Skaneateles Lake 4/13 + Cayuga Lake 4/14 AM
Skaneateles Lake 4/13: Guided Scott for a full day of fly-fishing. We’d been trying to find a good day to fly-fish for over a year now. Scott wanted to “live or die by the fly” so I did not bring any back up spinning tackle. Conditions were fair for fly-fishing during most of the day. Winds were not steady and often shifted direction. No wind in the ultra-clear water of Skaneateles Lake makes for spooky fish and tricky fishing.
Scott nabbed a perch after maybe two hours of fishing but for a lot of the day it looked bleak. Solid areas for landlocked salmon with good conditions resulted in no hits or even follows. Good rainbow areas also were devoid of fish. Towards the end of the day Scott got a couple grabs in an area and wound up with two lakers on the fly – one around 17″ and one just over 20″. He’d never caught a laker before so these fish made the day.
On the way back we assisted a boat of three anglers with some engine issues. I always bring an extra battery, but if the boat is starting great throughout the day and just dies with no sign of a weak battery or turning over, it could be the kill-switch and that’s what it was. Lake temps are around 37 degrees.
Cayuga Lake out of Long Point 4/14 AM: Met Gary and his son Zach, along with Zach’s friend George at the launch at around 7:30 am. Gary wanted to be on the road early to get back home and the guys ran a little late, so we weren’t able to start at 7 am, our scheduled start time. I’m not a big fan of starting early for laker jigging this time of year. The bite is often better later. And that’s what happened.
We had zero action for the first two hours of the trip. There isn’t much worse for a guide than not seeing anything early in a trip. It’s easy for clients to get discouraged, lose interest and not pay attention, but fortunately the guys kept at it. Gary hooked up a big heavy laker and after a good strong battle I slipped the net under a 31″ chunker. It was probably 10 to 11lbs. It was his biggest freshwater fish to date. Zach hooked one and lost it, then hooked another that we got to the net – a 29″er. It was Gary’s turn but his hands weren’t working too well in the cold. He had a good hookup but it got off due to those issues. The guys were pretty cold and Gary needed to get on the road, so we knocked off a bit early. Tough fishing but plenty of fish were around and they were starting to hit better during the middle of the AM. Thankfully the guys caught a couple and we were able to get off of the lake before the cold rains started! I did mark some alewives moving up. Fish came from 120′ to 150′.