Anyone ever fished Cayuga Lake (NY) for LL Salmon

[Bonzoso]

Looking for any info like lines, flies, weather conditions, techniques. I have a boat. Any info would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[sandfly]

work the water in 10-20 feet along shorelines. I usually troll flies myself. smelt patterns in the 4-10 in size and alewife patterns work. fish are anywhere near surface to 20 feet down normally. they will go deeper if the water warms to much.
also keep an eye on this for reports.
http://fingerlakesanglingzone.com/reports.asp

 

[Bonzoso]

Thanks Sandfly for the info. What line do you use when casting? Yeah. Very good link. I actually fished with John a couple of times with conventional gear, mostly jigging for lakers.

 

[JeffK]

I've fished with John a fair amount and had a few years when I was focused on LLS on a fly. Some years Seneca or Skaneatles will be hotter for LLS, but they are generally a bonus fish for a fly guy. The LLS really seem to be cyclic with hot and cold years. I've fished the Finger lakes for 45 years and they are always changing.

In my experience the mid level salmonids (LLS, browns, rainbows) are within casting range when the water is 50F or below - then they go deep and trolling is the technique to get them. This basically means Nov through April. It is a lot of work with a fly (trollers can hammer them though). Some things can concentrate them for better results. The warm power plant outflows can be good in the winter and warm spring rains can create warm water plumes off the tribs in early spring. North or South winds create currents that concentrate bait off points or in "windrows" of foam. It is run and gun to likely spots. They used to follow the smelt schools in when the smelt spawned in the spring, but the smelt pops are down, but may be coming back.

I like fishing streamers - the smelt patterns work well as a lot of standard bait fish colored streamers. Many people use a slightly sinking line just to get the line out of the chop, but not to really sink far. (salmon fishing is best with a slight chop - the famous "salmon chop")It is really cool to watch a LLS come out of the depths and slam a visible streamer. On Skaneatles, there aren't so many bait fish since the lake is oligotrophic, so buggers do well over there.

They come into the tribs in October to spawn if there is enough water and that can be really cool. In 2009 I got a 28" LLS in Fall Ck. That made my day.

 

[Chaz]

Fish the points with streamers. anglers fish for them early in the spring or during fall spawning run.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

I wonder if you could use a fly on a down rigger? GG

 

[Bonzoso]

Thanks to all especially JeffK. Good info! Yes I believe you could use a fly on a downrigger. A year or so ago I was catching a lot of dinks using a smelt pattern on a planer. I'm really interested in casting the shorelines with fly gear. Maybe I'll take another trip with John to show me the ropes come fall. Thanks all again!

 

[sandfly]

made a downrigger setup for flies, it works