Reports

Guided John and his nephews Kyle and Kevin for what wound up being a half-day trip today.  We were going to go for the full-day, but the relentless rain and cold got to Kyle late during the AM.  When I launched the boat at 7:35 am, I checked the weather radar and it looked like we were going to get some good rain in a half hour, that might last for 20 minutes to a half-hour.  However, once the rain started, it just kept going and going.  Once the rain slowed down, then the north winds amped up and the lake kicked up.  Fortunately we spent our day on the northern part of the lake.  I was glad we weren’t on Cayuga or Seneca Lakes today.  One other boat had launched and we ran into him later at the ramp – he said he stayed up north under a tree!  We were the only boat out that I could see.

Fishing was very good – much better than what I’d been seeing on Cayuga Lake as of late.  The great thing was that everybody caught fish.  Kyle was the goat of the last trip – this time he had the most fish.  Kevin did well as did John too.  The size of the lake trout we boated today was impressive.  We definitely weren’t into the dinks!

Later in the trip, we tried an area for brown trout and were doing a drift.  All of a sudden John saw a big fish jump!  He said, “A nice fish jumped over there” or something to that effect.  Well, they don’t usually just jump for joy, so I told everyone to “reel in!”  Sure enough, John had the slob on!  I thought – “Man, that’s a nice brown!!!”   It jumped again towards us – like a 3′ horizontal jump with some vertical!  I couldn’t net it – it wasn’t quite in range and dug back down before it got off.  It was a BROWN fish, only a SMALLMOUTH!  And wow, was it big!  I’d guess 22″ to 25″ range – probably 5 to maybe 6lbs or better!  It was a monster!  “Was” being the key word!  But that was awesome, even if we didn’t land it.  This lake has given up 7 and even 8lb smallmouth before, so my guesstimates are not out in left field.  Keep in mind, that a “pelagic” Finger Lakes smallmouth can go 24″ or even 25″ and not be much over 6 or 7lbs.  It isn’t the Great Lakes or Cayuga Lake where a goby-fed 22″ pig can weigh 7lbs or more. Smallmouth bass that spend a lot of time swimming in open water and chasing baitfish tend to be thinner and longer.

After the bass got off, the wind amped up a bit and we headed back up north.  The whole north end of the lake had a lot of bait around.  Kevin nabbed another laker then we called it a day when Kyle got cold.  It was a double-digit lake trout day with some very nice large fish in the mix, especially for Owasco Lake – we had a few 29″ fish.  The lake was clear – no signs of algae or discoloration.  John took photos of every fish, but I put up the best ones below.