UNION SPRINGS, N.Y. — It’s game-on at Cayuga Lake. Just ask Randall Tharp, who said, “We’re going to catch the snot out of them.”
Unlike some of the dire predictions prior to several tournaments this season, the Busch Beer Bassmaster Elite at Cayuga Lake begins tomorrow with high hopes.
“I’ve been surprised,” said Greg Hackney, who won here in 2014 with a four-day total of 85 pounds. “Not at what I’ve caught, but what I’ve seen. It’s an amazing place. It has to be the best largemouth lake in New York. (Lake) Champlain doesn’t have anything on this place.”
Hackney’s 2014 win came in late August, when there was lots of full grown aquatic vegetation in Cayuga Lake and the bass had moved deep into a summer pattern. This time, the 43,000-acre lake in the Finger Lakes region is totally different.
“I think we’ve hit the spawn right on the head,” said Hackney. “The water temperature is 57 to 67 degrees. We’re coming off a full moon. I’ll be surprised if it’s not won that way.”
It’s because the bass are in that shallow spawning mode that Hackney’s already-positive impression of Cayuga Lake has jumped to a higher level.
“You can get a better feel for what’s here, and it’s really impressive,” he said. “Now they’re not that easy to catch, but it’s impressive what’s swimming around out there. And the smallmouth are going to be a bigger factor this time. I think the winner is going to have all largemouth, but there are lots of smallmouth in this lake. We didn’t see that before.
“But we’re here at a different time now, when they’re not all out there suspended in 100 feet of water. There will probably be some limits of all smallmouth weighed in. There are probably a lot of guys fishing for them.”
But most anglers think this will be won sight-fishing for spawning largemouth bass. And most of the bigger bass seem to be spawning in deeper water, not right in the shallows on the bank.
“I’ve seen them up to nine feet deep,” said Jacob Powroznik, who finished fifth here in 2014. “Weather is going to be a factor. We’ve had a lot of wind in practice, which has bunched everybody in the calmer water on the west side of the lake. The east side hasn’t really been touched since the first morning of practice (on Monday).”
The positive predictions after practice are a stark contrast to the predictions prior to the last Elite Series event two weeks ago at Lake Texoma, when heavy rains and flooding reduced water clarity to a minimum. And these guys still caught ’em, once the tournament began.
So what’s going to happen when this four-day tournament begins here Thursday?
“I still think 85 pounds will be good enough,” said Hackney, referring to his 2014 winning weight. “That’s good anywhere. But overall it’s going to be much better. Maybe not the top end, but the bottom end.
“I think the average fish will be bigger. It’s amazing how many four- to six-pound bass this lake has. This is a great lake.”
Daily takeoffs start at 6:15 a.m. EDT and weigh-ins begin at 3:00 p.m. at Frontenac Park, 26 Chapel St., Union Springs, New York.