First Post - Cayuga 9/11

[TheToadHunter]

After reading a few posts on here about trolling Cayuga, I thought I'd give it a serious try considering Lake O was calling for 30mph winds. Trolling for trout and salmon is new to me, but water temps and fish behavior is not. Launched my bass boat out of Myer's around 8 and headed for the closest and steepest drop shown on my Garmin. 10 minutes in I dropped a bow and laker at the boat. The action continued until 11ish when I decided food outweighed the fight with waves. I fished one rod between 9-10:30 because 1 or 2 minutes down resulted in a bite.

I pulled back into the lot and rigged up as a few guys in the derby were taking out and mingling (1 o'clockish). Thought about introducing myself, but my saltwater gear turned into trolling gear made me feel out of place. Went back out to the morning location and was plagued by small landlocks that couldn't even trip the dipsy's. Headed north for 2 hours to explore and not a bite. When I headed back down lake south of Myer's, I only managed two more landlocks about 17-18".

For what it's worth, I was running dipsys out 150' in the AM, 250' in the PM. GPS speeds of 2.75-3.5. Spoons had 1 bow and 1 LL. Everything else was on flashers and tube flies I made. 3 Lakers, 1 bow, and 14 landlocks made it in the boat. I lost more than I landed, which frustrates me and I want to know why. Many were lost as soon as they broke surface beside the boat.

I prefer to run a single hook for releasing purposes, but I started to actually land fish consistently when running a gamakatsu treble on my flies. My single hook was a gamakatsu finesse wide gap with a snelled knot. Any input on alternate hooks would be appreciated or maybe the softer action of fiberglass rods is required?

Mike

[lily]

Keeping the line tight for that last 20 feet can be tough especially on the dipsy rods when the dipsy pops out of the water. May have had something to do with the loss of fish. The hole in the fishes moth becomes big and with just a little bit of slack with the smaller fish gravity takes over and the hook comes out. I also fish with single hooks on all my spoons and that is what I always figured what happened. Especially with the wide gap hooks that you are useing. I switched to singles for the same reasons as you and also my catch rates seemed to improve when I did make it to lake ontario but some times the ease of release works to well🤔 anyway thanks for report. Don't hesitate to introduce your self if you see me at the launch thompson boat called the loon feather.

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[quality time]

Do not be afraid to mingle. Many methods are used to catch these fish and

all work. Dropping fish is part of the game. Some days you will not drop a

fish and others you will. Welcome to lou. I hope to be on the south end this weekend. Give "Quality time" a shout on cannel 68! Wes

[58Johnson]

Cayuga Salmon and Rainbows have soft mouths compared to the Lakers and Browns that you will catch. If you horse them in at all you may be enlarging the hole that the hook makes. These often smaller fish need to be finessed in more gently than you may be used to. Gentle, but keep pressure. 

I have learned to pull a rod and check it for shakers if I go for an extended time without a fish. Sorting through the smaller fish is part of the routine on Cayuga. Also keeping a constant watch of your rod tips and dipsy drags lightly set are part of the Finger Lakes routine.

Your experience is fairly typical for our lake. Most of the trollers/jiggers down here are pretty friendly. We are almost all recreational fishers.

[vogel451]

I defiantly had those days.  Mostly on the wire rods.  Lately I have been applying side pressure when the fish breaks the surface and it has been helping me alot.

[Nautitroller]

Welcome Toad Hunter, I like the handle. We all lose fish. Somedays we drop a bunch some days none, think it has to do with how aggressive and deep they take the lure. Caught a laker this past weekend that surged side to side felt like a really nice brown or bow just a 5 lber I call em fighting fives.. This kind of fishing is seriously addictive, great group of people on here, welcome!

[TheToadHunter]

Thanks for the input and replies. I will keep an eye out for your boats the next time up. Hoping to fish Tuesday unless the weather changes for Sunday. I run a 20' G3 Eagle Talon (G3 eagle wrap with a minn Kota talon on the port side).

What model/type of single hooks do you guys use with consistent hook-land ratios. Most of my landed fish on trebles had a deep hook, which means they wanted the fly 100%. That leads me to believe it was the hook style that caused me to drop so many on singles. A single hook point requires 66% less energy to penetrate than a treble (if each point makes contact)!

I'm thinking a snell knot octopus style would be better than the finesse wide gap I used, due to the hook point angle when rigged.

[quality time]

We run octopus, Gamagatzu, or vmc

[Rickbgm]

On my flies on run 2 3/0 octopus gamy hooks one ahead of the other. The fish usually get hooked on the front hook and I rarely loose them. Trebles do not hook as well as singles because of the smaller gap and less distance from the point to the hook bend. Fish generally hit bait (or lure) from the front or side since they rarely can swallow them tail first because of the fins. The general rule is to give fish slack when they jump so the hook does not twist out. This does not work as well with a dipsey because of the weight of the the diver .

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[Sk8man]

I agree that the hook penetration of sharp single hooks is often superior to trebles but not necessarily on flies. I use Mustad stainless Siwash salmon hooks (1095XXX) on all my spoons because because they penetrate deeper (have a long point with relative shallow barb) and are easier to release fish without having to handle them (or at the very least not as much). On spoons where you have a relatively inflexible object (metal spoon and split ring) the fish can work the three hooks of the treble  by compressing it in his mouth possibly freeing himself in the process. Sharp trebles work much better on flies and on small #8 snelled still fishing hooks where the hook is often swallowed deep in the throat. The addition of a single hook in front of the treble can be advantageous but also carries the possibility of tangling up in the fly leader or fly itself. I tie my own flies and use sharp #2 trebles with are a little smaller than some flies use anfd I feel stand a better chance of going deeper in the mouth. I have very few poor hookups or lost fish on them. One of the things to be aware of using flies is that if you look closely at underwater videos of salmon  chasing flies they often have trouble catching up to them especially laterally and my hunch is that sometimes they may not actually get the hook or perhaps even the fly but the line or leader itself instead and then "drop" it and at the other end you think the hook is defective etc. What makes me think this is that we have had a few fish "snagged" by the fly in other parts of the body.

Edited September 15, 2016 by Sk8man