Owasco Lake 10/21 + 22 AM trips

Reports

Guided Steve and his brother in-law Dave over the past two days for pike fishing trips on Owasco Lake.  Steve has been out with me a handful of time over the years, usually on fly-fishing trips with his wife, but sometimes with his buddies as well.  Dave joined us in April for a foggy but productive lake trout jigging trip out of Long Point.  Dave had caught pike through the ice, but not in open water.  Steve does a lot of fly-fishing for everything from trout on the Delaware to stripers off the east coast and saltwater species in Florida and beyond.

This trip was booked a long time ago and conditions weren’t great for pike on either day.  We were faced with bluebird (cloudless) skies and little to no wind at times, apart from the AM thermals.  We had our moments of good to very good fishing along with longer durations of slow fishing once the winds died down and the sun got high overhead.  That being said, we accomplished what we set out to do, with Dave landing his first pike on gear, which was a 35″ beauty!   Dave’s work was done after that and he fired up a big cigar (and gave me one!) and he spent the rest of the morning in “relaxation mode.”  The colors are pretty spectacular out on the lake!  We are at peak for foliage, although in a dry year the colors are somewhat muted.  Muting aside, the colors are tremendous!

Steve landed a northern close to 30″ on day one along with a smaller pike and a chunky smallmouth.  Day 2 resulted in some hits and follows from some nice pike for Steve on the fly, but no great grabs.  Dave nabbed a 28″ on gear along with a 15″ as well.  Perch are moving into the shallows by the day.  Today, two other boats launched around when we did.  One was fishing perch, one bass and us, pike.  That’s what makes our region of the country great – you can have a half-dozen boats out and nobody targeting the same species!

Water temps are around 58 degrees on top.  The water level continues to drop.  Hopefully we’ll see some rain soon!  Weedbeds are in great shape on this lake.  If you find good weeds, there are probably some pike and perch around.

As an added note:  In my estimation, the pike population here is fair to good and not great by any means.  This isn’t the numbers fishery that Seneca was from 2006 to 2008 or even in the mid-2010s when we had some 40 fish days there.  We did boat a younger fish (15″) today which is a good sign.  A half-dozen fish landed would be a solid half-day here.  What makes this fishery special is the trophy potential – any given fish could be a 40″+ fish pushing from 12 or 13lbs right up into the low-20s (perhaps a 48″er or better!)  You just never know!  And that makes things exciting here.  I had three anglers over the past two years catch their first gear-fishing northerns here – we had a 37″, a 41″ and a 35″!!!  You can’t beat that for solid fish without flying to Canada or some remote location in the states!

Dave's first gear-caught open-water northern pike!

Steve actually got us started with this nice fish

Steve on again!

Day 2: Dink perch on the fly - yes, the perch are in.

Dave's day 2 northern! Time for a cigar....

Good to see some young pike here! And thanks for the cigar Dave!