Cassadaga - The Saga Continues, Chapter 2

[John Jarosz]

Long day for me Wed, longer day for Dan Scheda.  Coming from the Northtowns, he was on the water in his boat at 5:30 a.m..  I showed up at 7:30; he's been casting for two hrs & got nothing.

The middle lake was chocolate colored & very high from all the rain.  We started fishing the lower lake & tried everything.  the night before I made up my casting rig like Mike Small suggested & it was the ticket.  Casting was much easier.  We started with topwaters & gurglers, but first....we put on the stripping gloves.  Both our hands shown the effects of fast stripping last week.

Saw some locals casting in other areas so we found a couple of new ones & went to some panfish haunts that I used to take my sons to when they were very young.  NADA!!.  Went back to the first spot & Dan finally had one on on a big chartreuse fly.  He yelled Fish On!! & I'm at the ready to grab the Beckman.  Three seconds later, the fish is gone.  Chartreuse seems to be the hot color.

We then went to the upper lake expecting the water to be chocolate but by that time it had cleared up to a nice stain.  Cast & cast & cast & cast, moved around, cast some more, saw some locals & found what looked to be a real promising spot, nice weed cover & then the lake drops off dramatically to a deep hole with no weeds.  Cast & cast & cast & cast... NADA!!!

That's the spot for next Wed. though.  Muskies hiding in the weeds right at the edge of a steep shelf.  When a fish swims by along the edge, the 'skie should dart out, grab it, then retreat to stalk again (in theory).

Hopefully the muskies will also read about the theory.

Off the water at 2:00 & went home beat.  A couple of Advil PM & slept like a sore baby.

Next Wednesday is already penciled in for Chapter 3 of the continuing saga of Cassadaga.  All this, for me, is just a primer for a Niagara Musky on a fly.  Gotta get the confidence first, then on to bigger & better.

[Stephen Glassic]

Good to hear that Dan got a hookup and Mike Small's input was helpful. I'll stay tuned for the next episode!!

[John Jarosz]

I told Dan yesterday that it was prob a carp but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt & we'll call it a musky (ha!).  Not really, It put up some good tugs & if it was a carp, he would have had a pair of carp lips in the boat the way he set the hook! 

[Daniel M. Scheda]

It's those hits that give me the gas to go out again!  The third time's the charm right?  I'm gonna try and tie up some more chartreuse stuff for next week to try and finally boat the toothy critter!