First trip ever on Cayuga 5/23

[Car-Lee514]

After reading all the reports on here for the last year and a half I finally decided to make the 2 1/2 hour drive and give Cayuga a try.  Brought a couple buddies who have only trolled a couple times in their lives.  On the water by 7 and headed home around 3.

 

Went 6 for 9 all lakers, with the majority coming between 7-10 am.  Headed north from Long point and fished over 80-150 ft.  Best action seemed to be over 100-120 and down 60-90.  Speed anywhere from 2.2 to 2.7 gps.  Was mainly a downrigger /spoon bite with 5 coming off the riggers and one on a 5 color.  Lost a good one within the first ten minutes on a 3 color, hit so hard it submerged the planer board for a solid 5 -10 seconds.  Line broke about 5 seconds after the board resurfaced.  Really wish we could have seen that one.

 

Could not seem to get anything going on the dispsies,  which surprised me as the majority of the reports I have read on Cayuga usually have dipsies being one of the best presentations.  I ran  two size 5 chinook divers with 8 inch spinny and fly on both.  Ran them anywhere from 130 to 210 out.  1 was green dot spinny with green hammer fly and other was wonderbread with a mirage fly.  12 foot leaders from diver to spinny, and 22 inch lead from spinny to fly.  Anybody have any suggestions what might be wrong with this setup?  Or is it just one of those deals where some days dipsies take the majority and some days downriggers?

 

Overall, for our first time on the lake we were thrilled and learned a lot, we will definitely be back in a few weeks.  Hopefully, we can find some silver bites next time.  We ran two 3 color, two 5 color and sliders on both riggers, all with small sticks spoons hoping to find some silver fish but no luck.  Next time we will try to be on the water by 6 as the bite definitely seemed best in the first few hrs.  Any suggestions on something different to try for some silvers or what to do different with the dipsies would be appreciated.

 

 

[Capt.JoeSich]

I'm surprised you werent getting lakers to go on your divers and flashers. Constantly change how far they're out if they're not getting bit. All I run are size 1 dipsys divers (regular size) and run them anywhere from 30 -275 out. 275 is about maxed, you  should be around 100 feet at that depth on a 2 setting. There are some days they want spoons on divers. Sometimes spoons buried and sometimes spoons up high. When the Lakers are aggressive and feeding you will get the higher marks to go I've found on spoons. Some days you need to bury a flasher on a rigger and diver to get bit , depends on their mood. If the flashers aren't going switch to spoons. What they like varies from something natural to bright colors, a spoon buried on a diver and another mid column will take active Lakers and silvers, in my experience. if your divers aren't going on Cayuga while targeting primarily Lakers, change something. 

[Car-Lee514]

14 minutes ago, Capt.JoeSich said:

I'm surprised you werent getting lakers to go on your divers and flashers. Constantly change how far they're out if they're not getting bit. All I run are size 1 dipsys divers (regular size) and run them anywhere from 30 -275 out. 275 is about maxed, you  should be around 100 feet at that depth on a 2 setting. There are some days they want spoons on divers. Sometimes spoons buried and sometimes spoons up high. When the Lakers are aggressive and feeding you will get the higher marks to go I've found on spoons. Some days you need to bury a flasher on a rigger and diver to get bit , depends on their mood. If the flashers aren't going switch to spoons. What they like varies from something natural to bright colors, a spoon buried on a diver and another mid column will take active Lakers and silvers, in my experience. if your divers aren't going on Cayuga while targeting primarily Lakers, change something. 

Yeah, I was very surprised that they weren’t producing either.  I did switch them to spoons later in the morning and did take 1 good hit, on for a few seconds but it didn’t stick.  
 

Based on the chinook diver chart I should have been hitting 55 -90 ft down.  I will try some more variation on lead lengths/depth next time and try to get a few more color combos, but those are the only 2 I have right now.

 

thanks

[Reel Doc]

Sounds like a great first trip!  I'm betting that out over 80 plus fow the 3 color screamer was your silver fish for the day.  As the water warms a significant disparity seems to develop and by Thermocline time in mid-July the Silvers tend to consistently be higher in the column and the Lakers deeper.

Depending on where you marked fish sometimes directly determines best areas for spoon and Dipsey placement.  Early morning and late day they may prowl along the whole column, but with a high sun, many go near the bottom by 9-10 am.  Don't be afraid to drop a rigger with spoon and a Dipsey with flasher/fly inches from the bottom and hang on when they fire.  Midday monsters often like the bottom and only get excited if you dangle a morsel right in front of them.  Best of luck and keep us posted on future trips!!

[Car-Lee514]

1 hour ago, Reel Doc said:

Sounds like a great first trip!  I'm betting that out over 80 plus fow the 3 color screamer was your silver fish for the day.  As the water warms a significant disparity seems to develop and by Thermocline time in mid-July the Silvers tend to consistently be higher in the column and the Lakers deeper.

Depending on where you marked fish sometimes directly determines best areas for spoon and Dipsey placement.  Early morning and late day they may prowl along the whole column, but with a high sun, many go near the bottom by 9-10 am.  Don't be afraid to drop a rigger with spoon and a Dipsey with flasher/fly inches from the bottom and hang on when they fire.  Midday monsters often like the bottom and only get excited if you dangle a morsel right in front of them.  Best of luck and keep us posted on future trips!!

Yeah, we were kicking ourselves all day on that one breaking off and we’re thinking that was probably a big silver fish with the intensity of that hit.  
 

I will try working right on bottom next trip if the bite slows down later in the morning, thanks for the advice.  Next trip is already being planned for a few weeks and I report how we do.

[J Fish n]

Just got out on Cayuga the other few days and got a bunch of lakers in 20-30 fow smashing on planer boards, wasn’t looking for lakers much so headed out to 100 fow and was catching silver down 15 in 100 fow and also down 30. Temperature was almost 55 down where I was fishing for the bows. 2.2 MPH been hitting for me. 

[Car-Lee514]

Nice bows! Hoping to find some of those next trip

[J Fish n]

You definitely are gonna get into them  ur gonna be hooked on yuga like the rest of us lolol have a good day and best of luck next time out!