Skaneateles 5/20 PM, 5/22 and Otisco Lake 5/21 PM
This fishing and guiding binge I’ve been on will wind up with this weekend’s Derby on Seneca Lake. I’ll be fishing it again with my buddy Jarrod and we’ll try to repeat as winners and if nothing else, have a lot of fun, get some lakers for the smoker and maybe cash a check or two. Report will be coming on Tuesday! Here’s the breakdown from the past 3 days.
5/20 PM on Skaneateles: Guided Kevin with his girlfriend Laurie tagging along for the scenery. She didn’t fish. Kevin originally wanted to fly-fish pike, but the conditions and wind forecast weren’t good. We did our first trip together back in 2006 or so on Skaneateles Lake. We had great “catching” back then, but brutal “fishing” – with rain, wind, fog and air temps in the 40s. Today, we had wind and cool temps.
Kevin had some hits fly-fishing but was a little rusty on the casting. Things came back throughout the day. He threw a tube jig and managed to catch some solid perch and if I remember right, a bass or two. Water temps were good for trout fishing.
5/21 PM on Otisco Lake: We decided to give Otisco a try for bass and perhaps a Tiger on the fly. The water was really murky and downright muddy in areas. He had a few hits on the flies, but they didn’t seem like large fish. Some anglers were doing well deadsticking Senkos near shoreline cover, but Kevin wasn’t up for that. He took some casts with a tube jig and landed a few small bass. He had some tackle he’d brought and did some casting for muskies. We worked the causeway and a few other areas for awhile without anything to show. He insisted I fish a bit so I casted for around 1/2 hour. I had a hard hit on a spoon and figured it was a Tiger, but nope – it was a surprisingly hard fighting walleye around 21″ long and probably 4lbs (it was fat.) That fed me for two days.
5/22 Skaneateles Lake: David called me a few weeks back and booked today looking for some action, “I just want to catch some fish” is what he said. So that’s what we set out to do and Skaneateles Lake didn’t disappoint. Fishing was exceptional today. We started by working a windblown stretch for bass. Dave was getting hits every two to four casts. He landed a bunch of smallmouths (maybe a dozen or more) including a 20″er and a few around 16″ or 17″. Most were 13″ to 15″. He also nailed a decent number of perch. Further down the lake he missed/lost a rainbow and a couple salmon. He DID land a gorgeous wild brown trout around 20″+. He also landed a big pickerel and more smallmouths. We had a lot of action all day long, including some grabs from trout/salmon and bass after the wind really was flying. Fish all came on jigs. Fly casting for trout is still possible here on the right day. The smallmouth action is superb.