Owasco Lake 6/17
Guided the full-day with Rick – whom it was nice to see, after guiding him way back when… and his college friend Gary. These guys stayed in touch for nearly 40 years. Rick wanted to book a trip on Owasco a month ago, and I probably would have been reluctant to do it, if it wasn’t for the encouraging reports I got on the laker jigging from friend/client Dave J. I wasn’t sure what we’d be fishing for, so I packed up plenty of bass and pike gear. The weather forecast called for clouds and wind. Instead we got clouds and drizzle/rain nearly all day. Not the worse thing in the world, but the guys didn’t plan on it – they had heard of 80 degree weather and some sun. So not much raingear – and I didn’t have any Hefty Bags. So they got pretty darn wet, but fortunately if they were discouraged they didn’t show it!
Rick wanted to fish lakers, so that’s what we did. It didn’t take long to mark baitfish and lakers. And within the first 5 minutes of fishing (maybe on his first or second drop of the jig) Rick hooked a good fish. This was at around 6:15 am or so. He lost the first one but landed another shortly thereafter – a nicely proportioned 25″ laker. Gary was fairly new to the technique and missed a couple hits. Overall the fishing was slow, but encouraging and by day’s end the guys landed 5 solid lakers. All the fish were in the best overall condition I’ve seen Owasco lakers in, in a long time. 50′ and out produced the fish. 70′ to 80′ was particularly good. We saw one boat trolling in the AM do pretty well. I’m very optimistic regarding this fishery over the forseeable future.