Owasco Lake out of South Shore Marina 9/21 AM
The wind forecasts today were looking downright brutal. Mike had an AM 1/2 day trip scheduled out of Taughannock and he couldn’t switch it. I used to do places like Hammondsport when strong south winds were forecast but the hotel isn’t allowing launching there any more. Cayuga’s south end doesn’t offer a whole lot of options, so off to Owasco we went. It was a very good call and we wound up having a very nice day. The rabbit was pulled out of the hat.
We started at around 7:45 am with strong winds and cloudy conditions. Lakers were not very cooperative. Mike’s girlfriend Lauren had three hits – all on the way down with the jig but no hookups. Fortunately I brought some smallmouth bass gear and after an hour or so of drops for lakers we set up for bass in a sheltered area. Not much going to start but all of a sudden Mike had a couple grabs and a hookup on a fluke. We saw a bunch of bass! His fish wound up being 17″ long – a personal best for him. Then he nabbed a 15″er, a 13″er and a small one around 9″ – all smallmouths on consecutive drifts through. Lauren had fish grabbing too. The Mike hooked and landed a 21″ behemoth after a short but strong battle (the fish hit near the boat.) Tremendous fish! We released the brute and gave it another drift or two then set back up for lakers.
Towards mid- AM the lakers picked up. We dealt with the wind and Mike and Lauren actually had two doubles going on lakers. Mike landed 3 solid fish and Lauren had a nice one right next to the boat. All the lakers I’m seeing are solid fish out of Owasco thus far this season. 75′ to 95′ was good for the lakers. We barely scratched the surface here at Owasco – we fished just a couple areas. Great day!