Cayuga out of Taughannock 9/7 AM + PM Trips
9/7 AM: I was looking forward to getting Gerald out on the lake for some jigging. He lives close by and I was psyched to show him the pattern. We went out first thing in the morning with his friend Dick. The wind was up from the south and we ran up the lake a bit – since the forecast was calling for increasing winds throughout the day. We marked fish all over the place but just couldn’t get any or many hits. We worked very hard trying quite a few areas on both shores. Dick hooked up momentarily with what appeared to be a smallish salmon or trout. We had a few fish chase our jigs north of Taughannock and we had at least one missed hit but couldn’t hook up. Very tough day and we gave it our best go with zero fish landed. The Fish Gods owe us! These guys fish Cayuga quite a bit and know what they need to do to jig fish effectively. So this trip should pay some dividends for them in the future.
9/7 PM: I was obviously wondering how we’d do in the afternoon after such a difficult morning trip. The heat was getting brutal but the winds kept things bearable. As Kevin and his brother Greg boarded the boat I lamented the tough morning bite or lack thereof. They were great sports and said “We don’t care if we don’t catch anything – it looks like a great day to be out”. Perfect! I couldn’t have ordered a better attitude for the afternoon trip after such a tough morning on the water. Just like a sports team, I needed to put the tough day behind me. So it was a new ballgame – a clean slate. I explained the technique to the guys and they went to work. The strong winds of the morning died down a bit and shifted out of the west. Within 40 minutes of starting Kevin nailed a nice 25″ laker! We were in business and he caught another bigger (29″ fish) before Greg got one. Later on Kevin had the “hot hand” as he came close to landing two more and landed another fish. Wound up with five nice fish landed (one kept) including a 30″, a 29″, a couple 25s and one smaller one. The winds died down and the evening was perfect as we wound things up by sharing a few beers that the guys had brought along.