Owasco Lake 8/30 + 31

Guided back-to-back 6-hour trips this weekend with Fred, whom I hadn't seen in a good 13 years or so!  It's fun catching up with people I used to guide on a semi-regular basis.

8/30:  (This was written on 8/30.) The cold front blew through yesterday afternoon and evening with strong north winds.  I wasn't sure what the bite was going to be like today, but it was very good.  Fred wound up with lots and lots of hits and hookups.  He wound up landing 9 nice fish, including a 30"+ laker and a hard fighting 25" colorful rainbow that jumped twice!  We had a lot of fish and baitfish on our depthfinder screen today and they were hitting and chasing fairly well.  It wasn't "stupid" fishing, but we had action from the start to end of our trip.  Fred had a great day and we wound up doing 5 hours out of the 6 hour scheduled trip.

8/31:  Today we were met with more cloudless "bluebird" conditions with light winds going to calm conditions in an hour or so.   Fish were more cooperative than I would have expected and it didn't take Fred long to nab his first laker of the day - a 22"er.   After that, he caught a brute around 28" that was FAT.  We had another big laker and then a nice rainbow around 22"/23" that came off of the bottom in maybe 80' FOW.  Fred had a long drive back home and was very happy with his day, so we called the trip after around 4 hours.  Clouds did roll in along with some north winds and my guess is that the fishing would have improved markedly, but one never knows!  We did try for browns in one area without any hits, but again, this was before the condition change.

Thursday and Friday of this week remain open.  I am guiding straight through Wednesday, so I'm happy to have a couple of days off, but the fishing remains very good, so I'm happy to guide almost daily.  Surface temperature on Owasco Lake is 70 degrees.  I think we'll be hitting the upper 60s Monday or Tuesday.  Water clarity is excellent.  Water level is good.