Cayuga Lake Last Sunday

[Rovente]

Help me out. Started fishing before sunup in front of the Ithica Yacht club. Only marked a few fish. By 7 I motored up to T-Falls and marked tons of fish 100 yards from shore but could not get them to bite. Was anyone else able to boat fish Sunday?. How deep you you guys run your dipsy rods in 120 feet of water?

[chowder]

Staged and spawning lakers can be pretty frustrating and for some reason Cayuga's seem to be more vexing than those in other lakes. It seems to me that you simply have to accept that you need to find pods of 'active' fish, and when you do, don't leave them. This can be a pretty frustrating way to spend a day and that's why a lot of people just tend to fish elsewhere in the fall. It's not that there won't be some good days, or a good moment or 2 for somebody on any day, but I do think that overall Cayuga's lakers are pretty negative from late Sept thru Oct compared w/ those in Seneca,Owasco and, judging from other people's reports, those in Candy and Keuka. Just my 2 cents...

[Skippers Trophy 01]

Anthony - that was us out there in the Trophy, we could not get any hooked either.

We are used to seing that reaction from lakers this time of year, but thought the marks at 40&50 would result in some bows, no luck there either.

-Steve

[Rovente]

I am glad that I wasn't the only one not boating fish. My fishing buddy and I have had a bunch of trips without fish now and were laughing as we loaded up the boat Sunday that we must the the worst fishermen on the fingerlakes!

[perch predator]

it seems like you gotta jig them, and there are usually a few in those schools that are pissed off enough to bite. other than that floating sacs from shore.

[LakerTaker85]

We have been fishing Cayuga, out of Sheldrake, for the past four weekends and every time we come home with a cooler of NICE lakers, browns, smaller rainbows and salmon. Some days the riggers are leading the way, we fish silver, green, purple spoons mainly back off the ball like 50-65 foot. The sutton spoons have been really producing. Our dipsys are also getting some good numbers, we run these back anywheres from 125 (on the 1 setting) to 250 (on the 2.5-3.0 setting) depending on depth. Th dipsys are mainly catching salmon and rainbows, but we do get the lakers. We run 50# power pro and usually 7-8 foot leader of 17# flouro behind the dipsy. We also run lead core of our planner boards with either spoons or small stick baits, depending on what the fish are into that day. The lead cores have produced our biggest browns including some in the 7-8 pound range. Off the middle we run our copper back 300-400ft with a silver spoon and this KILLS monster lakers!! We let it drag bottom using a fix hook spoon, try it youll never fish for lakers without it! We never come home without landing over ten lakers of the copper and more than not we get a few close to ten pounds. We fish south from sheldrake in the 75-90 foot area, and lately it has been loaded with nice fish and tons of bait. We will be out there this weekend for sure

[chowder]

Laker taker, I've worked that stretch some this fall w/ a program similar to the one you describe, though I'm not sure what you are running for cores (I alternate between 6,7,8 and 10 colors). I can't say I've had near the success that you have had,especially w/ the bows,salmon and browns(most of the ones I get are 3lbs or a little better- I'd love to see some pics of those 7 and 8 lbers! What down speed are you running and what temps seem to be working?. Perhaps I'll see you out there, I'll be on 68. -Andy (Blue/White Starcraft Islander)

[jason]

Anthony, let me know if you want another trip with me...ill show you how to get those lakers to bite....

[LakerTaker85]

we dont have a down probe so temp and speed is something we have learned from experience... our top speed is usually 2.2-2.5. And with temps we dont usually go by the temp breaks, we mark fish on our hummingbird and place our gear in that area. Fishing in 75-90 foot the temp is not as important, especially if the fish are on the screen. Our lead cores are spaced out differently also we run one at 8 colors and the other almost all of it is out. We are constantly changing the distance on our dipsys and leads, and we change our lure color a lot until we find some consistency.

ill post some pics