Reports

Guided Mitch and his brother Mike, along with their father, also named Mike.  We had a later start than planned due to the guys having some delays on the way over, but it didn’t seem to hurt us at all.  We got underway at 7:15 am.   Mitch was out with me around a month or so ago when his buddy Tyler nabbed a monster laker on Cayuga.  I moved our trip over to Owasco Lake due to the continuing algae bloom on Cayuga Lake.  I am done guiding there until the bloom clears up a bit.

By the way, my client/friend Joe sent me a link to the new state record LARGEMOUTH Bass that just came out of Cayuga Lake!  It was over 12lbs!  It was also released (like the record smallmouth) which is pretty cool.  Largemouth bass are thriving in Cayuga Lake.  Seven to eight pound largemouths were pretty much unheard of on Cayuga Lake with rare exceptions until about 12 to 15 years ago.  Now they are being caught with more frequency.  Check out YouTube for some video on the measuring and weighing of this beast!

Our fishing started out a little bit slow on the north end of the lake with some hits and quick drops.  After maybe an hour of fishing, they turned on a bit and Mike Jr. landed a few solids.  He’s a very talented angler with a great feel for the sport.  It wouldn’t shock me if he winds up guiding some years down the line.  He is mainly a trout fly-fisher who frequents the east and west branches of the Delaware River.

We moved around and the fish really got active.  We wound up having a great day with Mitch landing a slam on Owasco Lake – he got 2 rainbows to 26″, a nice brown just shy of 6lbs and a laker!   Those black Lunker City Shakers are rainbow trout magic.  The brown also came on black.  Lunker City is considering doing another run of black Shakers.  If you order lures there, let them know that you’d be interested!

Overall, Mike Jr. had the hot hand landing a 30″ laker and a rare Owasco Lake wild lake trout around 28″ if I remember right.  Mike Sr. nabbed a couple of fish as well.  All in all, a solid double-digit day with steady action after the first hour.  A LOT of hits were missed along with fish dropped too.  We all had a lot of fun and the lake looks great.

Wish I could say the same for Cayuga Lake.  The bloom really shut down the trout bite from what I heard yesterday and today.  The lack of wind tends to intensify the bloom.  There are also weedmats and plenty of water fleas around.  It’s a good time to fish elsewhere!  That’s what I’ll be doing this week from Monday through Friday.  I may be on a different lake every day depending how things shape up.  July 20th (next Saturday) remains open as does the 26th, 27th and the 29th through 31st.  If I can, I’ll book a few of these dates and then close the month off.  I hope to do some fishing on my own this month as well as in August.