Spring Fishing 2023 Perch, Trout, and Salmon

 Early April saw crazy warm weather.  Temperatures were in the 80s for over a week.  Perfect for staying relatively warm fishing on the freezing cold Keuka, Cayuga, and Lake Ontario.

I have been able to get out 5 times this month with close friends and family.  Our first trip was on our 24' Grady White fishing for perch on Keuka Lake.  As this blog has shown we have had banner outings early April on this lake for perch.....like keeping 50 over 12" per group outing....historically.  Well Keuka is a different lake to day than days of ole.  It is well documented about the challenges of this lake with struggling alewives populations and unsuccessful (so far) reintroduction of ciscoes to the lake.  We fished 8 hours....Branchport, the fork, and Hammondsport.  Not only did we not get a perch bite, but we never even saw a perch or minnow in the crystal clear water.  In years past you could see large clouds of minnows and schools of perch.  We inadvertently caught three small lake trout.  Fun to catch on a perch rig, but not very big.  When I cleaned them I found nothing in their stomachs.

Fortunately the next four outings were extremely successful.  Trip number 2 saw us on Cayuga Lake fishing for perch.  As is typical this time of year there were a PILE of boats all bunched up around two spots on the north end of the lake.  They were crushing dinks but we fish for the 12"+ perch so we actively looked for such fish.  We found them in 20' of water, while the masses were all fishing 10-14'.  Interesting observation that perch minnows were found in the perch we cleaned.  I thought only pike were cannibalistic....who knew?!

Huge Cisco

Released Lake Trout

Third trip had us hunting brown trout on Lake Ontario.  April is the hot time to catch brown trout in shallow water.  We launched out of Charlotte and headed east about ten miles to get away from all the other boats.  While it was warm inshore, it was 42 degrees on the water.  We caught four brown trout, a small mouth bass, and a big cisco.  All the fish were gorging on minnows and gobies. 

We thought the cisco was actually a whitefish, but after referencing the internet we determined it to be a cisco.  The trout made for an incredible dinner.

The fourth trip saw Dave, Shu and I return to Cayuga Lake.  This time the fish were in 18 feet of water and we crushed em!  We got our bait from Daves Bait & Tackle near Auburn which is a favorite of ours.  This time I saved the carcasses of 12 perch to make fish broth from and then used the broth to make Caldo de pescado.

In the perch bellies

Yesterday we traveled to Hamlin NY to fish for trout on Lake Ontario west of Rochester.  This time Jessica joined Dave and I.  First trolling line set out hooked a king salmon in the first 5 minutes and in 10 feet of water.  We ended up keeping this king and two brown trout.

Jessica with a king salmon and brown trout

Cayuga Perch Event

 Dave, Shu and I spent a full day on Cayuga Lake this week.  In the north end of the lake there is a spot inn about 11-20' feet of water where the perch fisherman congregate.  We avoid this crowd and use the fish finder to help us find the schools of fish.  

Recently we have come to understand what represents schools of perch look like on the fish finder screen.  They do not look life the traditional hooks, rather the screen looks like a rippled carpet on the bottom.

We probably caught 200 fish and kept 72.  Our rule is to keep perch in the 10"-14" size.  Anything outside this slot is released.  A new favorite bait store we have found is Dave's Bait and Tackle.  The owner is extremely knowledgeable and sells quality bait.

That night we enjoyed a driveway perch fry with all my girls, the Flanagans and Shu.  Looks like crappie fishing is our next adventure.

Couple of Good Days on Cayuga

Nice perch Jess!

 Last week I got to spend two days on Cayuga Lake with Dave, Jessica, and Jake.  We launched out of Dean's Cove and fished primarily in that area.  Near the large dead tree on the west shore were the usual 500 boats sitting on an acre of water perch fishing.  I can't stand fishing in tight quarters, especially on a big lake.  We stayed away and brought home 38 perch over 12 inches.  Jessica caught a gigantic perch!  The next day we caught 9 beautiful lake trout in 2 hours.  We caught them jigging in 156 feet of water where we had located a large bait ball of alewives.  I know they were alewives as when I cleaned the fish there were literally 15-20 alewives in each of their stomachs.  

Team Effort

The quality of the lake trout are immensely better in Cayuga Lake than Keuka Lake.  I am sure the demise of the alewives population on Keuka Lake is to blame.  I have only ever found ONE alewive in a Keuka Lake Trout.  I usually find perch minnows or shiners.

We ventured up to the mud lock area looking for crappie, but at 50 degrees the water temperature was still too cold for them.

Jigged up a nice trout