Reports Cayuga and Seneca Lakes 8/5 – 8/8
Got out for some long-awaited angling with my buddy Mike for three days, then did a guided trip yesterday. My original plan with Mike was to do some fishing from brown trout and bass on Cayuga/Seneca, then hit Western Lake Ontario for salmonids and gar. The weather didn’t cooperate for the big lake, so we stayed local.
8/5 Seneca Lake out of Lodi: Fished most of the day with Mike targeting brown trout. We covered a lot of water and Mike caught and released a very nice brownie around 25″ if I remember right. It had a few lamprey hits on it, but was a great fighter. I hooked a salmon around 18″ and landed a laker around the same size. Conditions weren’t great with the west/light winds but we gave it a good shot and were pretty pleased with our efforts.
8/6 Cayuga Lake out of Myers: We targeted browns and had superb fishing. We landed 10 solid fish up to 27″ and likely close to 12lbs (Mike’s Red Cross Derby Winner a few years back was 27″ and went about 12 – this fish was just as long and fat.) All fish but one were released unharmed. We also landed a laker. Fish were supremely clean and beautiful.
The browns and other non-salmonids are out there for the “catching.” I’ve spent a lot of time over the years targeting some of these fish on various waterways, from Cayuga and Seneca over to Lake Ontario from Oak Orchard east to Oswego and beyond. Because their populations are limited (as opposed to lake trout) I do not guide these fish for the most part. The big thrill of fishing for me and my fishing buddies is the thrill of discovery, so by putting in some time and applying some fundamentals, these fish can be targeted.
I wanted to do some bass fishing and conditions were excellent. We hooked a surprising number of bass for mid-low lake areas mainly throwing Senkos. I had a good smallmouth on as well. Largemouths were very solid – running 16″ to 18″ or so.
8/7 Cayuga Lake out of Myers: I wanted to hit various areas that I hadn’t fished hard for bass before mid-lake on Cayuga, so that’s what we did. We mainly worked shallow and did not land a single bass. That wasn’t a big concern today – we were mainly checking out areas – looking at the bottom content, structure and what docks/shorelines looked good and which ones didn’t for future reference.
We did see around 1/2 dozen drum that were fly-fishable. They were working weedless shelves for food. Some nice perch and huge carp (as usual) were around too. My guess is that the bass were out deeper, which is often the case on Cayuga this time of year. But it was weird that we got them shallow yesterday and had the same conditions more or less today. That’s bass fishing and why it’s the #1 most popular type of fishing in the country.
8/8 Cayuga Lake out of Myers: Guided Mark I. for the full day. We had some great fishing with a couple lakers landed, one salmon around 24″ and three solid browns. We released the browns and kept a salmon and two lakers. All fish were eating alewives and one laker had a large goby in its stomach. Mark usually fly-fishes when he’s out with me – for either salmon, pike or gar. Keeping the solid salmon was his revenge on these fish that have often shamed us via the fly-rod!