Reports

I have been as busy guiding as I ever have been for this time of year.  There hasn’t been much time for me to get out and fish on my own but I did manage to make it out on Skaneateles Lake yesterday.  Most of my demand for trips has remained lake trout on Cayuga Lake.  I will be out on Seneca shortly for lake trout as well – for the first time specifically guiding lake trout there in a few years.

5/1 Cayuga Lake out of Long Point:  Guided Erno (originally from the Netherlands) here for a half day trip targeting lake trout.  I had a last minute referral from Dave Passmore, who runs Finger Lakes Fly Fishing guide service –http://www.fingerlakesflyfishing.com   (Dave is a nice guy and accomplished angler and I had the chance to finally meet him over at Ithaca Fishing Day a couple years ago.)

We had some solid lake trout jigging with around a half dozen or more fish landed.  I don’t recall exact numbers but it was along those lines.  It was a cold morning and the forecasted winds never materialized (actually the forecast for winds was diminished to south around 5 to 7 mph.)

5/2 Cayuga Lake out of Long Point State Park:  Guided my old friend Jeff  aka “Hoss” and his mom Maggie for a half day trip.  I’ve mentioned this before, but he’s the guy that first took me fishing when I showed interest back in 5th grade in 1976.   His Mom played a big role in that too – taking us around the area.  I remember fishing Flint Creek, 5 Mile Creek, various ponds, Naples Creek and so forth.  Jeff was also the friend who I remember  running down the hall brimming with excitement in 6th grade telling me about a guy catching an “8lb RAINBOW TROUT in IRONDEQUOIT CREEK!!!” back in 1977.  Irondequoit Creek was a joke back then.  It was a quick walk from our house in Penfield but had 24 sewage treatment plants along it and its tributaries.  It was good for rockbass, suckers, bullhead, carp and not much else.   We had no idea what was going on in the Great Lakes and its tributaries back then, but we were about to find out and my life (and unfortunately my concentration in school and grades) would also never be the same!

Anyhow, the rain avoided us today until the drive home.  We had some solid action with at least a half dozen nice trout landed.  As you can probably tell from these reports, the hot, crazy deep bite of March – April has slowed down a bit, but the fishing is still very good.  It’s just not as insane as it was!  Jeff and his Mom kept 5 lakers and they reported them being filled with alewives.

5/3 Cayuga Lake out of Long Point State Park:   Facilities still haven’t opened up at Long Point.  Stacy, the park attendant told me that the State still needs to test the water quality.  Now of course, unless you’re a dog or identify as one, you probably aren’t into drinking toilet water, but remember that the park also has drinking fountains.  Anyways, so far this season my lake trout trips have mostly been half days.  Today was a full day with Mark and his friend Joel.  The longer day gave me a chance to make some runs and have the guys fish some different parts of the lake.  It all paid off.

Lake trout fishing in general has been good throughout Cayuga Lake.  They are being caught from the south end up through Myers and pretty much all the way north of there up to Levanna.  I fish out of Long Point for different reasons – mainly the great fishing, but it’s fairly close to my apartment and a good access point for fishing both south and north.

The guys landed 15 nice fish today anchored by Mark’s 33″er.  Joel had a nice 29″+ wild fish that was good to see.  Fish are dispersing and we hooked up from 80′ out to 150’+.  Then again – two nice lakers were taken from shore on the prior day, so they can be virtually anywhere this time of year.

5/4 Skaneateles Lake:  Launched out of the State Launch here for the first time in a while.  My last two attempts to fish this lake didn’t go well.  Late last fall I tried going to Mandana but the lake was too low.  I had to turn around and drive back.  A month ago I had perfect conditions for fly-fishing the lake and had a bearing fail on the way over.  I had to get a flat-bed truck and get my boat taken in for repairs.  Not good!   So I was relieved when I pulled into the launch without any issues.  Of course the lake was like glass, which is one of the tougher conditions to fish here in.  But to make it over there in one piece equipment-wise felt like half the battle was over, so I was happy just to be there.  I made the best of the hand I was dealt with and would up having a nice half day of fishing.  I took 8 solid perch home.  I released some nice smallmouth bass and also landed and let go a 21″ dropback male landlocked salmon and a 22″ to 23″ post-spawn female rainbow trout. The lake level is better than it was last year but is still 1 to 2 feet down.  Surface temp was around 47/48.  Surprisingly there was a bit of cottonwood seed floating on the surface in the northern portions of the lake.  Next to nobody was out today.  No pics since I was fishing alone and didn’t feel the need to stress out the trout/salmon given the conditions with the walleyes out there.