Otisco Lake 11/14
Guided Mark I. today for a full-day starting just after 8:15 am. Very few boats were out on the lake today with the beginning of deer season (with shotgun) nearly upon us. Lakes will be very quiet this next week! This fall, in my guiding we’ve had some hits and follows from Tiger Muskies, but it certainly hasn’t been the “year of the tiger” for me. Unfortunately today didn’t change the tenor of the season much. I thought today would be productive – it was my pick to do the trip today. We had fairly strong winds for nearly the whole day – southerlies around 9 mph gusting to 15 – 17. Normally Mark fly-fishes, but today he did very little. I had him throw the usual spoons due to the wind. We were hoping to get a musky in the boat early on gear and then switch to the fly-fishing. We had one musky encounter – the only action he had was a follow and a quick grab from what appeared to be a very nice musky in shallow water along a mudline. Unfortunately, even after doing a “figure-infinity,” he could not get that fish to hit or come back. Water level is low here but still easily launchable. Water temps finally dipped into the 40s – we had 49 degrees. A lot of weeds are gone but some nice weedbeds remain in the northern portions of the lake. We covered a lot of water today from weedbeds to windblown points and drop-offs. Maybe the sudden decrease in water temp turned off the fish a bit. I’m not sure.