Cayuga Lake out of Myers Park 9/30 AM

Got out with Jack today for a 1/2-day trip starting at 8 am.  Jack likes to fish until he gets a limit of nice fish, then we call it a day - today we finished up at 11:30 am.  Jack landed 6 legal trout this morning - we released one 18"er.  Fish ran to 30.5".  I've been making some long runs lately to get away from the spawning areas.  Jack much preferred to fish closer to our launch today, so that's what we did.  We had a good little flurry of action this morning; he landed 2 nice fish, plus the smaller one and dropped 7 or 8.  We kept plucking away and the next three came around 11 am.  Bite windows open and close this time of year depending on the intensity (or lack thereof) of sunlight and other factors.  Lunker City Shakers in Alewife and Yum Money Minnows did the trick today.

I often get asked where I buy my jig heads.  That's a no-brainer, you'll have a hard time finding better laker jigging jigs than through Billy Alexander, whom I met when I worked at Bass Pro Shops.  He was one of the top bass guys in the NY State Federation back then (around 2005) and had won a few bass boats in his time!  Bill also makes some incredibly durable plastic baits for bass fishing.  He has a Senko knock-off that you do not need "O-rings" for to fish with.  His Xstended Life Lures do as they should - they last and last and last.  They are well-worth every penny and they aren't pricey either!  Contact Billy by phone at:  (315)520-9820.

We had a boater fishing fairly close to us for a portion of the day in two different areas.  Eventually the angler came over and said, "everytime I go by you guys you have a fish on!"  I gave him a tip and did tell him that I was a guide.  The first lake trout I ever caught vertically jigging was on Irondequoit Bay in early November back in 1988 in my old fishing buddy Terry's boat.  I moved up here in 1995 and we spent some days every year in the fall jigging off of Taughannock Park.  Toby Wood really revolutionized the way we all approached jigging lake trout back in 2003 with his use of electronics and concentrating his jigging more in the spring/early summer rather than in the fall.

Since that time, I've guided this pattern professionally since 2005.  I've seen it all, in terms of methods: whether to add scents, various shapes and styles of plastics, fishing spoons, "slow-pitch jigging", other techniques for jigging, spinning tackle vs. baitcasting, setting the hook, finding the fish, rigging, leaders,  and on and on.  These days, everybody appears to be an expert.  And there are more ways than one to "skin a cat" - that's for sure.  You have to find what you enjoy and what works for you.  And although the technique and rigging et. al., is a vital part of our success, finding and patterning the fish is what really sets anglers apart.  If you can't consistently find fish, you won't catch them.  If you aren't doing as well as you'd like to be doing, a half-day trip can really change your jigging "world-view!" And you won't need to spend thousands on tackle and sonar units.  Some of my best past clients do their damage out of kayaks.