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Ithaca, Cayuga, and the Finger Lakes: Trout and Fly-Fishing Reports
Jigging for Lake Trout primarily in Cayuga and Keuka Lakes, fly-fishing for trout, carp, drum, and other species- reports from one obsessed fisherman! Informational or inane, the results of my fishing trips are here. Thanks for stopping by- good luck and enjoy!
Taughannock 1/3Nothing much for fishing, I was trying out the new truck/trailer combination. Got the motor out of storage, put the boat back together, and got the trailer hitched with a little extra work. So, I can fish! Not ideal, as the tongue is too high, but it'll work for now.
I haven't been on the lake in a loooong time! Seems like it anyway. So it was nice to get out for sure. Poked around, then cast flies for trout and salmon. Tried one spot I didn't have confidence in and another I did, but no joy.
There were at least a few fish in the second area (on the East side) but none hit me. I did see/hear of 2 fish caught on regular tackle in the short time I was there. Boat and line control I'm working on! I felt effective about 40-50% of the time I was trying to fish. Saw John and he said the laker bite was good, I should be able to give that a go tomorrow. What's with this weather? Tonight's low will be higher than the average high for this time of year! Great for fishing though! Good luck all! Kentucky Bass 12/28Stopped at an old friend's place in western Kentucky on the way home. We got out for a few hours one sunny afternoon and went looking for bass. I had the 6 and a random collection of flies and he fished the rubber lizards. I caught the first bass, but toward the end the soft plastics worked their magic and Blaine pulled three in a row out of one small honey hole!
That was it, one for me, total of four. Not bad for late December and artificials though! I was happy to catch my one on the fly, good enough for me. It went for an olive sparkle bugger with a real mellow strip. Just happy to be fishing at all- and the forecast looks good! No truck until Tuesday though, darn New Year in the way.
So that's it folks, the last fishing of the year! As I write this it's very early in the AM on New Year's eve, a few days after the title, so that's it for 2006. Glad I snuck in that last day! Done For Now 12/16Okay folks, well it was a great year! All done until January when I expect to be out for trout!
I've got wheels again, so things are looking good for when I return. (Around the 1st)
Until then- Merry Christmas everybody! Don't forget to fish! Oh Boy 12/14No..... all this great weather in mid December is killing me. I can't fish. This is downright awful. I was so excited to get out there this winter too. I'm trying not to whine here but I don't think it's working! The search for a new truck is going okay, I'm looking at a good candidate Saturday but then leaving town Sunday, no time to fish in between. I haven't had such a dry stretch in a long time. I can't even get to the park! ARRGGG!!!! Cayuga Inlet 12/10Beautiful day in the upper forties, I finally had some time free with a car and headed out. Spent four hours or so covering four miles or so, and I didn't see a single fish. Didn't catch any either!
Still had a blast, fished several stretches and covered a lot of ground. Most of the time you could see everything, it was low and clear, well, that nice greenish color. I was surprised it was so low actually. Some ice around as well. No people sighted! Maybe they all knew there would be no fish. I didn't really expect anything of size but figured I could at least catch a few small ones... nope!
Oh well, like I said it was a great afternoon regardless. I'm not very happy about being effectively boatless. Kind of sucks I can't trailer it anywhere, I want to run the gas out. And fish too, but I've resigned myself to not getting on the lake until January at least. At least I caught one salmon out there before I retired the truck but it's tough not being able to go after more. Still I'm planning on taking what advantage I can of this nice weather... maybe some shorefishing next time. Good luck all! Looking Good 12/8Another non-report, sorry folks... it's been COLD! The other night it was 10 degrees with 20 mph winds. Nasty, but the forecast is good for a whole week! Highs well above freezing and we're leaving the teens alone for a while. Great news, I'm heading out when I can. You don't realize how much you depend on your vehicle until it's gone!
I'm leaving town next Sunday, so there's only a week of fishing left before New Year's- no way am I going to make a ton of fish. Over 80% isn't too shabby, though, I'm satisfied. It's not about the numbers or weight really, I just like having a good time. It keeps it interesting, a half-hearted goal or two is good. A serious goal is also good! I accomplished several of those this year, which is a hell of a lot more satisfying anyway.
These were:
Catching an Atlantic salmon on the fly in the lake.
Catching some smallies on the fly, again in the lake.
Catching another drum, this one was huge!
(I failed at a related goal, catching a drum near Taughannock.)
I did better during the fall trout runs than last year.
Caught a bunch of carp on the fly. Can't wait until spring!
I'm sure there's more but those are up top. It was a good year, not quite over yet! I hope you all had fun too. And a reminder since I went and blabbed on... good weather this week, go fishing! Oh My, 11/28I wish I could fish! Not today... looks like a repeat of yesterday weatherwise, maybe a touch cloudier and if anything even less windy. This'll all change over the next few days... winds will increase out of the south in advance of the next system, with luck tomorrow won't be TOO bad, might make it out. Or try some creeks. I want to fish out of Deans, I know I'd do great on lakers up there, but: 1) South wind the past few days, and 2) I'm lazy about launching at Taughannock... many times I go out of there even when I know there is better fishing elsewhere. It's been a problem all year! I really should try harder, for example I miss Keuka, only been there once this fall and did well.
Part of it is my truck too, it's still old and dying, it hasn't mysteriously gotten any younger Christine style, so I need another one... guess that'd be a whole 'nother issue if it did! I usually borrow a car if I actually need to go anywhere further than town. Got a lead on another Toyota, love these trucks. Problem is it's green- that's great, I've always wanted a green truck but never found one, but dang, now I have a red boat! No cap either, it'd be nice, had one on my last truck. Looking into another few vehicles too but it might wait until after Christmas. As soon as there's snow on the road I'm screwed! Nearly bald tires, and oh yeah it nearly doesn't run with temps in the 20's...
Enough babble... what really inspired this post was, just wanted to say that salmon I caught yesterday was 17-18"... that's all! Go fish! Taughannock 11/27Put a few fish in the boat today, including my first fly-caught salmon out of the lake! I've caught salmon in the lake and salmon on flies, but ne'er the twain had met, until now. Not a special fish for size, but it sure made my day! Also caught an 28" 8.4 lb laker, came home with me. Spent time searching out some new areas, but didn't do any fishing in them.
The laker was fun, too, I was looking around in shallow and saw a good sized mark on the bottom. Thought, huh, I wonder what that is! Dropped a jig overboard, bounce, bounce, hook! This is what prompted me to stay in the area and throw flies. Good fishing there for a quick 20 minutes, then I didn't see anything else. Pumped from catching the salmon, I spent the rest of the day hitting a few more spots, didn't see anything else. Lake flattened out as well. I think I'll try the north end next time, see about some lakers. Good luck everyone! What an Afternoon! 11/25Fantastic weather today, except for that 15 mph wind pushing rollers up the lake. It calmed down towards sunset, but most of the day was pretty bumpy. I was sooo happy to get out, I forgot nearly every essential piece of fishing equipment! I had quite a collection of gear, but was missing some mighty important pieces, for example, my jigging rod! And my fly bag, and large tackle box, even some other stuff... it really frustrated me at first. I sat in the sun cursing for a few minutes before realizing, hey, you're sitting in the sun, you aren't cold, and it's late November, enjoy it!
So that's what I did. Turned the day into a useful one after all, I spent several hours just looking around with my depthfinder. You can learn a lot from just cruising, not fishing! At one point I rigged my fly rod and a spinning rod off the sides with shallow-running plugs and tried flatlining salmon or trout off the top. Nothing doing there and I wasn't surprised, the "research" part of the trip showed me very little life in the area at all, even down deep. Overall no complaints, though tomorrow I hope to remember more gear and fish harder! Cayuga out of Dean's 11/22Good fishing with Ray today, absolutely gorgeous weather out there. It took a little while to find the lake trout, but after that, we had pretty good luck. Caught 18 lakers trolling from 110-150. Started in front of Dean's, not much there, so we tried a few places and settled on the East shore.
A ENE wind came around straight North by lunchtime, and the cloud shield from the storm tearing up the coast threatened us all day, but mostly stayed away. Small whitecaps in the afternoon. Water temp 48 on top.
Much better out there than my recent luck, and barely a soul to be seen! One or two boats out at most. There's probably more I want to say but I'm pretty tired, that cold will take it out of you! Might update it later... great weather for the next few days, get out if you can! Urk. 11/21Wow, what a day. I'm happy the sun came out but otherwise it was a tough one. Fished two more creeks, still in search of lake-run fish. I haven't seen much at all this week! All creeks remain well above normal but with clearing flows. That's making me nervous, though, I thought I'd see a fish or two in the past few days.
Started at one of the bigger tribs, spent a few hours there, then decided to check out another... mistake. Passed a police checkpoint, got pulled over, got a ticket for my muffler. Yay. I tried telling him I was trying to buy a new truck in the next few weeks (I am) but he wasn't having it. I'm not fixing it; it needs a front pipe and catalytic converter. Way to tax the poor some more, if I had money I'd have gotten it fixed already or bought a nicer truck in the first place!
So I fish for maybe an hour, when some guy comes up on me. I see he's throwing spinners in the pool, more specifically it's a rooster tail. So, what to do? Maybe I shouldn't've said anything, but I just asked "hey man, do you have a single hook on there?" He goes "Yes, you wanna see?", shoving the lure in my face. I say no, I don't need to see it, I'm just asking. "I know the regs!" Well, not everybody does, I said, I was just making sure. And off we go into an argument. What am I supposed to do? When you buy Rooster Tails in the store, they come with a treble. Not everybody knows or cares that they must be modified for the tribs. I've seen several people this year, in that exact spot, using trebles on spinners, so how the hell am I supposed to know? Just another lovely streamside encounter to cap a lovely day.
p.s. In the interest of fairness, the State Park officer I spoke with was very nice, and did not give me another ticket he could have. Hmmmm... 11/20Skunkaroo in the tribs today. Four hours out and no fish sighted. Yesterday, I hooked and lost a real small fish before I even noticed! Oops... I had started to walk upstream with my fly dangling when it got 'stuck' for a few seconds, I saw the flash as the fish jumped off. Today, not even that. Two streams, two days, and not much going on. It's one of two things: either the run is almost over, or the water is still to high to spot fish. It was green-to-tan with good 2'+ visibility in both streams, couldn't always see bottom but most of the time I could. Fished to a few rocks! The water is good and high everywhere, well above average.
I'm still deciding what kind of water I like to fish. Relatively clear, where you can see the fish but are frustrated when they disappear, or clouded, where you can't tell if fish are there at all! Both have their drawbacks. I still think I prefer fishing to fish I can't see, but it sure is nice knowing they are there. Past few trips I've gotten the "no fish" vibe. I can't tell if it's just me not fishing confidently, or if it's a real vibe. I've also been following the lazy warm man's approach this past week and not heading out until midmorning. It does make me wonder what's already happened! I'll be out all week, sure hope to find some salmon... good luck everyone. (And if you know where they're hiding, email me! ;) Wet Feet 11/14Light rain all night and the creeks were dark and rising again this morning, I went out again anyway. Caught a small atlantic salmon, 15-16". Swinging streamers through a 'soft' section of stream worked. What a fiesty fish! Hot and fresh from the lake, probably 6-8 jumps, tailwalking, current digging, she tried it all! Perfect, too, not a mark on her and bright silver with shades of pink and blue. One bump, one fish, not much going on other than that. Light drizzle and fog! It's been foggy for days now. Pretty wet as well, I take back my creek forecast, here's the update:
Last night's rain plus another pretty good shot thursday may make things tough this weekend. Saturated soil, any rain will be runoff. If (big if) we get the forecast 3/4-1" of rain it'll be tough out there. Even a half inch will push all the creeks back up again. Overall, I like it, it's great for the fish!
At least this year we aren't worried about streamflows, it's been above average all fall. Once it got started it hasn't stopped. The trick to getting out has been fishing high water. The trickier part is catching fish in the high water. I've been doing a lot of it and learning, caught a few small ones, that's enough to get me back out there. Trib Report 11/13Today was a big lesson in mindset. Ended up with another medium brown at my feet, I'm waiting on the big one! Started the day ready to fish. Meet a really nice guy, we're fishing this hole. A third fella shows up which pretty much limits everybody and in my opinion makes it TOO full. I wouldn't personally walk in and be the third. I've also seen 4 or more fishing it which has gotta suck. Anyway, I'm annoyed at this guy, but move to give him room. Big mistake! He starts fishing where I'd just started working and soon enough catches a fish. Thus started the downward spiral! Another 1/2 hour later and I'm about to give up, especially since I missed a good strike. Walk out, talk to a friend who had showed up, we spot a fish. He's a much better trib fisherman than I, and I get some on-stream advice. Rebuild the confidence! Everything worked out textbook, if I remember right I'd cast out, I hear "perfect", drift, drift, drift, stop, the indy drops and fish on! A fresh female brown ate an egg. Same egg pattern I had luck with last week, I'll be tying up a few more.
So I went from nearly going home to landing a brown. Mindset (not to mention that advice, thanks man!) played a big role. I try to remember this but it can be hard after a few rough outings. Pic coming when I get some more time, but it's rare that I get a photo with me in it so we took a few.
Water is high and dirty everywhere, should be shaping up again in a few days. With the next rainfall or two coming this week I'd think things would be in great shape for the weekend! Good luck folks. Cruddy Weekend 11/11Fished some creeks this afternoon in the rain. Didn't follow my own advice but I had to get out. Was it worth it? I had my rod bent, twice, on foul-hooked fish. WTF. Trib fishing sucks. The first time, a brown was cruising along, saw me, spooked, and sprinted into my fly. Since I saw it happen I never set the hook and pulled it off pretty easy. The second time, I thought I had snagged a rock. Here I am, boinging away, trying to get the hook loose, when I notice the line has moved. Sure enough, turns out I got a big brown in the fin. Fought this one until I got a look at the hook placement and broke off.
At least the weather looks good next week, I sure messed up my fishing plans this weekend, was really looking forward to it. Taughannock 11/8Snuck out for about 2 hours today in search of salmon. Very calm at first, the surface breeze turned to the north even as Milliken was still feeling a south wind. I cast streamers for trout/atlantics and couldn't get anything going. I think I may have had one little bump. This is new to me, so I'm happy just to get some boat control/casting practice in. Given the screen on the fishfinder the past few days I wasn't expecting to see trout and I was right... maybe I'll go fish somewhere else soon! Trolling Cayuga 11/7Changed plans due to the weather, Ray and I headed out of Taughannock at dawn into a stiff southerly. Slow at first, the fishing picked up in slightly better conditions and once we got things working. Before noon we had only four fish, the first a small atlantic that was down over 100 feet! After this we started catching lakers and they just kept getting bigger.
10 lakers in the boat, biggest 29". We fished 120-150 fow. Temp around 50 on top. We kept out of the biggest waves as best we could and fished on! Ray says we were trolling too fast, the wind and waves were really pushing us down the lake pretty good. We stopped briefly at lunchtime, I grabbed the trolling motor, mounted it, and kept it in the water to keep us slow, occasionally even running it in reverse.
Well it wasn't ideal but we did pretty good anyway, between 12:30 and 2:30 we caught seven more lakers, it was nice to end the day with the better action. Trolled from Taughannock up to Milliken, stayed on the west side. Interesting, though not surprising, we tended to catch fish while passing some of my favorite jigging spots. Goes to show a good fishy spot is a good fishy spot... and there's more to that statement than it appears! Good luck everyone! Messing Around Taughannock 11/6Tried several things today. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and warm. Unfortunately there was barely a breeze most of the time, and Cayuga was flat calm. Well I tried casting streamers for trout and salmon. Or bass, or pike, anything really! Didn't get any interest. Then I tried jigging for lakers, I had a little action but nothing to get excited about. Once a dropped a jig on a hungry fish, I felt a tap, then a grab! I also felt the hook go on the set.
I did land one small salmon while jigging. It followed my jig in, hitting it lightly all the way! I looked over the boat and saw this salmon going nuts, so I teased it for a while and it eventually hit. Quick lift, unhook, and release, definately the fastest I've ever "played" and released a fish! Probably took all of 5 seconds at the most. Other than that, not much going on... I headed in just after sunset. I keep hoping Taughannock will produce, but I also keep going out on nice days, not good fishing days. Oh well, great day regardless! Tribs Again, 11/3Great day out! Found a pocket of nice browns. The one I landed was one of the smallest out of the bunch, but I'm happy. I lost a big one at my feet- close enough, right? IGFA says if you can touch your leader, it counts for catch and release! Reasoning is, if you've got the fish that close, it's nettable or gaffable, so to reduce harm to the fish, a 'leader touch' counts. Though it's always nicer to release fish when planned!
Anyway, these browns wanted eggs! I had great success on a blue and orange egg pattern. Hooked three fish, one looked foul-hooked I thought, broke it off after a minute. I just couldn't tell, it looked like maybe the pectoral fin though. This chubby honey, and the other foot-lost fish. I learned my lesson from last time and had the drag cranked down a little tighter, the fish weren't able to take off on me like last time. Also browns don't run (or jump!) like the salmon. The water had come down a little, the creeks are still running above average, but they are crystal clear now. Rain please! The salmon I saw were spooky shy and seemed like they were dropping out.
Warning: Etiquette breach! While playing one fish, I look up to see an old man on the opposite bank watching. I nod. He stares. I continue fighting, he stares. I shout a question at him, "hey can you see where it's hooked?" He says nothing. This was the possible (and just possible mind you!) foul-hooked fish. I wasn't sure, and he had a better view. Nothing from him. I wave again. Nothing. Shortly afterwards I break it off. He comes down the bank and starts drifting into my drift!! Heelllloooo?!?! I look up and down the creek and can't see anybody else. How about a little room buster? Find your own fish! Acted like a jerk imho. So, there's this other friendly fella wandering around I've talked to and even offered to show him some fish. He watched me land the one brown. At sunset I see him again and we walk out... turns out they are buddies. Go figure. As soon as the one guy didn't answer the nod, he showed himself as a poor sportsman. What's with all the cranky old fishermen? Somebody hit me if I ever get that way. Luck in the Tribs, 11/1Did some thinking, some exploring, and it paid off today! I located a few salmon and managed to catch one! I checked a few streams and did some looking around before fishing, this is a new strategy I'm trying. I've just been blindly fishing the popular holes and getting frustrated, so I took another tack.
I was actually somewhat disappointed to hook this female. She put up a great fight and actually ran me into my backing! Good work for an 18" fish. That's a guess, somewhere in there. I'm also still pretty new at fighting fish in current, I'm fishing a lot of faster water this year. The picture is deceiving, my hands are big, but the perpective is wacky. I'm reaching straight down, and just as I took the pic she arched. Oh well, quickly back into the water and away. I did not see her back where I'd found them though, which is one reason I was unhappy to catch this particular fish. The male was twice the size! First, he took a few short taps at my flies, then followed it and attacked! Fish on! A quick run and a few spectacular leaps and fish off. He quickly resumed position, but a few casts later the female hit, and I landed her.
So I'm happy to have caught a salmon this year after all the fishing I've done, but I wish it had been the male, doubly so since he was huge! The creeks are all running well above average, which is great for the trout but has made for tougher fishing. At least for me. I don't like sight-fishing, but it's nice to be able to see them once in a while! I got a glimpse here and there. Visibility today ranged from 6" to 18".
Note: To explain the 'could have done more but I was lazy' comment below, I mostly meant preparation- bait, or fishing at dawn, leaving the vicinity of the park, etc... we tried pretty hard right around Taughannock! Double Skunking 10/31Happy Halloween... I couldn't catch anything today. The lake fishing was poor, and then I failed in the streams this afternoon. Flat calm on the lake made for tough fishing, and I knew most of the lakers would be gone. Temp 50-51.8 on top. No bait around, no suspended fish, pretty dead, much less life than last week's excursion. Tried jigging for lakers with no results. Tried casting for trout and salmon. Tried casting and jigging for bass and perch. Flatlined a pass past Toughannock. One of those warm fall days that can't be beat! Haha, no complaints anyway, ran into Bob at the park so he came along and at least we got to BS for a while. Really, really nice out there despite the poor fishing. Yes, I could have done a lot more to actually try to catch fish but I was lazy and happy to be out on the water...
In the afternoon I tried for tributary run fish. Didn't catch anything. Did, however, find a fish! It took a while to get to the area I saw it in, then never saw it again, but I spent a while swinging streamers and drifting eggs in vain. Decent sized flash, looked like a nice big brown. Next task is trying to catch it, maybe I'll have a shot on Wednesday. Creeks and Rain 10/28Fished the rising water this morning. Not as much rain as forecast made a few streams fishable for a little while. Another one of those double-barreled storms that splits in two, directing most of it's energy to the coast. I'm not sure why the forecast models don't account for this, it happens all the time! Usually a good look at the radar the night before will show what's going to happen. Hmmm if I get around to it I'll put up a page with info on what to watch for in this situation. This is also a local phenomenon specific to the Finger Lakes, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie usually get the Western barrel while the coast gets the Eastern barrel of the storm. I think the forecast kept some folks home this morning though, I only saw people when I stopped by a popular hole to look. More rain would have brought more fish in, but at least the creeks will shape up faster than they did last time. Good luck! Cayuga Trolling 10/27A buddy took me out trolling for the first time today. We had fun and caught fish, Browns, Atlantic Salmon, and Rainbows, but they were all 15" and under. Pretty steady action through the afternoon, we headed out at 11:00. Fish came from the surface down to 30 feet over 50-90.
For my first time trolling, I have to admit I wasn't impressed. It was most likely due to the small fish, all that gear and heavy tackle seemed like overkill to catch two year old trout. I can imagine it gets exciting with multiple hookups on big fish though! Or just bigger fish for that matter. I have a few more plans to get out trolling so I'm not giving up yet... More Creekin' 10/24The creeks are getting into shape around here. Everything I looked at today still had color and good flow. I did a little fishing, but only half-heartedly, as areas I tried had people leaving. Not a good sign for several reasons! One, the spot had been worked that morning, and two, they were leaving... most folks wouldn't leave fish.
Yesterday I spent all day out and lost two fish. One small-medium salmon that spit the hook on a jump, and another much larger fish that broke off shortly after hooking it, due to a rock-roughed section of leader. That sucks and it's my fault. I'd been trying to get a good drift into a deep pocket. A serious cross current made it nearly impossible, but when I finally got it, I hooked up right away! That was cool for a minute, or rather ten seconds... at this point I get a little frustrated, but realize I'm doing a whole lot better than last year already, so it's okay.
Now that we've had good water and it's late October, the pressure is on. Lots (well for the area) of guys around on weekdays, I imagine the coming weekend will be pretty busy out there. One day recently 1/2 hour before dawn wasn't good enough, and I had to watch the two guys who arrived first fish the spot I wanted. Such is fishing! Especially stream fishing. Reminds me of last fall... I'd forgotten, fishing early this season was not terribly productive, but at least nobody else was out! I should get out on the lake, do some other fishing. Besides, I'm not even going to get close to one ton of fish if I don't hit the lakes! Not that I'm trying particularly hard, I'm sure if I wanted straight numbers and pounds I could have done it. Anyway, I meant to say, it's getting a little crowded out there for me again, and I'm just waiting for some stable weather to get out on the lake! Lots O Water!Spent some time fishing this weekend. Friday I toured the area and everything was rolling! The creeks are just now heading into fishable shape, we got nearly two inches of rain! Fished a fair amount of muddy water, often because I was already there looking at it. Some fish came in for sure, but it's hard to know if it's just a few or what. I landed one small brownie on Saturday in some crazy water! Felt like a huge fish in the current. Sunday I figured more folks would be out and did more scouting than fishing. Anyway, it shouldn't be a secret after a rain event of this magnitude... should be a few fish everywhere. Tough finding fishy water though, it may take a few days to clear up... and there is the possibility of more rain, but not too much. Good luck out there, and wade safe. This'll do it 10/20Rain... go fishing. Creeks are up and rising. Fish will be in.
And TFO says they have a one-day turnaround on warrantee work, which is great, but I'm out of luck on the reel. Guess I'm either packing too light or too heavy this fall. Salmon River 10/18(Updated toward end.)Success! I caught my first Salmon River fish. Seeing as we didn't get any rain yesterday, I headed North. Actually, we got more rain overnight after I posted that report- but I don't think enough to make a difference. No promises, didn't look today.
Back to the river! Checked out the Lower Fly Zone in Altmar first. Lots of folks, so I went upstream to the UFZ. Spent some time working the fast water in hopes of steelhead, with no luck. I did see one fella land a nice 6-8 lb steelie. Moving around, I encounter a few spawning salmon. Aha! Look behind them for the trout, I've been told. So I spend some more time fishing there, then tried another spot. Cast out my Rattle Egg (a fly I created no less! How psyched am I?) and suddenly, truck on! I don't remember exactly what happened. Something looked funny with my line, then it was disappearing off my reel lightning quick.
I do remember the fight, though, and being my first Chinook Salmon I'll preserve it here. The first five minutes I was convinced it was foul-hooked. This stands out very prominently in my thinking. What do I do? Play it out? Snap it off? There were no people downstream so I had plenty of room to fight, but I want to play fair. Finally I start thinking about WHY I feel it was snagged. The only reason I thought of was the horror stories I've read and heard. Snagger here, liner there, rippers in that riffle. A lot of folks "complain" about how hard it is to NOT line them. You know what? If you fish properly you won't. I saw dozens of salmon, cast among them, and didn't snag a single fish, even for a second. The one hit I had turned out to be solid gold in the inside corner.
And, I'm happy to say, I didn't do anything too dumb and landed it. So after I see the fish and the hookup I start thinking more about landing it. I didn't exactly have control over this salmon! It went were it wanted to for the first half the fight. The second half, I gave it a few directions. Finally I bring it shoreside, and grab the line. I know this is stupid, and I do it anyway. The line snaps. The fish just lays there looking at me. I grab her tail and beach her for a second on the wet rocks, I want my fly back. Silvery-black, no rot anywhere. I see teeth, and can't find my forceps right away, so I eased her back into the current and away.
Fish some more, and decide to try another spot. At the truck, I lean my rod against the truck, get in, and back over the rod. Broken, trip over. I NEED THAT ROD! That's my fall stream fishing rod!! Was. 7 wt. I almost brought the 9 for the Salmon River but didn't, I'd much rather have backed over that one. The 7 is my Finger Lakes Tribs and Steelhead rod. Was. Temple Forks so it should be replaced, I hope I can find the paperwork, but still, what with sending it in and the turnaround time, I'm SOL for the fall. So, a good day spoiled by ten seconds of complete stupidity. Everyone, good luck, and keep your gear safe... from yourselves.
(Update: Nooooooooo!! From bad to worse. I just discovered I ruined my reel as well. That rod fell just right that I drove over the entire length, including the reel. This is a terrible, terrible event. I don't even think I'll be able to get the fly line off the reel. Just the worst of everything with this accident, it makes the whole "catching my first king salmon" experience very bittersweet. No Rain Here 10/17The Cayuga tribs barely budged. Spent some time investigating the creeks, and nothing happened. They are lower than they were a month ago, that's not too good! So much for the big rain we were supposed to get. I started getting worried last night when the radar didn't agree with the forecasts, and once again we didn't get much. The airport had less than 1/10 of an inch measured the last time I looked. Seemed more like 2/10 ths at my place but an all day drizzle isn't anything to write home about. Very disappointing. Come on rain, bring in the fish! It sure was windy today though. Stormy Thoughts FridayWell it's blowing hard outside and has been for two days now. Clear and cold, Fall has arrived with a vengeance. I still wish I were fishing! Little rain to draw any fishing excitement in the local streams, and after projects the past few days I just couldn't get the energy to get up early and drive to the Ontario tribs. The icy draft creaking through the window didn't help either! First frost, finally, and maybe even downtown too. After living for several years in Ithaca before moving back to the "country", there is for sure a huge difference in temperature, probably 2-4 degrees warmer down there. Good day to look into motor stuff. This Suzuki DT-15 is great but there aren't many Suzuki repair shops in the area. Guess I'm ordering a repair manual and hitting the online parts shops! I want to make sure I can fish during the winter, and I've been told I should give the lower unit a good overhaul, not to mention the low water flow issue. Keuka 10/10Beautiful day. Good fishing. The lake practically to myself, who could ask for more? One of the better days I've had recently, despite "one of those mornings"! Very late start due to a clock malfunction, got lost in Penn Yan and ended up launching at the town ramp instead of the State Park. Saw the park on the way home! Pretty cool ride out the outlet though. Launched without the drain plug, too. Throw in a few more hiccups and I'm out on the lake, sometime between 8:30 and 9:00.
Eleven lakers found my boat today. Very little on the fishfinder but I made out. There were a few pockets of bait and I did best near them. Interesting bite- first five fish were all jigged off the bottom, the last six all came on the retrieve. I think I got to the tail end of the good bite, but still had a wonderful day out there. Flat to start, around (guess) 10:30 a good North wind came up and made it a little less comfy, but nowhere near as bad as Cayuga gets!
The bluff area on the Penn Yan side produced the best, though I stopped at one spot on the way down, and one on the way back. 106-108 fow worked for me, though I'd imagine other depths would too! One fish as shallow as 80'. My favored Bomber Slabs worked but weren't the hot ticket today, I had better luck with a Crippled Herring. The nice thing about those is they come with both a treble and a siwash hook! I didn't use either and fished a double hook today. I suppose I shouldn't complain, but the forecast was for "partly to mostly cloudy" with increasing clouds. Conditions were "clear to partly cloudy" until after I left the lake! Usually some very high thin cirrus were around that cut the blazing sun of the past few days, making it a hazy sun. Well, it was a fantastic day! The trout weren't hitting hard but at least they were hitting, unlike the past few excursions on Cayuga. Good luck all! Taughannock 10/8Tried something new today- fly fishing for perch! I've caught them by accident before but not on purpose. It didn't work... at least not where I fished at the times I fished. I'm sure it DOES work! Well, I only know where to find perch later in the year, November through winter, so I wasn't terribly surprised. Still a great October day! Man that sun was blazing. Crystal skies, all that dry air sure let the sunshine through today! Probably didn't help the fishing either.
So, no luck with the perch, then I messed around trying to jig lakers for 30-45 minutes. Didn't look good, and the other jiggers I saw were just waving their rods around, so I didn't really give it my best effort. Finally put 20-30 minutes in casting flies for bass and slowly motored back to the park. Outstanding fall day!
I know I said I'd fish Keuka this weekend, that's looking like Tuesday. The timing with some mortar work I'm doing didn't work out, that's my excuse. I'll get over there, I promise! Too beautiful to miss out on this time of year. I'm also waiting on the moon. At perigee this cycle, and full, the moon has been big and beautiful- appearing 12% larger than average. See the sun and moon data page for rise, set, and illumination of the moon. The maximum angle the moon reaches is important, too- the higher it is, the more of an effect. Since I'm talking about this page, and given a recent discussion on Sander's Forums (link left), good news! The simple lunar calendar I programmed in appears to work on the lakers. If it's a good lunar period, this page will tell you when to fish. I'm working on upgrading this into a nice graph that displays every day, not just on the 'best' days, as it does now. Interestingly, it also matches what Earl Holdren ("Fishing Fabulous Finger Lakes Trout") says about peak feeding times! So the lakers are animals after all, and the old wisdom about fishing by the moon appears to be right. (At least in my experience, I spent some time going over my logs, there is a pretty decent correlation there.)
However, the current weather conditions can be more important! Can't forget to mention this. The moon plays a distant role, but the current weather is what we (and the fish) experience. I keep the moon phases in mind but rarely decide when to fish because of them... that said, after the past two full-August-moon jigged browns, I'm a firm believer in this stuff, and you can bet my bottom dollar I'll be jigging away next August! (Don't get too excited, my bottom dollar is also my top dollar.)
The water temperature was still 60 degrees on top. Lots of boat traffic, especially around the point! Hope somebody had luck fishing. I saw sailboats at the South end, and plenty of pleasure-boaters. Everyone was taking advantage of the great day! Just amazingly beatiful, that's all I can really say. Cayuga Tributaries 10/5,6.Updated 10/7. I give in. I have to share the good news somewhere! A few, very few, fish have moved into the creeks. In the two days since the rain I've done a lot of exploring and fishing. Most of the handful of fish I saw were less than 12". All were sub-legal by far. That rain was barely enough to get water moving, we've gotten less than I hoped for recently. With good weather until late next week it doesn't look promising. The next rain should start the run in earnest!
Landed one small brown and played with a larger one. I had good luck swinging this fly, a sort-of spey I made up (I think). I had a first, too. One small fish came blasting out of the water after my fly! Great stuff. Where there was high water there was a fish or two, but I don't think things are looking good for the weekend or early next week. For 10 hrs fishing, seeing less than half a dozen fish, most of them tiny, isn't very exciting, but it shows promise for the rest of the season.
A word on trib reports: Tough call! The web versus fishing is always a fine line, and with small creeks the line nearly disappears. Some folks feel ANY information is bad. I don't, but I won't be posting as specific information as on the lakes. I want to give the fish and fishermen a fair chance! If there are fish biting somewhere, that should be good enough. That said, you can be sure that what information I do post will be accurate! The post above is a good example- no BS. Very few small fish around in low, falling water- but it seems like the trout are ready, we just need some decent rain. Cayuga TuesdaySpent an hour looking for lakers, still a tough bite given the number of fish around. I landed one before a thunderstorm rolled in. After it cleared, I rigged up some crayfish and went looking for Drum. I am going to catch one near Taughannock! It might take a year or two, but I'm gonna. I know how to catch them at Milliken, but not around the park. Well, nice morning out though the fishing was slow. DEC is doing the laker netting project off the park too. Sorry for the late report again, I'm slipping. Guess I was a little early on the 'lighter schedule'. Should be fishing Keuka this weekend! Fish on, everyone. Perfect Fall Day!And I'm not fishing. Nicest day in several weeks and I'll be in the car for nine hours. I'm dying! Help, man needs fishing fix! Save our ship, save our souls I'm going down... on a positive note, the weather looks decent this week and the schedule is lighter. A lot of free time has gone towards my brother's teepee project. Yesterday (Sunday) was the raising. My contribution was mostly the stone pad, a 24' circle. I just tried to put a few pics in the photo section of the construction but will not have time to finish, coming later. My back and fishing addiction are glad it's up! Cayuga Tribs Report 9/29A good cold front came through and dumped an awful lot of rain to the East of us. Local streams did not come up hardly at all. Looked around both last night and this morning and didn't see anything. Rocks. The bigger streams were still pretty clear! Bad storm! Not enough rain to do much, and it's been pretty warm recently. Frost warning tonight and cooler temps coming, along with more rain (but probably less of it) will help. I know it's on the early side but I was hoping an outlier or two would be around. Fished a total of four hours. It's been raining all summer I hope it doesn't stop now. I'll try a trip to the North Country again next week, I know fish are everywhere off Lake Ontario. Whoops, Owasco 9/26 PMFirst time ever on Owasco, it's pretty nice! So far all the Finger Lakes I've been on have been great. Went fishing with 'outdoorsman' this afternoon and we did well. The lakers weren't super-aggressive but we ended up with about a dozen lakers. Most active deep, 90-100 or so, but that changes daily with the water movement. I've heard of shallower action too.
Anyway, flukes, tubes, and spoons all caught fish, we did some experimenting! Fairly stiff North wind meant tough boat control but no problem with waves. We launched at Emerson Park at the North end and went south until we found deep water. Looking at a map of the lake, I see some perhaps better spots than we fished, but still a successful outing on a nice fall afternoon. Sorry I forgot to post a report until now (9/29). Good luck everyone! Taughannock 9/26 AMI planned on drifting egg sacs today, as the jigs have been turning off. Stopped at two bait shops and no sacs! So I headed out baitless, with jigs in hand. Great things happened anyway!
I caught two lakers, but the best part is, one was an 8 lb female! Egg city! Just finished rinsing them and they are currently in a salt bath. Fish for dinner and lots of eggs, a successful fishing expedition. Still fairly tight in the skein, though mature. Not tight enough to fish as skein I don't think, luckily I just picked up some mesh for sacs.
Found fish from 75-95, though the deeper waters had more of a concentration of lakers. They still weren't particularly interested in feeding, lots of disinterested action on the TV. The female was a chaser! Got her on the retrieve close to the surface. Also missed a non-laker near-surface bump, that was a little frustrating but it didn't feel big. Not my fault, just a tap. Well, decent enough fishing this morning, that is, tough fishing but what I caught made me happy! Headed out this afternoon, the wind will dictate where I'm going... good luck. Taughannock 9/22Skunked. No action whatsoever. I've been skunked this year, but those times I at least missed a few hits. Today, I had leprosy and the lakers scattered at the fall of the jig. Spawning season! I didn't get a chance to explore due to the wind, so I stayed off the park. Lakers everywhere, bait too, but they were OFF. I had fun anyway, it's been a good week, even if I haven't been catching much. Not a whole lot to say about it- spawning time!
Looks like the weekend is a blowout, I may make it out Saturday afternoon but here comes the rain again... we have been setting rain records left and right around here this year. Good luck everyone, I'd suggest trying to fish somewhere other than Cayuga Lake, at least if you're interested in lakers. Sacs off the wall is always an option this time of year. Salmon River 9/21Just a short report for now, I spent a great afternoon on the River today. Lots of fish are currently running! I didn't see the hot action, I intentionally fished upstream from the biggest crowds and run of salmon, but had a lot of fun anyway- I had some non-trout action to keep me busy. Should be a good weekend up there, I may try again Monday. I know the SR and a hermit shouldn't get along, but I'd like to catch a few fish out of there just to say I've done it, then concentrate some effort on smaller water. I'll fill this report in some when I've more time. Taughannock 9/20It took all morning to duplicate the last catch. Very dark, flat calm to rollers today. Lots and lots of bait around, hugging bottom. So were the lakers! I couldn't budge them at all. Once I raised a fish five feet off bottom, the rest I was lucky to interest in the slightest.
Unfortunately I tied a bad knot and lost a lure, I hope it doesn't mean a lost laker. Well, I was pleased enough with the morning given the conditions! Once the wind hit, it got messy in a hurry out there. My kind of morning, though! I love fall- the pleasure boaters and fair-weather fishermen are gone, leaving a handful of us on the lake. Not to knock you all, enjoy your time out, I'm just much more at peace in the emptiness. Ah, it felt good to hold a rod again! Nice cool temps this week should be a boon to the LO and Erie tribs.
And a Crayfish Tank update- they are all alive and well! I haven't had the chance to use them as bait, but they make fairly entertaining pets. If you're into the nocturnal, skittish kind. The biggest surprise is they haven't eaten each other yet! I'd rather use them as bait... I'll be out after drum again, time is wasting and the water's cooling. Though I still had 63-64 on top today. Good luck all! Back at Taughannock, 9/18Made it out briefly on this fine morning, and had good action while I could fish- I had to go during the hot bite! As soon as the sun cleared the very small cloud on the horizon, I was in business. Only fished 7:00 to 8:45. Brought 4 up legally, dropped one boatside, and belly-hooked another. Tried the spoons, and snagged a laker. Yikes! Put the jig back on.
There's a particular group of unfriendly guys (save one good fella) that religiously uses spoons on Cayuga, and I wonder how they do most of the year. Fall they do well, in fact they have a 'secret' they are unwilling to share that enables them to boat 10X as many fish as the rest of us... the other 10 months out of the year I don't think the spoons work very well. Do they add scent? I've a few tricks up my sleeve I'm going to try. I don't like fishing those trebles, though, they can really mess up a laker's mouth. Please cut one barb off! You may miss one or two fish, but it's so worth it, and in my experience the 'miss factor' is negligible. Speaking of tricks... I don't share all of mine! Most of the catching of these lakers is in 'the jig', or how you make your lure irresistible... EXPERIMENT!! It will get you everywhere.
It was great to be out, even for the short minutes I had. It's been a rough few weeks, and I've only been able to fish 1/10th as much as I want and 1/4 the amount I usually do. Man oh man I hope I can get my head screwed on straight. It ain't easy being crazy. Hello Rain!It's good and bad of course! It may keep me off the water, but at the same time is a good sign for the tributary runs, especially the big-water Lake Ontario and Erie tribs. There have been a few reports of fish in both systems, and this rain should spur a good run. Lake Ontario especially, today's "At The Oak" (www.attheoak.net) notes the cold water is back in close, and so are the trout and salmon! Throw in a good inch or hopefully more of rain and the fish should start hitting the rivers and creeks in earnest. So far planning for Thursday for my first trip. I'm really looking forward to picking up a fly rod again! Steelhead and Browns are the main goal, any kings I get a hook into better not be green. I'm hoping an trip early in the season will help with that, last fall I didn't head up until late, and all the salmon were the living dead. Of course I'm daydreaming of the local Cayuga Lake tribs too... fall fishing can' be beat! No Salvation For Me!Put ten more lakers in the boat today, but no beasts. Up to and including 29", but nothing to bring to the scales. The day started tough with an accident! A fawn ran out in front of the truck, and I ran it down and dragged it down the road. Not very pleasant. After taking care of this, the gas station I tried to go to was closed. Hmmm, not the best start to the day. Finally made it out on the water around 7:15. Couple of grumpy guys at the launch didn't like the way I pulled in- what? Slowly? I said 'good morning' and they gave me beef. These old farts completed the morning. It'd be nice to think their generation would be the last of the don't-speak-to-me fishermen, but I doubt it.
Still, when I got on the water, things improved. I started catching lakers right away, from 7:30 until 12:00 or so. East was best for me, and most fish were 85-90 down. By ten AM the wind was kicking pretty good and the fishing slowed, or maybe I just had trouble fishing. Overall, nineteen lake trout came aboard this weekend, and most were at least six pounds. Two dinks, and several dropped at the boat. At no time did I find aggressive fish, worked hard for every one. A couple of interesting things did happen, however. Try to figure this one out- hooked, and was playing a fish when my line snapped. I still landed the fish! A dozen jigs to whoever gets it right ;) I also thought of a small but significant change in gear, this resulted in (I think) a better bite-to-boat ratio.
Overall, decent fishing, but a little uncomfortable out there. Bumpy and breezy. Fall's here! (Not to mention the frost warnings just north of here...) However, I'm left with an empty wallet, a broken headlight, and a broken trolling motor. I suppose it could have gone the other way, too, and I'd be singing Hallelujah instead of the blues, but this weekend was just not meant to be. I think I much prefer non-competitive fishing.
And another congratulations to Mike "copperliner" who was leading the board the last I heard! At least one small-boat jigger made it pay off this weekend! Until next time- good luck out there. Salvation, Day OneThe bite was tough, but I slowly managed, picking away at lakers all day. Had a little pre-dawn action, but nothing in the boat. Then, zip for nearly three hours! It was about 9:00 when I finally got one in and eight more followed over the course of the day. Dropped two boatside, and missed countless hits. Definitely ripped a few lips, I felt them go. Very unaggressive fish all day long! I was barely getting the hook in. I wonder if the full moon had them feeding all night- it was big and bright!
80-100 fow held fish. East side was a little shallower. I did a big circle, more or less, from Taughannock to Rocky Dock to Millican, South, and Flatrock. Nothing was particularly spectacular. Actually, the biggest problem I had was bait. First time ever I've wished it would go away! Just bucketfuls of bait stacked everywhere, from 60 out to 110+ at times. Probably shallower too, but I didn't look.
I put back a pretty fat 28" fish, and I hope that wasn't a bad idea. Most were 6-8 lbs. I do have an excuse for everything, of course! This morning I didn't make it out of the marina before the trolling motor broke. I used it to back into an empty slip, and as I did, it groaned, grunted, and gave up the ghost. Fried dead. All sounds came from the motor itself, so I'm not optimistic, though it should be covered under warantee. I had some serious boat-control issues today as a result, and it was pretty breezy. Maybe I'm just not cut out for derby fishing! Something always seems to go wrong. Well, I'm trying not to care too much. Just fishin'! Using the big motor all day, I was running low on gas by 2:00 and had to pack it in. Considered getting more and heading back out, but thunderstorms were in the area and roiling up the lake. I'm still thinking about it! Bed beckons, however, and tomorrow... I believe it's another day. Pre-Derby ReportSigned up for the Salvation Army Derby. Thankfully getting to fish it, I'm really looking forward to getting back out there! This has been a tough week full of uncertainty, but whew, the green light is on.
Unfortunately I haven't been fishing since Sunday; I went and drove by the park yesterday while it was still too windy. However, I don't think things will have changed much! Last few times I was out there were lakers all over the place! The bottom was littered with lakers. Only problem was, they weren't too aggressive... hopefully that'll change this weekend! 75-100 on the entire SW and SE shoreline was loaded with fish. Find bait, and you should be near some active lakers. Even a small bait pod can be enough to excite the fish.
Derby starts at midnight... go get them fellas! Crayfish Tank ReportI spent some time setting up crayfish tanks. Three small ones each have 3-4 crayfish at the moment. I have another much bigger one that I'm working on still- it had a big crack in it. I'm not filling any of them up with too much water, but the crack is in a bottom corner.
Following some internet advice, I cut up a piece of 3" PVC pipe to make little huts with. Next step will be to glue gravel over the outside, this will make it all look a lot nicer and keep the huts weighted down. These crayfish are moving everything around at the moment! Most are exploring, I think, they go in and out but haven't stayed long. I still have improvements to make, but the goal is to get everyone into the big tank. I've only got one filter and bubbler.
If they fight much I'll have a problem! It can be a hazard of pet crayfish. I plan on making the tank very nice and homey, so hopefully they'll be happy enough not to fight too much. Right now they're too freaked out. Current sizes range from 1 1/2 inches to 3" or more. If it all works out and babies appear, that would be cool. I don't think they're too hard to take care of. Maybe disease? We'll just see how the project goes! I'll put up a picture of the finished tank when I get it done. This will be an interesting experiment, I've kept fish, had terrariums and salamanders, but no crayfish before. Should be fun!
p.s: report below is actually from Sunday, 9/3. Taughannock 9/2Fished lakers for an hour and a half. They were hitting around 11 AM when I got out, but not hard and I had a tough time sticking them. Three got off boatside, I think I was barely getting the hook in. Picked up five then went looking for drum!
This was not as easy. I know where most fish for them, which is where I caught the last one, but I'm trying to locate them near Taughannock Park. So far I haven't been successful! I know they're around. A few smallmouth, medium-small, and a pair of rock bass too. Looked in many spots from 8-40 fow with zippo. At one point I hooked into something BIG and leaden. It came up, but very slowly! I was getting worried I'd hooked into a body or something. Luckily it just turned out to be a big mess of line, sticks, mussels, and weeds. Took it home so nobody else would have the same experience!
Overall a decent day, I thought of hitting up the lake trout again but figured I'd get started on my crayfish tank instead. I'm making it easier on myself by keeping crayfish. Maybe they'll even reproduce! Pre-Frontal FunThis afternoon I hit the lake before Ernesto rolls through. Good fishing as the afternoon wore on. I wish this system would push off East but with widespread rain in central PA and an ugly (but beautiful!) satellite picture, I've finally given up hope of that.
Anyway, I started by the park. Experimented for a while with some bottom hugging lakers but couldn't get any of them to hit. Crossed the lake and found a few small pockets of hungry fish. Interesting thing today was, the best fishing was above the bait! I'd find a school of bait down 70 over 80. Move shallower, until the bait hit the lake bottom. Keep going until the bait school disappears into the bottom. Drop. Once I figured this out I picked up four lakers in 65-70 fow.
Soon enough the bait moved out and I did too. Crossed the lake again in hopes of some West side action. Found a very small pocket of bait that was surrounded by hungry fish! Brought five up from the depths in short order. Good fishing but I had to keep moving. Much better fishing once the wind picked up! All in all a much better afternoon than I expected. I'm not used to afternoon fishing and am generally pessimistic, but it paid off today!
Hold on to your hats and hope Ernesto doesn't mess up the lake too bad! It's still high from last weekend's rain. I'm more concerned about the wind though, it'll blow hard from the SE. Sunday morning may be an excellent time to fish the South end if it's not too windy. Here's hoping. Good luck this weekend folks! Taughannock 8/31Out at dawn today, a gorgeous morning after the past five days! Tough fishing conditions, with little bait in sight and uncooperative fish. We talked to some trollers who said they marked "hundreds of fish" but could only get a few to go. My electronics aren't good enough to mark more than a dozen or two, but that gives the picture! It seems like it slowly picked up as the morning went on, though that's not saying a whole lot. Total of 7 lakers in the boat today, four of them mine. Bob had the others.
I see the NWS has bumped the chance of rain up to 90% Saturday! Looks like Ernesto is coming through anyway. I'm still holding out hope it slides East, but "confidence is building" and models show "a rock solid trend" of this system passing directly over the Finger Lakes. It appears this High that's been giving us North winds will ease over New England and guide Ernesto Westward. It's certainly impressive looking on the water vapor images! Cross your finger for the weather... good luck all! And a Bit BumpyWent to look at the lake, I wanted to fish, but it's definitely a bit rough for me. Glad I left the boat at home and just did the drive-by. Strong North breeze with 2' rollers and some whitcaps. It'd be doable, but unpleasant. Saw one unfortunate fellow being towed in, tough day to break down out there. Wet Weather!Rain, rain, and more rain. The forecast finally calls for sun this afternoon and tomorrow! I should have stayed out longer on Monday- I went out briefly and caught one lake trout. Maybe a little later today, certainly by tomorrow though!
Anyway, we have now set a record for rain. 19.09 official inches through June, July, and August. That's a lot! My own opinions on Ernesto are that it will not impact the area this weekend. The system should stay on the coast and we'll remain dry... hopefully this isn't just wishful thinking! Good luck if you're heading out. A Banner Day... I did it at last!Got my Drum! A fantastic fishing day today. Started early in the rain with lake trout, landed six, from 75-85 fow along the SW shoreline. Fairly aggressive fish though they didn't want to move very far.
Then I broke out the crayfish and went looking for sheepshead. Found the smallies instead, caught 4 from 5" to 17". Throw in a few medium sized perch and most of the crayfish were gone! Well, it wasn't going all that well so I went back to the lakers. Caught two more, then saw and chatted with John. Went back to the drum and I hear John yelling shortly, I see he's got a big fish on. So I go over and take a few pics. That's his story though. :) He gives me a good drum tip, Bob shows up, and I fish and BS with him for a while. Social days recently, I gotta get back to lonesome fishing for a while! I fish to quietly enjoy nature. Anyway, I catch one more laker then it's off to the sheephead.
This time I barely drop the crayfish overboard when I see a big carp swimming around the boat. I let the boat drift aways, then start bumping that crayfish along the bottom. I dropped no more than three times before I got hit. Bump. Bump. Bump. Stop... and set! Fish on! Sure enough that big carp grabbed the crab. I play it for a while, nice digging runs (which don't seem very carplike to me) and get it up top a few times. Nice big orange beast! I'm thinking 15 lbs or so in my head. FINALLY bring it to net, and as I scoop it in, my jaw drops and I flip out- giant orange drum! Wahoo! I did it at last! Thankfully John is still around, so he takes a few pics of me this time, and I released the fish.
Wow, what a fight! This drum fought like an 11 pound carp/smallmouth cross, unreal. And unreal how orange it was, too, the only other one I've caught was slate silvery grey. I truly thought it was a big carp! On one hand I wished it were a little smaller, I want to eat one. Reason for the release? Old age! A drum that size is most likely older than I am, and many of you too. They grow slowly and can reach wise old years.
So, success at last! One final note- fifteen pounds is what I thought when it was a carp. I can't even begin to estimate the real weight of this drum- 100% certain it was more than 10 lbs, 80% certain it was 12 or more, and, say, 10% likely it was actually 15 lbs. I was too darn excited to pay much attention! Didn't even hold it up to the ruler. I do know it was the biggest fish I've caught this year, except that big (actual) carp. That should make it 12+ for sure. Whatever... a beauty! I'll have to see how those pictures turn out for a better guess. John, thanks for the help with this one! Bottom line- banner day! Halfway There, 8/23Another good day! Cracked the halfway mark on the ton-o-meter, time is running out! Went out with Bob and it was interesting. No early bite. Strange winds. Fish out of temp. Excellent fishing!
We put a dozen fish in the boat with several lost. Several nice 9 lb+ and many 6-7. Bob got one around 3 lbs. Lots of bait, some absolutely massive schools, and we barely caught fish under it. Most of the time the bait was all the way down, which made fishing under it hard! I'd find a school 40-80 down over 80. Move to 85, have a blank screen, and we'd catch a fish or two. Sometimes I'd see bait down 95, too, so I don't know what was up with the temps.
I'd love to write more about these two days, but I'm pretty beat... good luck all! Good Taughannock Day, 8/22Good news! I just saved a bunch of money... no wait, that's an ad. The fishing seems to be picking up. Went out early this morning with the Texan. :) We put about 10 fish in the boat, if you count the two I lost boatside it makes an even dozen. Bite died by late morning but before that it was steady. Not hot and heavy, but a far sight better than I've experienced recently.
All fish were solid lakers, 6-9 lbs, and Dre dropped the biggest fish. This one hit and ran, peeling line off his reel with the drag screaming! Must've been a good 10 pounds minimum, unfortunately got off after a minute or so. A few chubby females but mostly males, we kept a two person limit. The wind did interesting things, I saw it blow hard from the SE, S, SW, NW, N, NE, and lastly a straight East wind. It was also calm late morning. Some whitecaps and a bit bumpy made it tougher, but most of the time could keep the boat somewhat in control. Anyway, looks like the great fall fishing is starting up, it should get better from here... go get 'em guys! Electrical FixOkay! Got the fishfinder working again. I didn't fry it by hooking up the battery wrong, there was just a bad wire in the mix. Got things worked out, I hope, and will be out tomorrow... (Tuesday) Sat. 8/19 DrizzleWhoooo, I should stay home for a while. Very dark morning, I thought I'd fish right around Taughannock since I know the structure. I THINK I fished 80-110 feet of water or so, though I may have drifted shallower and deeper.
One very light tap, one healthy grab, and no hookups. The healthy grab came back with a scale on it, which means it may have been a snagged fish, but it felt more like the laker just grabbed the head of the jig. SO this morning I failed to even get a fish on, let alone in the boat. I'm not entirely sure what to do about the fishfinder situation. I'll figure something out soon, because I'd think the fishing will be getting good! Gotta look up from here 8/16-17Yesterday (wed) was so bad it doesn't deserve a report. I landed one fish and broke several things, including the fishfinder. Just an all around horrible day. Moving on...
Thursday AM I get the brakes unstuck. Put the oil in the gas and drive to the park. It's around 8 and I know I'm late, but after yesterday ANYTHING is going to be better! So I mess around out there, unfortunately I was fishing blind without the FF. Landed one 4-5 lb fish somewhere near Milliken. Hard to tell where the bottom is, let alone the bait and fish... this is a setback to be sure. The bite could have been HOT and I didn't know it. Lots of boats trolling, didn't see any jiggers to bum depths off of. Like the title says, it's got to get better from here! I'm saving the 'good luck' thoughts for myself this time, but will at least wish you all happy fishing! Hemlock Bassin'Went out looking for bass with a new fishing buddy. I've never fished Hemlock so it was quite a treat! What scenery! No houses, just trees, water, birds, deer, fish, etc... and no cigarette boats tearing up the lake! I can't say I'm a good bass fisherman, but Dre grew up in Texas bass fishing so he had a few tricks to show me. Anytime I catch anything is good for me!
Pow, right off the bat I nailed a decent largemouth on a spinnerbait, 2 lbs or so. Twenty minutes later I caught a 10-11" pickerel on a Silver Minnow! That was pretty funny. Unfortunately I missed the next two strikes I had, then that was it for a while. Around 11 AM I got a small smallmouth on a fluke. Dre got a few nice largemouth too. That is one clear lake! Not crystal, but much clearer than most Finger Lakes.
Close encounters with nature: Bald Eagles! We saw an immature eagle, and an adult. The adult was fishing too and we got in close and watched it tear into the fish it'd caught. I got a few pics, but wildlife photography from a drifting boat (when unprepared!) is pretty difficult. I'll put some photos up in the 'feather' section. What a day!! The catching is definitely secondary to the experience over there! (we still caught fish too!) Happy fishing all... Sleepless SaturdayFriday I went out for the first time in, well, since I can remember! Some old old friends were back in town and one threw a BBQ. Had fun, and one of the highlights was the Persiad (sp?) meteor shower. I saw one of the biggest, brightest meteors I've ever seen... anyway, good times, and I stayed up waaayy too late! Actually by the time 3:00 AM rolled around I figured I'd better stay up if I wanted to fish. So I did.
Launched at Taughannock before dawn, spent some time working my way up the lake, and finally came across more bait than I've seen in weeks! Immediately I had some action as I snagged a sawbelly. Next I snagged a laker in the tail! Jeesh, I thought it was a beast! Battled the darn thing for ten minutes or more. Got it in close... and finally the hook slipped out and I had a boatside release. By this time it was 9 AM and I was becoming quite delirious, so I headed in! What with the moon up all night it was probably a 'later-is-better' day, I saw a few folks I know out, hope they did better. Just a thought...Last year mid-August and beyond was a hot time for lakers. This year the moon is on a different cyle- it's either a week behind or three weeks ahead of last year. I also have been thinking lake trout are photoperiod sensitive- they don't have many cues down there! So, when the nights get longer, they start preparing to spawn. However, we are currently under a bright moon- I say as soon as the moon hits the next quarter and heads toward new, the lakers will begin to move (and feed!). The days are getting shorter... looking forward to fall! Taughannock 8/9Good morning on the water! I snuck out between 8:00 AM and 10:30 AM today. Had a lot to do but I couldn't resist. Good thing! Did okay on the lakers, going 4 for 4. A couple of eight pounders and a couple of five pounders. I didn't see ANY bait, so I just drifted the West shore, fishing the empty screen. It takes faith!
I said it last year, and I'll say it again- I'm a firm believer in the moon. Full moon today, and lo and behold... I jigged a brown! Not quite as large as last year's beast, but a solid 4 lbs and change. Hooray for the August full moon! It was a full moon in August the last time I jigged up a brown. This one was in the general neighborhood of Kingtown Beach. I had a suspended mark interested for a while, and even got tagged three times on one retrieve- couldn't hook the fish! I was wondering what the heck a laker was doing 15-20 feet down, but they often come up out of temp. About 15 minutes later, whack! Fish on! Bring it up near the boat and it starts jumping... not a laker! Makes the trip worth it- now I have to deal with the consequences of fishing when I shouldn't... ;)
All the lakers (and brown) came from 80 fow. Didn't mark but one or two of them- the lakers were holding tight to bottom. Looking forward to the pre-spawn bite, too, I checked my diary and August 11 last year was the first really good day in the Taughannock area- fish should be showing up soon. 1000 Islands 8/5, 8/6Great weekend up here! Chris and I managed to do a little fishing this time, too. Saturday we tried fishing Russo Bay and the Grossman Point, then slid across to another point/bay combo that I forget the name of. We fished 9 to 1 without getting much going on except perch. Chris landed a huge sunny and several big fat 1 lb perch. I got a few perch too but was fishing larger lures in hopes of some pike. No go there! We had a little action but nothing we were hoping for.
Sunday morning we got up bright and early and hit the water at 10. These aren't my prime fishing times! Clear sunny skies made for hot days on the water, and didn't help the fishing much. It was still a much better day! We drifted from Tower Island toward the channel, anchoring up off of Blank Island (not really the name, but I can't remember them all!) and started catching bass. I'd switched from pike lures to crayfish, playing the odds in my favor- I wanted to catch something!
Good success, we spent a few hours in that spot and caught a handful of nice smallmouth bass around lunchtime. They were in deep water, 25-35 feet. A strong current made things a little tougher, I'm not used to fishing rivers! Afterwards we went and checked out the Clayton Antique Boat Show. Some pretty nifty stuff! Old wooden cigarette boats were the main attraction. They did have a wooden hydroplane (not in the water) capable of 152 mph! This thing looked like no boat I've ever seen- wide and flat, with a big wing nose. By then we had had enough of the sun and called it an afternoon. Good fishing! I was pleasantly surprised given the conditions and recent cold front passage. Good luck all! 8/2 SheldrakeWent out with my brother yesterday evening. Looking for lakers in hot and sweaty conditions! I dumped in at Sheldrake and scooted around to Wyers to pick him up. We went looking in 70-90 fow, I found us a few fish but they were not being aggressive. A bunch of missed hits and short strikes characterized the day! Glassy calm and hazy, it was swimming weather, not fishing weather, so we did a bit of both.
Looks like it's back to the Thousand Islands this weekend, hopefully I can get some fishing done this time! Sunday Evening...Okay, I give in. Try as I might to avoid the weekends I still have powerful fishing urges. If only the weather were a little worse ;) Went out around 4:30 today. More madness at the ramp! Trailers parked all over the grass, etc. Got myself into some 'empty' waters at times, but somehow... pleasure craft ruled the waves. I think my favorite was getting double-teamed by a ~25'er and a 30'er, one passing on each side simultaneously at maybe 50 feet while I was sitting. I loved that!! I did get to see 'physics in action', as the wakes combined right where I was. Flat. Four footers! Flat. Four footers! Flat... Four footers! The ironic thing was, both boats waved at me... how about, keep your bloody distance?!?
Fishing was okay, for lakers, I missed one, dropped one, landed one. Was really waiting for the sheepshead fishing area to clear out. Eventually headed there and spent the next few hours before sunset dragging sawbellies around on the bottom. No drum! I'm a terrible bait fisherman. Drum-dateBeen meaning to let you all know the results of my freshwater drum quest so far. I've given up on the fly-rod! Before I started targeting them I had seen a few in relatively shallow water. Now that water is maybe a touch too warm? Regardless, they haven't been in those spots. I've done a little fishing for them with plastics, but I think I need to go with the old-fashioned bait around here! I've poked around Taughannock and Milliken without any luck, though I did have a bump from a possible drum. I'm trying here and there and will be giving it another serious go shortly. Taughannock 7/29Beautiful morning out, breeze built out of the South before dying off toward lunchtime. Landed half a dozen lakers between 7:30-ish and 10-ish. 70-80 fow worked for me! Lake trout were not around in numbers but there was steady picking. Some bait, no huge pods. My best bait was 60 down over 76. Interestingly I didn't catch any fish while in the bait pods, but fish must have just been in the area. Had to cajole a few lakers into biting!
Again, just a great morning weather wise! Beats the rain yesterday- but once again, there is a fair amount of crud in the water. The wind helped get rid of some of it, but there are a few trees floating around out there... be careful and happy fishing! Wet wet wet!Wowee what a rain this morning! I think I got several inches. It spoiled my fishing plans, I didn't care for a repeat of last Saturday's drenching. I'm hoping to try tomorrow. The lake has been high for a while now, guess it won't be going down anytime soon. Hope somebody's been fishing! Poking Around 7/25Went out for an hour this morning around Taughannock. Bit breezy, kept me in the immediate area. Mostly went for a look-see this morning, cruising, looking for bait, structure, and a few other species of fish including the lakers. The 'bit breezy' turned into three foot rollers by the time I was done, so I didn't really go far. Today I saw bait sitting on bottom in 150 feet of water, that was about the most interesting thing... Warm and Wet 7/22Woweee... did I get rained on this morning! The forecast was for heavy rain this afternoon, and the radar I saw at 5:00 AM looked ok- a shower or two moving in, with the heavy stuff a few hours back. I think the system moved a little faster! Landed one laker amidst the rain and occasional lightning.
This brings up something I've been noticing for a while. The fine meteorologists at NOAA do a great job; but they have a tendency to compromise. Different climate model runs indicate different solutions, and often the forecast is a combination of the models. From what I've been noticing, one of the models is usually closer to what actually happens than the combo, though of course it's hard to pick which in advance. So the compromise forecast makes sense, but in a situation like this, the rain moved in much earlier than was anticipated. Often a good study of the radar and satellite can provide a more real-time forecast... that is, I should go with my hunches more often!
Anyway, I met a cool dude out there and we kind of fished in the rain together, made it a little more interesting! He did a little better than I and landed two. I missed one hit and dropped one fish too. The lake is quite warm on top- high seventies- and from what I've been seeing on the FF, it's pretty warm down deep as well. Good luck all! Skunked. 7/21Nothing doing this morning! Must've been a punishment for being grumpy the other day. Tough conditions and I scored a big fat zero. Looked from shallow, 40 feet, out to 130 and didn't get anything going on. Some spots were missing bait and trout, some spots were loaded with bait! Earl Holdren claimed that under these conditions the bite was better at lunchtime and the evening- I couldn't fish all day to test it, but wow, it couldn't have been any worse! Hoping tomorrow is a better day... Taughannock Overnight 7-18/19Ah... I found the fish again- same places I had left them! I don't know what my problem was the other day... I must have been too late. So, lakers are still around! Boated seven and lost several. Good sized 26"-29" fish! Honestly though I'm getting a little bored with all these lake trout... so I've been after other things as well.
Went to the park EARLY, I arrived around 12:30 AM. Fished bait for an hour and half, then launched and motored up to Milliken Station in search of those freshwater drum. No hits for me... there was bait everywhere and marks too, but none of them wanted my sawbelly! Around 5:15 AM I picked up the fly rod and cast for bass and the carp that were around... nope. Only did this for a half hour, then I went laker fishing until nine.
Lakers were almost all in 72 fow today. Fished several locations on the west side and did well with 3/4 and 1 oz jigs, white and green. I saw a few other boats out, but not many... a far cry from the other evening when I went out! (non-fishing-trip) Man I love these calm, quiet, peaceful mornings!
Unfortunately it got interrupted at the very end- I left 20 minutes too late- as a boat pulled up about 40 feet away from me and started fishing. Now, I don't know what proper 'boatiquette' is, but by golly I leave someone a LOT more than 40 feet of room on an empty lake. I know I post semi-regularly about folks invading my fishing space- sorry, all- but it's my biggest pet peeve, or worst phobia, but really! This is why I fish the lake in the first place... for peace and quiet, a mostly calm communing with nature. (Except, of course, those moments of 'fish on!') And I don't think I own the lake, or the fish within it, but if I'm 'parked' or drifting, I do expect a reasonable space. It's a big lake, and the trout are along most of the shoreline. That all said, forgive and forget, it beats a weekend any day! Good luck fellas, I hope you picked up where I left off!
So, lakers are around but not quite as easy picking- a lot of bait has finished spawning and moved back into the depths, and many lakers followed. That said, fish can still be found under the thermocline on shore structure... good luck all! Taughannock 7/17Left the park a little late, 6:30. Fished a bit in the area, nothing going on, but a fair amount of bait. Lake trout are mysteriously missing, for me... stopped at a few spots on both the West and East side but couldn't get much going on. Picked up two lakers, dropped one boatside, not very big. Never found a concentration of fish.
I'm not sure if it was the timing- bright early, and I was late, or if I was looking in the wrong spots! Probably both. Some definate fish-holding areas didn't have much around by 8-9 AM. Hm, I'm not sure what's going on. Lost touch with the lake! Also HOT by the time I left at 10:00, can't imagine what this afternoon will be like... good fishing everyone. Deposit and WaltonWent to Deposit this past weekend. Brought the fishing gear, but didn't end up fishing. It's sad down there. Deposit looked bad, though cleanup was in progress and the river down and clearing. Walton, on the other hand, looked awful. Most of the businesses in town are closed and empty. Many will not reopen, in either town.
There were a few guys fishing over the weekend, but I didn't talk to anyone. Somehow I felt it would be disrespectful, both to the people and to the trout. I'm sure the trout are in better shape! After all, their home got bigger and wetter and invaded ours... consider a drought the same sort of invasion on the fish as a flood is to us. Anyway, interesting weekend out there. I hope the area can recover...
It's going to be unbelievably hot tomorrow- that's Monday, and I think I just may hit the lake early. Long Rod Friday, 7/14/06Hit Taughannock early this morning. Needed a break from lake trout! I brought the fly rod and went looking for drum and bass. Great morning, it was glassy at first but quickly built a SE breeze. The dawn glass didn't help the fishing in close, though.
Landed one good sized smallmouth, 17.5", one smaller one 12" and a perch. The bass came on woolly buggers. Good news! Had a follow from a drum! The bass are incidental; I'm really looking for the sheephead... I'm working on catching one of them on the fly. There aren't huge numbers in Cayuga, which makes it tougher, but I'll keep trying!
After fishing for an hour and a half or so I went and checked on the lakers near Taughannock. Results: tons of bait in the area, no lake trout. Bait was everywhere from the surface down 100 feet! Any lakers around were well fed. I didn't see any marks though. After a while I went back to the fly rod for an hour and did nothing there, too.
All told, a successful trip- had some action, and a follow from the drum... here's hoping I can hook up next time! Red Cross Final Report, 7/9Well, it was not to be this weekend. Between 5 AM Saturday and Noon Sunday, I put almost 30 lakers in the boat, but couldn't get the big ones to bite. Did lose the biggest fish in the trolling motor, I'm pretty sure it was a solid 11-12 pounds or more, I got it up top before the laker (smart!) pulls an "under the boat and around the motor", breaking the line. What can you do? I kept hoping for another one.
It's obvious to me I'm still learning- I made several mistakes and was slightly underprepared at one point. Not to mention terrible truck luck! Brakes went on the way to prefishing Friday, Saturday evening I return to a flat tire at the ramp. Yow! Talk about adding unneeded stress! Partly as a result of all this- very short on sleep- I called it quits at Noon today.
Bottom line... I'm satisfied, if not happy. I gave it a great shot and caught lots of fish. Several of them I should have weighed, especially once I figured out my scale was broken too! I don't really know what my problem is about keeping and weighing fish. I think I'm looking for that first-place-trophy-fish, and don't recognize the 'ordinary' big fish when I see them. This makes 3 derbies with only one fish kept! Oops. What's my beef?
Leading the pack (last report anyway) was Copperliner from LOU, super job bud! Great work! Many familiar faces, names, and boats out there, both on the water and on the leaderboard. Good luck to everyone who's still fishing! Red Cross Day 1...Short and sweet... landed 18-20 fish over the course of the day. Nothing fantastic- several fish were ALMOST keepers, and those several would have made the board as they were 9-10 lb fish. I'm fishing for first! Caught fish from Atwater to Dean's today, before dawn to just before sunset, most action mid-lake. No lake trout between 12-3. Catch a quick nap, back at it again... if you're fishing the derby, good luck! Short and Ugly, 7/8Tough fishing today. Bait and trout were hard to come by in their usual haunts. Tried Long Point, Sheldrake, in between with no results. Poplar Beach, Elm Beach, worked a lot of areas with nothing. Found pockets of small fish (<5 lbs) up past Dean's Cove, but nothing exciting. I'm still in search mode, and I lost the brakes on the truck.... hoping to be able to fish the derby at all!! I'll know later, and maybe even get back out to search more... Thousand Islands (re)portOkay... not the best luck with the boat (not mine) this week! Got up to the T.I. Tuesday evening, went out to watch fireworks and couldn't start it again. 10 miles from dock and stranded... we called the Coast Guard for a tow to the nearest town. Wednesday, we waited three hours for a tow that never came, despite three calls. Gave up. Thursday, we finally jump it in the morning, drive it back to the dock... went out later in the day in a tandem 'platypus' kayak instead.
Bottom line: No fishing, just relaxing and hiking. Too bad, but it's time to FISH HARD! Red Cross this weekend, pre-fishing tomorrow. I'll post those results, no fear... I don't keep fishing secrets. Good luck! Happy Fourth...Everyone enjoy the holiday! I'm heading to the Thousand Islands for a few days before coming back and fishing the Red Cross Derby. With luck there will be T.I. fishing reports coming up, but I'm not sure how much time on the water I can manage while there... have a safe, fun week and good luck! Dean's Cove, Cayuga, 7/1Took a chance on folks sleeping in this morning, it worked out fairly well. Not much traffic until nine or so. Fish weren't as cooperative as they have been, but I still did alright. A little choppy at first with the SE wind. I tried to get out of it by Long Point, but by that time it'd swung around to the SW! This meant two things- big rollers at Long Point, and the westerlies would turn the fish on back on the West side.
Did some experimenting and cruising around today, especially after the boat traffic picked up! Fish were pretty hot early in 70 FOW, then disappeared. To me, if I see a lot of bait and no fish, the thermocline must be doing something odd. Found them again in 50-60 in several spots. By the time the wind rolled around to the West the fish were moving in shallower and the fishing improving again.
Results of experiments: Figured out how to turn some chasers and lookers into biters! I've been deciding that the lakers are sometimes turned off by the lead jig head, and especially if they bite it! Solution? Drop-shotting for lake trout! Using the ear ball and a 18" leader I started catching fish again when it got tougher. Bingo! Bass fishermen know a lot of jigging tricks for finicky fish, I'm working on applying them to lake trout.
I wasn't really counting today, just experimenting, but I think I put 8 lakers in the boat. One nice 21" eater came home with me, all others including two 9-10 lb fish went back in the water. High breezes of the past few days are moving the bait and fish around, but they're still there! Good luck! To Make Up For Being Wrong, Dean's Cove, 6/29Excellent fishing! Despite a late start I managed to quickly find some fish. Seems like dawn to nine or ten is good, followed by a period of lackluster fishing- they're full! It steadily slowed as the day went on, though I did have takers all the way until 1:00 when I left. 65-75 fow with the usual jigs, white and green. Didn't check the East side today.
Nine more lake trout in the boat, one of them a beefy 32" and 10.4 pounds! This fish fought like heck and put a serious kink in my arm. All on the centerpin, too, I really have retired my spinning reel except for, well, casting! It's great fun but perhaps a little more tiring fighting the big ones.
Interestingly enough, I found the fish to be slightly shallower and more agressive in the muddy water than in the clear water. Lake trout were coming waaayy out of temp and up in the water column! I had one fish tag me three times on the way up before finally getting a solid take near the surface! Some of these fish fought great, some were sleepy logs, but all told.... an excellent day out. Good luck all! Wrong Call...I was wrong about up the lake, apparently the North end is OK, check the Finger Lakes Angling Zone for details! That's good and a lot different than what I found down here.
More details from my trip: Water temps were from 60-67, depending on which section of mud you were in. Streaky flows in the lake, wish I had a camera. Stopped by the park again tonight and it didn't look much better. Fall Creek is setting records for three straight days on water flow, peaking over 2,000 cfs earlier today. Wednesday Mud PitWow, I hope the North end of the lake looks better... I doubt it. Just unbelievable amounts of sticks, trees, garbage, and mud are in the lake. Total mudpie. I did see some very small bait pods in shallow -40 fow- but really that was it. One or two fish, bass most likely, working the surface in shallow.
Should be just enough time for it to get back into shape before the Red Cross Derby next weekend, barring any more unpleasant surprises! Wx report 6/27Still stuck between Bermuda High and Midwestern trough. Tropical moisture is abundant; the NWS is calling for another plume to pull in off the seaboard and enter our area tonight. Forecast: today, rain, scattered. Tonight, heavy rain back into the picture... When Will it Ever End? (II)Noah had the right call! Build them arks, call those animals two-by-two... it's RAINING! Worse yet are the projected strong S winds over the next day or two. Just like a month or two ago, lake settles down, fishing picks up, and BLAM! Here's a shot of wind and water for you! I got nearly three inches of rain... what a mess out there. I'm scared to go look at the lake! We'll see what happened... cross your fingers. Out of Taughannock Again, 6/25Good fishing again! The lake has finally settled down and a thermocline is in place. East side, fish were 50-65 feet down North of Milliken Station (AES Cayuga). On the West, down 75-90. Landed six, dropped one, missed a few hits. Smaller fish than recently, and harder to come by... not that I'm complaining! White flukes, albino alewife, and a 'jigging fly' I tied last night all took fish. Good short morning on the water... good luck all! Dean's Cove, Cayuga Lake, 6/23Went out of Dean's Cove in the early morning with Bob. We'd thought about the King Ferry area, where I'd fished last time, but a hot tip from John sent us up the lake a little. FLAT calm out there! We'd have done better with a little ripple, even, but a ripple was a rare sight today.
Still- fishing was good! We put more than a dozen fish in the boat, with countless short strikes and missed hits, way more than normal. I almost rigged a single trailer hook on, but couldn't find any! Woops... Anyway, I think the calm water didn't help at all- the fish could see everything perfectly clearly in the 40 fow we spent most time in. 3 to 9.8 lbs, Bob got the beastie of the day and I hauled in two wild fish.
The fish were in shallow all morning, with all fish being caught between 35-50 feet. Massive bait schools out in 80 feet, with no fish underneath. Smaller, scattered pods shallow with fish underneath. Not really agressive ones though. white, black flake flukes, silver spoons, green all worked today.
Comparing the reports I've heard (thanks) with the experience this morning, I'd fish the Silos in the evening if I was going out, and further down the lake in the morning. With the long days spent hiding from the sun, a lot of fish move onto those flats in the evening to feed. This time of year I think mornings are "dessert" after the fish've been gorging all night! Though, with the new moon I expect the morning fishing to be just fine... Sore Wrists and Calm Seas (6/21)Headed out of Taughannock and zipped up the lake. Looking for fish this morning, finally got some boat-readying things done, so I was ready for my first real cruise.
Headed up to the King Ferry / Atwater area and had a pretty good day! Fair bait around, I wouldn't say huge numbers. Some of it was surface oriented, some of it was suspended, and some pods were on the bottom. Best fishing was under the suspended pods- close enough to keep the lakers interested but not right in their faces.
Smallest fish: 2 lbs... a wild one! Biggest fish was over 10 lbs and FAT. White flukes, 1 oz heads early, black flake flukes got the last two stragglers from 9:00 to 9:30. Steady pickings through the morning, it was fast and furious when I found the right bait. 35-60 fow. Total of nine lakers in the boat and two "long-distance releases" plus numerous short strikes and missed hits.
Awesome mostly calm, sunny weather made me stop in 380 fow on the way back. I enjoyed just sitting there while I dropped a 2oz jig overboard and fished bottom for fun... To Top It OffNot been the best weekend for a lot of reasons- one of them being my cat, who has been beaten up pretty badly in a cat-fight. Keeping me around the house a lot more than usual. May be postponing that Keuka trip another few days, again. Give Taughannock another go tonight or something. Never got around to looking for the Drum last night, either, I wanted to do that and may try again... but at the moment I can't fish without a cat-sitter. Hope she makes it through this, been bitten in the neck. Well it's been a while...Since I had a run-in with a dunderhead, but it happened last night. I ranted about it elsewhere; suffice it to say the gentleman I spoke to last evening was one of the biggest buzzkills I've ever met. Not only that, he ran me out of Taughannock Park!
I went looking for sawbellies, and found them, but an hour or so later some jackass comes up and proceeds to scare me off. The original plan of fishing Keuka yesterday I had put off until Tuesday morning, and I went to the park intending to get bait, fish, go get the boat, and go fishing for drum. This guy ruined the day enough I didn't fish. Just another example of why the weekend is not the best fishing time! Think I'll stay away from now on and try to keep it to the weekdays. If I can help it.
In related news, I may give up on trying out this 'evening bite' thing... there are too many people out. I remember those great days last summer, watching the sun rise over the water, and having the lake and the fish almost all to myself...
so I say, forget the weekends, they're too crowded. Forget the evenings, there are too many people and the fishing in my experience has been slow. Forget the jerk I met last night... life's too short, but a pox on him.
Here's to many quiet, beautiful, fishful mornings on the water! I'm friendly and say hello if you do see me, but I'm a hermit by nature. You MAY see me on the water... but I hope not.
And, as always, good luck everyone! (except you-know-who.) Taughannock Check-In, 6/16Great Friday afternoon! Almost calm, mostly sunny, and gorgeous. Decided to check out Taughannock, my preferred stomping grounds. Didn't feel like driving and I still needed to get my Empire Passport for the year so I bit the bullet and hit the park.
Didn't expect much for fish, and I was right! Basically I wanted to see what was in the area, and enjoy the evening on the water. Answer: Plenty of BAIT but no Lakers! There were a few around, (a very few) I think I saw 3 fish on the screen all afternoon, even under the bait pods.
Anyway, I boated a nice 7 lb 10 oz fish to hold off the skunks and missed one solid hit. Other than that I had two lazy grabs and that was it... but today I don't care, I was looking for a good time and found it!
It's time to get serious about fishing if I'm going to make one ton! Problem with getting new boats is having to work to pay for them- this reduces fishing time! I knew there was a drawback somewhere. :)
Best advice is to stay in the Sheldrake and Long Point areas for numbers of fish- there are a few down here but not many. Still, I had steady action off Taughannock starting in Early July last year, so I'm expecting numbers to increase! Temp on top was anywhere from 67 to 72! Stacked just North of the point. Good luck all! Sheldrake 6/13Hit the water in the late afternoon for the 'evening bite'. There was no bite to be found anywhere near sheldrake point today! I eventually started fishing and landed two six pounders, but man was it barren today.
First I looked North of the point, and it was pretty choppy. Headed South... then way South! No marks anywhere- no bait, no lakers, nothing. Worked my way in and out from 20 to 170 feet of water looking at a blank screen. Really hoped to find a huge bait school but it was not to be. Went pretty far north of the point, too. Just not the right place this time.
I should've known better after the past weekend of hard Northerlies but I'm trying to learn new water up there. Speaking of which... it's almost time for a trip to Keuka Lake! I'll be giving that a go shortly- it's rare I'll do less than a dozen lakers over there! Good luck all! The Wind and Sheldrake 6/12Okay, so it wasn't windy this morning but it had been all weekend. Today was a little breezy, settling to calm then breezy again, all a North wind. Every time I head up to Sheldrake the wind has been blowing hard just the day before... makes for tough fishing. The thermocline hasn't really set up yet- it's starting but easily moved and mixed at this point.
Still found a few fish down 60, also saw deeper fish up to 100 fow. Nice fish, today's total was 17 pounds. Put the smaller one back out of the three I boated. Missed many hits from inattention... this'll change as I get used to the new boat! Lots of small pods of bait, nothing huge but it'll all change in the next few days... good luck all! When Will it Ever End?Rain, rain, more rain, cold, wet, windy, overcast, chilly, wet, and windy... heck of a weekend here in Central New York. Well if I can't do a fishing report I may as well do a weather report!
The weather sucks. It will get better. Maybe soon.... good luck to the hardy souls who do make it out this weekend! Well sunday may not be too bad... Sheldrake 6/7First trip in the new (to me) boat!! What fun as I zipped around the lake! Didn't fish a lot but I wanted one in the boat for luck, so I did jig up a nice 8 lb laker which I gave away to another guy. Went for a little ride, got used to the motor, etc, and in general spent a great morning out... not the most exciting fishing report, I know, but I wasn't fishing! Next few days are boat-readying and fishing days. Still need to register the darn thing- DMV wasn't open at 5 AM yesterday. Well I'm looking forward to MANY great days out on the water- hopefully I'll see you there! Fishing boat! (6/4)I've been holding back from fishing- and here's why! A new addition to the family is nearly here. This week I'm picking up a 16' Mirrocraft Deep Fisherman! Out of the plastic Coleman Crawdad and into some tin! WOW! Great news and a sweet little fishing boat. The lakes are wide open now... see you out there!
Also, heavy rain has swollen and muddied the carp areas. I'll be checking conditions today and possibly fishing... good luck all!! Carp and HEAT!Spent most of the day catching carp. Or trying to, the actual catching part only took a total of 20 minutes or so out of the five hours I was there. 9 wt, and the crayfish fly caught all fish today. Still, I'm happy! Landed the biggest one yet, pushing 20 pounds.
Most fish were spawning- makes them very difficult (impossible) to catch. Gotta find the ones cruising alone! Or not even cruising- tail up and working the bottom is ideal carp-catching behavior. Tally: One sunfish, two minnows, one perch, one smallmouth, and three carp. Perch was either the whitest, smallest perch I've ever caught, or a trout-perch. Smallie was nice, 18" or so- also hit a leech, the only fish not on the crayfish pattern. Big sunny. Carp- one 8 oz fish, one four pounds, and the big daddy in the photo pushing twenty!
Baked in the sun all day for those fish. The big carp was great, a long fight and given the day, I was pretty tuckered out after that! Went out for a few minutes after landing the big one, but just couldn't take the heat anymore.
Fish are in and hungry- just leave the spawners alone, they won't bite... good luck! Sheldrake Fog 5/28Dense fog covered the lake for much of the morning- actually the whole time I was out. Towards ten AM it peeked through, only to disappear again! I did see a pretty cool fogbow, and managed a few fish in the process. Almost got lost! Couldn't see a bloody thing for a while. Lost the shoreline. Very difficult to fish when everything is the same and visibility is 40 feet.
Did not mark much of anything on the screen, a little bait down over 60 fow early but it soon disappeared. Scraped the fish off the bottom without marking them. Temp 51 on top. Wish I could go farther than 1/2 mile or fish longer than 4 hours! Things were picking up as my battery started to go. Hit the limit so I headed in. They are currently in brine- I'm giving smoking a go. All set to smoke tomorrow... should be mighty tasty! Fish are settling in; should be along shorelines and points (find bait!) in anywhere from 30-90 fow. The three I caught today were all 50-60 fow. Blown Off 5/26Strike three! I'm out! Jigging has been a challenge, mostly due to weather. Lake trout are around and feeding but I just can't get out. Driving me nuts! This morning I barely had a line wet before a good blow picked up in advance of a thunderstorm and I headed home. 0-fer three minutes of fishing. Dang it! Next few days look great though and I'm looking forward to getting into fish again! Tough out there in the green monster. Anyone got a small boat for sale on a payment plan?
Good luck to everyone entered in the National Lake Trout Derby on Seneca Lake this weekend!! Taughannock 5/24Tried jigging for lakers today. Wow, I'm beginning to think the "ton-o-meter" was a bad idea- I've been fishless since I installed it! Headed out of Taughannock park at dawn and spent four hours floating around the lake. Not much going on! Didn't expect to see much (it's a little early for T'k lake trout fishing) but I saw less than the last time I was there!
No fish, barely any bait- 150 down over 170, and small pods at that. Worked water from 35-170 with no action. No bites, no nothing! Fish are all up North or suspended. The crazy weekend really churned up the lake. Temp 48 on top. Short report- nice day, no fish! I was cheap and lazy, didn't want to drive far today. Didn't pay off... next time! Fall Creek CarplessHad to get out. Went looking for carp today. Short report- the recent weather has scattered the carp. They'll be back in the next few days as the creek water warms again. It was COLD today! I did see one possible fish, but practically nothing. No bass, goldfish, carp, trout... nothing! I did see one dead carp and one dead sucker. Spent a while casting to the carp carcass before I realized it wasn't moving... oops! Well, we're headed right into summer this week so everyone go fishing! Whew!It's over! This week will see a return to normal temps and conditions. The week of rotten weather is drawing to a close and I'm going fishing! A truly awful weekend kept me at home. Time to make up for that! Better weather is on it's way... No Barney's....Couldn't do it. This morning (Friday) would've been ok weather-wise, but life isn't all just fishing, even though we may hope it is...
The fishing obsession is causing large problems... and the lack of a decent boat doesn't help. I thought of selling my house and buying a houseboat but honestly.... my house isn't worth enough!
BUT I am hoping to get out somewhere! It's been NINE days since I've been fishing and I'm feeling actual, physical pain somewhere deep inside. MUST. FISH. NOW! Sorry Folks...Off week. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get out at ALL since the last report. Not even a sunfish somewhere.
Barney's Spring Derby starts tomorrow, three days of fishing and derbying for all! Looks like a steady westerly most of the weekend. I'm still unsure if I can fish it, the weather looks a bit much for the green monster. Will be making that call later today... Carping again... 5/10/06On the lookout again, hit my favorite spot on the Fall Creek Flats. Scared everything away as soon as I got there. Bleah. Gave it a rest and another go after a bit. Managed 2 small Carp, one Crappie, one Smallmouth Bass, one Largemouth Bass. Pretty decent afternoon though the carp I hooked and landed were small. I had one take from a larger fish that I missed. My early shenanigans didn't help at all! To be successful at this you need to sneak up on the fish. Clanging and banging directly overhead of them in one foot of water is a terrible idea. Anyway, it was a great spring day, AGAIN! Been a lot of them recently.
As I'm writing this a few days later, it has rained at last. About an inch, which means we're still 3 inches behind for the spring. Regardless, I'm sure it will bring some fish into the creeks and finish raising the lake level. Look for bullhead, carp, and the occasional catfish at the South end, and definitely all of the above at the North end. Trout streams should be a little better off with this rain and probably not too high to fish this weekend. Seneca Clues! 5/7/06A ride with Capt Joe on the No Clue out of Sampson Park today. First time on Seneca Lake! It was quite frosty at dawn but the strong sun helped- down to T-shirts eventually though we could still see our breath. One of those days that require an early start. Sure enough, we were into fish immediately- the good Captain motored to the right spot! Filled the box before 8 AM, with one small C and R too. By 9, 9:30 AM we'd boated about 20 lake trout and the bite started to taper off.
After floating around for a while in the sun and calm winds, we decided to wrap it up for the morning. Joe's puttering around with the boat, and we're just hanging out... after a while I get a little bored and drop the jig over again. Maybe 5 minutes later, surprise! Fish on!I got it up about 30 feet easily, and kept reeling. Slowly the fish stopped moving.
I said "Joe, this fish is getting a lot heavier all the sudden!" It felt just like that big one I got last year- I wasn't moving it without permission. Ten minutes go by, and I finally bring the laker in sight! Wow, BIG FISH! 31" on tape and FAT. I hurriedly put it on the scale, Joe took a few pics, and we released it. Scale read: 8.5 lbs. What!? No way was that fish eight point five. I checked my scale at home- it may be off an ounce or two, not POUNDS though! The only possible thing that I could think of: When you're in a hurry, and looking at a scale's reading from the left side (digital) a '1' and a '3' can make an '8'. 13, 8, see what I mean? Computer type is obvious, but those LCD displays aren't...
Judging from other recent reports, 31" and fat could be 13.5 pounds! Regardless, it was at LEAST 10-11... Awesome weather, nice boat, and a banner laker day- what more could one ask for? Thanks Joe! Cayuga Carp! 5/5/06Water temps were back near 60 degrees plus so I tried again. Hit the mother lode of carp today! All I can think about was last spring- I probably tried for a good 40-60 hours to catch carp with spinning gear and bait. All I came up with were a few goldfish and koi. This year, it's early- most would say too early- and I've already hooked three! I honestly think fly-fishing for carp is WAY more productive than sitting on the bank with corn, etc.
OK, the report- hooked three, landed one. The first got off in about 20 seconds. The second I landed- I'm guessing seven or eight pounds. The third broke my 12 lb tippet with a shake of it's head! This fish looked huge, and not even big for the carp we've got around here. Estimate anywhere 15-20 pounds, it was a beast and smart at that. Burned my fingers on the first run before I could get it on the reel but I didn't want to let go of the line- I actually got a burn blister from ~20 feet of fly line zipping through my fingers!
I Fought this fish for about ten minutes before I lost it. We were going in circles, I had the rod low, to the side, and loaded in the butt when the carp decided the lake might be a good place to go. Off we went! The carp pulled us down the creek as I was palming the reel (still allowing a little line to escape), dragging my anchor rock and hollering like a little kid! Wow, fun! Unfortunately this lasted only a short time before the fish headed for a total wreck of a submerged tree- BAD NEWS!
I did all I could to stop that carp. When it got about two feet from the tree I had to clamp down on the reel- Boing! Fish off.
Felt like trying to stop a runaway train. Keep in mind, this is already ten minutes into the fight- these fish are bulldogs! They just do not give up! Enough exclamation points... that was an unbelievable amount of fun. Oh- tried an olive bugger with no takers, several large nymphs with a take on a #10 Prince, a leech, and finally hit the magic fly- a modification I'd made on a saltwater shrimp pattern. Actually tied it in case I ran into bonefish in Hawai'i! Time to do a lot more... good luck everyone, I HIGHLY recommend fly-fishing for carp! Keuka 5/4/06Went over to Keuka today. I wanted easy drifting- while writing "How to Jig for Lakers" I had an idea, even a great idea! I put a centerpin reel on my jigging rod and went looking for lakers...
Now, that was fun! I'm instantly retiring my spinning reel, at least for laker jigging. I was writing about how my line was set up similarly to my fly line, and then I thought, I wish I could jig with a fly reel... I love fighting the fish by hand. Bingo! A centerpin does that and more- I'm totally happy. Time to write a "pinning for lakers" article!
The bad news is, it's not an original idea. I found out last night about "mooching" for Salmon out west- they even make reels for it. It is different, and those reels have a drag system attached, but it's similar. Heck I'm satisfied, at least I thought of it myself. Guess nothing truly is new- even jigging for lakers is as old as the ages, yet folks (including me) get all excited about finding it again!
Lakers were down 110 near the bluff and not very active, though I did scrape up eight on a mix of spoons and jigs. Missed a lot of hits- it'll take a little time to get used to a totally different reel system but I'm more than happy... Cayuga Flats CarpingNo Carp yet. No for me anyway- and I only saw one fish. There were a lot of Koi, and I caught one on a leech pattern. Water is still a little low and is 6" deep in the little bay. I need an anchor to fish the "river" properly, I spent way to much time going backwards... but it was fun, and the carp will soon be there in droves! Cayuga, Taughannock, Lake Trout, 4/29/06Light winds this morning so I figured I'd try my luck around Taughannock. Reports haven't been good but it's home! Checked water from 45-150. Found lake trout scattered from 65-110. Not very aggressive for the most part. Also a blank screen for the most part. Six lakers, from 20-26". One lamprey, small- 8". Hopefully dead. I forgot what happened to it. I was torturing it by slow suffocation- I think I left it on the boat ramp! Hope it didn't wiggle back into the lake though the last time I noticed the lamprey it was a good 20 feet from water and unhappy in the sun. Meant to throw it out but I think it's still there...
Very nice morning, quite cold though. I prefer it when the AM temps are at least in the high forties, not the high twenties! I did ok on the trout but had to search for them. Some boat traffic, a few shore anglers, but I didn't see any nets in the air. The bulk of the fish are mid-to-upper lake. Just a few stragglers and weirdos down here! Didn't see signs of salmon or other trout, it was also glassy calm at times. The DEC website mentions "anglers catching trout" off the wall at Taughannock but that's hooey- if you spent all day there you could consider yourself lucky to catch one trout, and it's been that way for months. 4/28 Apologies! I have been fishing...On Monday, I believe, though I could be off, Willy and I tried to find rainbows around town. Tried one trib and just looked at two... not much going on. I'm now almost convinced that's it for the rainbows barring a huge cold rain. After this, we headed off to "my" private water in search of browns. It's a stream I haven't been to in a few years and was disappointed to see that the beavers had changed the landscape, as had natural erosion. Though I'm sure it's not all natural!
Willy landed a 6" rainbow and had a few other hits. Not many fish around, and they weren't large. I was told by a passing hunter last year he'd seen "big browns" in there. Maybe they couldn't take the drought last summer, dropped downstream, or got poached out by people or herons... who knows? We spent a good hour plus improving habitat, building a low stone wall across the creek at one point and filling in a log-jam to alter flow and increase current. I'm definately going to keep up this project! Transplant a few stocked fish from downstream and voila, a little fishing haven. There's a great spot for a campsite, too, and it's "tractor-accessible" if necessary. Hopefully it'll rain some this year.
And, on Weds and Thurs, I spent some time catching (and releasing) some stocked fish around town. They're getting hard to come by, as I think many of them dropped down into the lake almost immediately and the others were sitting ducks... but I found at least one in every decent pool, most plunge pools. Several pools, I believe it was the only fish. I still go with reccomending Cayuta and Upper Fall Creek for the most consistent action, as the local small creeks are capital "l" Low and the rainbows are long gone... Rain? Hmm.We're projected to get 1-2 inches this weekend. That means 1 inch, if we are lucky. We had a good period of rain last night but it tapered off quickly. I went out to check streams this morning at dawn and they haven't budged yet. Fished an hour and caught one 4" something. Looked a little bright to be a chub. If it's a long slow rain event it may take until tomorror until they peak... don't know if it's too late for rainbows but it'll help fill the lake and draw other fish into the streams. Last night I tried for bullhead. Water was warm enough but levels were low all over. Hope this rain triggers something! Good luck all. Cayuga Lake Trout 4/20
Depending on my point of view, I had a variety of days on the water today! Weatherwise, it couldn't be beat, though I did misjudge the breeze. Sunny, near calm, warm, quiet, and, well, that's all, but you can't ask for much more. Boatwise, something to be desired. I went a little out of range today in search of fish and had to row about a mile on the way back. Cleverly saved the last of the battery to take me in after my arms started getting tired! I need a second battery for a 6 hour trip. Four hours I could've done no problem but I pushed it today. No matter, I was plenty prepared (even had gloves for rowing) and didn't mind the exercise.
Fishingwise, not bad. I didn't get to spend too much time on the bottom. When I did actually fish, I did pretty well- nailed the first one perfectly, a fish I marked and stopped for in 145 feet. That sure felt good!! I kept it, five and a half pounds, which was a good move as it turned out to be the smallest of the day. Within half an hour I missed two hits. By 10 AM I had two more lakers to my credit but that was it for the day.
Found fish where I looked, on bottom between 130-160, but they weren't particularly active fish. The N wind moved a lot of water around, and pushed bottom water up into the area I was fishing. I'm guessing a lot of the active fish had moved south into the bottom current and towards more structure. A Week of Stockie Fishing.
I hope it rains this weekend. The streams are hurting. I've been able to find trout by finding captive trout. Most of the local streams feed into Cayuga Lake and the inlet (or off a 200 foot waterfall) and most of the stocked fish headed for deeper water right away. Not many around here are left in the streams. Unless, of course, you get away from town a few miles. Last time out I caught fish in a creek running at maybe 20 cfs and ankle deep. I'm just saying... give it a shot! Less pressure on the fish can somewhat compensate for the low clear conditions and make them a little less shy. One brown trout finning at the surface gave me several chances before disappearing for good. (Missed that one, but I'm fairly sure I caught it a week and a half ago already) Go light and small and there are fish in surprising places. Current recommendations: actually, both streams I haven't fished this year! Cayuta Creek should have pockets of fish, as well as upper Fall Creek. Don't forget to be quiet and careful- trout spook pretty easy in these conditions.
Cayuga Tribs, 4/13/05
Good morning, fairly warm, and I hit the only creek in town that got rain last night. Unfortunately others had the same idea. I'm pulling on my waders and a truck pulls up... not happy, especially when THREE dudes get out. That makes the hole I'm heading for overcrowded by at least two. Thankfully I was almost ready and secured the best spot. Regardless, it wasn't ideal as these three proceeded to tight-line heavy sinkers and egg sacs in the pools. I wonder how many fish you snag doing that in a small pool... too many.
Did land a small 14" rainbow, and a 6" something that did me t |
