Cayuga Lake 6/13, 14, 15

Long Point 6/13:  Guided Rich and his son Tyler for close to a full-day starting at 7:30 am.  The guys were open minded to whatever offered the best opportunity.  Rich has caught plenty of small pickerel (13" to 15" range) in his past and was interested in possibly chasing some Finger Lakes (aka larger 19" to 23") pickerel today as well as lake trout, which he'd never caught before.

First off, the heavy rains we had on Sunday night made a mess of the south ends of a lot of local lakes.  As of this writing (on 6/13,) boating is prohibited on Waneta and Lamoka Lakes.  There was a Keuka Lake boating ban but it was lifted a couple of days ago.  Seneca Lake still had a 5 mph speed limit as of yesterday.  Needless to say, debris is a major factor in these regulations as well as the water levels.  The strong north winds we had yesterday (on Thursday) likely helped clear most of the upper lake debris.

We got off to a decent start with Rich nabbing a couple of lake trout in fairly short order.  The bite was fairly good, not great, but not terrible.  It was much better that what we experienced last Sunday.  After a slowdown, we headed north to give the pickerel a go.  Tyler nabbed a 21" and 22" pickerel on spoons.  We found some decent habitat.  After catching those pickerel, Tyler wanted to go back after the lake trout, so that's what we did.  Lake trout fishing wound up being somewhat slow but steady with the guys landing another 5 fish.  All of them were quality trout today and ran up to 29" long.  We had a couple wild fish in the 23" to 24" range.  Keep in mind, no fin-clipping was done over the past few years, so any fish in the 16" range and smaller probably will have all of its fins intact.

We cut the trip a little bit short today so the guys could hit the road and restroom.  All in all, the fishing was better than what I've been experiencing here lately.  Just like I mentioned in my last report, my friend from Pennsylvania had relatively good days interspersed with tough days.  We'll see if this trend continues or the fishing is actually getting back on track!  Fish today came from around 35' to 80' of water.  Limetreuse Lunker City Shakers did the trick for us.

6/14 AM out of Myers Park:  Today I guided Mike, his son Eric and son-in-law Anthony, who is probably the biggest Buffalo Bills fan I've ever met!   Fishing for lake trout continues to be slow overall, but it showing definite signs of improvement.  We had another slow but steady pick of fish today.  Mike has had a place on Cayuga Lake north of Myers since the 1970s, and wanted to learn some technique and areas around his house to fish.  Most lake trout are still further north, but there are localized populations of fish throughout Cayuga Lake.  The guys have caught some nice lakers off of Mike's dock this spring right up until a couple of weeks ago.  We checked some areas near his house and I marked a few fish - likely non-lakers up higher in the water column.  Bait is everywhere throughout the lake.

We ran north just to get around more fish and the guys took fish in several mid-lake areas, all on the west shore today.  Mike had the first hit and then Anthony got us going with a couple very nice fish running up over 28".  He also lost one.  Eric nailed a laker around 19" and then another around 24" or 25".  We are seeing a few wild fish, which is nice and zero fresh lamprey action.   I had a good time talking sports with Anthony, who does a Buffalo Bills Podcast.  Good group of guys and some steady, albeit slow action.  Some sunny, steady weather should get the laker jigging back up to speed.  We also are close to having the thermocline set up.  It's getting there.

One of our fish appeared to have a somewhat digested smelt in its stomach.  I'm not 100% sure, but both Mike and myself thought it was a smelt.  The tail looked like one - it was narrower than an alewife tail. (I've netted and handled thousands of smelt back in my smelting days, but the fish was pretty digested, thus the uncertainty.)  Smelt may be making somewhat of a comeback in Cayuga Lake - stay tuned!

6/15 AM out of Long Point State Park: - Today I guided Alex, who has joined me pretty much annually over the past 5 years or so, along with his friend Sergi.  Fishing got off to a promising start with Alex dropping a large rainbow trout (6 to 7lbs I'm guessing) not far from the launch.  It hit right below the surface and got off before I could get the net over to it.  We had calm and overcast conditions to start.  The lakers weren't very cooperative for us today, nor for my friends out on the lake.  We had good chases and a couple of short hits, but not much "love from the lakers."  Eventually Alex nailed a nice fish.  Shortly afterwards, he had another that got off at the net.  I probably should have been able to net the fish, but it was a pretty hot fighter and given how slow the fishing was, plus the fact that the rainbow had gotten off, I went for a pretty deep scoop with the net.  The fish did some crazy moves as I tried to net it - I hit it once lightly with the net and then it went bonkers and got off.  It was probably around 27".

Overall a tough day.  The fishing over the last few weeks has been slow to fair.  The trout are getting more concentrated as the thermocline continues to take shape.  Rainbow trout are also becoming a factor - they clearly have recovered from spawning and are back on the feed, or if they didn't spawn, they are at least starting to show up.  Sergi had one follow from what may have been a rainbow or salmon.

A few dates remain open for June:  I have tomorrow (Monday 6/16,) Thursday (the 19th,) the 22nds (a Sunday) and Sunday June 29th, which is a free fishing day (no license required.)  I could also do an AM local (Cayuga/Owasco) trip on Monday June 30th.  July still features pretty good availability.  See my other post on openings for the specific dates.