Cayuga Cayuga Myers 8/7

[wrestlecoach]

Finally made it up for our first time out.  Long day, left house at 3:30 am and backed boat in last night at 9:30.  Started out having motor trouble.  Would start and idle on high but as soon as was put in gear it would stall.  Finally got it going and headed up towards power plant.  On the way up my Lowrance started reading 3' of water.  Stopped boat and screwed with unit for 1/2 hour til it started working right again.  Started with putting downriggers out with cowbells and spin and glows.  Had a tough time with manual downriggers slipping and going down too fast and releasing the line.  Currently using rubber bands and clothes pins on back of balls.  Releases will be ordered today!  Was a good workout to keep cranking up the balls though.  

 

Next put out the 10 color leadcore down the chute with a spoon.  Takes a while to run 10 color out.  Figured out how to hook up the dipsys with a flasher and spoon and set the setting at 3.  deployed one on each side and we're in business.  Start trolling north at 2 mph figuring out how to use the remote on the minnkota and setting straight line course.  Lead core starts bending and shaking.  Buddy "fights" it the whole way in to take weeds off of line.  Redeploy.  Downrigger goes off and he fights the cowbells in thinking he had fish,  No go, false release?  Crank up downrigger and take three times to get it redeployed.  Work out getting pretty intense now.  Other downrigger goes off.  Same story.  Get a drink and dipsy starts bouncing.  Buddy fights it in to realize that dipsy didnt release and we're dragging weeds.  Redeploy and now leadcore is bouncing.  Reel it in and it's weeds.  Redeploy.  Buddy and I are serious fly fisherman, musky and river fisherman and are rethinking trolling.  Rigger releases again.  Same story.  Leadcore starts bendin and buddy starts reeling in weeds again.  Half way in he gets excited and says he feels it shaking.  I tell him his PTSD is screwing with his head and he's hallucinating.  Reels some more and starts yelling get the net.  Finally got this trophy to the boat. Pic didn't load, 12" rainbow.  At least he had some excitement.  

 

Start seeing lots more weeds and now I know what you guys are talking about when you say weed mats.  Decide to pull in and head to west side.  Redeploy a lot easier.  Got rid of  clothes pins and used rubber band directly to ball.  Feeling good about ourselves that we're not total idiots.  Had dipsys with dodger and spoons out 200 on 25 pound braid.  Get a bouncing on one, Fish on.  What is that ball slime on the line clogging up the top eye?  Clear it and keep reeling.  More slime, more clearing, repeat.  Finally get fish in and try to land fish in long leader with dipsy bouncing around.  Realize what a pain in the a$$ the rolled up low bimini top is.  25" laker in the net.  Buddy is excited and we know know about fleas and braid.  Keep heading south and other dipsy goes.  Repeat of previous story.  Fleas suck!  Another 25" laker.  We're finger lakes trolling experts now!  

 

Keep heading south dealing with a fewer false trips on downriggers.  Buddy says look up the lake.  White sheet of water heading for us.  Look at radar, oh crap.  Start pulling lines, too late.  Awesome amount of rain in 4 minutes.  At least we're not sweating anymore.  Lines are in and Trolling motor was going dead any way so we decide to slowly motor towards Taughannnock and find a place to jig.  Lake was glass smooth all morning but was now kicking up.  Went into bay south of park by swimming area and marked a few fish.  Still enough juice in trolling motor to use the spot lock and started jigging and drifting between marks.  Missed a few and I got one 27" on a retrieve. 

 

Decided to call it a day and show buddy the wrestling complex at Cornell.  He got to meet Kyle Dake our wrestling world team member, Yanni the returning national champ and coach Koll.  Called his wife on way home and told her he couldn't think of how he could have had a better day between the fishing and wrestling.  Made me feel good to help him out.  When I dropped him off last night he wanted to know if we could go again this weekend since we're "experts" now.  I wish I could get the pictures to load so you could see the smile on his face. 

 

It was a good learning day.  Thanks to everyone who posts here it helped learning curve greatly.  Wife not happy last night when I started talking about electric downriggers, wire line setups, more dipseys, planers and releases, better boat etc.

 

Fleas Suck!

 

 

 

[Sk8man]

One of the more entertaining posts I've read in awhile  Sounds as though you did your good deed and had some fun among the weed and fleas experience....

Edited August 8, 2018 by Sk8man

[bandrus1]

Where r ya a coach at

[Lewis863]

Omg I’m in tears that is an awesome post ... the weeds screwed me pretty hard on Sunday... always run wire on dipsy with twili tip on rod fleas will attach but not in abundance and the combo of wire and twili tip chews right through them... get yourself some releases chamberlains are my favorite you can get sets for bottom and stackers to run part way up to fish two rods per rigger.... no solution for weeds other than to avoid them ... and clear lines frequently you boated fish good job... plant often has weeds near it this time of year ...best after a good overnight blow to clear it out....

[bowhuntken]

Entertaining report , [emoji23]


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[suttontroller94]

Very good report! Enjoy the learning curve it's the best part about finger lakes fishing take it one step at a time!

[treerat]

Glad to hear you got a few. Fleas and weeds are part of summer fishing . As far as releases I would recommend Chamberlain's or blacks . Very easy to figure out . Welcome to the addiction

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[FishinIsLife]

Great post. Sounds like you may be addicted already... Welcome to the club! 

[wrestlecoach]

Found out another reason to hate fleas.  Got home tonight to clean out the boat.  Yesterday we had to cut our braided lines a few times because of the mass of fleas on them.  Threw the lines with fleas on them into a small bucket on the boat.  I could smell something rotten as soon as i got out of my truck in the driveway.  Smelled like someone left a rotted carp on the boat.  Fleas Suck!

[wrestlecoach]

When does the flea situation get better?

[Sk8man]

Usually, it seems as though it is when the water temps go back down in the early to mid Fall, but interestingly the recent decrease in them reported on Lake O makes me wonder if when the lake flips over it may disperse them or something....not sure about that one.

[Neo1945]

Any idea when Seneca "turns over" or what to look for when it does?

 

[Lewis863]

There was a definite decrease in them this weekend last over previous, and usually it is when the water cools but other times they seem to lessen as water is overly warm as well... temps on surface were really climbing last weekend...they dont seem to show up much before surface temps hit 70... conclusion... who knows they are where you find them...

[Sk8man]

When the lake "flips" over it is when wind usually strong winds and currents push the water around so that the warmer water is pushed outward from shore and the colder water from below and out away from shore takes its place near shore. Sometimes the color of the water and clarity can be an indicator but the dramatic differences in water temperature are the sure way to tell. You can have 70 degree water out in the middle and warmer temps running deeper out there than normal, and low 40's water  near shore and this makes the fishing change radically too because you then find fish in places where you may not really expect them to be.

Edited August 9, 2018 by Sk8man

[Guppy35]

Very entertaining read!  Thanks for sharing!!