Cookin on Cayuga

Cookin' on Cayuga

Category: Sports

I fished the Bassmaster Weekend Series New York Central Division event on Cayuga Lake, NY 8/12/07. Boy do I remember what this lake used to be! Time was that you could go out on this lake at the north end and pretty much pick how you wanted to catch largemouth and go do it. Not any more. I don't know what happened to this place, but ever since they had a big die-off about 5, 6 years ago the water just doesn't fish the same. My partner for the day, Roy Tucker, and I had to work really hard for our fish after I caught a keeper early. I think the trick here is to get into the marinas early, be quiet, and catch fish before the marina witches chase you out. We went into Hibiscus Harbor and both hooked up at the same time along the wall at the entrance. We made our way back, swung and missed at a couple more until we got back to where the pads and matted weeds were. We both missed big fish back there using topwater baits. Nobody was awake back in there except us and the fish. By the time 9am rolled around the Madam of the Marina told us we couldn't fish back in there. In the interest of goodwill and the fact that we'd covered what we wanted, we left peacefully. Marina operators have this notion that they own the water. We didn't argue.

We went virtually fishless for an hour or so working our way in the shade of boat docks up the east side. We found a rocky point a ways up and the action heated up as fast as the mercury in the barometer was climbing. Again we doubled up, both of us with keepers this time. I boated a 3lb. fish on a Maniac Lures Salt Stick in changeable craw color, while Roy got a 2lb-er on a purple Senko. We made several passes on this shoreline and missed a couple more each. We decided to give it a rest and headed up near the railroad bridge and worked around that marina. Roy got a surprise fish on a jig and pig as he was reeling in the bait, but nothing else happened there despite finding some thick vegetation with pockets adjacent to deep water that we both thought surely would have fish. The area had probably been pounded hard though. We went back to the rocky shoreline and both missed a couple of more fish there. As the tourney day wound down we went over to the west side to find gin clear water, a big difference from the cloudy water on the windward eastside, and no more fish. I finished the day with 3 fish for 5.40 lbs. with a 1/4 lb penalty for a dead bass that had the hook in its gullet. I finished 32nd of 45 boaters in my first Bassmaster event. I was surprised to see only this many boaters compared to the 160 boat field in the BFL on the same lake last year. of course, I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that ESPN basically washed its hands of the Weekend Series and farmed it out to ABA?  Nothing against ABA as they ran a fine tournament. It's just maybe lost some of its luster now that it isn't tied to BASS anymore.