GoneFitchin

Spent the last week on Cayuga for the yearly family vacation and enjoyed taking my wife, son, daughter, nephew and niece all out fishing and letting them bring the fish into the boat. We fished mainly from Dean's Cove to Sheldrake. Weeds were basically a non issue, but the fleas were a nuisance. Toward the end of the week with some cooler weather the fleas seemed to taper back a bit. 55 degree water was down 50-60' pretty much all week. 4 color lead core with a white back wonder bread spoon took rainbows almost every day. Watermelon cowbells with a watermelon spin n glow as well as a mt dew spin doctor with a chartreuse spin n glow took Lakers. Had a laker take a rapala minnow 30' down on a rigger as well. We caught fish in water from 60' to 250'. Due to having a number of different passengers we never really spent over 3 hours on the water but always caught fish. It did seem a little slow to me, but the fish also seemed more scattered than previous years.

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Just a heads up here. The last few days the best fishing we had was on the east side of the lake in front of Wells College. 130-150' we had our best days there and saw the most fish on the screen of any place we fished.

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I typically do bounce bottom with cowbells but was aggravated with a slow bite and was playing around a bit. I could see a ton of fish from 50-70 everywhere so I pulled everything in that range. Ran from 250 fow to 80 fow. Caught the rainbow down 60 over 85 fow. I know what I did usually does not pan out but it was a slow morning so I figured why not.

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I've been staying a mile below Deans since Sunday and have fished every day. Fleas are practically non existent with the cold weather and rain. Weeds and debris however have been an issue after storms. Cowbells and spin n glows in watermelon 60-100 down from 60-300 fow have taken Lakers steadily. Green seems to be a good color for about everything right now. Orange and yellow are producing as well for spoons on riggers and dipsys. Caught a nice rainbow this morning behind cowbells which surprised me.

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Both ways worked at different points, but when we had them really dragging bottom in 80 fow before the sun came up was when they really were getting hammered.

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My brother in law and nephew joined us today. The first 45.minutes getting the poles in was a challenge as we landed 5 fish while trying to get the poles all in the water. Took a steady pick of fish until about 10:00 then it slowed down but we still got a fish here and there. Fleas are a pain and still plenty of weeds plugging things up. Team work cleaning line as the other fought the wish was the key today and worked out well. As always it's a joy including more family on the boat. The silvers evaded me completely today, but I will keep working on that. The boys wanted some fish to eat and freeze so we kept a limit of lakers today.

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Anybody that is out today and wants lakers we have had 9 hits and taken 7 fish on one rod today with gamblers laker taker cowbells and a clown gambler rig so far this morning. A couple fish on the other rods, but that combo has been awesome. Down 60-80 over 80-140 fow.

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Weeds have definitely been a pain. Fleas are getting worse. It's still very fishable though. My biggest issue is my knot between my wire and mono on the dipsy rods builds up heavy and is hard to crank through the twili tip. I have 30lb on my downrigger rods and it's been manageable but if one doesn't get hit for a while it gets a little nasty.

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She had fun reeeling in a nice lake trout all while telling me I just handed her a pole with weeds on it to reel in. I felt the head shake before handing off the pole so I knew the fish was there.

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I've been on Cayuga since Saturday and have fished every day. I swear they are getting worse by the day. It isn't enough to stop me from fishing though. I hand lined one in the last 20 feet this morning so my wife could net it for me due to fleas clogging up the tip of the pole.

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The pink is actually a reflection from my wives pink shirt, she made the 4:30 wake up call with me this morning. I was thinking with the larger blotchy spots that was a landlock as opposed to a rainbow with smaller more uniform spots. I am not an expert by any means though. Interested to see what others think.

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Out for a quick trip again this morning. Lakers were plentiful as always. Did manage one landlock 30 down over 60 fow .

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Thanks for the ideas doc. I had awesome luck last weekend on dipseys with the silvers but that must have been a one and done. The cheaters are a good idea since I like to fish for lakers and silvers as the same time to keep the action up for the kids. I have some leadcore as well I will have to start running. The kids are being introduced to river and lake fishing this year. They've both spent a lot of time at our pond at home fishing and my daughter is getting pretty good at handling the pole on her own. My boy is only 2-1/2 so he's just getting the idea. They both love eating fish though.

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Ah ok that makes sense. They were still internal definitely not spewing out. For some reason I didn't remember seeing them this early before, but sounds like I am having brain fade.

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Something else to note. One laker was full of eggs. Is it me or is it early for them to have eggs already?

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Staying on Cayuga lake with the family for a week. Have had no problem catching lakers 80-130' fow. Watermelon cowbells and gambler rigs doing damage on downriggers with froggy and green/black spoons taking them on the dipsys. Haven't had much luck with the silvers, I did get a landlock that was just legal in the boat this morning but let him live to see another day. The entire family loves fish so we've been keeping a few lakers to eat which has been great. The kids love to see the fish and eat them as well!

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Nice catch! Its always fun having a dog on the boat. I laughed at you saying the lakers slept in because they did the same thing this morning. After 7:30 the riggers were firing as fast as I could get them down.

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Sk8man hope you are having luck this morning with the fish. I always enjoy reading your input on here. As a long time lurker I have learned a thing or two from reading your comments to guys looking for help.

Reeldoc. That rainbow was absolutely beautiful. A fish I was proud to get in the boat for sure. It gave a nice acrobatic show almost to the boat getting up in the air a couple times, I though for sure it would spit the hook.

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Finally finished installing hydraulic steering and autopilot on my boat and decided to test it out this morning with my wife, brother in law and nephew. Landed 4 lakers, 2 rainbows and an atlantic. Fished everything from 60-250' of water with the most luck around 80'. Rainbows and Atlantic all came on the dipsys down about 35 with orange and yellow spoons being the ticket. 1 laker on the dipsys as well with watermelon cowbells and gambler rigs taking several more lakers on the downriggers. All fish were legal size with the large rainbow measuring just over 24".

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Thanks for the info guys. I've got some PM's from some other members as well with alot of good tips. I feel that I have enough information now that I probably won't do a charter. I have a 4 year old daughter and a son that will be almost two that I am looking forward to taking out for some trips this year. Should be alot of fun.

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I am taking a family trip to Owasco Lake July 7th-14th and am taking the boat along. I was wondering if there are any good charters in that area that would mind doing a half day charter so I could pick up on what is working on that lake knowing I would be fishing my own boat the rest of the week. I would be focusing on lakers, browns and rainbows. We are staying toward the North end on Peterson point so I would like to focus on the North end of the lake as long as the fishing is good up there. Any advice on a charter, good spots and lures would be appreciated.

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I recently bought a used boat which has an Eagle Accunav II autopilot. When I turn the unit on all appears fine but the COG bounces all around and never settles down and I'm not talking a few degrees it will jump 90+ degrees at times every few seconds. I ran a gps module self test and it said the module has passed. Any ideas of what the problem is or ways to diagnose my problem would be appreciated.

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Thanks for the info guys. I actually had my river jet boat out to Allan at snake Creek a couple years ago. I had heard he shutdown after being flooded out last year. I am glad to hear he is still up and running. I will give him a call.

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Hey guys I need a bit of advice on a good boat mechanic. I just bought an 89 bayliner trophy 24' and am too busy with work right now to work on it to get ready for summer fishing with the family. I live in Northeast Pennsylvania so I know I am going to need to travel. Just looking for some advice. If it helps what I really want done for now is tune up the main motor and kicker, add a planer arch and move the downrigger mounts. If you guys have some recommendations in the southern tier of New York that would be great since it would be closer to me.

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How is the late afternoon bite? I was thinking of running out after dinner and give it another go.

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