Owasco Lake 9/27 + Cayuga Lake 9/28 AM
Owasco Lake 9/27 out of the South Shore Marina: I had a pike outing scheduled with Jim Jr. and Sr. tentatively out of Watkins Glen, but decided to bump it over to Owasco Lake. The great thing about Owasco Lake is its length. You can target pike and run 1 or 2 miles uplake and have great lake trout fishing. If you want to bass fish, the same thing is possible. No other Finger Lake offers quite the same opportunities this time of year. Keuka Lake has great lake trout fishing but doesn’t have many pike. Seneca Lake’s best lake trout fishing is often miles and miles up the lake, plus it’s past peak in terms of great laker fishing for this calendar year. And any move on Seneca is typically a long run. Despite great pike and good smallmouth bass fishing, Conesus Lake doesn’t support cold water species. And Cayuga’s smallmouth bass fishing is iffy at present time and the lakers are spawning or just about to. So Owasco is a special lake with great angling often the case from October through November.
The guys were running late and we got underway at 7:15 am instead of our 6:45 start time. Even then, the pike bite was still good with over 1/2 dozen fish encountered (hooked/follows) and three fish landed. Nothing over 27″, but fun nonetheless. I wanted to get the guys on some bass, but there was a tournament going on, which is rare on this lake but does happen.
We did a bit of laker fishing and Jim Jr. got one in fairly short order, then the bite got tough for a few hours. Around 1:30 pm the bite really picked up and the guys landed 7 more fish. So doing the full day made a big difference in our success with the lakers.
Cayuga Lake 9/28 AM out of Union Springs: I also had a pike trip scheduled today with the Hermans, but I switched gears due to the forecast sun and zero winds. That, combined with warm water temps made pike fishing a riskier proposition. I’ve guided the Hermans for a long time and wanted to see them get into some action. Over the years they’ve often had to work for their fish more than they’ve probably wanted to! So I suggested Cayuga for pickerel. The pickerel fishing was a blast and they provided us with some great action for most of the AM. Over a dozen decent fish were landed and another dozen probably lost. A couple small perch and one keeper sized largemouth also made it to the net. I heartily recommend pickerel fishing for anyone who likes a hard hit, good fight (often with jumps) and some great eating. The great thing about Cayuga pickerel is that there are so many of them. Keeping a bunch of them doesn’t hurt anything and the bass fishermen will thank you, so you can’t go wrong with them. We used spoons. The bass came on a Senko. Best pickerel action was from around 9′ to 13′ FOW. Perch angling is good and getting better. I talked to a guy and he’d managed a decent catch two weeks ago with a half dozen in the 12″ to 13″ range. Those are good perch!