Guided Ray, his wife Pat and their grandson Joe for a full-day trip starting at 6:30 am. Lake trout fishing remains tough on Cayuga Lake. I figured that an early start might be helpful, given that during my last trip, Jack got into a few fish right away at 8 am. Well, I figured wrong! We had a very tough morning and covered a lot of water, without being hasty. I felt that my "crew" fished thoroughly. Water temperature profiles are interesting; we have a cold sort-of thermocline going right now. I had 52 to 54 degrees up top and then a break to 44 degrees at around 65' in one area. We were not able to get any kind of super shallow bite going today.
Things didn't look good until the AM thermals started to die down around 10 am or so. Finally we started getting some hits. Patricia got us going with a fish around 23" after having a hit. Then Ray nabbed a thin 28"er. This fish had two fin-clips, so I'm guessing it was an old fish. Ray caught a small, but still nice laker around 19", then lost a nice clean laker around 27" just out of reach of the net after a good fight. Joe wound up nabbing a 28.5" fish that was in pristine condition. After maybe 2 hours of fair action, everything slowed down again. I had a call from Angling Zone Client/Friend Jamie, who has been renting a place on the lake for the past week (they are halfway through their trip) and they've been having some fair to good days and some slow days amongst their group. Thus far, nearly all of their fish have come from that same mid-AM bite window. Best fishing for us was around 50' to 80'. The lake remains at full-pool. I did not see any signs of debris. Baitfish are just about everywhere (so Jack's theory may be on target!) No sign of any other species today. Tougher fishing that anyone familiar with Cayuga Lake likes to experience, but all being said it was a wonderful day to be out on the water and I was lucky to have such a great crew!
