Owasco Lake 7/19

Reports

Owasco Lake 7/19:  Guided Leo and Ada today, for what has been an annual trip for them for quite some time.  Usually we fish Cayuga Lake for trout/salmon for a day and then Skaneateles Lake for rock bass (aka “soup fish”) via drop-shotting.  We often catch bonus smallmouths and occasional yellow perch as well.  I no longer guide Skaneateles Lake on weekends during the summer.  I will do weekdays but I avoid the weekend insanity at the state launch and the lake’s north end like the plague during the hot months.  Anyways it’s always a “catch ’em and eat ’em” mission for them.

Over the years we’ve had a few bonus rainbow trout on Cayuga Lake.  We have probably also nabbed a few small landlocked salmon over there.  The fish that eluded them for well over a decade has been the wily brown trout.  Well, not anymore!

We had a good morning of lake trout jigging thanks to our early start at around 7:30.  They liked to sleep in on vacation, so usually it was an 8 or 8:30 am starting time with them.  Fortunately, it rarely, if ever really bit us in the butt.  I reminded them that they were retired, so every day at home to them was “vacation” and they could sleep until noon if they wanted.  They agreed to 7 am, but by the time we got underway, it was later.

I have a somewhat usual run of areas I like to fish on Owasco Lake.  It changes here and there – kind of like a band’s set list.  I’ll try different things but we’ll always fish certain areas.  We got into a good bite around 9:30 or 10 am for some reason in an area that nearly anybody’s who has booked me over the last couple of years has fished.  I had my hands full re-rigging rods – the lakers were fighting more once I got them onboard than they were in the lake!  I saw a fish make a beeline for their jigs and had them crank up.  Leo hooked up with a heavy fish that (and I hear this all the time – “my drag isn’t working”) he couldn’t just reel in.  It pulled and pulled.  I thought it might be a brown given that it ran away from the boat a bit at an angle.  It never tried to jump, which is somewhat uncommon when jigging up a brown.  I’d never had a brown in this area although I’m sure they’ve been caught all around the perimeter of the lake over the decades.

Anyhow, I slipped the net under the fish and it was MASSIVE!   For sure the best brown we’ve ever had on Owasco Lake by a mile.  We kept it and it measured 31″ long and weighed in at 14lbs 7oz.  THIS FISH IS BIGGER THAN ANYTHING LEADING THE SUMMER LOC DERBY AS OF THIS WRITING!  (Lake Ontario Counties Derby.)

So it’s great to see Owasco Lake returning back to the lake that used to produce monster browns – mostly before my time here.  I started fishing here late in 2001.  Big browns were taken here back in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s to the best of my knowledge.  Once the lake was double-stocked with lakers in the mid-1990s and the walleye stockings took place in the mid-1990s, everything went downhill and FAST.  People blamed “phosphorus” and I used to get into some serious disagreements with that issue with people online on the forums.  It’s a good part of the reason I’m NOT on social media anymore.  By their logic, phosphates and not walleyes are decimating the trout in Skaneateles Lake.  Problem is, is that Skaneateles Lake has very low phosphates.  And Lake Ontario was full of phosphorus in the 1970s and kicked out plenty of trophy salmonids.  So the most obvious culprit is the walleye.  And they are mostly gone now in Owasco – and VOILA-  Giant browns are back! But what do biologists know who have spent a lifetime studying fisheries?   We are all completely certain that they don’t know as much as the goofball that barely passed high school that fishes the lake 3X a week and spends the rest of his time getting drunk and/or stoned behind his computer or hanging out at the tackle shop spewing conjecture.   Of course nobody ever wants to admit being wrong.  I will cut them some slack on this one.  (I just having a laugh here…long day!)  Now they know.  But I digress…

For what it’s worth, the fish came off bottom in around 75′ of water.  It hit a 3.25″ white/chartreuse tail Lunker City Shaker fished on a 1.5 oz jig head with 12lb flouro leader and 14lb mainline on a 7′ MH baitcasting rod (I believe Fenwick) and BPS Pro Qualifier reel.  We were boxed out by 11:15 am.

We did some dropshotting for rock bass and were pleasantly surprised to find some nice fish with a handful over 10″.  They were on flats/shelves at around 14′ to 16′ FOW adjacent to shallower areas.

 

Laker on for Ada!

Laker on for Leo!

First Photo of the big brown!

Big Brown held vertically a couple minutes later - colors start to change quickly!

Horizontal!

DEC needs more cold-water diary cooperators on this lake!  They get some information from anglers who call them, as well as online and during derbies.  They need to know that browns and rainbows are doing well out there and how well they are growing as well as how abundant they are.  If nobody’s catching or reporting fish, they have to go in and net to see what’s going on down there.  If it’s really dire, then they reduce or cut out stocking all together, like we’ve seen on Keuka Lake.   I had one good angler tell me that he didn’t want to cooperate because he wants DEC to see poor results on Cayuga Lake with rainbows, that way they will stock MORE.  It doesn’t work that way at all.

DEC will do their coldwater surveying (netting) here this summer.  They will kill some fish, so certainly had no issue with Leo and Ada whacking this hatchery fish.  They earned it and it’ll be one less potential fish in a gill-net!