see how things shape up. Right now we’re looking at some cold temps over the next week on most days. Cold but fishable!