Reports

Cayuga Lake 5/6:

After a busy week on the water I was going to take it easy Wednesday, but then my buddy Craig called me to see if I wanted to join him on Cayuga’s N. end, fishing out of his Ranger bass boat. How could I refuse? So off we went at around 4:30 pm. We worked some areas for largemouth bass and got into some nice fish in short order. Fish were hitting jerkbaits and a tube jig. Craig caught some stellar fish with a spinnerbait – a 4lb 2oz smallmouth, a 3lb 8oz largemouth and a whopping 5lbs+ largemouth! Just some beasts! Fish were in shallow water – probably less than 7′. There were a ton of dead bluegills and sunfish floating around. This appears to be an annual event on Cayuga’s N. end as the panfish spawn. I’m not sure what the deal is.

Craig has just launched his guide service and I expect him to do very well. He’ll be focusing on Oneida and Onondaga Lakes, but is also available to do trips elsewhere in the region, including Lake Champlain and Lake George, as well as select Finger Lakes and the Thousand Island area. He’s a stand-up guy with a worldly view on bass fishing, having competed in tournaments across the eastern U.S. His website is www.empirebassandbeyond.com/

Owasco Lake 5/7:

Fished Owasco Lake today with my buddy Jarrod. We were hoping to find some northerns and smallies, but went in with an open mind. We started around 11:15 am on count of some commitments Jarrod had early. Things started out promising on the north end of the lake when Jarrod missed a couple hits. Then he landed a nice pike around 27″. Then I hooked a nice fish casting into around 10′ of water. It was a 23″ lake trout! I used to catch a lot of lakers in the spring shallow in Owasco, and it was nice to see that they were still moving up. There were a lot of perch in shallow.

We worked south and Jarrod picked up a smallmouth around 15″. I had a follow from what was probably a walleye, and Jarrod landed another decent pike. Pike seemed a bit lethargic. A cast into deep water produced a nice laker around 27″ for me. The lakers were outfighting everything! I thought my first laker was a huge smallmouth at first. Give lakers 48 degree water on the surface and they fight with intensity and vigor! We spent a little time jigging lakers deep without luck, but we didn’t try for long. We patrolled the shallows once the wind died down and managed to spot at least 3 or 4 nice walleyes, but they were lock-jawed. A ton of perch were chasing our jerkbaits. The hot lure of the day was an alewife colored tube jig fished on a 1/4 oz. jig head.

Overall the fishing was somewhat slow. I blame a lot of it on the lack of wind. Fish were hitting very well when we started, with rainy conditions and 10 mph west winds. As soon as the wind died, the bite died for the most part. Perch fishers report catching bonus walleyes while perch fishing. Water temps were in the upper 40s to 51. Many bass still seem deep, though I’m sure a sunny day will move some up in short order. We didn’t work on jigging lakers much, but I’d love to spend a day on the lake going after them.

bass cayuga lake Northern Pike Owasco Lake walleye