Billy V

Need this out of my garage!

May 26th - We had some longtime friends join us for an evening troll on Saturday. We used to fish with Matt & Kelly all the time before kids so tonight was a treat - we were able to introduce both of their children to Cayuga Lake and trolling. Once we got all the kids settled down we headed out of Myers at about 4:30pm and pointed her north towards Ross Point. We set up in 70FOW and trolled up to Lansing Station and all the way back to Myers and never left 60-70 FOW. The lake trout were there in numbers and were more than willing to entertain us. Best set ups for us were Walker Deeper Divers out 150 and 180 pulling a Green E-Chip/Sigg's Rigs Green Hypnotist and a Dalmation Spinny/Sigg's Rigs Blue Dolphin. Hot spoons fished off the Cannon's were DW SS 42nd Spoon and Dave's Salmon Slapper down 52' and 60' over 60-70 FOW. We only ran a 2 diver/3 rigger set up to keep it simple for the kids but those 5 rods were rarely in the water all at the same time. We fished for about 3 hours and had a ball. It was good to know that we had the lakers there in our hip pocket but we were going to be looking for silvers in the morning! May 27th - Jay, William, Benjamin and I headed out of Myers at 5:30am and pointed her south to Portland Point in search of some browns and atlantics, and boy did we hit the jackpot! We doubled right off the bat in 90 FOW just south of the salt mine and Ben landed a beautiful atlantic and William lost a good one right at the back of the boat. From there on out it was a steady diet of atlantics and a couple of decent browns. We made the troll down towards Bolton Point but the further south we went the slower the action was so we spun her around and headed back north. Once we got back over our first waypoints the rods started going again. On our second pass through Ben (with a major assist from Jay!) landed our biggest atlantic of the year - just shy of 9lbs. We kept circling our waypoints and kept taking fish till it slowed around 9am and then we trolled over to the west side and fished our way up past crowbar with only a couple of small lakers to show for it. Hot baits for the silvers were spoons fished off the Cannons at 25' and 35' in 70-120 FOW: NK Die Hard, DW SS Midnight Special and Gator all took multiple shots. The biggest fish of the day came on a firetiger J-9 Rapala fished off of a 2 color core - something William had picked out not 5 minutes earlier. Water temp was 54 degrees on the surface and 48 down 25'. May 28th - Today we were joined by Buck, Peter, Jim, and Paul for a morning trip. Buck is the CFO of Chick-fil-A and they were in town to celebrate Peter's graduation from Cornell. What better way to celebrate than by getting out on the lake! We had our fingers crossed that the atlantics and browns from yesterday were still there so we pointed her south at 5:15am and set up right on yesterday's way points. We managed two small atlantics on our first troll south - one 20" and the other a throw back. The water had definitely changed from the day before - we had 63 degrees on top and 58 degrees down 20'. To top it off, there was a ton of debris in the water that just wasn't there yesterday. The further south we went the worse it got so we looped around and went back up through our waypoints again but we just couldn't keep our gear from fouling. We gave it some time but finally decided that we needed to get out of there so we trolled back up to Myers and found a ton of hooks in 90-120 FOW right off the point but we couldn't get them to go no matter what we threw at them. Bummer. At about 9am we pulled gear and ran up to our laker spot from Saturday night and set up in 70FOW - we had to get these guys some bites. As soon as we got set up there the rods started popping. Walker Deeper Divers out 120 and 150 pulling a Green Dot Spinny/Sigg's Rigs Gangster and a White Spinny/Siggs' Rigs Billy V Glow Ghost each took multiple shots as did a NK Die Hard and a DW SS Lazer Glow Spook fished off of the Cannon's and 65' and 55'. Our 10 color core pulling a DW SS Green Alewife also took a fish. We did very well on our troll north through our laker spot but it slowed to a pick on the troll south. We were just about to turn around and go back through it again on a north troll when we checked the satellite weather and saw a couple of major storm cells bearing down on us. The guys decided that they had had enough fun so we pointed it south and ran back to port and just beat the rain. We lost about 40 minutes of our trip to the storm but still managed a decent box of lakers and the one atlantic for them and they got to experience the highs and lows of Cayuga Lake all in one trip. Congratulations on graduating from Cornell Peter - and good luck at the University of Alabama in your new role as an economics professor!

Nope. I'll be hanging out with my family on Cayuga all weekend. Good luck if you go!

A. We were not turning to avoid a scum line but rather turned around and headed south to keep from getting too close to you on your northerly troll. We were trolling faster than you and did not want to interfere with your troll. Believe me, I wanted to continue on that northerly troll because we were beating up the fish but I deferred to you and turned around to go back down our line. Common courtesy. B. 20 minutes after we turned and headed south to give you room you pulled your gear and ran up from behind us and set up a quarter mile in front of us and pointed your boat directly at us. You knew that I had a full boat with a large spread in the water and had been on that troll just outside those mooring balls for nearly a mile before you ran past us and sat down directly in front of us. C. We tried for several minutes to get your attention - blasts on the horn, waving and yelling at you etc - to ask you to turn out but you had your back to the direction your boat was traveling until you finally heard the horn. D. When you finally turned around and looked where you were headed you decided to try to squeeze between my planer boards and shore. That was your decision. You had plenty of time to turn out to deeper water but you chose to turn in. At no point did I force you into shallow water. Truth be told when it became clear that you either had no idea what was in front of you or had no intention of giving way I turned my boat out to deeper water to keep you from destroying all of my gear. Why in the world you felt that turning into shallow water was a good idea or even remotely considerate was beyond me. Common sense and courtesy clearly dictate that when you run past a boat on a troll and set down in their line of travel and point your boat directly at them that you give way to deeper water when they are trolling within yards of shore. You actions were not only inconsiderate but they were unsafe. If you would like to discuss this in person you know where my boat is docked.

Our clients ran late on Sunday so we didn't get to leave the dock till 6:00am. Once we finally got going we headed up the east side and set up just north of Ross Point in 40FOW and pointed it towards the plant. We immediately began taking fish - we started our day off with a beautiful 4 lb Atlantic and then we settled into a steady pick of Lakers. Our clients were specifically after silver fish so we had the speed bumped up a bit but we still managed to keep rods poppin' at a regular rate for the first hour of our trip. We had plenty of fish to play with but most all of them were 3 lbs-ish and we only took the one silver from that troll. The screen was great in there - lots of fish and some bait, but it was mostly lakers so we decided that a move elsewhere was in order. We trolled across the lake and set up just south of Rocky Dock and pointed it south. We worked 30-100 FOW on that side and managed a beautiful rainbow and dropped another 'bow just north of the Scout camp but that was it for the entire troll back down to Taughannock. The screen was far better over on the east side so we trolled back across the lake to Ross Point and headed north again - this time I slowed us down to laker speed so that we could get rods moving for the last hour of the trip and we weren't disappointed. Those lakers were still there and we ended with a nice flurry of action. While we didn't manage to take anywhere near the number of silvers that we were after we did fill the box with fish and had a great time doing so. Best producers for us today were a Green Dot Spin Dr pulling a Sigg's Rigs Billy V Glow Ghost and a White Spin Dr pulling a Sigg's Rigs Gangster, both fished off Walker Deeper Divers out anywhere from 50-120' depending on what depths we were in. The hot spoons were a DW Superslim Salmon Slapper and a Superslim Dr. Death fished off of our Cannon DT10's down anywhere from 15-50'. At the very end of the trip as we were pulling rods I slid us out into 150-180FOW and there were suspended marks there too - we whacked two lakers while we were tearing down. We tried to get our charter group into the B&B derby this weekend but they weren't interested - not that we had anything big enough to weigh, but it would have been nice to at least give it the old college try. If you want to move rods and don't mind lakers, there are a bunch on the east side. Pull out your best laker presentations and come have some fun with them!

No idea. You'd have to check with Furuno about that. [ Post made via iPhone ]

I just pulled the Furuno 1730 radar unit off of my boat. I have the head unit, 24 mi radome, and all of the wiring. I think I also have the original owners manual on the boat. The unit works like new. First $500 takes it. PM me here or email me at [email protected] Here's a link to the product info from Furuno: http://www.furunousa.com/products/produ ... oduct=1730

Nice report Ted. What depths of water were you working and could you tell if the chocolate milk at the south end had begun to subside?

Here's their official statement on lampreys this year - taken from the 2011 Cayuga Lake Angler Diary report: "Incidence of sea lamprey attacks on lake trout in the 2011 survey was very low. One wound and one mark were observed on the 46 lake trout in a 23.6 inch to 25.6 inch index group. This was well below our target level for lamprey wounding on lake trout in this length interval. Sea lamprey wounding on Cayuga Lake salmonids continues to be low, but there will be a noticeable increase in wounds in 2012 because a fairly large year class of lampreys, born in Cayuga Inlet in 2007, has begun entering Cayuga Lake as parasitic adults. We have opted to “ride this out†and not do an expensive lampricide treatment because we anticipate the impacts to the lake fishery will not be as extensive as in the past. Although there are relatively abundant young sea lampreys (ammocoetes) in Cayuga Inlet, our assessments indicate they are not as abundant as they were prior to our treatments in 1986 and 1996 (see graph on next page). In addition, the size of the juvenile lampreys varies depending on the habitat they are in, which means their migration to the lake occurs over a few years, rather than all at once. Given this, we expect that the fishery should be able to absorb the impacts of this lamprey year class with far less mortality of trout and salmon than we experienced in the past. What remains to be determined, however, is the abundance of sea lamprey larvae resulting from upstream escapement of spawning lamprey during a high water event in the Inlet in spring 2011." Personally, I think that there is a far worse lamprey problem than they think there is.

Nice work guys!

Thanks guys - we've really been enjoying having the boat close to home. It's amazing how much work Ive been able to get done on it with it 5 miles from the house instead of 160! And the fishing hasn't been half bad either!

I put my 30' Penn Yan in at the Myers launch two weeks ago. Lots of room to launch there now.

Beautiful boat Pete. Congratulations!

On Sunday our group left the dock at 6am and headed to the south end of the lake only to find that the lake still hadn't cleared from the 4" of rain that we received on Thursday night. We were able to dig a few Atlantics out of the chocolate milk water on the east shore but quickly decided to point the boat north to try and find some better colored water.  There was a very clear color and 10 degree temp break in the water at about Portland point and we worked it for a bit but there was a lot of debris in the water at the temp break that kept fouling our lines so we headed over into the green water on the west side and pointed it towards Taughannock.  We had a very steady pick of fish on that troll in everything from 30-275 FOW.  Stick baits off of planer boards did most of the damage - Thin Fins, Jr Thundersticks, and Rapalas in white, black/gold, and chartreuse all took fish.  We also took fish today from our Cannons down anywhere from 20-50' pulling Dreamweaver Superslims in Midnight Special, Gator, and Die Hard patterns. Once we got to Taughannock we were rewarded with a very nice flurry of Atlantics to wrap up our trip.  I wish we had started there! We ended the day with a decent box of fish (all Atlantics and one Laker) and lots of smiles all around. If you're coming to fish Cayuga I'd suggest skipping the south end for another day or two until the water clarity returns.

We should be around for several of the derbies here on the lake. Look forward to meeting you QT.

$100 "donation" per person. Doesn't sound too legit! [ Post made via iPhone ]

We saw you guys go out Sat night - was wondering how you did!

The low water levels on Cayuga Lake have kept us from putting the boat in the water, but last weeks snow storm and the resulting run off gave us just enough water to get our season started. It's a full month later than I had hoped, but here it is - our 2012 shakedown report! Dad, Jay, and I left Myers Point at 6:15 this morning and motored towards the south end. It was 24 degrees when we left the dock and it was all I could do to see where I was going with the ice that had built up on the windshield of the boat. We set up on the East side north of Esty point and put out a smorgasbord of Rapalas, Jr. Thundersticks, Thin Fins, and Super Slims. It didn't take long and we boated a nice healthy 3 lb brown. After that it was game on. We didn't go more than 10 minutes without an Atlantic or a Brown until we decided to call it quits at 10am - we were very busy in the back of the boat today! Most of the fish were 3-4 lbs but we had a few that were pushing 6-7 lbs. We stayed in 10-15 FOW and found temps to be 44-45 degrees, but we trolled into some 48 degree water at the far south end of the lake. There really wasn't much of a color pattern today - they took every color that we put out, but they did seem to prefer stick baits flatlined off of our planer boards over spoons on the riggers. Best speed for us was 2.6-2.7mph on our Cannon Intellitroll. Once the sun got up into the sky it became a slow pick and we decided to head back to the marina to work on the boat. I'm glad that we called it a day when we did because the wind kicked up pretty good out of the North shortly after we got back to the dock. What a fun way to FINALLY get our season started!

I could've used the snow in February!

It was already up a couple of inches at his dock when I heard from him yesterday. This wind surge has it looking like there's less water than there really is from about his place south - I bet we see major improvements in the next few days.

For those who are worried about launching boats on Cayuga Lake - I just got off the phone with Howard Goebel at the NYS Canal Corp and he told me several encouraging things about the water level here. First off, the gates are still closed and will remain closed until the lake reaches normal levels. Secondly, Seneca Lake is now above normal levels and they have begun releasing water which will help us out here (Keuka Lake is now releasing water too). Third, the gauge at the north end of the lake shows the level up 6" from yesterday but we're only up an inch or two at the south end right now. There is a significant amount of wind influence on our water levels when the wind blows from specific directions. It's blowing hard from the SSW today and that wind has pushed a lot of water up to the other end of the lake. Once the wind dies we should see a lot of that water back down here. Finally, there is a lot of run off from the Nor'easter and it should continue as the snow melts here on top of the hill. I still have 3 or 4 inches of snow in my yard that has yet to melt. He also said that the gauge at Fall Creek is above normal for the first time since January. All of the creeks and drainage's are full of water where just a couple of days ago they were bone dry. Here's the latest water level chart, just updated this morning: http://www.canals.ny.gov/faq/oswego/net ... levels.pdf Hopefully we'll be a lot closer to normal levels soon!

6-8" up here on the hill in Ithaca. This will help bring the lake level up as soon as it warms up a bit.

Seneca is actually over their projected minimum level for this time of year. They drew Cayuga down an extra 2' in February in an effort to kill the hydrilla in the inlet. Problem is, they put the plug back in too late! I think Billy V 3 would look good on your canoe!

Yep, Cayuga. It's BARELY coming up. It hasn't come up more than 6" since the first of April. I'd say we're still 2.5' low - definitely too low for my boat to get in and out of the marina. I watched a 17' Chaparral come into Myers the other day and he was kicking up a bug mud plume off the bottom all the way from the cut to the launch. If you can trim your out drive up you can get in and out but if you have an inboard you're hooped till it comes up more.

Accuweather is calling for almost 2.5" of rain this weekend. I have my fingers and toes crossed that we get every bit of it and then some...maybe then I can get my boat into its slip. It's been killing me that we can't fish.