Cayuga/Taughannock 9/30
Did a 1/2-day trip today with Tony and Sandra. Tony wanted to check out Cayuga Lake to see what the fishing was like as well as get a tour of the lake. We started at 10 am jigging lakers. I’m sure we missed a morning bite. Fish are all over the Taughannock area in deep water – 85′ and beyond (plenty of fish and bait are out in 100′ to 140′ or so.) Jigging was slow for us – we marked fish but they didn’t want our jigs or spoons. A decent smallmouth bass followed up a jig in around 65′ of water. We tried down the lake for bass and pike. One smallmouth (a small one) whacked a jerkbait on the east shore. No sign of pike, but then again the conditions weren’t great with the clear skies/sun and high-pressure system. The wind changed a bit and we went back to laker jigging. The fish started cooperating and both Tony and Sandra got more hits. Tony managed to land a decent laker around 25″ and a dink around 12″. Trollers were catching some sublegal salmon. The water looks great on the south end of Cayuga – clear with plenty of weeds! There’s gotta be some nice bass and pike around.
Lakers will be spawning in a week or two on Cayuga and the DEC will have their propagation nets out. I’m not planning on guiding lakers anytime soon on Cayuga (only as a fall back pattern or secondary pattern.) Owasco is the place to be in my book right now for lakers. Keuka should also be fishing well. I’ll be on Seneca tomorrow to check on smallmouths, lakers and pike. Can’t wait!