Guided Bernie, his cousin Dave and friend Ed for a half-day trip getting underway just after 7:30 am. I had a report late last night from a friend/client who did well on lakers in mid-lake areas on Cayuga Lake. He mentioned a lot of muddy water and debris. I had a low-key weekend and did not fish or guide, but I knew we got some steady, moderate rain throughout the day on Sunday if I remember correctly. I had no idea that we'd received over 2" in many local areas over the past week!
All that being said, Cayuga Lake was generally in excellent shape from Long Point north to Silos/Levanna. We worked a lot of those areas and had COLD water - 50 degrees on top, and not much else doing. A deep water check revealed some large schools of baitfish moving in. Ed nabbed our first fish of the trip (the guys had a couple hits prior,) by landing a fat, picture perfect 29.5" laker. They kept their fish today and it weighed 9lbs 10 oz. That's a solid! Dave also landed a decent fish in the deep water. We had a slow pick there, but the bait was coming in and I felt that the action was going to improve, the big question was "When?" Would it just be a matter of sticking the fishing out for another hour or two, or was it going to pick up this evening when we were long gone? We decided to run down to some mid-lake areas.
Mid-lake areas on the east shore were full of small debris, along with some larger stuff and lots of muddy water. The weekend weather featured blazing south winds that pushed muddy, debris-laden water miles up the lake from Taughannock and Myers Creeks. Obviously, only the surface water was muddy, but our bite wasn't good around that stuff. A check on the west shore led to another fish for Dave. That was it on the day - it was a slow bite.
The Seneca Lake Memorial Weekend Derby featured some hot fishing for the few hours that were fishable on Saturday morning. Angling Zone Friends Jeff and his buddies did really well on lakers running to 7.5lbs until the south winds made fishing up around Geneva unbearable! Other friends struggled out there trying to troll. Sunday was another brutal day with only a couple of boats fishing out of Geneva. Monday featured better weather but a tougher bite. The leaderboard was very impressive, as I knew it would be. It's online and worth taking a look at. If you follow this website, you'd already know that Seneca Lake has fished darn well over the past 3 years with a few minor hiccups. This past winter/spring was fantastic out there for salmon, browns and rainbows.
I prefer guiding Cayuga Lake, since it's closer to me and more manageable to fish/guide due to its curvature and "friendly" nature in the wind. Seneca Lake is a different beast, especially when the wind kicks up. That being said, I expect to be out there a lot this year. I'll go where the best fishing is, and where people want to fish. In my early years of guiding, there were seasons when I spent the same amount of time on Seneca as Cayuga.
