Fingerlakes cold front strategy

[lil' troller]

We have been doing very well on the fingerlakes (cayuga, seneca, and owasco), but the cold fronts always have us scratching our heads. I know its tough for everyone, but i'm hoping i can pick some of your brains to get some ideas. A couple of tournaments were real tough this year, and we tried everything. Slowing down our presentation and slower lures seemed to help, but do any of you have a go to set up? during tournaments we are usually fishing suspended lakers. Does the cold front effect different species differently or does the whole lake shut down? Slow and deep seem to work for lakers, but i'm trying to get some more options.

Thanks

Ben

[traveling man]

the only thing I would do different from what you do is target lakers on the bottom during a cold front. I don't think there is any magic set up for cold fronts just put in your time and stay around fish.

[rustyrat]

I never noticed anything that different on Cayuga. some days they hit good, dome days they don't. Usually when a significant cold front comes thru, its too rough to fish that day. I do remember a day when a front came thru about 1 hour before the 2008 LOU derby. I slammed em that morning after all the storms passed.

RR

[lakebound88]

I hear ya. This past year was by far the best season i have ever had in my life, on Seneca Lake. We Caught fish no matter the conditions. However, for an entire month before the Red Cross Derby, i had the landlocks dialed in out of watkins with 6-9lbs LL's being the norm.. I was sure i could boat one in that range for the derby.. We tried everything and couldnt even do one the entire weekend...All of the setups that were golden, were firing lakers, browns, bows, but no LL's. The night of the fireworks in watkins, weekend before the derby, i boated a 7 lb LL. Kinda irritated me, bc it was a weekend too soon, right off hector in the weed/lice infected water. But, with the go to gear failing and all the lakers small on the south end, we ran the boat from watkins all the way to Lodi, this is where the action got great. We hit fish from lodi to sampson and back. All depth ranges, from 2 color LC to 110 down on the riggers..I have no idea why Lakers were so high in the water column, the surface temp was 75 degrees... This is where we got the Lunker for the red cross ... Lucky us.

The week after the red cross, i was able to get the LL's firing again, on the go to setups..

When i sold the sea ray in august, i was without a boat for a two weekends. And with the "wife" telling me what to do, i dint fish for a while either. Til about September. When i got the trophy ready to roll. I couldnt put a fish in my boat to save my life. I dont know what happened from the second week of august til september, but i couldnt find fish to save me. To this day, i am still left stumped... So i am right there with you on the brain buster in cold fronts and even the hot hot hot dog streaks.

I have fished in some of the worst weather on seneca, and still had better days than i did in september.

After i am done rambling on..do ya agree?

[lil' troller]

I agree. We always put fish in the boat too, but somedays its like someone flips a switch, and everything shuts down. We fish mostly Cayuga, but we hit the seneca derby the last two years. We had a slip on the south end and stayed on the south half for the derby, I think we will be hitting the north end more this year. Thats funny about your landlock the weekend before the derby, we caught this 8lb LL two days before the derby.

After the red cross I got to see your laker in the cooler at the awards, that was a hell of a fish. Is it on your wall yet? We wound up with the 5th place LL for the red cross that came out of Cayuga. Anyways back to the topic. I think there is a trend with cold fronts and it seems like there has to be active fish somewhere, or a better presentation for these days. It works the other way to as RR was saying sometimes a front comes through then BAM you can't keep them off the hook. I don't complain about those days though lol.

Thanks for the input everyone.

[lakebound88]

Thats a nice fish. The laker is at the taxidermists. I should have it back in april. the place that was on the red cross form said they were not aware that the ads said free mount to lunker winners. So i took my business elsewhere. I am furious, wheather it be red cross' fault or the taxidermists..

However we will be slipped at sampson for the trout derby this year. But fish out of watkins yr round. The marina has a launch right by my boat...4 bucks.. but you dont have to deal with all of the other launchers like you do atclute or the village marina..

[rshubuck]

Its funny you mention that RR lil troller. I was just thinking about it and that day we went out it was a pretty hot spoon. I haven't caught very many fish on the RR since. But my stinger spoons never let me down.

[lil' troller]

i meant rustyrat, but r&r spoons do the job some days. i got some r&r spoons at the lou derby a few years ago that were different than the ones he sells now. they did well when i got them and then i guessed he changed his spoons. The new style still did well, i just wish i had more of the other style. I think it has a lot to do with speed. If suttons and alpena diamonds and some r&r spoons are working , your spinnies and nk's aren't. Did real well with r&r at a slow troll, but you know my go to, mountain dew w/ proctologist. Its not always hot, but it always catches fish. I'm looking to modify some mountain dew spinnies for the fingerlakes, i'll fill you in if they work well. Big Weenies oily stool looks like it will be a hot fly for the fingerlakes too. I'm itching to be out there. I'm trying to get my icefishing gear in order but it just doesn't do it anymore lol. I'm addicted to trolling . As soon as the canal out of treeman opens up we'll be back out. T-falls is a little too tight for our liking in the trophy. Another month or two and its game on!

[lakebound88]

happy birthday lil troller

[lil' troller]

There is another lil troller on here, must be his birthday. Mine was back in december.

[lakebound88]

to december! haha

[lil' troller]

lol, thanks.