Reports

Owasco Lake: Got out on my own around 1 pm. I brought laker and pike tackle. I marked a few lakers in around 85′ to 100′. On my first drop I managed to land a solid 29″ laker that was in pretty good condition. Fish are scattered around the north end of the lake from 80′ on out to around 140′ or more. I didn’t encounter any concentrations of fish.

Casting for pike was good. I landed a 27″ northern on a spoon then caught a 25″er fly-fishing using an intermediate line and double bunny pattern in chartreuse. Other than that I had one other hit on a spoon. Wrapped up around 4:15. A couple other boats were out perch fishing. Water temps went back up to around 46, but will likely drop back to the 44 range soon. Water level was very low but still launchable.

Cayuga Lake: I kept yesterday’s 29″ lake trout for the smoker, so I wanted to get 2 or 3 more in order to do a full batch. Cayuga didn’t disappoint! Fishing was the best I’d seen since early October. There were very good numbers of nice lakers around the Aurora area. Some fish were deep but the best action I had was around 100′ give or take. I landed 6 or 7 nice fish in less than 2 hours. They ranged from 17″ to 25″ long and were in good to excellent condition. These are the first fish I’ve seen in Cayuga Lake in late December that looked like July fish – well proportioned and still feeding. Zero signs of lamprey hits.

Perch and pickerel are active up north. While casting some tube jigs I picked up a 13″ 1lb 1oz perch as well as an 11″er and a dink. You’d think I was on Seneca! Maybe I got lucky, but then again, perhaps they are feasting on Cayuga’s goby bounty. Around 1/2 dozen boats were out perch fishing and plenty were out duck hunting too. Water temps are around 44 to 46.

Keep in mind that day to day conditions are critical to fishing success, especially this time of year. Action can be great one day then completely shut off the next day.

cayuga lake Deep Jigging fly-fishing Northern Pike Owasco Lake yellow perch