Bigfoot

Fished out of Deans for a couple of hours. Picked up fish here and there, no real pattern. Got to love fishing after a full moon... On the west side we found massive clouds of bait in 130 FOW, but there didn't seem to be any trout with them. Briefly fished in front of Wells, cotton fluff and weeds were horrible there.

The survey was selected by random, this diary cooperator was NOT ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE. Thank you DEC! Results of the survey were just over 60% for rainbows/browns and just under 40% for walleye. For what it's worth, the lake is recovering. Last time there our club brought twolakers over 10 lbs to the scales, as well as some rainbows and browns. In the early days I supported the efforts to introduce the walleyes, but at this point I am glad to see them go. IMO walleyes are great eating, but those that feed on sawbellies taste like crap.

Derby usually has about 150 entrants- easiest derby in the Fingers to cash in on. Categories for lakers, rainbows, browns, smallmouths, largemouths, pike, perch and walleye (plus kids prizes). So, the competition is usually pretty spread out.....

A few years ago I served on the board of directors (for 3 years) as one of the FLTA reps on the board to the National Lake Trout Derby (Memorial Day). I put some effort into trying to change the start time to 5:00 AM, however I was blocked by the non fisherman who oversees the "day to day" operations of the derby. It was decided that the start time would remain at 6:00AM and that one of the polygraph questions would be in regard to fishing before 6AM. It was also decided that fishing before 6AM on day one was grounds for immediate disqualification.

Do you need help (labor) with the project? If so, when?

Way to go Hunter. Are the catfish hitting on Cayuga?

My driver does all of the work. She had a great day!

Didn't know what to expect from Owasco Sunday. Fishing reports hadn't been good and I hadn't had time to pre fish. But as one of my fellow competitors said at the launch, when the fishing is tuff, it's tuff for everyone. We ran about half way down the lake and started setting up at 5AM over 150FOW. Ran rigs, riggers and boards (six rods total). Ran our "bright day" program of proven spoons that have taken 'bows and lakers in Owasco over the years. Also ran a couple of glow spoons as I often do before the sun comes up..... First hit was a heavy fish that put up an exciting fight on a rig. Was astonished when the fish turned out to be a 10lb. CATFISH. Taken 50 feet down over 150 FOW on a Silver Streak Glow Dirty White Boy. Go figure! Fish started hitting regularly after the sun came up and by 7:30 we had 20 lbs in the box. Fished the rest of the morning trying to catch rainbows with zero success. We barely managed to take lunker with a 10-5 laker (next biggest was 10-1) and finished a disappointing 4th. Over all a good day considering the recent reports and also managed to finish ahead of several charter captains...... On the down side, several of my competitors have taken to calling me "Catfish". This is going to take some time to live this one down.

On the eastern Finger Lakes: Cayuga, Owasco and Skaneatles; the rainbow limit is 3 on the lakes and 3 in the tribs. Many of the charters (their livelihood depends on the resource) release all of their rainbows, or restrict the take to one per trip.

DEC stocks brown trout and landlock salmon in Keuka, but the over population of lake trout eat almost all of them. This is one of the reasons that the laker limit was raised to 5. The stockings are so unsuccessful that DEC is considering stocking the landlocks and browns in another lake where they would have some sort of angler return. A FLTA member, who does charters on Keuka, reported in his angler cooperator diary catching 951 lakers, 17 rainbows, 6 landlocks (all small ones),and 0 browns. He fished a total of 126 days last year!!! (Not counting his Florida trips where he spends each Winter). So, if you're looking for off fish in Keuka, you're looking for maybe 1 fish out of 100, and it is almost certain to be a rainbow.

For what it is worth, the Conrail diesel oil spill on Cayuga Inlet in 1997 was about 5000 gallons, according to Conrail's our estimates. A study by the University of Wisconsin puts the spill at 26,500 liters. I don't care to do the math to see how the estimates compare, either way it was a large spill on a relatively small stream. Also, lampreys don't drop off of their victims to spawn. They suck the available body fluids and then move on to their next meal.

DEC has confirmed gobies in Cayuga and it's only a matter of time until they show up in Seneca.