Reel Doc

Gotta love those smiles. Way to put the kids on some fish!!

Very nice way to break in the boat upgrades. Great looking Rainbow.

Beautiful fish. It didn't take you long to put together a successful program!!

Great story and super pictures. Glad to see the smiles and the fish. Thanks for sharing.

The smiles in the pictures tell the story! Well done

Good looking rainbow!!

I'm disappointed in you. I expected the answer to be Kansas venison dogs.

Boat launch close?

Ouch!! Keep close tabs on that for any signs of infection! Tough way to end a productive trip

You are right on with that sunset. Awesome. The moon over the lake last week was breathtaking as well. I for one will never take for granted the beauty of the Fingerlakes.

Nice Brown, I'm envious as Cayuga Browns have been avoiding me for a long time now. Glad to see you get some action as I saw you suffered through a long weekend at the Trout Derby on Seneca. The lake seems to be in a very good place right now so hopefully the great fishing will continue.

Sounds like you found fish in the same neighborhood they were hanging in yesterday. With practice you'll have a top notch crew soon. The poor pup. He looks young. His first trip on the boat?

The very first thing the "Old Salts" on this site, (you know who you are ), taught me about fishing Cayuga is to start with a simple setup of 2 riggers and 2 dypseys and build from there. For fishing around Dean's you can catch Lake Trout all year long with that grouping then add other setups if you want, especially if targeting other fish. Now as the days are longer and the water warms many trout follow the bait out beyond 100 feet and in a few weeks when the thermocline sets up the center of the lake (250 fow plus), is the bomb for lake trout. Typically riggers with spoons and wire divers with flasher/flies down in the 60-100 foot range will be productive. I was also taught early on to add sliding cheaters to cover a little higher in the column and grab some silver fish. Also a great first add on if you don't mind reeling is a 600 copper. Run that anywhere from 300-600 out down the chute and on an off day it may be the only rod that fires. Be sure to keep telling us how you make out. I try to contribute with my limited knowledge and results out on the water, good or bad. I consider it payback as without all the helpful information from fishermen on this site back when I first started I probably would still be trying to catch my first fish!!

From my perspective the Cayuga lake trout fishery has been very healthy the past couple years. I have not seen a lamprey mark in quite some time and those stunning colors are quite common on many of the fish, even though the fin clips say they are hatchery raised. Last DEC report showed higher catch rates too. Hinted they may stock fewer in the near future to balance the population with the other trout and salmon.

Lake Trout have been out there aggressively feeding for the past month. The trick is to find them. It seems that some are moving out a little deeper compared to several weeks ago. This morning I pulled straight out from Deans at 7. Was in deeper water to avoid the traffic and started the trolling motor. Dropped a rigger down 45 and boated the one in the photo before setting another line. The theme for the next 3 hours was set as green spoons on the rigger kept firing down 45-60 in water 80-140 deep. Set a dypsey with a flasher fly for the first time since February. Only one hit but what a hit as the big fish of the morning kept me busy for 10 plus minutes. Had to pick up to go in a little before 10 but finished up strong as the dypsey's nearly identical twin hit the rigger hard so a great fight to finish up

That's a beautiful fish!!

Looks like a beautiful evening out there. Great photos and great fish. The King of Owasco strikes again!!

Great pictures, great post! Weekday fishing looks to be great with less boat traffic.....I'm jealous.

I was working that way Monday morning but nothing doing while last weekend they were jumping in the boat. Maybe a couple days of hard boat traffic had them moved out a little where I happened to be trolling. Oh well, that's fishing!

72 pumpkin plants!?! I'm going to stop by around the first of October for some Jack o Lantern shopping. Do you grow some of the Giants?