Cayuga Lake fishing: Atlantic Salmon, Brown Trout, Lake Trout
Target species: Atlantic Salmon, Brown Trout, Lake Trout
Boat: 7 ramps and launches on file for this water.
Start here: Launch at Allan Treman, 4 lanes.
The lake
Cayuga Lake covers 42,986 acres in New York, across 3 counties: Cayuga, Seneca and Tompkins. It is a lake: the deepest point measured is 291 feet (88.6 m). Our records hold 5 species for this water.
Depth: down to 291 ft at the deepest measured point
Deepest measured point: 291 ft (88.6 m). We hold 19 depth contours for this water, drawn from 318 soundings.
Stocking: 1,662,674 fish, 2011–2025
NYSDEC records list 1,662,674 fish released into this water from 2011 to 2025.
- Lake Trout: 963,690 in 2011–2025
- Brown Trout: 301,655 in 2011–2025
2 more species on the stocking list.
3 target fish, led by Atlantic Salmon
- Atlantic Salmon — Feeding water: 45–60°F.
- Brown Trout — Feeding water: 50–65°F.
- Lake Trout — Feeding water: 50–65°F.
Also recorded here: Common Carp, Alewife.
7 ramps and launches on this water
On this water we hold 7 trailer ramps.
- Allan Treman — 4 lanes, restrooms. New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. 805 Taughannock Blvd, Ithaca, NY 14850
- Frontenac Park — 3 lanes, restrooms. Finger Lakes Institute.
- Cayuga Lake State Park — 2 lanes, restrooms. Finger Lakes Institute/NYSOPRHP.
- Deans Cove State Marine Park — 2 lanes, restrooms. Finger Lakes Institute/NYSOPRHP. 5761 State Route 89 Romulus, NY 14541 · phone +1 315-568-5163 · website parks.ny.gov/parks/deanscove
- Long Point State Park — 2 lanes, restrooms. Finger Lakes Institute.
- Taughannock Falls — 2 lanes, restrooms. New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. 1740 Taughannock Blvd, Trumansburg, NY 14886
- Mud Lock DEC Launch — 1 lane, restrooms. Finger Lakes Institute.
Fee and opening hours are blank for all 7 places in this list: a blank means we hold no such field, not that it is free or always open, and this list may not be complete.
Water and conditions
Water clarity runs 4.1–13.7 feet on our readings, averaging 8.7 feet, from 132 readings. Our water temperature readings average 58°F; they do not cover the whole year, so this is not a yearly average. pH averages 7.2. These readings span 2017–2020. The latest reading is from 2020, more than three years ago: read these numbers as history, not as the water today.
What is hard here
Wind is the limit, not the fish: 42,986 acres of open water build a short steep chop, and there is no shelter in the middle. Clarity swings from 4.1 to 13.7 feet between our readings — the water you meet is not the water someone photographed.
Where this data comes from
- NOAA ENC — NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts: soundings: class A, a survey of the bottom.
- NOAA ENC — NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts: depth contours: class A, a survey of the bottom.
- Webster, K.E., McCullough, I.M., Soranno, P.A. LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0, EDI, doi:10.6073/pasta/64ddc4d04661d9aef4bd702dc5d8984f (CC BY 4.0); Cheruvelil et al. LAGOS-US LOCUS v1.0 (EDI) — LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0: Lake depth for 17,675 lakes in the conterminous U.S.: class B, a depth figure measured and published by an agency, without a bottom map.
