Cayuga Lake Reports 8/13 – 8/17

Just wound up a busy run of trips.  I'll have a day off before the next slate of trips.  This Saturday August 22nd remains open for a full or half day trip.   After that I'm looking to book labor day weekend and onwards through September.  Most of September is already booked, though I do have a few dates left.

Fishing has been good to excellent on Cayuga Lake, with a few minor hiccups.  Overall numbers and condition of lake trout are looking great.  The numbers of rainbows we're encountering this season is the best I've seen since I've lived up here.  Salmon numbers look great.  Brown trout numbers are fair to good.

My buddy Todd sent me a pic of a laker's stomach contents from a fish he caught yesterday - 39 gobies and 3 alewives!   So some fish are back (or never stopped) munching gobies.

8/12 am:  Guided Dave and his buddy Arthur.  The guys had a fantastic morning landing 19 lakers.  Dave lost a good rainbow after a nice fight.  Lakers ran big for us and hit great from our get-go around 6:30 am.

8/12 pm:  My PM trip was with Scott and his son Lucas.  We had a good solid afternoon of lake trout action and I think we had a salmon and/or rainbow too if I remember right.  I did a demo drop just to show the guys where the leader connection was and the difference between the mainline and leader and wound up feeling a fish on when I went to reel the lure back up.  I nabbed and released a 24" rainbow!  First time that's ever happened.  Our fishing started out with Scott having all the luck.  At the trip's end it was mostly Lucas.  It was a very fun day.

8/14 am:  Guided Greg and we went searching for non-lakers - primarily browns.  Another tough day with him.  We wound up with a bonus laker.  He had a nice salmon chase him up (it had a big lamprey on it) and he also had some browns hitting him, but overall conditions were tough.

8/14 pm:  Guided Ed for a half day starting at 11:30 am.  He wanted to learn the jigging.  We had a great day with a bunch of big lakers in a row. If I remember right he also nabbed a salmon.  Solid day.

8/15 am:  Guided Todd and Jeff for a 1/2 day AM trip starting just after 6:30 am.  We had a great day of lake trout action with a bunch of fish landed - I think it was around 14 with a lot in the 29" to 30" range.  (I should dig out my diary for these hazy reports, but for now my foggy brain will have to suffice.)

8/15 pm:  Guided Kevin with his neighbors, Kevin and Ian for a 1/2 day.  It's never boring with Kevin.  He started us off with a 25" salmon.  His friends don't do much fishing, so they were able to catch some big fish.   Fun day all the way around!  Kevin nabbed a second salmon as well that we kept for their dinner along with a lake trout.

8/16 am:  Guided an abbreviated 1/2 day trip with Oleg and Yuri.  The guys had a busy Saturday and didn't want to get up early today (Sunday), so we started at 8 am instead of my usual 6:30 am.  That hurt us a bit today - my buddy Todd was out first thing in the AM and had a good bite.  We had a lot of fish around us but they weren't very cooperative for us.  A few hits were had but nothing solid.  The guys had been out with me before.  Unfortunately no fish were hooked today.  It was still a peaceful day on the water and the guys left refreshed.

8/16 pm:  For my PM trip I had Liz and her dad Dave.  Conditions changed for the better and the fish cooperated much better than the AM trip.  Dave landed a couple nice salmon to 23" or more, a rainbow and some lakers.  Liz had some grabs but nothing solid.

8/17 am:  Guided Will for a 1/2 day today.  He was hoping for some salmon/browns/rainbows.  He had some good opportunities at those species but wasn't able to seal the deal.  He did land a nice lake trout.  We had a ton of hits and follows today!

8/17 pm:  Guided Matt and his friend Lewis for a 1/2 day trip starting at noon.  We had windy conditions out of the north and sun today.  Fishing was solid with 10 fish landed including three salmon to 23" and the rest lakers.  Some browns also followed in our jigs.