Otisco Lake 1/30
A co-worker of mine at Bass Pro Shops suggested I try Otisco Lake for some winter tiger muskies. Sounded good, so off we went. He’s done alright there ice-fishing for them so we figured open water fishing could be the ticket. Got to the launch at daybreak and I found the south end of the lake still had some thin ice. So ice-breaking is what we did. Got the boat up to the northern part of the lake and found ice covering the areas we were hoping to fish.
We fished a few good tiger areas and Jarrod (my buddy) had one small musky follow in his stickbait. He missed another hit later and that was pretty much it. I spent over 8 hours tossing streamers on sinking lines with my fly-rod and another hour working a tube jig. Never had a hit. According to the DEC musky numbers are low in the lake. I’ll try it again most likely in May. A few were taken through the ice in December, so there are fish around. Jarrod caught one then, plus had a big fish on last summer nightfishing. Water temp was 33/34. Light winds blew much of the ice northward and I was able to work some better areas.