PCPete

Lots of debris out there but after the rain stopped around 11am we went Jigging near Myers, I didn't want to risk going anywhere further then I had to as the debris was terrible. Used the trolling motor to get through the real bad spots.

We ended up boating 9 fish total and although we didn't find any monsters, we did keep the 3 largest legal fish and the rest lived to fight another day. Knock on wood and thanks to the guys who helped me out on here, I think I finally got the burping technique down. All fish were caught on Hermit's Homemade Jig heads with a zoom fluke.


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Well its down to the wire.... these two are battling it out in my head at the moment and there is no clear winner yet....

Option 1

I go with the Terrova 55lbs of thrust,12 volt power system and the 54" Shaft (max length).... $1238.94 shipped to my door after 55$ rebate...
Link > 

http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=1304164&categoryId=0&parentCategoryId=0&subCategoryId=0&indexId=0&itemGUID=f1ded2572c6e977e87c9b8a12fb55c7e&WTz_l=SBC%3BBRprd1837280%3Bcat104716980%3Bcat104233680&destination=/checkout/basket.jsp

or

Option 2
Upgrade and go all the way with the Terrova 80lbs of thrust, 24 volt power system, and 60" shaft (max length)....  $193.94 higher price to my door after $112 rebate making the total for this option $1431.94 (After Rebate).... 
Link > 
http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=1304163&categoryId=0&parentCategoryId=0&subCategoryId=0&indexId=0&itemGUID=a503a947fb01381377a43e422a0f9b4d&WTz_l=SBC%3BBRprd1837280%3Bcat104716980%3Bcat104233680&destination=/checkout/basket.jsp

Creating a 24 volt system and finding a place to store two 12 volt batteries side by side doesn't seem like an easy task given my boat layout, but Ill come up with something if I go down this road.... That being said I'm not sure I need the 80lbs of thrust as I can do around 1.5mph now on a calm day with my old 28lbs... 

Also does anyone know without the i-Pilot link and a compatible fish finder, if its possible to store more then 6 tracks or Anchor spots? - 6 doesn't seem like alot and I'm a bit of a hoarder when it comes to marking spots I find and being able to re-locate them. 

It seems to be unanimous, The Terrova is the way to go for a number of reasons.

It appears there are both 12 volt and 24 volt models. After some research, I'm a bit unclear on whats needed for the 24 volt system. Do you need to actually buy a 24 volt battery or can you run 2x 12volt battery's linked together? Never dealt with anything above 12 volts before. 

The next question is which one. Leaning towards the one below at the moment but am curious what a 24 volt system requires and what costs to create one. 

As far as shaft length goes its offered in 54" or 45" for 10$ difference. I am not sure what the benefit to running a longer shaft is if you don't need it?

Good point Zack, I didn't notice it doesn't come with a pedal at all.

Terrova is more in the $1250 range though.

Could I choose to buy a foot pedal like the one below later for the PD? 

http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?pdesc=Minn-Kota-Foot-Pedal-With-Cord-For-Powerdrive-V2&i=96557

After seeing a few guys out on the lake last year with trolling motors that kept them within 5 feet of a spot on the lake auto-magically, I am considering taking the plunge as a spring upgrade to my boat. I have a hummingbird 386 CI Fishfinder I picked up after getting some very great advice from guys on here regarding what FF works well for Jigging. I am very happy with the FF for the record and it is amazing for jigging compared to any I have had previously. The current trolling motor I have is only 28LB thrust and I'm looking for an upgrade to this as well, staying in the same spot in moderate wind is not always an option with the level of thrust output I have currently. The Boat is 16.5ft Blu-fin aluminum with a 40hp outboard for the main motor (in-case that makes a difference somehow). Unfortunately the Hummingbird 386 CI does not support i-Pilot link but that's alright as from what I read they have standalone systems that work without i-Pilot link. Id also like to use the new trolling motor for trolling at some point as it seems easier to use an electric (if possible) then to invest in a kicker and have another motor to maintain. 

I am looking for any advice anyone may have to offer on what to look for or avoid when looking into a trolling motor that has the ability to hold you in 1 spot with GPS and push my boat at at least 2.5 MPH. Currently considering the following but am open to any suggestions you all may have to offer. 

Id like to stay around the $1000 range with above 45lbs of thrust if possible. If there's a great reason to go higher I can stretch a little on that.

I am also unsure at this point what benefit a longer shaft length provides.

http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?pdesc=Minn-Kota-PowerDrive-V2-55-Trolling-Motor-With-i-Pilot&i=731836

If you have a Fish Finder a line counter may be helpful but is not required... 

Depending on wind and conditions you will likely be able to stay in one spot or drift slowly and know depth based on your Fish Finder reading. 

Jigging is as simple as drop it to the bottom.... Jig as long as your semi vertical, reel in and repeat. 

That is one of a few different techniques for Jigging which are outlined well on @hermit's site here > http://cayugafisher.net/pages/resdex.php < 

Another spot you can try is by the salt plant near Myers Launch. Very accessible if you launch from Myers and sheltered from wind if its coming from the North. 

If you would like to go Jigging in a boat sometime Id be happy to show you some spots around the Myers park area that have worked for me. - Just shoot me a PM-

-Pete

Ut oh...

Wow new@this. You just talked me into taking the plunge. Just ordered a Hummer 386ci. $294 plus tax from Factory Outlet Store computer site. Now to break the news to my wife. Ok - here is the discussion "Well honey, I will catch so many more fish with it that we will reduce our grocery bill by that much. Plus, just think of all the extra Omega 3 fish oil we will be eating". Think that will fly?

I like that proposed discussion... I tried a similar thing with my wife but then she started googling how much fish your "supposed" to eat from the lake a week and ended up at the number 1 (due to mercury and other possible contents". For the record the answer is one but to be honest I have eaten much more then that a week with no ill effects (so far). 

I had better success going in the direction of.... Honey, if I can go out there and catch fish more efficiently then I will no doubt spend less time fishing and more at home with you. This one had the better success out of the two for me. 

Either way you will not be disappointed, the 386ci is all it says it is and more. The GPS is also awesome for marking bait pods and fish on the bottom with different symbols on the map. One of the the best features may be the drift alarm so you know when you have drifted X feet away from where you dropped your line and also what direction to move the boat to get back there. 

Your welcome to come out for a Jigging trip n see how I have mine setup if that's helpful - always more fun fishing with company.

I highly recommend upgrading and am very pleased with the performance of the Hummingbird 386CI if you can swing it...

It was a bit more then I wanted to spend but it was worth every penny to be able to accurately identify baitfish and see lakers sitting on the bottom. I wish I had some more screenshots for you but did not take more then one on my week long trip.

This fishfinder far exceeded my expectation when it comes to level of detail and ability to see lake trout sitting on the bottom of the lake. 

I will take some more screenshots in the future for this thread for future reference, as most of the fish caught on my trip were in places where we had seen a bait-pod recently but were not ontop of one. We were however ontop of fish we could see on the bottom... There is nothing better then watching your jig fall and watching a fish come off the bottom and hit it on the way down... Vice versa on the way up. To know whether a fish is chasing your line either direction is a great advantage that allows you to be better prepared for a strike and ultimately hook more fish. 

This is a screenshot of a large bait-pod we found. 

Thanks for the suggestion @rustyrat. I may pick one of those up and return the Shimano Caenan Baitcaster Reel I bought the other day... It has fast retrieve but a really crappy drop system and drops very slowly compared to my other baitcaster. I thought all I had to look for was gear ratio but I took for advantage the features to change the drop speed on my main one... Hopefully the Pen Jigmaster has a good system that lets the reel free-flow down and allows you to simply control the speed with your thumb. 

Sounds like you did well @guff - I got my new hummingbird 386CI installed last night and cant wait to try it out.

I'll be going out tonight to give it a test run on Cayuga and then early tomorrow morning as well. 

Hopefully it works as advertised and I can see both the fish any my jig! - Will keep you guys posted. 

PS. If anyone wants to join me tonight for a Jigging trip up to the power plant, just shoot me a PM. 

Thanks again for all the help/advice. 

Wow, I didn't know that...

Thanks Guff, I have always though that to be successful jigging you have to be completely vertical but this is a good backup option for sure. I will try this method out when standard Jigging methods fail in the future. 

Got my new FF last night - after 2 hours of analyzing every detail at bass pro I decided on the Hummingbird 386CI model. 

Quite a few people I have asked say that color screens are better for Jigging and I have 30 days to make up my mind for sure. The 5" screen would have been nice but if you really can see your Jig better on color, then its worth the sacrifice made. 

Now to work out how to mount the new transducer properly... 

Ill start this out by saying I'm unsure if my fish finder is currently giving me reliable accurate data on whats going on down there but a new one is on order and so i'm hoping for better results in the future. Due to how life goes sometimes I didn't end up getting out there until around 2:30pm yesterday and to save you time reading this - 0 fish in the boat. 

Went to the power plant first and found scattered bait all around... lots of algae and seaweed all over there... was quite a mess between the two. Marked a few fish on the bottom and alot of scattered bait but after jigging for around two hours with no hits decided to move on.

Headed for Taughannock. Trolled around looking for bait pods but didn't find anything of size. Passed by some other guys Jigging but they had just got there 20 minutes before and hadn't caught anything yet either. Tried Jigging there for around an hour and after no hits, decided to move on and head for the salt plant.

Ended up getting there around 5ish and found a little bait, had a few short hits (I think) but still no fish in the boat. 

Decided to call it around 6 and put my new Hummingbird 386ci on order. - Hope for better results next time.

Hmm... that looks like it has everything the 386ci has except GPS and color... now to decide if that's worth 100$ or not... 

wow - I appreciate all the responses to this... did not expect this kind of turnout 

It seems the extra 100$ for the Humminbird® 386ci is worth the investment... (now just have to convince my wife of this...) usually I just use the GPS on my phone to track and mark fish but its likely not as accurate as the one in this unit. Also the power output is 500 watts (RMS)/2,400 watts (PTP) therefore technically making it equivalent to the Garmin mentioned by Bulletbob. I have as well had issues with seeing the screen in the sun and mieswell solve that problem as well by getting the color screen. 

Time to get a Fishfinder that can see my jig and that I can see in the sun... I guess at this point I don't see a big difference between the Hummingbird and the Lowrance at this point but the Lowarance Elite 5x DSI model is priced 50$ more then the Hummingbird 386ci and therefore the hummingbird is winning at this point. 

http://store.humminbird.com/products/604309/386ci_Combo
http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Products/Fishfinder/Elite5xDSI-en-us.aspx







 

Seems my hummingbird Fish Finder has given up and therefore its obviously time for a new one 

Combined with the fact I now have a proper aluminum fishing boat and not a big Jet Ski to fish off, I'm ready to do this right. 

I was decently impressed with the ability of my hummingbird PiranhaMAX 170's ability to pickup my jig and the fish but it was always a bit of a guessing game, as even when I did hook onto a fish I was never able to see lines intersect like others have mentioned or a fish come up from the bottom... possibly due to the Fish-ID setting making it a symbol instead... I had turned this off before but then was unable to determine if there were fish sitting on the bottom or not (at all) and so ended up with it back on. I understand that seeing them on the bottom is sometimes impossible due to the fact they sit so close to bottom and blend in. 

All that being said I am looking for an upgrade at this point. Looking to spend around $200 or less but could be convinced to go further if there is a good reason to do so. Id like something pretty good at picking up any kind of abnormality down there that may help in my quest for the fish. 

I have never had a Lowrance but I know there are a few guys on here that do have them. I'm open to going down that road if that's the best option. 

Any and all suggestions welcome. 

-Pete 

Also here is a great post I found useful when starting to lean how to Jig for Lakers... took me a little while to get the hang of it but once you know what to look for on the Fish Finder, what mode to have it in to find it, and what gear to use to be successful you can pick it up pretty quick. I have had great success with the Jigs that hermit sells on the site Pete posted above. 

http://www.lakeontariounited.com/fishing-hunting/index.php/topic/30613-cayuga-624/?hl=%2Bjigging+%2Bfish+%2Bfinder#entry188950

-Pete 

Pete, take it from bandrus looks like a bad jigging day, deep water 140-160 with 20mph wind says you won't be touching bottom like you should....

Agreed - I will no longer be going out tomorrow and instead hit up the stream - thanks to all who replied and saved me the unsatisfying trip in the wind and cold.

I had not looked at the weather yet...  

Hey all,

I am looking to go out jigging on Cayuga tomorrow for the first time this year. 

I have never gone jigging this early in the year before and so I have no idea where to look for the fish as far as depth goes. Any advice is welcome

Thanks

-Pete 

Well it seems my beginners luck has died off or I have yet to work out this great art... not sure which...

9/1 - Went out at 6am - Started out at Taughannock but didn't mark too many fish and could not find good bait pods so we went over to AES and tried jigging for 2 hours or so... didn't get any in the boat and the wind picked up hard... so we switched to trolling and managed to land one laker back over by Taughannock trolling about 120 FOW. Called it quits around 12:00pm

9/2 - Didn't get out early but decided to try out the "nighttime bite" as they call it... Started over north of Taughannock around 5pm or so but no fish in the boat by 7pm so we called it and went over to AES... wind wasn't too bad and my new drift buckets seemed to help a little... still gotta get em dialed in though... the wind was pushing us directly off shore so it was hard to maintain a good depth line... most fish marked were at around 120 FOW and we didn't find any boat pods... Called it quits well after dark around 9:00pm and headed back to Myers... fished there from 9:15ish to 11ish and called it quits... marked alot of fish at Myers but no takers...

9/3 - Results are in and we ended up with 1 brown around 17" just south of AES (threw it back to grow bigger). We marked alot of fish but only ended up with the one before the weather got crazy... Fish came around 7:30ish and a few other guys I talked to coming in agreed the bite died for them around 8ish... Anyhow my first brown trout and first fish with my buddy from Binghamton on our 3rd trip jigging.

Thanks for the report.

Ill be out there 6am early tomorrow morning - not sure what the boat looks like yet as one of my new buddies who usually goes trolling and has a boat docked at myers said he wants me to teach em how to catch em Jiggin. Look for the lucky Mountain Dew hat though.

Hope the bite is better then last Sunday (8/26)... fished from 6am - 3pm and ended up with no fish in the boat at all.

Awesome report

I have never caught a salmon before but I have seen a few of your reports using a dead/live sawbelly's and a slip bobber. I may give it a try with that sort of rig but feel free to let me know if there is another setup I could try out. I plan to be out both tomorrow and Sunday morning this weekend early (6am).

I may even go out tonight to experiment with this "evening bite" I keep hearing about (around Myers park area).

I have been reluctant to go below 90 foot of water looking for the bait/fish but after your report I may start at 80 FOW. I think I have a mental condition I refer to as Depth Bias, Thinking that the bigger fish will be in deeper water all the time.

They also have 89 Octane E0 at Wilcox General Store in Aurora - My engines also love the E0.

I am curious what Octane rating the gas from Fastrac is?

Thanks again!

I for one am very happy this site exists and grateful to the people like @Guff and @Hermit who openly share information and answer questions with full details.

I have lived next to the lake for 3 years now and had never caught anything but perch and bass before this year... I always assumed catching Lakers required heavy equipment and professional training... Also any other method to catch Lakers like Jigging was some kind of secret and you had to know the right people to learn how to catch fish that way.

Earlier this year I came across a post by Hermit and that perception changed... Anyone who has seen the reports Iv posted knows this year I have caught a good number of Lake Trout while Jigging and I will say as a result, this has been the best year of my fishing life on Cayuga.

I want to thank all those who posted detailed screenshots of fish finders and guides on what Jigs to use and how to use them....

I think the guides on Hermit's site really made the difference for me and I'm now in the process of teaching my buddies how to catch fish Jigging.

Hell, yesterday a guy was putting his boat in as we were putting ours on the trailer. He saw the one laker we kept and said how do u catch fish like that... I saw he had a few poles in his boat, his 8ish year old son with him and a fishfinder, so I told him where I was, gave him my 2 minute tutorial about how to Jig for Lakers, handed him some of Alec's jigs out of my box and wished him luck...

Sharing information is what makes this site awesome...

Hit the water about 6am from Myers with my Buddy (his first time Jigging).

We went straight up to AES and it was a tough wind when we got out there... its hard to be Jigging in strong wind, as you drift so fast it seems near impossible to keep your Jig vertical without some kind of motor.

Found lots of bait right away but the wind made it almost impossible to stay ontop of it.. Bait was all over at around the 100FT mark.

The wind died down as the morning progressed and it became a little easier to keep the Jig's vertical longer...

We fished from 6am - 10:30ish and manged to catch two very small Lakers... I didn't measure them but i'm sure the smallest of them was around 10" er so. We boated a total of 3 fish... Two small ones and one 26" 5LBS Laker that chased the (very horizontal) jig to about 50ft before he struck as I was reeling it in (to cast out again)...

After the wind died down I did manage to get another one on the line, but we went to net him he took off and spit the hook right out. (that's what I get for switching off of Alec's Jigs and using crappy ones).

I feel better reading about how we weren't the only ones having a rough time getting bites today.

- Pete

Ill third that! They are very sharp high quality hooks and hold your plastic on there great.

- Pete

First of all a Big thanks again @hermit who pointed us in the right direction over by Wells College and saved us going all the way to AES for the remainder of the week...

7/19 - It took us 1 hour of putting around but eventually we found the Baitfish Pod we were looking for... We started over by wells college and followed the 100FT mark north for an hour untill we found the baitpod in-front of what looks like a large white farmhouse straight North of Wells College. As soon a we found it we dropped our Jigs and the bite was on.... we boated 5 fish total and we managed to return two of them unharmed... Two came within the first hour and the rest in the next 2 hours.... The largest one we pulled in last....

24" 26" and 28" Fish below...

The 28" weighed in at 7LBS and unfortunately we were unable to get it untangled from the net in time.... (I bought a rubber net yesterday 7/22). This is the largest fish I have ever caught

7/20 - We went back to the same spot we had found the baitpod yesterday (I marked the GPS Coordinates on my iPhone) but the bait was nowhere in sight. However we figured the fish could still be there so we dropped our lines and ended up boating 2 lakers... both under 22" and returned unharmed.

7/21 - We decided to try something different and headed over to Deans cove but the wind was real strong and the topography over there makes it hard to stay anywhere near the 100FT mark... We found some baitfish but also found it impossible to stay anywhere near them due to the wind and drift... We ended up heading back over to our sweet spot north of wells but landed no fish this day... They had moved and the wind was too strong to find them. Next job is to find a way to mount a trolling motor on the front of the boat...

Thanks again to everyone who has helped me out these past few weeks. Our vacation is over now and its back to the everyday grind... Definitely looking forward to getting some Jigging in on the weekends though