Cayuga 9/12

[Frisco]

Had a steady day on Cayuga nothing spectacular. We kept 3 LLs in the 21" class released several and boated two Lakers in the 7 lb class. We stayed with a spoon program hoping to do something with browns or bows without success. Didn't find much north of T-Falls or around AES. Most of the action came around the point of T-falls several were caught on sliders with the balls at 70'. The down temp was all over the place, we would have 52 degrees at 65' then it would jump to 58. This is my first year with a probe. Is the usual in the fall or is it because of windy days. I suggest working south of T-Falls that where we marked the most fish & bait.

Ken

[rshubuck]

Its my first year with a probe also. I know it has to do with the wind. I was just up on Ontario this weekend. I couldn't find cold water. I drove about 5 miles off Oswego and surface temp was 69 and down 160ft was 64 degree water. Drove to Rochester yesterday and drove Mayble 20 to 25 mile N in 560fow water and finally found 52 degree water 130 ft down. They just got pounded with wind the last few weeks. Its messed everything up. I too would like to know if this happens every year or not to this scale.

[chowder]

I've been running probes for a while and here's few things I've learned;

1.) the FLX, and other deeper inland lakes and the Great Lakes are totally different . Deeper inland lakes (FLX, Otsego, and other northern cold water lakes develope a 'thermocline' in early summer which is relatively stable until fall. Currents and wind and structural bathymetric issues do cause changes but nothing like what happens on the Great lakes.

2.) The Great Lakes water column temp does stratify by depth but the water temps in one place from day to day are created by the wind moving over really large square miles of water. A period of relatively consistent mild wind from more or less the same direction will, over a period of days, stabilize a water column temp situation in which the prefered temp for kings will be @ a certain depth. Unfortunately highly variable winds and sudden winds will move huge expanses of cold water ( and the fish that like it) many miles away overnight, temp breaks and upwellings of cold water can be a gold mine under these conditions!

On the FLX , mature salmon and lakers like to be in water from 44-50 (browns llike it 55-60+), actively feeding fish will go up into warmer water, so you need to bracket temps and do what is working. I use the temp probes when I'm searching. When I get onto fish , I let the fish tell me what I need to do. On Sat we saw definite changes in temp @ 90-110 down over 300+ FOW but nothing that enabled me to come up w/ any kind of presentation pattern. We took fish from 70' down to 120' down over 220-400FOW. down temps over that range were from 56-42.