hermit

Wow some stories, glad mine wasn't that bad. Got lucky except for the price tag. Thanks guys.

fish-on, thanks I appreciate that and will keep it in mind. Same for you or anyone else. Thought about posting a plea for help on here but the truck from uhaul was available and just over 30 bucks including the mileage. Seemed fast and easy. Thanks again. jusgrinnin I should have it back thurs or fri so we're okay for next week, hope the fish cooperate. Thought today might be a little better with the rising temps but maybe the wind yesterday scattered them or it could always have been what I was doing. Handful of boats out there today.

Yeah no kidding there are several ways that could have gone much worse than it did. That is a plus!

Good morning, rotten afternoon. Pulled away from the dock at Treman at 7:00. Cloudy, water temps 39-43. Calmer than I like for fishing the top. Fishing was slow. Sun came out ~9:30. Picked up a maybe legal salmon around 10:00. Hooray, not skunked! Temps were on their way up, saw 44.5 by the time I left. 11:15 got a ~5 lb laker down 10 over 30. That was it, still a fantastic first trip it felt great to be out. Spent a while down on the shelf and mid-morning also went up the east side to Bolton Point. Temps up that way were slowly dropping but still 42+. Ran sticks and spoons, both fish on silver sticks. A ripple was starting by the time I left but it was flat calm all morning. Back at the ramp a little after 12. This is where it sucked. Loaded boat, popped parking brake and step on brake as I put it in drive to pull out. Brake goes to floor. I'm blowing air and fluid all over the place, brakes are gone. Call AAA, they take the truck. Call GF, she brings a set of Masterlocks and I lock motor and trailer hitch, unpack boat, leave it there. My mechanic tells me a new set of lines is an all-day 800-900 dollar job! Ouch. Go to U-haul, rent truck, bring boat home, return truck, etc etc. There goes the afternoon. I'm just glad it happened in the parking lot and not on one of the hills on the way home!

Great to read some reports after a long winter! Nice day yesterday. I should be out in the AM, really looking forward to it. Those little lamprey don't sound too good though.

Excellent, good to hear you're back on the water! :yes:

Getting my boat back one way or another this week. Brought it in last week for regreasing the trailer bearings and an inspection. If it's not done by this weekend I'm taking it back and doing it myself. I waited too long and he's backed up a bit. Itching to go, will be out early next week. Doing spring shopping at BPS Saturday too, wooo hoo! Good luck Playin Hookey!

Oh okay that makes sense, thanks. I'll give that method a try this year, the vac bags are really expensive even by the roll.

Scale, fillet with regular knife, vacuum seal, freezer. This covers all my bases for using fillets. Depending on recipe I'll skin it or not after it's defrosted. Last year I tried cutting steaks. Scale and gut, then using a cleaver cut through until I hit backbone. Leave the cleaver there and whack it with a good sized stick hard enough to chop the backbone and go the rest of the way through the meat. Worked pretty well but don't do this on a nice or metal table. I have a hard time believing freezing in water is actually better it would tend to bleed flavor out. But I've never tried it so haven't compared myself. I've done a bit of IQF with fishsticks though, bread, freeze, mist, freeze again. Helps keep the freezer burn down. I vac these too.

You may get more of a response over in the Finger Lakes section. Short answer is, a stiff rod to jig 1 oz plus jigs, soft plastics in white/green colors. Jigging spoons are okay if you're on a soft bottom. From now until end of May they are mostly deep (100+) but can be found at many depths. Sometimes 40 fow or less. Summer fishing is most predictable. By June-ish they start hanging below the thermocline and finding them is easier. Then 60 fow to start looking. By August 90 fow to start. Of course every day is a bit different. Found them in 40 fow midsummer at times. Lakers start the year mostly near the N + S ends. By summer they're mid-lake. Any time of year they aren't shallow it's worth looking out to 150' though I try to fish the shallowest fish I can find as it's hard jigging down 150. Easiest method and very productive when they're hitting is drop the jig to the bottom or close to it and reel it back in pretty quickly. When it's tougher you have to do a little more finesse work. A longer answer and more info is here: http://cayugafisher.net/pages/resdex.php Oh hey Bob you beat me in there.... yeah what he says too esp about trolling motor and electronics.

Sounds like you've got it mostly covered. Maybe try some brass/copper backed spoons.

With tackle boxes careful of any soft plastics coming into contact with other plastic. I had a few loose ones melt into the tray of the tackle box after one winter of storage. Not high on the priority list but it does cause a mess.

Hey Bob any additional info would be great, do you know what kind of minnows? Will they be catching alewives too? Drives me nuts you can't get minnows before dawn around here in the summer.

Nymphs. In addition to the above list. Lots of old standards work great, prince, hare's ear, zug bug. Bead heads.

I'm guessing the same reason the LL don't reproduce, stream conditions aren't right. It gets very low and warm by summer. Has anyone seen a small walleye in Cayuga? The only ones I've seen or heard about were big and those have been in there a while, the "unauthorized stocking" reason is the same too. Either the same fish or someone did it again. (Also the season is closed during the time period we're talking about for anyone getting too excited.)

When they run the tribs in spring is the best bet for numbers. Be pretty dependent on timing and water levels I'd think.

Reading the basic regs it looks okay. There is no closed season or minimum length which is how they determine salability. A market for these things may help reduce numbers and make everyone happy.

I'm looking forward to this; it'll be the first time I've done a table anywhere, it will be fun. I learned a lot (and still do) from some of you and other anglers, and am always happy to return the favor. I'll have lake trout jigs and Lunker City soft plastics for sale. I'll post more info on my website (http://cayugafisher.net) about what I'll have available in a week or so. My workspace is unheated so it partly depends on the weather beforehand. I'm also going to bring some example gear and will have a jigging info sheet for those just getting into it. Questions and bs-ing are very welcome, it's been a long winter! Thanks everyone, Alec

Haven't tried them but I'm a believer in buying quality once, especially reels. Second the recommendation on Daiwa Sealines as a good quality decent price. Do what you can for good stuff and fill out with cheaper if need be. Also depending on what you want it for a longer rod may be better, those might be okay for a rigger rod but longer is better for dipseys.

"Only" 0 degrees here this AM. Mostly alewives. The smelt population goes way up and down but seems to be down the past 10 years or so. I forget where I got the info originally but read that 90% of the biomass in Cayuga is estimated to be alewives. Small spoons and streamers are good here too.

June is great, one of my favorite months. Definitely come fish. And yeah Enfield! Love the FL, I'm 15 minutes from Treman, Taughannock, and Cayuta Lake. Watkins is 30, Sampson SP is 40 minutes. Ahh too bad it's not a little warmer in the winter though.

Thanks for the info and update. I'll be at one of them.

One thing we have here is too many deer. Good on the DEC. We have 8-10 in our yard right now. Every morning. I know my neighbors limit every year but it doesn't seem to slow them down. (The deer.) Might have to take up hunting and use my porch as a stand.

Sounds like fun!