Reports

Got out here for around 5 + hours of fishing on my own starting around noon.  I hadn’t been out here since mid-May, but since then the City of Oswego has done some renovations at Wright’s Landing.  The booth where you’d pay your launch fees on the way in has been replaced by a larger building closer to the ramps that has bathrooms and more space.  More “improvements” are on the way.

The other surprise to me was the water temperatures.  I was hoping for some cooler water but the temps in the harbor were in the upper 60s.  The lake was in the mid-60s.  A few boats were working the harbor both slow-trolling apparently and drifting.  I’m not sure if they were targeting salmon or walleyes or what – a smaller boat appeared to be perch fishing.  I’ve never heard of perch in that harbor but there’s no reason there wouldn’t be any in there.

I hooked a couple bass, landing one and then headed out into the lake.  It took a while but I did manage to find some smallmouths out there.  I landed 5 or 6 fish out in the lake and lost a beauty.  The fish I lost may have been in the 5 to 6lb range.  I’d just landed a bass around 16″ when I got another hit in the same area.  I set the hook and reeled down on the fish and it felt like another small one.  Only thing is that the fish was swimming towards me and I had a tough time catching up with it and bearing down on it.  Next thing I know it accelerated right past me and went to jump.  I was sure it must have been a big brown trout or some kind of salmonid, but it was a mega-smallmouth!  The jump gained the bass his freedom as my tube jig sailed back at me!  Spectacular fish and probably the most memorable battle I’ve had from a smallmouth bass in my life that I can remember.  I just was in awe that a bass could pull off a run and fight like that – smallies aren’t known for steelhead like runs, but this one came pretty close to that!

Best bass of my afternoon was a 19″er.   Water temps were warm out on the lake and I had 65 degrees down 40’+ which is as deep as I took a temperature at.  When I was pulling out, a fishing guide and his clients were at the ramp.  They’d been trolling the turn-basin and caught one King.  Back in the 1990s I remember casting crankbaits in the turn basin and hooking salmon.  That was a lot of fun!  It doesn’t seem to be like that anymore with diminished numbers of salmon out there now.

Yes – it was hot out there!

Open Dates:  I don’t have a whole lot of openings left so book now if interested.  November is an iffy month for fishing and I don’t want to book it too heavily in case I have to shuffle some dates around.

October is completely booked.

November:  14th, 25th – 30th.

December:  This month is wide open but it’s best to plan something more spur of the moment given the typical weather.  However, I am happy to pencil in tentative dates.

2022:  Now’s a great time to book trips for next season!  I have my calendar at hand.