Owasco Lake 6/16
Had a cancellation today, so off to Owasco I went. For my guiding, I enjoy Skaneateles Lake for smallmouth bass numbers, though fish 18″ and over are scarce there. Keuka Lake might be the best major Finger Lake in terms of numbers of quality-sized fish, but it is a good drive for me. Owasco Lake has a decent smallmouth bass population – it isn’t great, but it’s not bad and I’d like to guide more smallmouths over there, but I’m still tentative on it.
I launched at the South Shore marina just after 10 am and fished till around 4pm, spending an hour targeting pike (which wasn’t successful. Some large pumpkinseed sunfish were bedding all along the docks and around the south end of the lake. I worked a bunch of areas on the lake with Superflukes today. On my 1st cast I raised a smallmouth around 3lbs or better that I missed. Overall I didn’t raise too many quality bass. I did manage to land a beauty that was just shy of 20″, as well as a 15″er. Tons of nice perch were following the fluke in nearly everywhere I went. I also saw a ton of alewives inshore. I just didn’t encounter decent numbers of bass in the areas I fished. Some of that was the weather conditions – dead calm and sunny. But regarding the smallmouths, many may still be spawning and I will check on that shortly if I get time. With pike, the best fishing here will be early in the AM and late PM. The weeds are up a bit and water temps are in the mid-60s, which tend to drive pike deeper and scatter them. This is a better lake to hit for northerns right when the season opens in May and then again in October and November.