Reports

10/23 Owasco Lake: Fished the full day with Zach and Matt, then Matt joined his dad in another boat and Amanda joined us. Water temps are in the mid-50s. The north end flats held some lakers and bait, with Matt landing one 20″ fish if I remember right. But the hot action was on the mid-lake points. Kastmaster spoons produced 9 nice lakers for us up to around (Amanda’s) 29″! The laker fishing was reminiscent of the early 2000s, before the laker boom (and subsequent growth rate reductions.) There was a nice size distribution of lakers with some 27″ (Cayuga sized) beauties in the mix. After we finished the trip I fished for another two hours and landed a 17″ largemouth and saw plenty of nice perch in the shallows chasing my jerkbaits and Superflukes.

10/24 Keuka out of Branchport: Fished with Boris and his dad from Austria. In a nutshell, the laker action was superb – the best I’ve seen all year on Keuka! The guys had super steady action at the Bluff with a few doubles. Within two hours they’d landed 15 solid fish to 28″! We marked tons of fish and they all seemed to be hitting and were hitting well when we left. One spit up a smelt. We kept our limit then went bass fishing. Boris did well, landing a 20″+ solid smallmouth, an 18″ largemouth and another decent smallie. Many fish were missed and the usual pickerel were in the mix. Boris’s dad landed a 26″+ pickerel on a deep X-rap. The bass came on Superflukes. Great day and water temps are in the mid-50s. There’s still plenty of beautiful foliage to look at and the lake might as well be in Canada for the lack of boat traffic we encountered.

After Boris wraps up his post-doctoral research at Cornell, he’s heading to Europe for his next phase in his career. He lived in Germany before. To fish in Germany you NEED TO JOIN A CLUB or association. This costs in the neighborhood of $350 A YEAR!!! Then there are licenses and fees to rent a “beat.” When people in the good ole USA complain about a $10 a year fishing license increase (of which the money goes into the Conservation Fund,) they are clueless regarding how the rest of the world operates. I’ve heard people complain about a $5 trout stamp. GET REAL!!! Fishing in Japan is even costlier and other countries in Europe are just as bad. People have no idea how good they have it here, yet they still complain. And if you think fishing tackle here is expensive, go to Botswana! My clients from there spent at least $3000 at Bass Pro Shops and were thrilled with the prices…..

bass Chain Pickerel keuka lake Owasco Lake yellow perch