Weekend Reports 10/28 – 10/30
It’s gorgeous on the lakes despite the overcast skies. Nice and quiet as well! Fishing wasn’t particularly easy this past weekend with each day serving up challenges. Here’s the breakdown:
Cayuga Lake out of Union Springs 10/28 AM: Guided Bob and David for pickerel/bass. The forecast was for cold, windy conditions and that’s what we had to start. If anyone tells you pickerel are always easy, they are wrong. The pickerel bite was slow for the first couple hours with wind and murky water. Bob managed the first fish – a 15″ to 16″ bass on a spoon. Dave had actually had a small pickerel follow earlier to no avail.
Action picked up as the day went on and the guys landed over a dozen solid pickerel. The catch was anchored by Dave’s beautiful 20″ largemouth bass that also hit a spoon. We kept a few pickerel for the table. Perch were also caught.
Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen 10/29: Guided Greg today, who just wanted to nail a big pike. Seneca Lake out of Watkins Glen for northerns is one of my favorite things to do starting around mid-September and going through the winter. The weeds die down a bit and the pike move in. That was not necessarily the case for us today. There were some duck hunters in an area I wanted to fish, so we had to work a lot of shoreline. Greg never had a bump for a long time. After 3 or 4 hours he may have finally had a hit. No bass, no perch, no pickerel – nada to show.
We finally worked the area I wanted him to work and he nabbed a 25″ northern. Not what we came for, but a start. Twenty minutes later he landed a 34″er. That was more like it! The big fish had some lamprey scarring. I think I have a pretty good idea on why Seneca Lake was so tough this year and I’ll put up an article on it with my thoughts soon (once we get some nasty weather and I get a break.) Water level was good here and temps were around 55/56.
Owasco Lake 10/30: Guided Ron and his son Matt for a full day. It got a bit cold out there late and the rain was a nuisance. Plenty of lakers remain around the points but they weren’t hitting great. The guys had some aggressive follows but no cigar. Ron nabbed a nice one just under 27″
Pike action was fair to good. The guys landed 4 northerns ranging from 23″ (pickerel sized) to 29″. The other two in the middle were cookie-cutter 26″ers. Cayuga Lake out of Union Springs to me is a “more fun” bet at this point in time. 20lb+ pike have been pulled out of there over the years and the pickerel action is non-stop on a good day. Bonus bass are around too along with some “zolid” perch. But Owasco holds a lot of pike including some monsters and should only keep getting better as the water cools down.