Waneta Lake 10/1 + Otisco Lake 10/2

Guided Mark I. for two-days of targeting muskies on the fly;  we fished pure-strains on Tuesday and hybrids on Wednesday.  Each lake couldn't have fished more differently!

10/1:  Today I met Mark over at Waneta Lake at just before 7 am.  Mark has a couple more dates booked at the end of this month and I figured we'd be doing Otisco today and tomorrow and then Waneta later in the month. He wanted to go with Waneta. He's had his best luck on Waneta since we started fishing muskies on the fly, although Otisco Lake has been treating us better in recent years.  We typically fish Waneta in November and by that time, it's fairly clear and the water temperatures are in the 40s.  Being a shallow, fertile, muddy lake, it gets a lot of algae and other weed issues.  I was also concerned about "fall turnover," which I suppose is a couple weeks away.  When shallow muddy lakes "turnover," they can be a real mess for a few days until they settle back out.

Fortunately the lake wasn't turning over, but visibility was not great.  We had 15" at best.  Mark also encountered some black slimy weeds near bottom on the east shore. Other conditions were excellent - we're around the new moon (dark moon,) we had ample cloud cover and also good wind.  On top of that, only a few other boats were out on the lake today.  We were the 2nd boat to launch, so we had run of the lake.

Mark did a great job as always with his fly-casting, but we just couldn't raise any fish today.  He finally had a couple hits in one area, but they were likely bass.  He landed one at 14".  We talked to some other anglers (two of the four boats that were out were targeting bass from what I could see.)  They had decent bass fishing and one bite-off, that I'd guess was a musky, although there are some pickerel in the lake.  H2O was 68 degrees.  Water level was good.  Lake was murky due to algae, but there was some visibility.  A big bucktail spinner might do the trick here or some other lure that moves a lot of water.  Mark threw spoons for a good 3 to 4 hours today without any follows or hits.

10/2 Otisco Lake:  This lake was a different story today!  When fly-fishing muskies, one fish on the fly is a good day.  Well Mark had a great opportunity about one-hour into our trip!  Today was a picture-perfect day to musky fish - new moon, overcast conditions, wind and some rain/drizzle.  You can't order better!  Days like this are when I've seen muskies so aggressive, they'll grab topwater.  We had two of them bite off bobbers in the Bobberman Perry days back in the 2010s.

Mark was throwing his new christened "Skunk-Killer" fly.  It's a double-Buford with a red head and then a mix of black and white.  Last year he nabbed his first Otisco Lake musky on a fly with it, and it was a good musky that came on a figure-8.  As luck would have it, just as Mark was preparing to do a figure-8, a good-sized musky (I figured 32" to 34" or so) showed up and took a shot at the fly!  Mark saw and felt the hit, but unfortunately did not hook the fish.  We rested the area for a couple hours, but could not raise that fish again.  Otisco Lake muskies like cover, but they aren't locked into any "spot" as far as I can tell, i.e., you aren't typically throwing to a rock pile or a tree that houses a musky like you might in some Minnesota or Canada lake or river.  My guess is they just cruise the weeds here.  So over the years, we've rarely, if ever been able to go back a few hours later to an area where we raised a fish, and raise the same fish again.  Maybe some people are able to, but it hasn't worked that way for me.

We both thought that we fished water effectively today and covered it well.  We didn't waste any time out there.  Mark tried one of our favorite spoon set-ups and had two muskies take shots at it, without touching it!  One musky came straight out of the water at knee-level jumping at the spoon when Mark pulled it out of the water!  All in all, it was pretty fun day of fishing, but the catching was poor.  I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll be back here again!  Lake clarity was excellent.  The level was down maybe two-feet.  Weeds are still nice and green.  Water temp was 67.

Anyone that fishes Otisco Lake or Conesus Lake has probably seen these Tiger Muskies cruising around with their heads out of the water - as if they were looking into the sky.  I've never heard a good explanation regarding why they do it.  It's kind of like carp - why are they jumping constantly now?  We saw carp jumping here and on Waneta Lake.  Mark hadn't seen Tigers doing this before.  He took some expert casts towards the fish, but no response.  This fish stayed on top for minutes.  I was able to cruise right up to it and got a good look at it.  It's body had some fungus on it.  Looks like somebody might have mishandled it or it had some disease.  Could that contribute to it or was that sheer coincidence?  I don't know, but it's food for thought.