Reports

I did a little bit of shorefishing on Sunday on Seneca Lake with my buddy Mike and then got out today on my own on Cayuga for an hour, while Mike fished another area on Cayuga for a couple hours with his nephew.

Mike is a lot more into shorefishing these days than I am.  He lives further away from the Finger Lakes and it’s not conducive for him to trailer his boat.  I love the freedom I get from fishing out of my boat, even though it can be a hassle to hook up, trailer and then cover again and so forth.  In the 1990s and early 2000s we were both boat-less and we used to shorefish a lot in both nice and nasty conditions on Seneca and Cayuga Lakes.  In those days we mainly caught salmon and browns from shore on Cayuga and mostly lakers on Seneca along with some salmon and browns (and even a rare rainbow.)  Funny how things change.

Mike arrived at our first area an hour before me.  I fired up a cigar and went out to see how he was doing.  He hadn’t had any action with his fly stuff but then switched to spinning gear due to an abundance of weeds/debris in the water.  Within 10 minutes he caught and released a nice salmon around 24″ long.  It had a good lamprey scar or two on it, but was a fat well-fed fish.  I gave the area about 10 minutes and we tried another area without luck.

On Cayuga today I only fished an hour and landed a couple lake trout on swimjigs.  Both were in the 21″ to 22″ range.  I had two other hits.  Water levels are very low on Cayuga.  Mike picked up a large pickerel.  He and his nephew had a few short hits and one hookup today on lakers.

Looks like we’re in for a deep freeze late this week and then we warm up considerably again.  I have plenty of open dates over the next couple weeks (and throughout the year) for anyone looking to get out.  Salmon fishing is picking up on Cayuga Lake.  Lake trout action is still excellent.  Some big browns are around too.  Pike season remains open for another 4+1/2 weeks.   Seneca continues to offer fair to good fishing for salmon and occasional browns.  I expect good pike fishing here too.  March is oftentimes one of the best months to salmon fish in the Finger Lakes.  Fish are in winter patterns and in predictable areas.  April rains and snow melt tends to scatter fish and often makes it more of a troller’s game, though we usually hold our own casting.  But it can be much more challenging, especially when the lower part of Cayuga Lake is a muddy mess.