Ten years ago, Greg Hackney put on an absolute clinic during the final day of the 2014 Bassmaster Elite Series on Cayuga Lake. He ended day four, the final leg of the tournament, with a nearly 24-pound bag, boosting his total catch weight to 85 pounds while gaining a cushy 9-pound lead to claim first place. I was beginning my sophomore year at Ithaca College, and Hackney’s win was the talk of the town. That was my introduction to the bass factory in my new backyard. Since then, Cayuga Lake’s big bass have claimed two New York state records. Up until the fall of 2024, the lake briefly held the crown for both smallmouth and largemouth bass state records simultaneously.
Of all the lakes in New York, what is it about Cayuga that makes it a trophy-caliber bass haven? I asked the two people I thought would know best: tournament angler and current largemouth bass state-record holder, Jim Britenbaugh, and my college friend and Finger Lakes fishing guide, Kurt Hoefig.
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From a bird’s eye view, the Finger Lakes region looks as if the big man upstairs raked his almighty digits across the map, etching not five, not 10, but 11 spectacular fisheries into the rolling hills of western New York. The scientific explanation is just a smidge different. According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, the lakes were once a series of northward-flowing streams nestled into narrow valleys. Today’s landscape began to take shape two million years ago during the Pleistocene glaciation—the last ice age—when enormous glaciers inched south, digging out and expanding those narrow river valleys. Then, just 10,000 years ago, the last of the ice covering New York and New England melted away and the valleys, now surrounded by miniature mountains of glacial debris, flooded and became the Finger Lakes. Today, the two largest lakes—Cayuga and Seneca—are among the deepest natural lakes in North America, their maximum depths 435 and 618 feet, respectively.
The Finger Lakes are a product of the last Ice Age, when glaciers carved out narrow river valleys before melting away 10,000 years ago.
Looking down from atop South Hill, which has an elevation of nearly 1000 feet, the college town of Ithaca is dwarfed by the 38-mile-long Cayuga Lake. I had never been to the Finger Lakes region before 2010, let alone deciding to spend four years studying and living there. All I had ever known were the beaches and back bays of Long Island, where fluke, bluefish, and, more often than not, sea robins, found their way onto the ends of my baited hooks. Until 2014, my largemouth pursuits were limited to the shallow golf course ponds of my grandparents’ community in Stuart, Florida. However, with the help of some enthusiastic and very fishy friends, I dove headfirst into Upstate New York’s bass fishing scene over the next few years.
I met Pete Zibinski during freshman year at Ithaca College, and in junior year, he introduced me to his roommate, Kurt Hoefig. Kurt was far and away the most devoted angler on campus from 2013 to 2017. On blistering-cold weekend mornings, while our peers lay snug in bed fending off the Irish flu, Kurt dragged Pete out to the shores of Cayuga to catch pike, bass, and enormous lake trout, often in guide-freezing weather or wind-driven rain.
Kurt stayed in Ithaca after we graduated and continued to log countless hours on Cayuga. He is one of the most knowledgeable, resourceful, and patient fishermen I’ve ever met, and those qualities are what make him such a spectacular bass-fishing guide.
The Guide Perspective
When it comes to producing trophy largemouth bass, whether it’s one of the Finger Lakes or your neighborhood pond, two things are of utmost importance: an abundance of baitfish and grass. According to Kurt, there’s no shortage of either on Cayuga.
“Cayuga is a huge lake in terms of acreage. It’s one of the largest natural lakes in the Northeast, and the north end is particularly conducive for largemouth habitat,” said Hoefig.“There are miles of shallow, grassy areas for spawning fish to feed, bed up, and protect their eggs.” According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), that shallow expanse of weeds extends south for about six miles and occupies approximately 5,800 acres. The southern end of the lake, near Ithaca, has a similar habitat to a lesser extent. Mid-lake, there are narrow bands of aquatic plant life that run parallel to the eastern and western shorelines—plenty of real estate for largemouth bass to comfortably feed and spawn during the spring.
During the spring, largemouth bass hang in shallow grass, feeding on bluegills to fatten up before spawning. (Photo by Garrick Dixon)
In Cayuga’s shallow grass on the north end, spring water temperatures warm quickly and, as a result, those bass begin to feed earlier in the season. “Because of that dense grass coverage, the north end of Cayuga will reach the spawning stage while other areas lag a bit behind and are still in pre-spawn,” Hoefig said. A slightly longer spring feeding season in the north end is one of the many contributing factors to Cayuga’s knack for producing big ol’ Larrys.
On top of plentiful aquatic vegetation and a lengthy pre-spawn bite, Hoefig maintains that water quality plays a crucial role in harboring big, spawning largemouth bass.
“In the north end, there is stained, fertile water packed with nutrients, and few of the Finger Lakes have that. The healthy, mineral-rich water is attractive to baitfish, which allows largemouth to feed and get into their spring groove,” he said. “Those grasses load up with bluegills, and we all know that bluegills make big bass.”
On top of plentiful aquatic vegetation, Hoefig maintains that water quality plays a crucial role in harboring big largemouth bass. (Photo courtesy of Kurt Hoefig)
A Double-Edged Sword
Bluegills take the cake as the main course of spring largemouth, but crawfish, and more recently, round gobies, also play major roles in the diets of both largemouth and smallmouth bass throughout the rest of the season.
“Gobies are highly invasive,” said Hoefig. “They found their way into Cayuga when, during the late 1980s, a barge from the Black Sea emptied its ballast into the St. Clair River. It took more thanten years, but the descendants of ocean-crossing gobies eventually made their way from the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River into Cayuga, Seneca, and Onondaga lakes, along with any navigable waterways connected to Lake Ontario.”
Cayuga has built a reputation as one of the biggest and best smallmouth bass lakes in the country, and while round gobies are partially responsible for producing such plump specimens, their presence is a double-edged sword for smallie enthusiasts and fishing guides like Hoefig, who are pressured to meet their clients’ expectations. “We know they make big bass, but for the general population of fishermen, gobies are bad news.”
Invasive round gobies first appeared in the U.S. when a barge from the Black Sea emptied its ballast into the St. Clair River during the late 1980s.
Up until the goby invasion, Hoefig cited Cayuga as a premiere destination for “football” fanatics. The lake still produces big bronzebacks, but not to the degree it once did. “You used to be able to hit any shoreline on the lake with soft plastics and jigs and just wail on quality smallmouth, one after another,” said Hoefig, but that’s all changed, as gobies pose a huge threat to smallmouth bass eggs.
“Gobies have no swim bladder, so they can spend their lives in very deep or extremely shallow water,” he continued. “Because they populate many of the shallow areas that are ripe with spawning smallmouth bass, their vulnerable eggs are one of the goby’s primary food sources.” Hoefig, who watched the decline firsthand, estimates that gobies may have reduced Cayuga’s smallmouth population by as much as 90%.
“Pictures of seven- to almost 9-pound smallies routinely pop up on social media, so there’s this perception that the lake is a smallmouth factory when, really, it’s currently a suffering fishery,” he noted. “It’s not a big numbers lake, like Champlain, so the fishing is somewhat challenging…but the bass are indeed massive.”
The gobies have not been as calamitous to largemouth numbers, largely because they don’t populate the same grassy spawning grounds.
After spawning, largemouth begin to seek deeper water and their forage base expands. “Bluegills, gobies, and crawfish are the meat and potatoes of the largemouth diet,” said Hoefig.
The Post-Spawn Transition
Much like the pre-spawn bite in the spring, post-spawn largemouth bass are very focused on bluegills. Once spawning is complete, the big females venture off, looking to regain the calories they depleted while spawning. After the eggs have hatched, the males, which spent the post-spawn weeks guarding beds to protect their young, will move off to do the same.
According to Hoefig, there are two approaches largemouth anglers can take. Locating deeper grass is a reliable strategy to stay on the bite, especially for fish that are keyed in on big bluegills while gearing up for their own spawn. However, rock piles in 15 to 20 feet of water will also hold schools of chunky bass that are more likely to be feeding on crawfish and gobies.
Locating deep patches of grass is the key to finding big bass during the colder months of the year. (Photo by Kurt Hoefig)
Anglers may also find smallmouth bass in these areas, but for more consistent largemouth results, Hoefig is adamant about sticking to grass, whether it’s in the north end, south end, or amid those skinny stretches of plant life along mid-lake shorelines. In fact, focusing on Cayuga’s summer grass is what led tournament fisherman, Jim Britenbaugh, to a record-breaking largemouth bass in 2024.
The Tournament Angler’s Perspective
On July 11, 2023, while practicing for a tournament on Cayuga, Britenbaugh caught and released a largemouth bass that smashed the almost 40-year-old state record. He had the bass measured and weighed by a NYSDEC representative at the boat ramp, where it tipped the scale at 12 pounds, 6 ounces—1 pound and 2 ounces heavier than John Higbie’s record fish from 1987. At the time, Cayuga also held the state record for smallmouth bass: an 8-pound, 6-ounce fish caught by Thomas Russell during a tournament in 2022. (Amazingly, Russell caught a 9-pound smallmouth from Cayuga the following year, which he believed to be the same fish, but he released it without getting an official weight.)
In 2024, Jim Britenbaugh set the New York State record for largemouth bass with a 12-pound, 6-ounce fish that beat the previous record, set in 1987, by over a pound. (Photo courtesy of Jim Britenbaugh)
Britenbaugh agreed with Hoefig that Cayuga’s smallies, though not as plentiful as largemouth, grow to epic proportions. “Coming from Pennsylvania, I grew up fishing Lake Erie, and when I started putting in a lot of time there during the early 2000s, it was around the same time that the goby boom was publicized. They had a tremendous effect on the size of Lake Erie’s smallmouth,” Britenbaugh claimed. “They may hurt fish numbers in the long run but we’ve had an explosion of big bass wherever gobies are in the short term. I fish Oneida quite a bit, and they’ve played a big role in the improved bass fishing there.” He noted that when gobies are abundant, it becomes survival of the fittest—and the larger, more aggressive smallmouth tend to thrive.
Britenbaugh insists that it’s not just smallmouth bass benefitting from what he calls “Vitamin G”— he believes gobies are a big contributor to the size of Cayuga’s largemouth, too. He speculates that his record-breaking largemouth could have been a goby eater, but a bass exceeding 12 pounds in Cayuga could be feeding on a myriad of baitfish.
Largemouth and smallmouth bass fatten up on Cayuga’s invasive round gobies. (Photo courtesy of Jim Britenbaugh)
“For a fish that size to come out of a northern lake, it’s been eating well. Something I considered in talks with my friends was the possibility of my fish being a trout eater,” said Britenbaugh. “Largemouth love their bluegills, too, but when it comes to why there are impressive numbers of big bass, I think it boils down to abundance of grass, good fish-holding cover, and varying forage throughout the lake.”
Taking Cover
There are numerous types of structure that Cayuga largemouth use for shelter and to ambush prey. “Most of the lake has some patchy grass coverage, but there are a ton of docks along the eastern and western shorelines, and that’s a big factor in tournaments,” said Britenbaugh. Some of those docks extend far enough into the lake to meet or come in close contact with the narrow bands of deep grass running adjacent to shore, providing bass with hard and soft cover in close proximity. “There’s also some rock and wood structure relatively close to shore,” Britenbaugh added. That array of cover plays a major role in generating 30-pound tournament bags.
Along with patchy grass coverage, docks along the lake’s eastern and western shorelines provide ample structure for shallow-dwelling largemouth and smallmouth bass. (Photo by Garrick Dixon)
With so much fishable structure available on a 38-mile-long lake, tournament anglers and guides should focus on select areas, and that starts with understanding seasonal patterns. Shallow, grassy areas throughout the lake, and particularly in the northern end, are the places to look for bluegill-gorging largemouth during the pre-spawn. However, as spring turns into summer, the bass spread out and the menu expands.
“Generally, the later it is in the season, the deeper you want to look,” said Britenbaugh. “But that’s not always the case.” A prime example is when he caught the state record.It had been a hot summer, and during practice, he began fishing deep water, away from the crowds, before working his way toward a shallow main lake point. There, he found plenty of fish in the grass between 8 and 12 feet of water, including a 2½ and a 6 pounder, reinforcing the notion that finding small patches of grass in low-pressured areas is paramount to success. “In any other lake, I’m looking for deep offshore structure during the summer, but in Cayuga, I always look for grass,” Britenbaugh said.
“Grass” is a blanket term used to describe any dense and tall aquatic vegetation. Hydrilla and coontail are two types of plant life Britenbaugh spends time fishing when he finds them. In depths of 5 to 15 feet, grass is often visible within a few feet from the surface on Cayuga, but electronics help locate deeper patches of vegetation.
Drawing from tournament experience on the tributaries of Chesapeake Bay, Britenbaugh maintains that the health of the grass is also something to keep an eye on. “Off-color or dying grass is a clear sign that it’s time to move. When you find healthy grass, make note of where it is and how deep it is,” he added. When fishing the Chesapeake, Britenbaugh says targeting grass any deeper than 8 feet is too deep, but in Cayuga, you might find bass in the grass in 20 feet of water or more.
The Tournament Approach
With a comprehensive understanding of the different types of structure that are likely to hold largemouth bass, it’s time to develop a competitive approach. Britenbaugh says his number-one strategy for both largemouth and smallmouth bass is to get away from the crowds. “Yes, I hold a record, but I am not the savviest fisherman,” he admits. “I usually spend a couple days practicing before tournaments on Cayuga. When I see thirty trailers in the parking lot at the launch, I’ll go out and do a lap where I think most guys will be fishing and then face my boat a hundred-eighty degrees in the opposite direction and find my own fish. I do the same thing during Chesapeake tournaments because I know the less angling pressure the fish receive, the more eager they are to bite.”
Avoiding areas that experience daily fishing pressure is an effective strategy for tournament anglers. (Photo by Garrick Dixon)
By avoiding areas that experience daily fishing pressure or heavy tournament attention, he has a better chance of finding a spot that’s going to reload during a multi-day tournament. “If I catch a 5-pounder in a sneaky area, I’ll go back and try again the next day,” Britenbaugh continued.
Avoiding the masses is one useful strategy, but Britenbaugh is adamant about always having a Plan B, and even a Plan C, in case of bad weather or unexpected crowds in areas that typically see less pressure from fishermen. “For example, a major shift in wind might change everything about how I planned to fish an open-water spot, so a fallback plan is always in place.”
This past summer, he kept his eye on three small spots near where he’d caught the state record, which allowed him to cycle through different locations and presentations, and then gauge what the bass were most responsive to. “I’ll fish those spots for twenty to thirty minutes each and rotate if I’m not getting productive feedback,” he said. That feedback can come in many forms; in some cases, it might be a couple of bass following and nosing on a moving bait, such as a chatterbait, which signals him to throw a more subdued presentation, like a Speed Worm. Feedback may also come in the form of no feedback at all, indicating that it’s time to move. By targeting small pieces of structure—the spots within a spot—and keeping a variety of offerings at the ready, Britenbaugh spends less time making long runs between locations and more time with a line in the water.
Baits for Bass in Grass
Seasonal patterns affect where and when bass will stack up, but on Cayuga, more often than not, largemouth hang in dense vegetation across varying depths. Britenbaugh says these fish can be targeted with lures in two categories: moving baits and dragging baits.
Moving Baits
When largemouth bass are actively feeding and more willing to chase down an offering, Britenbaugh opts for attention-grabbers with pronounced action. Swimbaits, swim jigs, chatterbaits, and spinnerbaits are all mainstays in his tackle trays.
If the bass are responsive but suspicious of animated lures like chatterbaits—giving chase but not committing—Britenbaugh reaches for a Speed Worm because he can still rip it in quickly and the subtle action is more appealing to wary fish.
A chatterbait is ideal for fired-up largemouth and smallmouth. The bladed jighead pushes water on a moderate or fast retrieve, generating loud vibrations that call in bass from a distance. Pair it with a Z-Man Turbo CrawZ trailer when the bass are focused on crawfish, or use a Z-Man Chattershad if they’re chasing gobies or small bluegills in the grass.
Dual willow blades produce an audible thump and reflect sunlight, generating tons of flash and vibration on a moderate to rapid retrieve. Tip the skirted hook with a creature bait or paddletail trailer to beef up the profile and add some enticing action. Spinnerbaits do a fine job of culling big bass feeding on bluegills.
The PowerBait-scented skirt on this weedless swim jig creates a trail that helps bass track the lure when fishing in or around dense vegetation. Tip the hook with a Berkley Power Stinger or The Deal Swimbait for some added vibration to entice strikes from bass in dirty or cloudy water in Cayuga’s grassy north end.
Unlike an average paddletail, The Mayor swims with a tight wobble which, in addition to the tail’s kicking action, produces a subtle vibration that translates through the line and provides feedback to the angler. Pair it with a VMC Swimbait Jighead for a realistic presentation that will dupe largemouth staged along weed lines, ledges, or beneath hard structures like docks and fallen timber.
Dragging Baits
For low-hanging, lethargic largemouth in extremely warm or cold water, Britenbaugh slowly drags and bounces lures along the bottom near the edges of vegetation. Lures like small creature baits, Texas-rigged and wacky-rigged Senkos, and the tried-and-true Speed Worm succeed in these scenarios because bass perceive them as easy meals that require minimal energy expenditure.
When fishing for offshore smallmouth, dragging baits excel in hard-bottom areas with scant vegetation, such as rock piles, sand, and gravel.
It’s hard to go wrong with a wacky-rigged Senko worm. The soft plastic creates an alluring flutter as it falls through the water column, which often leads to delicate, barely detectable strikes on the drop or when gently raised and lowered in front of wary or high-pressured bass.
Whether it’s rigged bare on a Ned-style jighead or used as a trailer on a football jig, the bulky profile of this 3½-inch craw presents a beefed-up profile to smallmouth and largemouth bass that are holding tight to hard structure like docks and rock piles. The forward-facing legs generate a lifelike kicking action with a hop-and-pause retrieve or a steady, low-and-slow retrieve.
The slim body of a Texas-rigged worm makes it an ideal choice for punching through heavy, low-growing vegetation. The Janitor features a slightly tapered pintail that undulates with each twitch of the rod tip as it snakes through grass, and the Ultra Vibe Speed Worm has a hooked tail that wriggles as it hops and darts through dense plant life on the bottom where largemouth wait to ambush unwitting prey.
Grass, Bluegills and Gobies: A Northeast Gem
From an outsider’s perspective, finding big bass in a deep, nearly 40-mile-long lake is intimidating. However, a bit of insight from a local guide and an experienced tournament angler go a long way when it comes to breaking down the forage base, the types of structure, and the productive strategies to locate areas where potential double-digit largemouth and record-breaking smallmouth hunker down throughout the season.
Cayuga Lake is a unique ecosystem with more plant life than its neighboring Finger Lakes, and that’s part of what makes it a gem of western New York bass fishing. A robust presence of various aquatic plants offers cover and nutrients to smaller fish preyed upon by largemouth, and to some extent, smallmouth bass. Healthy grass attracts big bluegills, the predominant forage of Cayuga’s largemouth, while the docks, rocks, and downed timber provide nearshore shelter for spawning smallmouth feeding on crawfish and “Vitamin G”. If there’s one thing to take away from both Hoefig and Britenbaugh, it’s the correlation between healthy grass, plentiful forage, and some big-old bass.
Round gobies may pose a threat to smallmouth bass populations in the long-term, but they are a baitfish that Cayuga’s largemouth and smallmouth have come to depend upon.
“NYSDEC does an amazing job managing all our waters,” said Hoefig. “They are not trying to keep gobies out for no reason. The DEC is well aware of the impact round gobies have on our smallmouth bass.” And while they’re not good for the overall health of the fishery, it would be nearly impossible to eradicate the gobies, which have been well established in the Lake Ontario watershed since the 1990s.
As long as gobies are around and the health of the lake’s plant life is maintained, count on Cayuga to continue cranking out 30-pound tournament bags of largemouth and smallmouth, and to attract trophy-seeking bass fishermen from the Northeast and beyond.
