Reports

Did a half-day guide trip on Owasco Lake this past Monday. The fishing started off well with a nice 6 to 7lb. laker within about 10 minutes. However things remained slow for us during the morning. We marked fish fairly consistently around 55′ to 70′ of water but most fish just weren’t active. The dark misty skies didn’t help us, as some light penetration helps the lakers see the jigs. Joe managed to land another fish and he lost a couple as well. We found fish on the north end flats and also on points. Fish were hitting quickly and short and not coming back for the jigs.

It’s funny how things change. At 2 pm. I met George Ketola at the launch and we fished the rest of the day. George has been working at the Tunison Lab since the early 1970s and he does a lot of experimentation and research on EMS/Cayuga Syndrome. (If you don’t know what this is, and you’d like to learn – please do a google search!) I’ve volunteered over at the lab and I always learn a lot when I stop over there. We looked for lakers and marked some inactive fish around 1 – 2 pm. Had a hit or two but nothing great. We slid out into 85′ to 92′ of water and found active fish. Fishing was excellent for a couple hours and slowed in the evening. A limit was landed in short order and we did a lot of catch ‘n release fishing. Upwards of 6/7 fish were chasing the jigs at a time during the peak bite!

That’s the only drawback from a “1/2 day trip”. Sometimes the bite doesn’t turn on until later. Sometimes it takes hours to find the fish. I talked to other anglers and they had similar results – slow fishing in the morning and excellent fishing in the afternoon. The sun almost shone in the afternoon and I’m sure that played a part in the fish getting active. If they can’t see the jigs, they can’t hit ’em! This past summer the lakers were very consistent in their locations. It was relatively easy to find them and have a very successful 4/5 hour trip. With fly-fishing and other types of angling I often have to do a bit of searching and some running to find fish. Consider this when booking a trip….

Canandaigua Lake is a lake I don’t guide on, and I don’t fish it often. It’s a beautiful lake but is very crowded with pleasure boaters during the summer – esp. on weekends. It holds some HUGE smallmouth bass and I tried to find them today. I know fishing was hot on that lake a couple weeks ago. I power-fished a bunch of north end flats and drops. Just couldn’t find fish doing that – one smallie and a few rockies was it. I worked tube jigs and topwater along with senkos as well without much luck. The only “fast” fishing method I found today was drop-shotting. I drop shotted quite a few bass, rockbass, perch and a sunfish. Not much size on the bass. I couldn’t find the big ones. I spent a little time (20 min.) jigging lakers and picked up one fish near Menteth Point in 70′ of water. I was amazed at the amount of bait I found at the northwest part of the lake. Had a big smallie hit my fluke in around 75′ of water as I reeled it up! Sea gulls were all over the place. Maybe some of the big bass moved out due to the presence of bait. I don’t know! Water temp was around 62 -and 59 at the north-end of the lake.

bass Canandaigua Lake Owasco Lake