Reports

Went to Cayuga/Dean’s Cove to check on lake trout with Jessica. We worked various depths and found decent numbers of fish around 135′ to 140′. As has been the case recently, she had the hot hand and caught her limit in short order. A large white tube did the trick. I missed/lost 3 or 4 fish. The one fish we kept had freshly killed alewives in its stomach.

We had some time so we motored up to the northern flats of Cayuga Lake. Plenty of perch fishermen are around. We fished for carp and the marsh areas were loaded, despite the cold 46-degree water temps (carp seek out the warmest available water they can find. Check out my carp article in the most recent “Mid-Atlantic Fly-Fishing” magazine available for free at area fly-shops.) Fish were so thick we couldn’t help but foul-hook a bunch, but we persevered. I had a 5 to 6lb. fish hammer a Clouser fly, which was a trip. I hadn’t caught carp on the retrieve while fly-fishing, so this was a first. We kept it to eat! Check out my account of this “experience” 😉 in the “Tips/Articles” page of this website (go to “The Fishing”.)

Perch fishermen are out in good numbers on Cayuga. Sunday I wanted to fish Skaneateles Lake but I had a bug or two to be worked out on my boat, so off to Barrett Marine we went. We tried Seneca Lake for a few hours since it was so close. Perch fishermen are out in droves. Can’t say how they did, but there were boats all over the place. We tried the northern portions of the lake – from Belhurst to Roy’s working deep water for lakers. Finally shot down to Sampson, which is always good. I missed 3 or 4 fish and Jessica landed one and we called it a day. Fish were deep – around 135′ to 150′. The lake looks gorgeous – nice and clear with a green tinge to the water. Water temps on both lakes vary from 38 to 42 or so on Seneca and up to 46 on the north end of Cayuga Lake.

carp cayuga lake Seneca Lake