Owasco Lake 9/24 + Seneca Lake 9/25
I took a few days off the guiding and enjoyed a little r + r then some scouting as well. There’s nothing I like better than loading the boat up with tackle for different species and then having all day to explore. That’s my kind of fishing and the kind of stuff I used to do a lot before my guiding schedule got so heavy.
Owasco Lake 9/24: I’ve been jonesing to get on Owasco Lake lately to see what’s going on. I expect this lake to really be good now that the fishery is more in balance. I had a trip scheduled with Angling Zone friend and past client Ed for Friday for some pike fishing, but it was a no go. But we talked and he had fished Owasco Lake last weekend and done well downlake.
Water temps were nice and cool on the south end when I arrived around 8:15 am or so. People were catching some nice perch. I worked my way north targeting lakers. I was very impressed with what I saw – lots of lake trout along the shoreline points and shelves. I marked some bait too. I missed a lot of fish and felt like my clients! But it is fun, whether you hook them or miss them. After an hour or two I got in a groove.
An angler out trolling told me he didn’t see much on the north end – no bait, nothing. I decided to check for myself. Conditions certainly had changed from the early AM, because the north end fishing was excellent and the new moon likely had the fish biting all day long. I caught some nice lakers and at times had hits on every drop of the jig.
I hit a few areas for smallmouths and caught one and missed a couple. I also caught a few perch. This lake might be offering the best laker action in the region now.
Seneca Lake 9/25: I have a few pike trips on the docket, so I wanted to see what was going on here. I launched out of Watkins. Usually this time of year the water temps are very cool (upper 50s) out of Watkins. Cold rains help. With this warming trend and the lack of rainfall, the water was still pretty warm and weeds were up. I raised a pickerel and not much else. I wound up working my way up the lake and found some pike in a few areas. They were good fish, but the fishing wasn’t great – either due to the time of day or maybe I wasn’t using the best presentation (sorry but I don’t feel like finessing pike!) Either way, I will wait till the next cold snap before targeting pike here.
I did some laker jigging and missed a bunch of fish. Never had a solid hookup. I did some perch fishing and caught some up to 14″. I didn’t hammer them but found a couple groups of them. And no, I’m not divulging where either, but they were deep for the most part – 35′ to 55′ or so. These fish get hit hard enough on this lake!