Cayuga out of Taughannock 5/12 + Seneca/Sampson 5/13
Got out on my own for a few hours yesterday on Cayuga Lake. Fly-fishing for salmon was excellent around Taughannock Park. I had a lot of follows and hits, broke off one nice fish and landed and released a 22″- beauty. The fish jumped at least 4 times and it was clearly the most memorable battle of the year for me. Other anglers also did well on salmon. The water temps are perfect for explosive salmon action – 48 degrees.
Today I guided Bill and his son Nathan on Seneca Lake. They wanted some good action and I felt Seneca offered up the best opportunities. We started with lake trout jigging and it was pretty slow for us. We didn’t work out past 80′, but bait was pretty scarce shallow. Later in the day I marked some bait in 130′ or so, but we wanted shallow fish – we didn’t want to spend too much time probing the depths. The guys each landed a laker around 19″ to 20″ in 45′ to 55′ of water on the west shore. Pike and pickerel provided some exciting fishing today. Find the right areas and these fish are swarming the shallows. We had a few moments of two fish at a time moving in for our lures. Lunker City shakers worked well, as did tube jigs and stickbaits. The best action was shallow. Perch were visible in a lot of areas – they are clearly around spawn-time. We also spotted some carp and some bass. Water temps varied from 47 to around 54 late in the day.