Owasco Lake 6/15
After a couple very nice days of R+R, it was time to hit the water again. Today was boat inspection day and the plan was to meet the NYS Parks Official somewhere along Rt. 5 +20 near Auburn – so why not fish Owasco Lake? I got on Owasco around 7 am. I spent nearly all of the day working areas for smallmouth bass. Fishing was tough. I landed a feisty 12″er and a pike around 24″ in short order on the N. end of the lake on a tube jig and jerkbait respectively. Small borderline nuisance sized rockbass were everywhere, as were plenty of perch ranging from sheer dinks to 12″+ beauties. I tried some new areas and “new old areas” – I keep returning to some previously unproductive streches thinking I missed something, but in most cases I didn’t.
I located loads of spawning beds filled with panfish and a few smallies. The smallies appear to be just about done spawning. Water temps were around 70 today. I left the bedding fish alone and worked downlake. Working some Zoom Superflukes yielded a nice chunky smallmouth around 18″. I lost a beauty that had to be 20″ or better – I watched him hit and turn sideways. I also missed at least 3 or 4 other fish – whether “chasers” or biters. Fish just weren’t very aggressive. I found them in my previous two favorite areas, despite working loads of seemingly similar areas (pattern fishing.) I did not do any dropshotting or deep fishing on the N. end. Just conventional bass fishing. On the way back in I spent around 45 min. checking on lakers. I found a few aggressive fish as shallow as 52′. I can see why the laker fishing has been so good – plenty of fish and bait on the N. end. An angler I talked to in the parking lot says he landed a big smallmouth on a dead alewife meant for lakers. No great shakes overall at Owasco today. To me it is fun and worth it if in the area, but not necessarily worth a special trip when there’s better fishing for all of the above species elsewhere in the region. I think Keuka and Skaneateles are better smallmouth bets and I expect Cayuga and Seneca to provide better laker fishing – though one never does know! Owasco can be very, very good…