any tips for a newbie on Cayuga?

[BeerTooth]

headed up to my parents' place on Cayuga next week.  Eastern shore about a mile south of Milliken power plant.  Hoping to jig up my first lake trout.  Did a bit of scouting over a long weekend about a month ago, marked some fish on my Garmin echoMap sonar, but couldn't hook up.

 

I'll be in a canoe - I have an electric trolling motor and a drift sock to keep me stationary and jig as vertical as possible.  I have some 3/4-oz jig heads and some plastics.  Also some spoons.

 

Any tips on what type of depth and structure to begin my search?  What depth is the thermocline this time of year?  Best time of day and weather to find active feeding lakers?  Should I search for baitfish, or solitary lakers?

 

On my scouting trip, I found the 77 kHz wide cone angle worked better since I was drifting away from my jig as it fell.  Hopefully the drift sock will slow me down enough.

[vogel451]

You are in a perfect place to start.  80' is good starting point, check deeper from there.  A little heavier jig wouldnt hurt 1oz-1 1/2oz.  I suggest hitting the bottom and reeling up 30' at a good pace and stopping.  repeat..

[bandrus1]

10 minutes ago, vogel451 said:

You are in a perfect place to start.  80' is good starting point, check deeper from there.  A little heavier jig wouldnt hurt 1oz-1 1/2oz.  I suggest hitting the bottom and reeling up 30' at a good pace and stopping.  repeat..

 

 

Yup fish in a barrel 

[BeerTooth]

thanks for the tips.  Correction - I just weighed my jig heads and they are 1 oz. so I should be good to go

[Dr W]

You can also buy some sawbellies [Frozen] and use a jig but I would find some 2 oz jigs and tie up a

trailer single hook.  With the heavy jig you can drift a bit faster and cover more water 

 

[BeerTooth]

well, I got close and learned a lot in the process, but wasn't able to get one in the boat.

 

Had a good size fish hook up at 70 feet, but broke off my leader pretty quickly.  My fault for only using 6-lb fluoro I had leftover from ice-fishing season instead of getting some 10-12 lb stuff.

 

I also got 6-8 additional strikes over a few hours fishing, but wasn't able to set the hook.  Is there some trick to the technique with the way lakers take a lure?  I wasn't setting the hook as aggressively as I would on a largemouth bass, just lifting the rod tip a couple feet as soon as I felt the tap and maintaining tension on the line.  Strikes were always on the retrieve, never felt one on the drop though could have missed some without any line tension on a fast-sinking jig.  I wonder if they are feeling the unnatural weight of the big ball of lead in the head and shaking the hook out?

 

All the strikes were on the goby tube, with a 1 oz jig head.  No action on the bucktail.  Was not able to find a 4-5" white tube locally so I will order some online.  

 

Fish finder was fairly active as I drifted slowly over 60-90 FOW.  I used the drift sock to slow the canoe down the 0.3 MPH in general.  Most of the bait fish schools were at 15-25 feet, or 40-50 feet. Should I be targeting bait fish, rather than solitary lakers holding on the bottom?

 

I had the Garmin set on 77 kHz CHIRP (45 degree 3 dB beamwidth), as the 200 kHz frequency was so narrow (15 degree 3 dB beamwidth) that I lost my jig on the drift even at less than 0.5 MPH.  Am I kidding myself by watching an area that large? A 45-degree beam illuminates a 100-foot diameter circle at 100 FOW, so I'm probably seeing fish that are nowhere near my jig.

 

 

 

 

 

[bandrus1]

On 7/26/2018 at 8:27 PM, vogel451 said:

1 hour ago, BeerTooth said:

well, I got close and learned a lot in the process, but wasn't able to get one in the boat.

 

Had a good size fish hook up at 70 feet, but broke off my leader pretty quickly.  My fault for only using 6-lb fluoro I had leftover from ice-fishing season instead of getting some 10-12 lb stuff.

 

I also got 6-8 additional strikes over a few hours fishing, but wasn't able to set the hook.  Is there some trick to the technique with the way lakers take a lure?  I wasn't setting the hook as aggressively as I would on a largemouth bass, just lifting the rod tip a couple feet as soon as I felt the tap and maintaining tension on the line.  Strikes were always on the retrieve, never felt one on the drop though could have missed some without any line tension on a fast-sinking jig.  I wonder if they are feeling the unnatural weight of the big ball of lead in the head and shaking the hook out?

 

All the strikes were on the goby tube, with a 1 oz jig head.  No action on the bucktail.  Was not able to find a 4-5" white tube locally so I will order some online.  

 

Fish finder was fairly active as I drifted slowly over 60-90 FOW.  I used the drift sock to slow the canoe down the 0.3 MPH in general.  Most of the bait fish schools were at 15-25 feet, or 40-50 feet. Should I be targeting bait fish, rather than solitary lakers holding on the bottom?

 

I had the Garmin set on 77 kHz CHIRP (45 degree 3 dB beamwidth), as the 200 kHz frequency was so narrow (15 degree 3 dB beamwidth) that I lost my jig on the drift even at less than 0.5 MPH.  Am I kidding myself by watching an area that large? A 45-degree beam illuminates a 100-foot diameter circle at 100 FOW, so I'm probably seeing fish that are nowhere near my jig.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you feel a hit go Kevin van dam on them

[BeerTooth]

 
If you feel a hit go Kevin van dam on them

Really ? I was concerned about tearing the jig out of their mouth if they were just nibbling, but I can definitely be more aggressive next time

[katydid]

I'm not sure where you got that idea. Whack 'm hard.

[quality time]

I am not a jig guy but many use super braid and a leader to cut down on stretch.  Wes

[Sk8man]

Get some new 10 lb fluoro and ditch the old 6 lb stuff

[BeerTooth]

10 minutes ago, Sk8man said:

Get some new 10 lb fluoro and ditch the old 6 lb stuff

will do.  I had the 6 lb leftover from ice fishing season and though I could reuse it.  oops!

[Sk8man]

[jk1]

On the hit it is more reel than set the hook.  Keep the rod tip motion to a minium so you don't have slack line ever.   My drag is very tight, much tighter than you would think for ten pound line.  I jig with ten pound crystall fire line(it is white so we can see where our lines are) and ten pound fluro carbon.  No slack what so even or that jig head will shake the hook out of his mouth.  Be careful near the boat to keep a lot of tension on while netting the fish and they are not bad tasting at all.  Really pretty good  tasting........jk

[RebelSportsman]

We had pretty good luck this past Friday dropping in between 80-90 fow and banging bottom a few times then reeling up at various speeds, most hits we got were on the reel up, and some hit almost 40 -50 feet off the bottom chasing it from the bottom!  a lot of different plastics work but white is a good color to run with! good luck.  

[BeerTooth]

30 minutes ago, jk1 said:

On the hit it is more reel than set the hook.  Keep the rod tip motion to a minium so you don't have slack line ever.   My drag is very tight, much tighter than you would think for ten pound line.  I jig with ten pound crystall fire line(it is white so we can see where our lines are) and ten pound fluro carbon.  No slack what so even or that jig head will shake the hook out of his mouth.  Be careful near the boat to keep a lot of tension on while netting the fish and they are not bad tasting at all.  Really pretty good  tasting........jk

 

interesting..so you basically lock the drag?  I had mine set so the fish could strip some line if he went on a run while still maintaining tension

[BeerTooth]

3 minutes ago, RebelSportsman said:

We had pretty good luck this past Friday dropping in between 80-90 fow and banging bottom a few times then reeling up at various speeds, most hits we got were on the reel up, and some hit almost 40 -50 feet off the bottom chasing it from the bottom!  a lot of different plastics work but white is a good color to run with! good luck.  

yeah that was similar to my experience as well.  Most of the strikes were at 40-50 feet in 60-80 FOW.  Fun to watch them chasing the jig on the sonar screen!

[BeerTooth]

also what type of rod are you guys using? 6 1/2' medium action?  I wonder if my medium-heavy rod was a little stiff for hook-setting.

[idn713]

Trout don’t nibble, they inhale. If you feel something, stick em. I wish Lake Ontario lakers would hit on the retrieve but those fish are so well fed you just gotta bounce it in front of them and then smack em when they hit. 

[bandrus1]

3 hours ago, BeerTooth said:

also what type of rod are you guys using? 6 1/2' medium action?  I wonder if my medium-heavy rod was a little stiff for hook-setting.

 

6.5 med heavy  for me ...... Setting the hook 110 feet down with 1 oz of lead ya need some backbone imo

Edited August 6, 2018 by bandrus1

[FishingTheFL]

All the ones I have had success with usually hook themselves. Most get off at the boat with crazy flipping they do at the surface.

Sent from my Moto E (4) using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[katydid]

Very few that I catch get dropped below. SHARP hooks, of the right size, vicious hits, usually result in a solid hook-up. It's the Lake trout rolling at the surface that makes the mess!