Reports

Seneca out of Geneva 7/24 AM:

Did a 1/2 day on Seneca Lake out of Geneva with Ed and his grandkids, Eddie, Matt and Mike. We started at 9 am, despite my best efforts to get the gang out earlier! There were plenty of fish around, but they became less active as the AM went on. But as the trip wound down the fish started hitting again (just before a possible storm.) Early on, 8 year old Matt nailed his first laker on his own – a nice 4 1/2 lb. fish. Mike had a good hit. Ed wound up nabbing a nice fish around 7 lbs 3 oz. before we called it a day. IMO Seneca still offers the best laker jigging in the region, at least compared to what I’ve seen on Owasco, Keuka, Skinny and Cayuga.

Cayuga/Taughannock 7/24 PM:

Did a 1/2 day PM trip. I picked up Mike and his son Jaime at Myers Park and we motored up the lake towards AES. But as we approached our destination, it was clear that a T-Storm was setting up. Winds and cloud cover picked up considerably, so we detoured to Taughannock Park, where I set up the guys and showed them the technique. Storms materialized so we took cover in the marina and grabbed a bite to eat. After the storms appeared to clear (maybe 45 minutes later) we headed back N. I told the guys about “Maverick” Earl Holdren’s theory about storms – “if you don’t get struck by lightning, you might get struck by the biggest trout you ever saw.” Or something like that.

We don’t take foolish chances, but Earl’s point was that storm systems activate some of the biggest fish. We had very active fish chasing jigs N. of AES. Mike was reeling in and got hammered by a big laker. After a long tough battle I was able to slip the net under a 32″ to 33″ fish! I’d love to have had that fish for the derby 2 weeks ago. We kept it and it weighed 10lbs 11oz! A true pig! As we were dealing with the big laker, Jaimie hooked a good fish, only to have likely “over-torqued it” and had the 12lb test break at the jig. After that, skies cleared a bit and the bite slowed.

Cayuga/Taughannock 7/25 AM:

I felt we’d have some good fishing this AM as I headed out with Jon, Larry and Matt. We started early, at 5:30 am. Winds were around 7 to 10 mph out of the south – so there was some chop. We set up towards Sheldrake. Baitfish were around, but I didn’t mark many fish. What fish I did mark, didn’t appear to be active. We worked areas without marks as well, with no luck. We tried around AES and found more bait and marks. A few light hits were had, but nothing solid. The guys did the technique well enough to catch fish, but it wasn’t to be. I kept the guys out as long as I could, but eventually the chop got to Larry and we called it a day. Zippo. It always hurts to draw a blank, and it’s something I never want to get used to. The guys were persistent and never gave up. The fishing was just super tough. From reports I got, Seneca was good this AM, but very rough.

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