Settlements along the west shore of the lake include Sheldrake, Poplar Beach, and Canoga.

The lake is drawn down as winter approaches, to minimize ice damage and to maximize its capacity to store heavy spring runoff.

An important stopover for migratory birds, the mudflats and marsh are the location of the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.

Furthermore, Cornell's system pumps significantly less warm water back into the lake than others further north, which have been operating for decades, including the coal-fired power plant on the eastern shore.

[citation needed] The AES Coal Power plant was shut down in August 2019, and there are plans to convert it into a data center in the near future.

In the late 1960s, citizens successfully opposed the construction of an 830-MW nuclear power plant on the shore of Cayuga Lake.

Fish species present in the lake include lake trout, landlocked salmon, brown trout, rainbow trout, smallmouth bass, smelt, alewife, atlantic salmon, black crappie, bluegill, pickerel, largemouth bass, northern pike, pumpkinseed sunfish, rock bass, and yellow perch.

An Ithaca Journal article of 5 January 1897, reported that a sea serpent, nicknamed "Old Greeny," had been sighted in Cayuga Lake annually for 69 years.

[12][13][14] A sighting in that month described the animal, 200 feet (61 m) from shore, as "large and its body long", although a "tramp" suggested it was a muskrat.

A tradition at Wells College in Aurora, NY, held that if the lake completely freezes over, classes are canceled, though for only one day.

Many of these booms may be attributable to bird-scarers, automated cannon-like devices used by farmers to scare birds away from the many vineyards, orchards and crops.