Keuka Lake 5/22, Cayuga 5/23 + 5/24
Tough 3 days of guiding after the sustained 25 to 35 mph winds of the past weekend. I postponed the past weekend’s trips and almost did the same on Monday but went with the better of three weather forecasts. It wound up being the right call.
Fished Keuka with Tom from Tennessee. We started in Branchport jigging lakers. Tons of fish were grouped up in 130′ give or take. They weren’t very active. He popped an average laker in around 70′ not far from the marina. We then did a little casting – one pickerel. Worked the bluff area for a while and the lakers were hitting slow/steady. Once Tom got the hang of the subtle hits we were in business – but the fishing was still slow. A 3/4oz silver Kastmaster, a Buckshot Rattle spoon and a white Zoom fluke did the trick. We spent a few hours up in Penn Yan looking for smallies. The wind made for tough conditions and we didn’t find any fish shallow. We worked the 10′ to 25′ depths pretty good and found one area that held some bass. One decent largemouth was all we could coax though he raised a very nice smallie in with the lmb. Back to lakers later and he picked up another and we called it a day. Rockbass and pickerel were the most cooperative species on the day – that and the lakers. Water temps were in the low 50s.
5/23 was out of Cayuga Lake State Park with Jim and Matt. Matt fished with me last year and we had a windy but decent day last year for lakers. Today was more of the same. Water temps plummeted in Cayuga Lake. We ran over to Long Point and were pretty surprised to see just HOW MUCH they went down! It was 40 degrees over there! We did manage to find some bait and lakers but boat control was a royal pain. No matter where we went, the wind seemed to follow us. The best action was north of Dean’s along the shoreline in around 40′ to 110′. Water was warmer there and fish were scattered but active and we had a few chase lures all the way to the top. Pickerel were also hitting further north. A few pike, bass and perch are also active.
5/24 was out of Taughannock with Kevin and George – both of whom also fished with me last year. Water temps recovered to around 52 off Taughannock. We worked around Millican casting – there were lots of carp, a few bass and some trout/salmon around. George hooked a decent trout or salmon, probably around 20″. Unfortunately the line broke at the snap-swivel. My fault, not his 🙁 Action overall was kind of slow over there, with a few follows from small trout and one small bass. We looked for lakers and didn’t find much doing along the east shore. The west shore proved much better – especially around Sheldrake. Decent numbers of lakers were active from 40′ to at least 100′. The guys had a lot of follows and Kevin nailed a couple. We went back to Millican and worked lakers with a nice follow on the jigs from a trout/salmon. George landed a nice laker after losing fish earlier. Spent the rest of the day working pike near the south end of the lake with poor results. My guess is that they are scattered around the south end flats recovering from the spawn. I’ve fished just about everywhere else without seeing many! They should pick up in a couple weeks. Expect good pike fishing throughout June. Let’s hope….