dawsonscreek

I think in the future there could possibly end up being an opportunity for legal catch and release fishing for these fish; but the management of said fishing would need to be highly regulated. A male lake sturgeon is not sexually mature until he is 9-13 years old; females do not reach sexual maturity until they are 14-26 years old. Once mature, the female only spawns every 4-5 years; males can spawn every other year. Point being, it takes a long time for these fish to reproduce and develop a diversity of age classes and a fishable population. Some of the fish stocked in the 90's are just coming of age. If a fishery ever did open for these fish in the Finger Lakes Region it would need to be managed and protected big time. They spawn in shallow water and are quite vulnerable at this time, and as you probably know, sturgeon eggs go for big bucks! Therein lies the temptation for poachers to screw everything up. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for these fish and the lakes. By 2016 I'll have a degree that can land me a job in DEC fisheries, so maybe i'll end up working with these awesome fish in this awesome region of this not so awesome state, a kid can dream I guess!! -Jeff

Definitely a ring neck. Nice!

You guys are lucky. I live in the western duck zone. We don't open till the 18th. So warm it's hard to want to be in a treestand. Good luck this season fellas.

I never really thought of that, but I am going to change it over to something lighter, because at times, mostly windier days, I have a difficult time detecting bottom due to the boat drift and such, Thanks for the tip!

I was taught the jigging technique by Finger Lakes Angling Zone guide, John Gaulke; He knows his ****, and I would highly recommend looking him up if you want to learn laker jigging. I rarely even bounce the bottom anymore, maybe 2 bounces at most, but like most people have said; you will get most of your strikes as you reel up from the bottom. No mistaking either, they are a violent fish! I run 25 pound braid, with a 12lb mono or flouro leader. 1 oz jigs and soft plastics such as flukes, lunker city shakers, and paddle tail swim baits are all great baits. Be sure to keep your line taught when you jig, and lift it only a foot or so off the bottom. Good luck!

I love jigging for lakers, its all I know. I've never Been on Cayuga but if you're ever stuck going solo send me a pm I'd love to go!

Yes some of the deeper finger lakes (Cayuga/Seneca) have lake sturgeon. They are a protected species and I believe it's illegal to target them, but I one is accidentally caught it needs to be released unharmed. Way cool that you caught one, not too many people have that experience! Congrats.

To be honest the brown was foul hooked in the belly of all places, I think somehow he swiped at the jig and got poked in the belly, so this fish definitely fought much different(very hard), but as for one hooked In the jaw, I really don't know. This is the first time I've ever foul hooked a fishing jigging.

Launched today around 7:30,we had fair action most of the day. I landed 3 lake trout from 20-26" and fat fat fat! brown. My buddy landed a sub-legal laker. Lots of action today on the chart as well lots of follows were marked, I lost 2 lakers near the boat, and lots of hits were had. Lakers were taken in 70-90 FOW and the morbidly obese brown was in 55 FOW. All fish were caught on a white jighead with a chartreuse/white fluke. All fish except for one lake trout were released. Besides some rude speed boat operators it was a great day on the water!

Nice ill be moving to canandaigua for school this fall, any way to fish for the lakers there from a kayak?

Out for a few hours of jigging. Got out a little after 7 and marked a lot of fish and bait, spent most of the time fishing 75ft and landed two fish In the mid to upper 20" range. Turns out that the thermocline was more in the 50' range so we may have done better in that depth. Overall a good day, marked a lot of fish following jigs, dropped one, and had some missed hits. Hope everybody had a good holiday!