Cayuga Lake out of Long Point State Park 4/26 AM + 4/27

Guided a half-day trip on Sunday and then a full-day trip Monday.  Lake trout fishing wasn't easy on either day.  The park facilities remain closed, so there's no entry fee.  I was told that a pipe had burst, so the Parks Department is awaiting repairs.  Once that's squared away, the bathrooms will be opened up.

4/26:  Guided Bernie and his friend Ed starting at 8:30 am.  Bernie's been out with me before and really enjoys the laker jigging and is good at it.  This was Ed's first time out.  Lake levels are finally coming down and there's very little debris floating around in the lake.  What is out there, is small stuff for the most part.

The guys each managed to land a couple of fish this morning.  Some were dropped as well.  We did not mark any significant baitfish schools.  There is still a lot of very cold, clear water around on Cayuga Lake, although we also have some large greenish colored warmer water plateaus.  The fish caught today fought well.  The usual colors - Arkansas Shiner, White/Chartreuse Tail, Limetreuse and Chartreuse Silk worked for us, as did a Yum Money Minnow.

Loons are everywhere and it was a gorgeous day to be out.  Towards the latter part of our trip, I started marking larger groups of lake trout moving in.  I figured that tomorrow would be a much better day.  I was wrong.

4/27:  Today I guided Gordon for a full-day trip starting at around 9:45 am.  We originally planned to do some fly-fishing for lake trout on Keuka Lake, but the wind forecast was predominantly for calm conditions, which are a deal breaker there for lake trout on the fly.  One question I get asked A LOT, is "how does wind affect the fishing?"  Or "What difference does the wind make?"

As I see it, in clear lakes if fish are to move shallow, they will be reluctant to move up unless there's some chop or a low level of light, or better yet, both combined.  The chop camouflages the bottom a bit with shade and sun patterns, and the fish generally (on an instinctual level) "feel" more secure.  There are a lot of other variables of course and exceptions to the rule.  I'm not a deer hunter, but when you think about it, you really only see big trophy bucks early in the morning, late in the evening or at night, or when the rut takes place.  It's similar.

Wind also allows us to drift without me having to keep turning on the trolling motor, which can easily spook shallow fish in clear water.  We can cover water more effectively and effortlessly. Wind stirs up the bottom and creates current.  It moves plankton around.  It positions fish.  I can go on and on...

Have I seen great fishing on clear lakes on windless days?  Of course, but it's usually the exception.  Some fish will move up and bask in the sun - carp, bowfin and gar often do that, as do bass and salmon at times.  If there's a lot of bait around, fish may just take advantage of that situation, but I don't bank on that as a guide.  The clearer the waterway, the more important wind is.  If you're out catfishing in a muddy river, I doubt it has much of an effect.

Anyways, Gordon wanted to get out since it was such a nice day, so we went with Cayuga Lake.  I expected a good bite today.  We were set up for fly-fishing and I was hoping we'd get enough wind and/or find some stained water that would give us a good chance at nabbing a laker or more on the flies.  We never did get any steady wind.  There was very little, if any cloud cover either and we dealt with crystal clear water in some areas, and warmer green colored water in others.  Gordon had a nice laker around 25" to 26" take a swipe at his streamer in one area in about 15' of water.

We switched to jigging gear after a couple of hours.  Fish were chasing half-heartedly, if at all.  Eventually he hooked one around 26" that got under the boat and off just before I had a shot at netting it.  A few other hits were had and missed.  I checked out a bunch of areas and he hooked a couple, including a good fish in one area and we finally got a laker on board.  Fishing got better as the sun got lower.  It also was better when the wind kicked up.  I've watched this stuff for decades, but again - I get asked about wind a lot.

The loons were all over the place and the lake sounded like an insane asylum at times.  We certainly had no complaints about the weather!  We should see fishing really pick up here once we get some steady warming weather and the baitfish start moving in.