EarlyRiser

Count me in. I'll be out there at first light

Lots of helpful tips. Many thanks to you all!

Interesting. Had not thought of it from those angles. Thanks.

I'm hoping for some advice here. We lost a few nice fish (likely a couple big lakers and one very strong salmon or brown) this weekend on two of my hottest lures (a 4" purple spoon and a purple fly). Now I know that losing fish is normal, but the trouble is that my most active lures are also the only lures we lose fish on and they are just about the only ones I have with single hooks instead of treble hooks. I'm thinking of changing these up to some good strong treble hooks or maybe adding a trailing treble? Have any of you made this move, and if so, what size and brand do you recommend? Thanks. Kyle

Yes. Love it. You can really load up the rod, yet still set the release light enough for short salmon to trip it.

Made it out for a few hours last night. We trolled northward from Myers, trying both the east and west sides in 70-150' fow. It was pretty slow, but we did manage to go 3/3 with two lakers and one salmon. There is a ton of debris in the water on the east side of the lake, but it was clear on the west side. Not much bait in either area, save a little bit right by Myers and Taughannock. As we were leaving to head back to the dock in the waning light, a gigantic 8-10' heavy log went floating down the middle of the lake near Frontenac Pt. Watch out for that one this weekend! On the plus side, we did get to try out my Spindoctors for the first time (only used on a charter previously). They certainly add some drag to the setup, but the lakers seem to like them. Took one laker on each of the Spindoctor rigs -- green dot with a purple fly and green nuclear with a green and white fly. We ran these rigs down 60-70'. We caught the salmon on a 10 color with a green and blue spoon. Surface temps ranged from 56-59 degrees. Have a wonderful weekend, but stop at some point to remember those who died to make sure that we have the opportunity to enjoy it!

Thanks for the report. May try that out one evening this week. With the warmer water it may be time to start including some laker presentations...

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Fantastic brown for Cayuga. Congrats and thanks for sharing!

Yes. It was definitely bad mid-lake this weekend. Gigantic clumps of debris and logs. There were a few that could do some damage if you hit them at speed. We need a good strong west wind to send things back to shore.

I am not in the tournament this coming weekend, so I will share a brief report and a couple pics. Three of us launched at Myers and fished from 7:00am until about 12:30pm on Saturday. We finished with the fish still biting, but I had to get home. Total count was 13 fish with some dinks and some nice ones, too. We kept some and threw some back. Two best fish of the day were this 9.5 lb brown and 5.5 lb salmon. There was a lot of debris in the center of the lake and we killed more than a dozen lampreys today. For the second time this spring, we had a nice fish jump and get off the hook, leaving only a lamprey behind. It's like adding insult to injury! We marked water temps from 47 degrees all the way up to 55 degrees. Good luck to everyone in the tournament this weekend! Kyle

I got a good deal on a set of Bert's swivel bases, so I am all set. I found my used walker downrigger and now I just need a swivel base for it. Send me a message if you have one. Thanks Kyle

I'll second that advice. His website is a very good resource, but you also might consider a guided trip to learn the technique and some good locations in your area. I've gone out with John and found it incredibly helpful and fun, too! White 3-4" rubber baits with some type of an action tail (paddle tail or forked tail) on them make great jigging baits. Put them on a 1-1.5 ounce jig head and make sure you are making good contact with bottom. Enjoy!

Thanks again! All the kinks are worked out now.

My buddy Doug and I enjoyed a great morning on Cayuga yesterday. Trolled the south end and there were great conditions and very little boat traffic. We boated 4 browns, 4 salmon, 1 laker, and one bonus northern pike. All fish were 20" or more and the browns were particularly large and heavy. Best day of fishing I've ever had without paying for it. Water temps were steady near 44 degrees down south and closer to 41 by Myers. Tons of lamprey. Fish came in with as many as 4 small lampreys attached.

2 friends joined me and we launched from Treman by about 8:00 Saturday morning. After a delay due to some coolant flow issues, we carefully made our way through the inlet. My 17' bay boat does not ride very deep, so we were OK, but the water depths ranged from 2' to 9' on the way out. Be careful. We trolled the south end on both sides and across the middle along the drop off until about 2pm with very little luck. Even with a six rod spread including a variety of colors and depths, we only managed a healthy pickerel and a 26" laker. Water temps ranged from 46 degrees to 50 degrees at the surface. Today was not our day, but at least it was beautiful weather and the engine is shooting a strong stream of water out the side again. Next time...

Congrats. Sounds like a great day.

Sounds like a nice evening. It's always nice when the big pigs are biting.

Thanks. It's tough to tell because of the low light when we took the pic, but this is actually a brown. Oddly enough, we were in fairly shallow most of the evening (85-150') and then picked up the brown after we were out over 350 fow.

Got out for about three hours tonight with a friend. Trolled North from Taughannock and we hit 11 fish, including 8 salmon, 2 lakers and one brown. We tried, but could not quite get a rainbow tonight. A beautiful evening on the water! No weeds or flees to speak of on the west side, but there were some in the middle and on the east side near AES. I am not able to fish the tournament tomorrow, but maybe next year. Good luck to all of you!

My buddy Adam and I went out for 4 hours this morning. We got started at 5:30am trolling northbound from Taughannock past the Scout Camp. It was good action from the start -- we could not keep the lines in the water for the first two hours. Among the haul was a trio of salmon 19-22" and we had some heavy, hard-fighting fish hit us (One fish straightened out the ring on my "heavy duty" snap swivel and got away with a favorite spoon.) We did not catch a single laker this morning, which was odd compared to my typical day using this same basic approach and colors in the same area. Fish hit divers, rigger, and leadcore. Our best lures were purple/black and orange/black. Speed 2.4-2.6 between 200' and 330'.

Name: EarlyRiser Location: Ithaca Home Port: Cayuga -- Myers Pt. Boat Name/Type: No Name; 17' KeyWest I fish for: Lakers, Landlocks, Browns, Rainbows ================== I've only been fishing the finger lakes for 2 seasons now, but I'm eager and I'm learning. This forum and trips with John Gaulke and ReelHookedUp have been very helpful so far. Many thanks to these guys for sharing their knowledge and to all of you for your posts. I look forward to participating! Kyle