1. A Forty-Year Perspective
Cayuga Lake Fisheries
A Forty-Year Perspective
NYS DEC’s fish data and management strategies, a forty-year perspective.

2. Fisheries Community - Cayuga Lake
Coldwater Fishery: rainbow, brown, and lake trout and landlocked (Atlantic) salmon
Warmwater Fishery: black bass, northern pike, chain pickerel, yellow perch, sunfish, rock bass, and crappie
Forage Base: alewives and rainbow smelt, cisco
Challenges: sea lamprey control, lake trout over- abundance, centrarchid mortality, “Early Mortality Syndrome”, spiny water flea and zebra mussels
Other Species: lake sturgeon, walleye

3. Fish Stocking - 2012 Water Date Species Strain Size Number Cayuga Lake
April
Brown Trout
DOMESTIC
9"Y
10000
May
Atlantic Salmon
LIT CLR SY
13000
15000
Nov
Lake Trout FL FF
40000
Enfield Creek
Spring
Rainbow Trout
FL WILD
12500
Salmon Creek
Oct
20000
Cayuga Inlet

4. Cayuga Lake Stocking History

5. Cayuga Lake Stocking History

6. Cayuga Inlet Fishway Spring Runs of Sea Lamprey and Rainbow Trout

7. Cayuga Lake wild/stocked fish
Reduced yearling LT stocking in K to 15K Track wild LT reproduction during FL netting Track wild RT reproduction fall stream electrofishing and returns at fishway

8. Open Water Trout and Salmon
Species
Goal length
Regulation
Mean length
Lake Trout
22 in
15 in
23.0 in
Brown Trout
18 in
19.7 in
Rainbow Trout
19.3 in
Landlocked Salmon
20 in
20.3 in

9. Cayuga Lake Angler Diary Data-Catch of Legal Salmonids

11. Cayuga Lake fishing cont.
Total #
Legal Salmonids
# Hours to
Angler
% Trips
Ave Hours/
Kept (Released)3
Catch 1 legal
# of
Year
Trips
Successful1
Angler Trip LT RT BT
LLS
Salmonid
Coop.
2002
1164 79
5.9
978 (556)
96 (14)
161 (40)
333 (75)
3.0 55
2003
724 72
4.5
368 (293)
9 (6)
73 (56)
113 (137)
3.1 58
2004
749 69
5.0
808 (384)
20 (13)
50 (17)
44 (10)
2.8 57
2005
1199 73
4.8
953 (682)
20 (12)
51 (23)
77 (20) 63
2006
1013 74
722 (821)
23 (12)
34 (24)
35 (13) 61
2007
745
4.7
350 (540)
20 (22)
69 (83)
26 (31) 49
2008
905 76
700 (411)
43 (11)
126 (50)
122 (33)
2.9 43
2009
580 78
4.9
269 (358)
11 (6)
78 (29)
39 (15)
3.5 34
2010
791
460 (379)
35 (8)
54 (34)
95 (18) 46
2011 83
611 (762)
22 (16)
26 (45)
118 (63)
2.7 47
2012
677
292 (605)
7 (7)
36 (30)
102 (87)
2.6 35
2013
672 64
391 (314)
38 (24)
23 (5)
71 (16)
3.4 41
2014
466
4.2
308 (590)
18 (9)
37 (30)
23 (6)
1.9 27
2015
679
4.4
428 (987)
14 (11)
21 (28)
47 (30) 36
2016
774 89
405 (1015)
49 (23)
28 (26)
89 (57)
2.1 25

12. Cayuga Lake Warmwater Species Goal length Regulation Mean length
Smallmouth Bass
14.5 in
12 in
14.9 in
Largemouth Bass
14.6 in
Yellow Perch
Chain Pickerel
15 in
20.6 in
Northern Pike
22 in
22.8 in

13. Invasive Species
Hydrilla
Asian Clam
Sea lamprey
Round goby

14. Attached Sea Lamprey

15. Sea Lamprey Wounds

16. These are not eels.

17. Sea Lamprey Life Cycle

18. Sea Lamprey Ammocoetes & “Transformers”

19. Ithaca Fishway

20. Sea Lamprey Fishery Objectives SEA LAMPREY ATTACKS:
Manage the fishery while maintaining sea lamprey attacks below the following rates:
Lake Trout: 25.5 – 27.5 inches – 0.2 adult sea lamprey attacks per fish
Lake Trout: inches – 0.2 adult sea lamprey attacks per fish
Rainbow Trout: 20 – 22 inches– 0.3 adult sea lamprey attacks per fish

21. Cayuga Inlet Sea Lamprey Control Monitoring 1979-2012

22. Treat with TFM as needed

23. Applying Lampricide

24. Lampricide (TFM) Application

25. Lake Sturgeon Restoration

26. Lake Sturgeon Restoration

27. Thank You Emily Zollweg-Horan Aquatic Biologist NYS DEC- Cortland
(607) x 201
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