Cayuga ..Nice silvers on the jig 7/1/16

[bulletbob]

 I  got out at dawn and fished HARD all morning.. Not a touch ..fished from Myers north to about 1 mile north of Taughannock on the east side, and about a mile north to a mile south on the west side.. Not even a touch from a laker.. Caught one perch about 9 inches on a big laker size jig... Disgusted, i was about to let my last  drop down at about 11:15.. Was  finishing up maybe 1/4 north of the park and was disgusted and ready to call it a day.. Saw a bait pod suspended maybe 30 feet down over 70.. Saw a nice arch above the bait and started reeling, not expecting anything.. Bang!.. nice 20+ inch rainbow  surfaces... oops,, NO net.. Left it home like a jackass, something I haven't done in decades.. Sometimes idiots get lucky, and I hand  boated it,,,  Fished another 1/2 hour without a touch, and again was about to head for the ramp.. Now I was south of the park in about 75 fow, and again saw a few slashes,, Reeled straight  up, and I got whacked hard.. Knew right away it was a really nice fish..  I got almost spooled a few times, as  i had to give ground or that 8 pound test would have broken.. After what seemed like 20 minutes, I  got her up, and I was sick over not having a net,, Big landlock , jumping, rolling, sounding right straight down every time I tried to hand boat her..  I got really lucky I guess, the hooks held, and after about 4 attempts, I had her exhausted and was able to grab her across the gills and get her in the boat.. 26 inches, big around as a football, and 8 pounds..   I haven't caught a keeper silver in several years while jigging lakers, most shorts, and follows ,,, i was positive I was destined to get the skunk, but as it turned out, I was happy with only 2 fish today... btw,  I have eaten Cayuga rainbow trout several times, and always thought they were terrible.. Nasty, rotten, oily, soft  and fishy.. This one was firm and very sweet to my surprise... It was as firm and mild as a perch... I wasn't expecting that..

 

Talked to other guys today  and it was slow  jigging for them as well..
. It was  nice to pull a rabbit out of the hat for a change.. lately, i have not done well in Cayuga...

 

Tried  some fishing for big Bluegills, Pumpkinseeds, and Perch with worms and mealworms, something I have loved to do for years.. Looks like that type of fishing is all over.. Cleaned out by Gobies instantly, even worse than last year.. Can't even take my 3 year old grandson fishing for sunnies due to the damn Gobies... Gonna start learning Cayuta Lake for panfish.. I hear its good there for perch, crappies, Sunnies, etc... bob

[Nautitroller]

Nice report Bob!! Good looking healthy fish!

[Hop]

Really nice fish, Bob.  You will be happy to know I have a brand spanking jigging rig all set and ready to go.  Another arrow for the quiver.  Now to find some time to try it out... 

[bulletbob]

Really nice fish, Bob.  You will be happy to know I have a brand spanking jigging rig all set and ready to go.  Another arrow for the quiver.  Now to find some time to try it out... 

   The thing with jigging is this.. It can be  really tough when the fish are scattered... However, when you find concentrations, it can be more productive than trolling.. However, trollers usually catch more and more varied species than us jiggers.. It is a LOT more fun per fish however.. To me, trolling deep is boring,, Yes you catch fish, but with the  trolling tackle, and moving boat, It always felt to me like reeling up a wet blanket... I do like flatline trolling because you can stop the boat and play the fish.. Thats just me.. When I lived in NJ, I didn't troll in salt either, and sometimes if you didn't troll you went home fishless.. Once you get  a 10 fish day on jigs, you might get 2nd thjoughts about trolling...... maybe .... bob

[bulletbob]

Nice report Bob!! Good looking healthy fish!

 LL had lamprey marks.. rainbow had a  lamprey on but the bastard got off when I was finagling the grab around the gills.. That SOB eel is  lucky i forgot my net.. If I had it, and got that eel in the boat, it would be on the bottom  in about 5 pieces getting shredded by the goby hordes....

[alex1young]

Nice LL

[hermit]

Nice fish Bob! That's a fatty!

[ERABBIT]

WTG Bob , I felt the same way when trolling with all the hardware down catch a lot of fish but not much fight.....2005 started asking questions about just a spoon program dialed one in over the next few years and lived and died by it , great fight from a 17" laker on this gear with just a spoon and slivers and browns AWESOME fight ....... then the last few years it got tough for my spoon program just too many fishless days so I went back to pulling hardware to boat some fish...... it great you are staying with it , think you guys will work out a program for the sliver fish also a bit at a time your off to a very good start now......NICE fish

[bulletbob]

WTG Bob , I felt the same way when trolling with all the hardware down catch a lot of fish but not much fight.....2005 started asking questions about just a spoon program dialed one in over the next few years and lived and died by it , great fight from a 17" laker on this gear with just a spoon and slivers and browns AWESOME fight ....... then the last few years it got tough for my spoon program just too many fishless days so I went back to pulling hardware to boat some fish...... it great you are staying with it , think you guys will work out a program for the sliver fish also a bit at a time your off to a very good start now......NICE fish

 I have found a  deep water jigging  lure that I think will add a lot of silvers.. Jigging is great, but lets face it, its mostly lakers and once in a blue  moon you luck into a salmon, brown or rainbow, but still its 100 to 1... I will do some more experimenting, but don't want to say much right now, as there are just too many lurkers, and I prefer at this time to keep this within the community. If this works as  well as i thought when I discovered these lures and bought a few online, I will let the members here know what i found via PM... bob

[ERABBIT]

I agree on just too many lurkers , 

​I've had some ideas on it also just never put the time in to see. Trolling you find some honey holes for slivers and browns that I should go back and jig or just run-n-gun those spots hit or miss and move on..... hope you have good luck with your approach... 

[gonefishing71]

sounds like a fun day, and it's always good to avoid the skunk, we jigged from 6:00 to 1:00 Friday morning, from Meyers to AES

 

only landed 3 lakers, small, small, small  all 3 were 12""

 

but we had my buddies and my daughter and they had fun so it was a win

[bulletbob]

sounds like a fun day, and it's always good to avoid the skunk, we jigged from 6:00 to 1:00 Friday morning, from Meyers to AES

 

only landed 3 lakers, small, small, small  all 3 were 12""

 

but we had my buddies and my daughter and they had fun so it was a win

 While I am sorry you guys didn't do well, it makes me feel better knowing I wasn't the only one that found poor fishing in that area on friday.. I might have seen you guys out there as I was in the same area  from 6 till about 11, when I crossed over to the west side and lucked into those fish. There were several boats jigging that stretch . That steady south wind didn't help... Personally, I always have trouble and never do very well when there are whitecaps on the lake.

 Both fish I caught were on the lee side of Taughannock Point. The rainbow was caught north of the point as the  morning's south wind was dying down in fairly calm water, and then the wind instantly turned around  to the north at one point, and I went south of T point to again fish on the lee side.. It worked out.. There were fish and bait on both sides of the lake, it was just easier to stay on them for a while on the west side in the coves north and south of T point. I had my old 18 foot Starcraft, and it does not have a bow mounted trolling motor yet.. I should probably get one on there... bob

[gonefishing71]

bob, I was in a green crestiner, bait was all over, however we marked very few big fish

 

I usually do better when the lake is rough, it's hard to stay on them, but they bite better for me

 

I just had to work out a good process, 

 

I haven't had any luck in that area this year, normally we do very well there, next week we're going to launch at union springs try the other end

[bulletbob]

bob, I was in a green crestiner, bait was all over, however we marked very few big fish

 

I usually do better when the lake is rough, it's hard to stay on them, but they bite better for me

 

I just had to work out a good process, 

 

I haven't had any luck in that area this year, normally we do very well there, next week we're going to launch at union springs try the other end

 

bob, I was in a green crestiner, bait was all over, however we marked very few big fish

 

I usually do better when the lake is rough, it's hard to stay on them, but they bite better for me

 

I just had to work out a good process, 

 

I haven't had any luck in that area this year, normally we do very well there, next week we're going to launch at union springs try the other end

 Lots of bait on the east side, but you are  right, not a lot on them from what I could see on my screen and I do have a good FF- Garmin 500C.. When I moved across the lake to the west side i saw more big marks on the bait  pods, and it was calm enough in the shelter of the coves to stay on them long enough to hook up twice.. I always run right across the lake right to the east side without even checking the west side.. I think I will break that habit for a while... bob

[jk1]

We went up on the 2nd and turned around and went home.  To rough for us.....jk

[Gill-T]

If you are targeting panfish remember panfish will rise to a bait but gobies will not leave the bottom. If you are getting robbed by gobies try slip bobber rigging off the bottom