Cayuga/Seneca Reports 11/24 + 25
11/24 PM: Got my older Crestliner out for its maiden fall 2017 trip out of Myers. The first thing I noticed was how low the water level was. It is LOW! I wound up using trolling motor power to get out onto the lake. I had about 1′ of water heading out of the marina (think Waneta/Lamoka channel.) Launching is probably better at Taughannock.
I brought spinning gear and fly-fishing gear and it looks to be another terrific season on Cayuga for salmon and trout fishing. I found a few groups of smaller (16″ to 17″) salmon along with some nicer fish. I landed a couple browns and salmon on my spinning gear and a couple on flygear. Had a follow from a big lake trout shallow on my flyrod as well as some good salmon/brown on both spinning and flygear. Lost a solid salmon that jumped 3X on my fly-rod. Great 3+ hours on the water. I even nabbed a smallmouth bass around 13″ or 14″. Nice to see a few of those around. Smallmouth fishing seems to slowly be improving on Cayuga Lake. We encountered some nice ones this past spring.
11/25 Sampson: Guided Jeff for the full day mainly targeting pike on the fly. Conditions were windy to start. Action was more or less slow and steady on the flies. Jeff managed 4 solid pike in the 24″ to 26″ range on both intermediate lines and type 6 sinking lines (fished on 8 wt. rods.) Later on he cast some gear and landed another 3 fish up to 27.5″. We gave the laker jigging a shot for around 45 minutes and he had one grab. A lot of fish were around mid-lake areas but were fairly inactive. Overall a good day. Water temps were 48 on the west side and 45 on the east.