In addition to a healthy population of largemouth and smallmouth bass, Cayuga Lake has an abundance of chain pickerel, a toothy fish in the pike family. Several anglers mentioned setting the hook in practice more than usual, just to make sure what species they’d located, a bass or a chain pickerel.
“I have (set the hook in practice) just because there are so many pickerel here,” said Seth Feider. “There might be northern pike here, I don’t know. I haven’t seen one yet, and I’ve caught about 70 pickerel.”
Bill Lowen also mentioned setting the hook in practice more than he normally would.
“Typically, you set the hook in practice to judge the type of fish you have in an area,” Lowen said. “If you catch a couple of good ones, typically there are other good ones there.
“But I was struggling to get bites in practice this week, so I set the hook on everything. I caught more (pickerel) than bass, so it’s not good, at least for me.”