goin hungry

I only just recently came over to cayuga because I'm tired of always getting skunked at seneca. Thought I was doing something wrong until we made the trek over there and have been doing pretty well on the exact same program, so I'm glad it wasn't just me (not to say that I'm any good at this). I can't speak for the east side - every time we've come up we've done well on the west just north of the dropoff and haven't had to stray much. Last week we mainly had dinks, so we may move next time, but we'll still start in the same place and see what happens. I can say that most of the guys seem to be (at least the times I go) on the west or in the middle, with a few boats over on the east side. We haven't trolled as far north as meyers, only because we haven't had to yet - we find a productive area and just keep trolling back through it picking up fish until the wives start calling and we have to go home...

check out my recent posts and that should give you a pretty successful program to start with - you can tweek it from there.

We did south end, west side out of tremain, on Sunday and did OK. a couple average lakers, but as Mower said - we too hit a TON of dink salmon and couldn't get anything with any size to hit. If anyone has some suggestions to boat some bigger salmon, rainbow or brown, i'm all ears... We were in 70-100ft of water, surface speed between 1.8 and 2.3, riggers down 70-50 with cheaters. braid dipseys out 100-250 ft and 7 colors of lead core. Everything took atleast one fish, but riggers seemed to be most productive. All spoons (just about every color worked, but neutral tans, brown, white took the most). tried a fly and flasher, but nothing, so we went back to spoon. didn't try any stick baits.

Fished south end in the rain on Sunday from 7-11, went 8 for 13. A couple of really nice browns and LL. Lots of dink LL and rainbow, and missed a few good ones too. Fluctuated our SOG from 1.6 to 2.0 and S-curves. Just about everything we threw out produced. Greens, tans, browns and purples on the spoons, but couldn't get anything to fire on green flasher/fly. stayed in 70-150 ft of water, downriggers down between 50-70ft with sliders and dipseys back 100-300 ft - all took fish. Rain sucked, tons of weeds and fleas, so you had to stay active clearing lines, but it was a great day of fishing.

We did pretty well there south end on Sunday AM (in the rain) and got a few nice browns. Lots of dink rainbow and salmon too.

thanks Ray.

Fished south end from 7-11AM. Managed a 17" LL, dink LL and a really big alwive while trolling through a bait pod. Tons of bait in 70-100ft of water. Went up and down east and west sides 1/2 mile past salt plant. Downriggers with flashers, dodgers and spoons, planer boards with stickbaits, braid dipsies back 100- 225 ft. Green and white spin doctors, flashers and dodgers, green and white flies, every color spoon and a couple stick baits thrown in, all in different combinations, covered 80-35 ft of the column in 60-200ft of water but just couldn't get any more takers than that. Both LL's came off of clean tan spoon/brwn. stripe with white back, 50-70ft down, 50ft stretch off the ball.

how long was the rope and what did you get it on?

I thought there was only 1 fish in Seneca - don't tell me they took it out!!!

yup - unless it's in close it's next to impossible to use mono on a dipsey. use braid or wire. we use the drag/clicker technique to and have never had a problem with wrapping.

yup - S-turn is a great tool to trigger strikes and allows you to see what the fish want. If most fish are coming on a turn, then that tells you that you either need to speed up/raise up, or lower/slow down, depending on if they hit on the inside or outside of the turn. I'm not surprised that you didn't get anything between noon and 3pm - that's usually pretty dead time, even on a good day. Few other recommendations I'd have: -I'm assuming you're running lighter line in this clear water. -try stretching the lures back off the ball, even if it's only off one side. I'll often go 50-75 ft. back if it's really clear/sunny. - vary your spreed on each side. For instance, maybe have a flasher/fly at 20 ft off the ball on one side, followed up by a clean spoon 10 ft deeper and 30-40 ft back on the other. -I've found that some times too many flashers / dodgers in the water are counterproductive. Maybe use one to draw them in, then set other clean spoons a little deeper and a little farther back. - Don't know what depths you were trolling, but don't hesitate to head out over deeper water and pick up suspended fish. -throw on a watermelon spoon on a slider/cheater off one of the rigger lines - may pick up a bow or LL.

sounds about right for that lake... seriously, the weather was a bit unsettled this weekend, so that may have some impact, but if you describe what program you ran, maybe others can chime in and help out.

nope - I go the lenght of the rod (between 7 & 9 ft) for the distance back from the dipsy, otherwise you have trouble netting. Plus, I think to some extent the dipsy acts as a bit of an attractor, so it's not that you want to get away from it the same way you would the boat (which is why you have a longer stretch off the ball). Also, keep in mind that if you're running an attractor on a dipsy it will affect the depth that it's running, since that adds more drag and affects the planing action, so if you've got two dipsies on the same setting, one with an attractor and one without, the one without will be running deeper.

Welcome to Seneca! Many on this board have been able to figure this place out, but I've fished it for years and still can't - even using suggestions from others on techniques, etc. I still get more goose egg trips than fish in the boat, even if I count pike, but I do fine other places, so I don't know what's up with this lake. I guess my post isn't so helpful to solving your problem, but just wanted to let you know that you're not alone! What I have found works is generally this, although keep in mind that I get many goose eggs too, so you'll need others to suppliment what I've got: - Try switching trolling directions (go north on the east side, south down the west.) and troll using zig-zags. This makes the speed and depth change and may trigger strikes. - Fish early AM or in late afternoon. I've had next to zero luck any other times during the day, and many say that this lake (on the south end anyway) is a late afternoon bite. - stretch the spoons back and use light lines. The water is clear, so they will see you coming... - I use a lot of natural color spoons on the opposite side of or following the rig with the attractor on it. - Dipsies work pretty well. Run clean or with small attactor. Green on green for dipsies, attractors and flies are said to be great, although I have more (albeit limited) success with natural colors. -don't be afraid to fish right on the bottom, or suspend over deeper water. We've caught fish 60-70ft down in the middle (over 400 ft. deep), especially on hot temp days. - use a cheater. I've caught quite a few on a small watermellon spoon set 40-60ft down on a line that's down 100 ft. - start shallow in the morning, then work out. They can be in 30 ft of water in the am, then move out as the day wears on. - concentrate on the points. They're usually just above or below them, so we'll often troll up, around and back down, varying depth and speed as we go. - bait pods. Some say fish them, as the fish will be around them. I tend to agree with this line of thinking, since the action, etc., will probably attract feeding fish. Others say that it's like selling hotdogs in a town where they give them away for free - there's too much competition and too many other things for the lakers to hit, so you're reducing your odds and should actually find some clear water that's holding lakers. - find someone that knows the lake and how to catch them and tag along. There are several guys here that are more than willing. I have very limited time now, so I haven't been able to take anyone up on it, but I guarantee that several will offer you - so give it a shot. You'll learn more in a morning than you will in days of tooling around on your own. I guess the best bit of advise I can give is to just be happy that you're out there. Have a beer, relax with your friends and be glad for that - it's not all about filling a cooler. This is the mantra that I may not agree with at all, but has kept me (on several occassions) from powering up the boat to full speed and driving it straight into the cliffs on the east side (I'd leave my gear down, of course).

keep in mind that largemouth are catch and release / artificial lures only until 3rd Sat in June....

10-15 ft. of 8-10 lb Seguar I stopped using vanish after several times where I'd tie on a new leader using a double uni, and the line would then break 1ft below the uni knot! My knots stink, so if new line's breaking faster than my knots, then I know it's bad line!

Ray, are you saying that the surface speeds generally match the downspeeds? I understand the difference between GPS and surface/downspeed, but I don't have a probe, so that's a good bit of knowledge to have! Based on that then, am I correct in assuming that coming up the east side, for instance, I'd need to go faster, because I'm going with the current, but going up the west side I'd need to slow down because then I'm heading into it? What do you use to determine surface speed, something like a Luhrs speed indicator? Wouldn't this vary on days when there's a good northerly or southerly blow?

I don't fish that lake much, but if it's anything like Keuka and seneca, then there are some techniques/things to know that may help. First, there is a pretty limited window when they're really active. Just after sunrise for about an hour and just before sunset. Look for relatively shallow rocky points, and fish them hard both on and around either side of the point. There are fish that will suspend over deeper water and go after bait schools, but they're harder to get.

Nice pics - that rainbow is gorgeous!

Amen to that.

Assuming people are reasonable about it, I can't understand why NY has a rod / hook point maximum per angler when we have a daily limit for species. I know other states have daily limits, and you're allowed to fish as many lines / hooks as it takes to get you there. Think about it - will the fish in the box care if they came off of 5 lines instead of 2? The end result is still the same, you're just out there longer, burning more gas, with less lines in the water.

I often do what Ray suggests - head up to Sodus and bring the bass gear too. Then if the water's coming up over the breakers we can just fish in the bay. I don't like driving 2.5 hrs to bass fish, but it's better than going up all that way and not being able to do anything...

Oneida's close, but I've only fished it in winter for walleye, so I don't know how it would be this time of year, but I think they do ahve some trout in there (just don't drink the water!). I don't know about size of trout though, if that's what you're after, but there are some pretty good walleye, if you're into that kind of fishing. If you're more into trout, I'd say head down rte 104 to 38 and hit Cayuga. There are a few other finger lakes west of there that may be closer, but I don't know that the size of fish would compare. I don't fish Cayuga much, but the few times I did I did pretty well there. There are a bunch of guys here that do fish it, so I'm sure they can chime in to assist. Also, I don't know if these will help, but here are some links that may give you a heads up on conditions/weather in Lake O before you make a long drive.... http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=osgn6 http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/fmtbltn ... loz044.txt http://instacam.com/instacamimg/SDSPN/SDSPN_S.jpg?rnd=

THanks to everyone for the assistance. Yes, I did go out of dean's which is right near sheldrake, and right where I needed to be. Here's why I was confused: Link to the site (which shows the picture of the launch, and that is indeed it): http://nysparks.state.ny.us/parks/info.asp?parkID=10 Mapquest of the contact info. address from the upper right of that page: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?se ... y&zipcode= As you can see, it's a little confusing, since they didn't provide an address to Deans, but rather contact info., which was for a state park farther up the lake! Not knowing the area, but being really good at typing, it was MAPQUEST that contributed to the confusion Thanks again!

Wait, not I'm confused. I thought long point was on the east side, half way up the lake near aurora, and deans was just south of Seneca Falls, on the northern west side? Am I totally wrong here? Like I said above, long point would be great by water - cause it's close to my destination, but by car my wife would need to drive all the way back around to the other side of the lake to get to where we'll be, then reverse that when it's time to go home... way to much driving just to get the boat in the water for a day (in the mind of the wife )