Got out here on my own today for just over three hours starting at around noon. The surface temperature in the lower lake is 48/49. Expect mid-40s up out of Union Springs/Cayuga. On a whim, I decided to try some deep fly-fishing, given the abundance of fish we've had in some parts of the lake over the past few weeks. Loads of alewives and gizzard shad have been providing a feast for both birds and trout/salmon lately. The water is cold enough to allow for shallow trout and salmon.
I set up with an 8-weight outfit that I like to use on Keuka Lake for winter lake trout. It didn't take long before I had a hit and a fish on in around 30' of water. I saw the fish flash and it appeared to be a small lake trout, until it came up and jumped! It got off just before I was able to net it, but it was a young, colored up chunky brown trout around 16" to 17" long. Next cast I was hooked up again with another brown. This time I landed it. It was a beautiful fat young fish. I released it to grow a bit more. Maybe 10 minutes after that, a decent lake trout around 23" to 25" came in for my streamer, taking a couple of half-hearted shots at it. No avail there. I tried a bunch of other areas to see what was going on and had what appeared to be some momentary hits (likely tail-grabs) and a few follows from more non-lakers. Most lakers today were deeper than I was able to rationally reach with the fly-rod, but I liked what I saw.
I would have stuck with the fly-fishing, however the conditions kept changing on me and in short order after I'd started, the follows stopped coming. The winds were swirling and went from west to south to north and back around again. I had sunny conditions to start and then the clouds rolled in heavily. I think with steadier weather - e.g., at least some sun and a south or north wind, I would've done much better.
I had not checked out the weed growth in some of my past favorite pike areas in quite some time, so I threw some spoons for around a half-hour. I had some areas of sparse weeds, but not much. I didn't not see any pike or pickerel, which wasn't surprising given that they've been missing in action in the lower lake for a good 6 or 7 years. Fun but short day!
