8 plus pound Laker- Cayuga Lake on Father's Day

Caught 3 nice Lake Trout and a few small Land-locked Salmon with George today on a great Father's Day fishing outing on the north end of Cayuga Lake!

8lbs 5oz 26 inch Brown Trout on Cayuga

Caught while trolling with planer boards (ie "Top-Lining) near Dean's Cove at about 7:00 AM. Water temp 41 degrees F.

Meadow at Dawn

Cayuga Lake Ice Fishing 2010

January Full Moon

Water Levels on Cayuga Lake

We recently had a thaw here, the so-called "January thaw," which made it easy to see the mudflat left when the water levels are so drastically lowered on Cayuga Lake in the winter. It can't be good for the underside of the usually floating marsh to be high and dry like that, subject to the vagaries of wind, freezing, etc.

Here are normal water levels and "managed" water levels...

Normal levels above, managed below, same vantage point.

Friday Fishing Outing

Today the whole family went on a fishing outing on the "Rough Draft." Problem was, with the recent rains and my being away on travel, the battery had been depleted by running the auto bilge pump. So we weren't going far. Undaunted, we commenced fishing from our moored boat, rather resignedly and unenthusiastically at first. Soon, however, we were having a ball! The pictures tell the story. We caught 7 bass and 1 bullhead. The bullhead was especially important because it was Charlotte's first fish caught all on her own, from cast to landed.

Spring Trolling

Got a chance to get out on the lake to fish the northern end. We launched from Cayuga State Park. Trolled from the mouth of Canoga Creek south to Garnsey's Cove and back...about a five hour tour.

To date, the Brown trout I caught is the "furthest north" Salmonid I have landed in the lake proper. We were directly out from Red Jacket Yacht Club, about 200 yards from shore, in water about 39-40 degrees F.

Many pickerel were caught, some large, and one large northern pike. It was a great fishing outing.

A Midsummer Night's Eve: Cayuga Cat!

My friend and colleague Jeremy Dietrich recently asked me to take his younger brother Wade and his friend and fellow graduate student Laura out on a fishing trip on the north end of Cayuga Lake. So, the crew met me at 5 pm Sunday evening for a 4 hour excursion on the "Rough Draft."

We tried a bit of trolling, but the recreational boating of the weekend had chopped up so much vegetation that it was nearly impossible. We switched to drifting and casting. Before long, Wade had boated a perch and a nice chain pickerel. Within an hour, Laura had boated a nice pickerel also, and a smaller "hammer handle."

We were drifting the navigation channel, out in front of the state park and working our way south towards Canoga Creek. Wade hooked a nicer perch, a keeper. I boated a couple of pickerel. And then, Laura hooked into a bruiser.


We watched her fight this fish. Both Jeremy and I quickly ascertained that we were clearly out of the 3-4 lb pickerel class. The tension rose, instructions were helpfully peppered at Laura...drag settings, reeling instructions, etc. Then we saw a flash of the huge fish as it bulled under the boat. She fought for long minutes more until it began to tire. Slowly she horsed it to the side of my boat. Jeremy was leaning over the edge, ready to help land it...he looked over his shoulder with a surprised look and exclaimed "Its a huge catfish!" He reached for it and it dove again. Now we were all quite engaged and invested in boating this strange and unusual Cayuga Lake trophy. After a few valiant misses, Jeremy finally managed to gill it, and hoisted above decks. It was a leviathan.

Congrats Laura and Wade! Come back fishin' any time.




































After picture taking and all of the fun, we fished a bit more in the channel, and then headed for the mouth of Canoga Creek for a large mouth Bass or two. But the group was pretty satiated with having caught the Channel Cat, (According to Wikipedia, realistically, a channel catfish over 20 pounds (9 kg) is a spectacular specimen, and most catfish anglers view a 10 pound (4.5 kg) fish as a very admirable catch. Furthermore the average size channel catfish an angler could expect to find in most waterways would be between 2 and 4 pounds) and our bass fishing resulted in just on beefy Rock bass, along with enjoying a good summer's eve sunset over Canoga Creek Farm and Conservancy. Stats? 5 pickerel, 2 perch, 1 rock bass, and one 30 inch, 12 pound Channel Catfish.

Late June Lakers and Spiny Water Fleas

Capt. George Havelin and his boat, the "Miss Lizzy," found the fish yet again on Cayuga Lake.
Lake Trout were the species de jour, though we did boat one undersized landlocked Atlantic salmon.








































































Capt. George inquired about the globs of aquatic gunk that accumulate on the trolling lines this time of year. He called them "spinner fleas." This is an example of good dissemination of mostly correct information, though the technical name for the phenomena he is referring to is "Spiny and/or Fishhook water fleas," Bythotrephes spp and Cercopagis pengoi respectively. The range of these invasive species is highlighted in the map red below...notice the Finger Lakes region :















In case Capt. George is unavailable, there are other Finger Lakes guides.

Ice fishing 2007