Cayuga out of Taughannock 8/31
Did a full-day with Mihai and his dad Bill. These guys have been booking with me since my first season and they’re both excellent jiggers – among the best I’ve seen. (To do this technique well takes practice.) It showed in our catch today. The bite was good and the guys landed 17 nice lakers. A few were lost as well. Best fishing was in 70′ to 85′ or so on the west shore and 77′ to 100′ on the east. We had good fishing early then things slowed up a lot by 11 or 12 noon once the northerlies really cranked up.
I had a stroke of luck go my way today. But the day didn’t start like that. I set up my coffee pot last night and turned it on this morning around 5 am. I always look forward to that first scalding hot cup of coffee. 😉 I’ve had a few of those nasty green flies hanging around my kitchen. Well as I sipped my cup of coffee I felt something larger enter my mouth! 🙁 I knew right away what it was when I spit everything out! So I made pot of coffee #2. My filter collapsed and I wound up with a pot full of grounds. 3rd. time was the charm. Fortunately things took a turn for the better after that.
Things were looking pretty slow as we wound down the trip. Our 8 hours and then some time was up and we decided to fish one last area. As the guys worked their jigs for the final “hurrah” I grabbed a left crank rod (I normally crank on the right) and I started working a jig. I never fish during guide trips (unless clients absolutely insist, then I still generally don’t), but if I go “overtime” occasionally I’ll grab a rod. Gave it a couple tries and we were about to go when I hooked up! After a nice battle I landed a 29″ brown! Awesome fish and probably at least 10lbs, if not 11. Needless to say I kept the guys out another hour and Mihai nailed a 22″ brown. So that made the “fly incident” a distant memory. Our browns of the past couple weeks are not accidents. I have been taking notes and paying a lot of attention to what I’m seeing. We are actively targeting these fish and having some success. Mihai had a small rainbow chase earlier as well. Great day!