Owasco Lake 10/2 PM

Had a trip scheduled for Thursday with Dean and his brother Scott, but the conditions seemed better on Wednesday so I called the guys and asked if they wanted to bump the trip up a day.  They were good with it, so we met at Emerson Park around 12:45 pm.  Around 10 bass boat trailers were in the parking lot.  There will be a small tournament there this weekend (I think Friday/Saturday) with around 14 to 15 boats.  The lake does fish kind of "small" so I figured it'd be good to know.

We had light rain and north winds around 10 mph to start.  The fishing was slow then Dean hooked a fish that took to the air!  Unfortunately the nice (maybe 23" to 25") rainbow got off after three jumps.  Then Dean hooked what appeared to be a solid lake trout.  That fish also got off as did the next hookup.

The guys enjoy casting for pike/pickerel so we gave the casting a try (for pike) for a bit.  Water temps are warmer than what I like for optimum pike action but one nice 29" northern cooperated.

It was a solid well proportioned fish with pretty cool small spots on it.  One other hit was had that might have been a bass.

We then set up for lake trout down the lake and Scott nabbed a very nice looking 25" to 26" fish.  Unfortunately when he tried to hold it for a photo, the fish flipped back into the lake!  Overall the fish in this lake look a lot better than they did back in the early to mid-2000s to early 2010s when they were skinny and over-populated.  Back in those days we (Scott and Dean) had a 40 fish day that included bass and a brown trout.  The fishery is more balanced now.  Below are a few shots of a couple fish we got.  We wound up landing 3 lakers total I believe.

Lake trout propagation netting is mostly done on Cayuga Lake.  The egg take on day 2 was exceptional and a couple nets will be set to gain some additional fish for research purposes.  Top laker handled by the crew was a 33" fish.  The crew will be gone by Friday.