Guided Ed and his friend Don, both of whom were out with me maybe 2 years ago on Owasco Lake when Don landed a hard-fighting chunky brown trout. Ed I have known for at least 15 years and he's been out with me numerous times. Ed is 85 years old and today wound up being a special day for him. We started in an area that's been pretty solid for my clients and I over the past couple of weeks. Within short order, Ed was hooked into a solid fish. It wound up being a 29" lake trout! It fought great and the trip was a success at that point, but there was more to come. The guys missed some hits/hookups and then Ed was on again. He didn't think it was a big fish since it wasn't pulling like a lake trout, but a lot of people don't realize that part of the reason a laker pulls - even more than an average King salmon at first, is that they try to stay in the cooler, deeper water. Now nobody would ever think that pound for pound a laker out-pulls a King salmon, but when we hook Kings jigging, along with rainbows and landlocked Atlantic salmon, they usually come up fairly easily UNTIL they get maybe 30' from the surface, then they go wild! I knew Ed's fish was likely a good one. As it got closer to the boat, it pulled more until I had a good shot at it with the net. The fish wound up being a 29" rainbow trout! Not much fin-rot on this fish - except for a little on the dorsal fin, so I was happier to see that. Ed kept it for the grill, so I weighed it and it was 7lbs 8oz. So it wasn't a fat fish by any means, it was on the thin side but healthy looking. It did not have anything in its stomach. I'm guessing it was a female that spawned last spring.
I used to encourage clients to release most rainbows, but over the past 12 years the lake has been full of them. We finally recovered from the 1998 diesel fuel oil spill on Cayuga Inlet. Natural production is the source of most of Cayuga Lake's rainbows and the stocked fish also really need the initial time in the inlet. After the railroad derailment and spill, the DEC stocked a bunch of rainbows in Cayuga Lake, but we didn't see any tangible results from that stocking. Trouble was that the diesel spill wiped out nearly all of the insect life that young rainbows need in order to grow and survive.
Apart from that, a few more hits were had and Don finally nabbed a good 28" laker, which we released. It was a successful day so we knocked off maybe an hour early. On the way back into Myers some young day-campers had turtled their sailboat. They didn't want me to help them, but as I got back to the park, I got flagged down by one of the camp leaders, who asked if I could give her a ride out to them. I did, and she was able to "right" the boat quickly. It got pretty choppy out there late in the morning with some whitecaps and 1' to 2' waves.
I'll be off tomorrow, but Friday remains open for trips as does Wednesday. We've had a good August bite. Dates are coming in for September and now's the best time to arrange a fishing trip.
