Cayuta Lake

Cayuta Lake, sometimes referred to as Little Lake, provides excellent warmwater fishing opportunities. Largemouth bass and chain pickerel are the primary predators found in the lake. A recent angler survey revealed largemouth bass 5 lbs and larger are occasionally caught. In addition to bass and pickerel, walleye populations provide added diversity to angler catches. In the past, a small, naturally occurring population has periodically been supplemented with hatchery reared fish resulting in a sizeable walleye fishery. However, an abundant alewife population has negatively impacted both walleye recruitment and angler success for walleye with only a few anglers catching an occasional large walleye. More recently, a research project looking at controlling alewife populations from a predator level resulted in the stocking of over 250,000 walleye fingerlings over a 5 year period ending in 2006. Although the desired results have not yet been achieved, these fish have reached the 18 inch minimum size limit and are quite abundant, but still difficult to catch. Bluegills, yellow perch, and black crappie are plentiful and dominate the panfish catch. In addition to the open water fishery, excellent ice fishing opportunities exist within Cayuta Lake with anglers targeting pickerel and panfish species.