Cayuga Jigging Report - 8/11 - 8/16

[PCPete]

Rented a cottage just north of Longpoint on the lake for the last week. Even thought I have them (we took pictures of all fish that landed in the boat to keep track of how many we had caught), I refuse to post the 50+ pictures of fish we caught last week Jigging. All fish were caught on the east side of the lake. 

All fish were caught on Hermit's 1oz or 1.5oz jig heads with zoom flukes (mostly white). 

 

Here are pics of the biggest 4. All fish were caught Jigging in the morning (we were usually on the water by 6am) and despite many attempts, we were unable to catch any at night... Not sure what I'm doing wrong there but the weather was also pretty bad most the time (that may have been the problem). Hell one night we went out in the boat with wetsuits on, in the middle of a what ended up being a monsoon but with no good results at either Deans Cove or on the east side across from it.  

 

The largest fish caught was by my sister and weighed in at 7.42 pounds on the digital scale and measured 28" long. All other fish (apart from the 4 below) were released unharmed (I'm getting good at this burping the fish thing). Second picture has bad color on it because my buddy was playing too much with it on his phone, its his first LT ever caught though. I took one of just the fish on mine but without faces.  

 

 

 

 

It would have been impossible to go vertical Jigging most days last week without the Minn Kota Terrova 24v with the 60" shaft (thanks to everyone who pushed for the 60" shaft and 24 volts when I was on the edge). The motor was awesome and enabled us to Jig for fish in pretty much anything that didn't crash over the bow of my 16.5" Aluminum Deep V Hull. As long as the battery's held out we could go Jigging and the motor kept us in one spot on the water. i-Pilot anchor lock is great! I highly recommend this upgrade (although it was expensive) for anyone who wants to be able to Jig regardless of bad weather or wind.

I also made another discovery last week after my buddy pointed out to me I was using a nice Baitcasting reel on a spinning medium action ugly stick and convinced me to pickup a new pole. Honestly I never knew there was a different type of pole for Baitcasting reels. First day in the water with the Field and Stream Tec Spec Medium action baitcasting pole and I had 10 fish in the boat before 9am. It was a complete game-changer for me and as they were on clearance, I ended up buying 3 that night and replacing all my ugly sticks. The stiffness of the pole is perfect for Jigging and definitely allows you to feel the fish properly on the drop and better set the hook. Being able to feel the fish hit the jig and being able to react properly in a timely manor was the difference between 2 fish in the boat and 10+ in the same time.  

 

All and all it was a great week for fishing, only two incidents where the boat and the dock had a fight in the storms. The Tuesday storm I stayed out fishing a little too long and ended up smashing the transducer off the back of the boat when it came down hard as I was trying to put it on the lift. Lesson learned there, lucky the mount from my old fish finder (which I still have laying around) fit perfectly and we were back in action the next day. 

 

Thanks to all who helped with the decision on the motor and before it the FF, hummingbird 386CI performed great as well!

-Pete 

 

[hermit]

Nice Pete that's a fun week with some good fishing.  Jealous of anyone with the anchor lock feature!  Sure beats putting a hand on the trolling motor every five seconds.

[chowder]

Nice going Pete! Might squeeze in a quick outing Sat, anxious to try out Hermit's 1.5s, maybe they will help me stay a bit more vertical. -Andy

[justtracytrolling]

Hard to swallow the cost of the terrova but I love mine!  Great trip thanks for sharing.