Cayuga out of Taughannock 8/25
Back out of my home port for 2 one-half day trips. Started out with Chip (from last week), Paul and his 9-year-old son Josh. The wind was out of the NW so we stayed on the west shore as much as possible. Fishing started out with a quick bang as Paul landed a 22″ laker. But hits were few and far between for the next hour or so. We quickly checked out the east shore, but it appeared that fish were negative all over. Three more nice lakers came and one was dropped – all in short order. The last two days have featured some small “bite windows” then things slow up. Top fish were two 29″ers. Josh did well with the baitcaster but wasn’t able to hook anything. 🙁 Oh well, it happens – he remained positive throughout the trip and the fish Gods do owe him!
My second trip was with Dave and his daughter’s husband Kevin. I tried to switch the trip up to Owasco due to the increasing wind gusts, but Dave and Kevin were already close to Taughannock by the time I called. We decided to give Cayuga a try, then possibly move to Owasco if necessary. I played a hunch and worked some areas I rarely ever take people to. Basically places south of the park. The hunch paid some big dividends! We managed a couple very dinky lakers, but in short order Dave set the hook into a “big fish”. After a fun and thrilling battle we boated a 24″ 6lb. 14 oz brown! What a little slobola! This fish was in full spawning colors with a big hooked jaw! More fishing yielded a 22″ laker and another dink or two. Then Dave hooked up again – this time we landed a 24″ 4lb. 12 oz Landlocked Salmon! Another great fish – especially for jigging. Trollers catch their share of these nice fish, but to catch them fairly consistently jigging is super cool. If someone had told me 10 years ago that we could catch beautiful coldwater species in August with nothing more than a med. bass rod and a jig, I’d be all ears! Be ready for some explosive fall runs of salmon, browns and rainbows in the Cayuga tribs and then some spectacular FLY-FISHING for these salmon come November!!! It’s going to be the best in a decade if all goes as we hope it can!