North End

The Bass Pro Tour takes on this unique fishery in August

Cayuga Lake

Inland Sea

By Mason Prince

orty miles west of Syracuse , New York , sits a 42,502-acre lake that will play host to 80 of the best bass fishermen in the world : Cayuga Lake , the venue for the sixth stop on the 2022 Bass Pro Tour . This natural lake is the second largest of the New York Finger Lakes , extending over 38 miles in length , with an average width of just 1.75 miles . With a healthy mix of both largemouth and smallmouth , this fishery should see a plethora of fish catches when the Bass Pro Tour gets there in mid-August .

Cayuga at a Glance

Casey Smith is a Phoenix Bass Fishing League angler with a win on Cayuga Lake to his credit just a year ago . The New York native spends his time relaxing on Cayuga with his family when he ’ s not fishing , so you could say this Finger Lake is in his wheelhouse . Smith believes anglers new to Cayuga are frequently impressed with the size , but that the fishery ’ s size can be deceiving .

“ It ’ s a big fishery , but there ’ s not a ton of fishable water because of the massive dropoff in depth in the middle of the lake ,” Smith says . “ The north end is where a lot of the fishable water can be found , but once you get about 6 miles south of there , it turns into a rim lake .”

Reaching depths of over 430 feet in some places on the main lake , the drop-off is dramatic . Consequently , there ’ s not a lot of natural structure or cover to be found in a large majority of the lake , which means that the cover that exists draws ample attention .

“ The limited cover and structure you find on Cayuga is going to be loaded with fish ,” Smith says . “ That ’ s going to cause a lot of anglers to share areas with other guys just because there ’ s not enough of that stuff to go around .”

A Grasp on Cayuga ’ s Grass

With the cover being so limited on Cayuga , the main thing to look for when fishing for largemouth is shallow grass ( which will be diminishing by the middle of August ). When Smith won his BFL back in August of 2021 , he was able to capitalize on isolated grass patches that were left after much of the other grass had died off . While he was the only one who

South End

ILLUSTRATION BY BRANDON ROWAN