Reports 8/31 – 9/3
With the stable weather pattern upon us, the bite remains stellar. Fishing is pretty much top-notch for whatever you are fishing for now. It’s hot and humid at times out there without much wind, but the angling makes it worthwhile.
8/31 PM: Fished Cayuga out of Myers with Bob and his sons Andrew and Chris. The guys have been fishing with me for quite a few years now and it’s always nice to spend the day together in the boat. The bite for lakers was terrific – the best they’ve had out with me. The week has been a blur, but I think we had double digits of some solid fish.
9/1 Cayuga AM: Did a double with Jim and Heather in the AM. What a strange morning! I picked them up via boat at Taughannock (I launch at Myers) and they had an unexpected “friend” with them – a small bird that was hanging out at the parking lot. It has probably been fed a bit. Not sure if it was a sparrow or what, but that sort of bird. It hung out with us throughout the ride north. Sometimes it was by my feet, other times on my console and then at other times at the bow. It flew off then came back. We played “tug of war” with an old pumpkin seed that was on the bottom of my boat. It was amusing. Then he took off for good.
The fishing was very good. Another solid double digit day with around 15 or more fish landed. Again – I don’t remember the numbers. Nothing huge, but a lot of solid 22″ to 26″ fish and a few a little bigger.
Another even stranger thing happened when I filleted fish at Taughannock Park. One of the lakers had a lamprey in its stomach! First time I’d ever seen a laker that clearly had eaten a lamprey!!! I wish it happened more often, but it’s cool that it happens. I get asked that question a lot. I asked a DEC person his opinion on it – he felt that lampreys can swim very fast and it’s likely that the laker grabbed it off of another fish. Quite possible! Either way, it was ultra cool!
PM: Met longtime client Rick at Myers around 11:15 am and we worked a bunch of different areas. He bought a great new Lund and has had some good luck jigging but nearly got the urge to troll recently, so we put an end to that 😉 Had a fun day with around 7 or 8 solid fish landed. We fished different areas so he could get some ideas of where to fish in the late-summer/early-fall. It wasn’t a matter of catching a bunch of fish from one “hotspot.”
9/2 PM: Back out with Bob and his sons on Skaneateles Lake. Had some very solid fishing with a bunch of rock bass and smallmouths landed. Most smallies were the usual 11″ to 13″ fish but we had a few 17″ers that were hefty. A couple perch as well. Dropshots and Superflukes did the trick. 5′ to 35′ of water. Not trying to be vague here, but that’s what it was. We had good smallmouths shallow and deep. Had some big ones behind hooked ones, which is always cool.
9/3 Cayuga Lake: Guided Trevor and his wife Kate in the AM. Terrific bite! Just off the hook with some great action on lakers. Trevor had the hot hand early, but then we switched Kate from a left to right hand crank reel and she started hitting fish just as good. I think we had over 20 lakers landed. Chartreuse worked very well. 75′ to 105′ was good. The fish were fighting great. Anyone who thinks lakers don’t fight well probably has very limited experience with them. Or they’ve just dragged in dinks trolling. They were pulling like fish possessed today.
PM: Guided the Hermans. We had one of the best days of the year. Quite a few doubles. John landed a 33″ SLOB that pulled like a submarine. I’ve rarely seen anything like it! John’s heart was pounding with this fish. He’s caught some lakers that size before, but our minds kept wondering what it was. Giant and we released it unharmed. John landed a poor Landlocked salmon that had a giant lamprey and horrific wound on its side. Eleonore managed a nice brown that we released. Just a terrific bite, but not surprising given the steady weather pattern.
People ask if we ever get checked for licenses. We did today. Don’t be a fool, make sure you have your license on you when you go fishing – whether from shore or out on a boat!