Seneca out of Watkins 4/9, Cayuga out of Dean’s/Taughannock 4/10
Spring fishing is really firing on all cylinders now!
4/9 Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen: After a last minute cancellation on 4/8, I managed to get a call from Mark who was looking to fish on 4/9, so things worked out well. Fly-fishing for Landlocked salmon was the objective and fishing was very good to excellent. I checked out an area about an hour before Mark arrived. I contacted a fish or two, but wasn’t overly impressed, so I had Mark work some of our late winter areas. It didn’t take long before Mark contacted fish on his 6 wt. rod with a sink-tip.
Fishing was very good and Mark started with a 15 1/2″ salmon. Then he dropped a couple, including one very solid fish. A 24″ salmon came to the net along with 2 attached “bonus” lamprey eels. The fish had rolled on the fly and foul-hooked itself, making for an extended awkward battle. Afterwards Mark landed a solid 22″ fish that he kept for dinner. Water temps ranged from 38 to 43. After we wrapped up, I fished for a couple hours and found active fish. I landed some nice fish up to 25″. The condition of the salmon is starting to improve as they begin to feed for the season. I had a fish come up with a lamprey too.
4/10 AM Cayuga Lake out of Dean’s Cove: Met Jerrit from Ohio at Dean’s Launch at 7:30 am. for a half daytrip. Forecasts called for 10 to 15 mph southerlies and I wanted to start early in order to beat the wind. The lake was in beautiful shape first thing in the AM with light winds and some sun. Very few boats were out on the lake.
Lake trout jigging was excellent (again!) Just steady fishing throughout the AM for fish ranging from around 18″ up to over 29″. We had good action from 130′ out to 180′! One and one-half ounce fish-head jigs with white flipping tubes did the trick. Jerrit likes to walleye and bass fish both Lake Erie and rivers near his residence. He was a natural at the jigging technique – one of the quickest to pick up the technique that I’ve seen in 7 years of guiding! Quite impressive. He kept a limit of mid-sized lakers and released another 7 fish. One wild fish at over 28″ was photographed and released. The wild fish certainly look a lot different than the stocked fish. We did have two stocked fish with regenerated fin-clips. Oftentimes one fin will regenerate, but it will be slightly smaller than the opposing fin. Great morning trip.
4/10 PM Cayuga Lake out of Taughannock: After taking a break and going for a swim, I met my buddy Jarrod at the launch at 3:30 pm. He’s one of my favorite fishing buddies but he’s been really busy over the past two years and I can count the number of times we’ve managed to get out on one hand. We aim to fish together a lot more this year.
We started south of the park and I went with fly-gear. The wind was up pretty good. I had one good hit and one possible hit (earlier.) I then connected with a solid 19″ salmon. The great thing about the Cayuga Landlocked salmon is the lack of lampreys. The fish are in better condition for the most part than the Seneca fish. We gave our area another shot then made a move south.
The fishing further south proved to be excellent and we had a great time hooking and missing some beautiful salmon, as well as a big brown or two. Jarrod nailed a nice 20″+ salmon. I missed and lost some good fish on flies and gear. The wind was howling for awhile. We fished till dark and then headed in. Water temps range from 38 to over 50 degrees depending on where you go.