Owasco Lake 7/23, Seneca Lake 7/24, Cayuga Lake 7/25 + 26

Jigging for lake trout and occasional bonus fish (rainbows, browns and salmon) is in full-swing now in the Finger Lakes region.  Seneca Lake is providing the best lake trout jigging.  Cayuga Lake is now in prime shape as well with good water clarity and plenty of fish around.  Owasco Lake features great water clarity in most sections, but also a tougher bite for the most part.

Owasco Lake 7/23:  Guided Leo and Ada here for their second full-day trip of their annual vacation.  Fishing here remains the toughest out of my three regular jigging lakes (Seneca, Cayuga and Owasco.)  Fish are around in some areas but generally not super-active.  The water is super-clear, but there are a lot of green flakes (algae) showing up on the east shore.  We will probably see a full-out algae bloom here soon - how soon is the question.  This lake usually blooms after Cayuga; September is typical bloom-time here.

We did our usual "banker's hours" starting just after 8 am.  In short order, one nice lake trout was lost as it approached the net.  We had some short hits, but nothing special.  We wound up finding good concentrations of fish in a few areas, but they weren't hitting well.  Had they been biting, we would have had a good to excellent day.  On any given day, fishing here could be very good!  The fish are around.  Leo and Ada fished hard and wound up landing a nice rainbow and a couple of good lakers to 30".  Some big lakers were also lost, but not many.  After we got the three trout that Ada wanted, we went rockbass (aka "soup fish") fishing.  The rockbass bite was exceptional, although the size was lacking at times.  But we got all the rock bass that Ada and Leo wanted to clean!

I checked my records and Leo and Ada have come out with me annually since 2010.  We're not sure how much longer they'll be coming out, but it's great to have long term regulars!  We've had a lot of great fish and fishing over the years.

Seneca Lake out of Sampson State Park:  Today I guided Jamie, his son Tatum, and Tatum's friend Trevor for a full-day trip.  Fishing started out with a bang just after we launched at 7:30 am with 5 nice fish being landed in short order, but then we had a slow-down.  I made a run to an area I've found myself frequenting more and more in the last 5 years, and it paid off with some steady fishing.  By 1 pm or so, our bite amped up to another level and the fishing got fairly insane!  I stayed busy with the net as well as with re-rigging tackle.  Fish ran large for us today with a couple around 29" and one at 30".  We had a few live lampreys come up today attached to fish, however most fish were clean.  We had a few wild trout as well.  I'd be remiss if I didn't mention James losing a strong silver fish early in the trip - likely a rainbow or a salmon.  We never saw it, but it hit up high and definitely wasn't a lake trout.  The boys did a great job with the catching today.

Cayuga Lake out of Myers Park 7/25 AM:  Did a 1/2-day trip with Kevin and his 14 year old son Alex.  The goal today was to get Alex into a lake trout that I could fillet for him for dinner.  We had good numbers of fish right off the bat on Cayuga Lake.  The guys had some hits.  Kevin had a nice silver fish follow him up as well.  Kevin nabbed the first couple of lakers and we keep one, which had a freshly eaten alewife in its stomach.  Alex had a long line out and hooked up as he was reeling in!  He nabbed a nice 25" laker that we also kept.  After that, we took a run and Kevin wound up having a lot of follows from some good browns, but only one or two hits.  We probably missed the good bite window!  Oh well, I had to get them into more of a sure thing than a roll of the dice to start.  It's always great having Kevin onboard and today was no exception!  Fun morning!

Cayuga Lake 7/26 AM:  Guided Artie, whom I hadn't seen in a good 12 years or so, and his 8-year old son Everette.  Years ago I guided Artie with his dad on Skaneateles, now Artie has his own family!  Everette just turned eight back in mid-May.  The goal today was to get Everette hooked up with some fish bigger than the panfish, pickerel and bass he's been catching.  Cayuga Lake is fishing really well right now - it's very reminiscent of fishing here in late-July/August in the 2000s.  Fish are well-distributed and biting fairly well throughout the day.  You can find trout just about anywhere this time of year.

Everette got into some hits right away, but it takes kids that young some time to get comfortable with the gear.  I use baitcasters for lake trout jigging, so that was a first for him.  Artie has done this before (he's also a great fly-fisherman) and passed off the rod to Everette for the first 5 fish.  Everette got a good feeling of what to expect when fighting a good sized lake trout.  He also had a big rainbow trout follow up his jig in one area!   As the trip wound down, Everette hooked up again!  This time he did everything all by himself!  It was fantastic - he's just a few months over 7 years old and brought in a 25" laker!  We had one wild fish today.  Keep in mind that DEC no longer fin-clips lake trout stocked on Cayuga or Owasco Lakes.  So ALL young fish will have intact fins.  Fish above 24" or so that are unclipped are likely wild.