Guided Dan for 3 hours then spent an hour and change with his wife Nicole and 7-year old daughter Lily. They rent the same place on Cayuga Lake every August and Lily has taken an interest in fishing. She's caught some bluegills and bass and Dan wanted to get her into some bigger fish. Seven years old is too young for my kind of fishing, but Dan's been out with me for many years and he felt that an hour or so would be enough to let her experience some larger fish. I agree!
We spent the start of the day around an area Dan had fished on a recent guided trip catching some browns. It was very close to their rental so he wanted to start there. It's a tried and true brown trout area in August and into September. The currents were pretty insane and it felt as though we were in a whirlpool! My boat drifted around with and against the wind. I didn't take a water temperature, but we clearly had some cold water up shallow. Dan wound up catching some lakers there. They fought good and he kept thinking and hoping he had hooked a brown - but nope, another laker. He did have a few chases on the sonar and one good brown that followed his jig up, but no cigar.
After a few hours, we picked up his wife Nicole and daughter Lily and headed to a lake trout area. Storms were forecast to move in later in the day and the fish responded accordingly! They were biting! Nicole started us off and then it was Dan. They went back and forth for a while. Lily got a chance to work the jigs and got some practice holding some big fish for the camera. We wound up with a nice double-digit day with some hard fighting fish. I had a lot of fun with Lily onboard and according to Dan, she's taken an interest in ancient Egyptian history! That's a bright 7-year old and I didn't have to show her how to hold a fish - she watched me and then said "I want to hold one." I've had 15-year old guys that won't hold fish! What's this world coming to....
