Skaneateles Lake 9/20 + Owasco Lake 9/21
Skaneateles 9/20:
Did a half day trip with Steve Jr. and Steve Sr. on Skinny Sat. AM. The best area I’d scouted last week was virtually fishless, so we went into search mode. Things were slow for the first hour or so then Steve Jr. started getting some hits on a jig/worm and tube jig. A few fish came to the boat and we started to find a pattern. In one area, a few small salmon or rainbows were hitting Steve’s tube jig! Working X-raps worked well for smallies running from around 10″ to 13″ with some bigger fish mixed in. What the smallmouths lacked in size, they made up for in aggressiveness. Steve Jr. was an “alumni” of the Lindners’ “Camp Fish” back in the 1980s. He also was a counselor there and knows the Lindners, having fished with Ron and Jim. So it was a fun trip hearing some firsthand stories about some of my favorite anglers. My Al Lindner impression passed the test with the guys as well. So that was a highpoint of my day!
After the trip ended, I went back out on my own and worked some areas I hadn’t fished in a while as well as some “alien areas”. Working new areas is one of my favorite things to do in the world. I pick a landmark and say to myself, “I’m going to work from here to there” – or something of that nature. Things went well. During one cast with a jerkbait I had 4 to 5 nice smallmouths (14″ to 17″+) come out of the woodwork chasing the bait. I hooked some good fish and they got off. Finally landed a 17″ and a 15.5″ fish, after losing a couple nice ones. The best areas I found were shelves in 10′ to 15′ of water with plenty of small smallmouths and YOY (young of the year) perch on them. I feel I’m getting these Skinny smallmouths dialed in. Canandaigua/Keuka are next!
Owasco 9/21:
Day 2 with “the Steves” started similarly to our first day. Action was kind of slow in the AM on Owasco. We started at 8 am. My buddy Jarod was on the lake and called me up with a up to the minute report! That’s always helpful. We started off nailing a few fish in around 70′ of water. Then the wind came up a little and some misty rain moved in. We worked our way out to deeper water. As the wind subsided the fish started hitting aggressively and coming off the bottom “Owasco style!” The guys wound up nailing just about a dozen lakers to 26″ before we wrapped up our 1/2 day. After the trip I went back out trying a few different things w/o any luck. I ran into a good bass fisherman I know from the Rochester Bassmasters and he reported catching around a dozen pike on the day. Not much doing on the shallow/mid-depth smallies yet. Jarod encountered some bass in the depths, but they weren’t hitting great. H2O is around 66. Water levels are starting to drop.