justtracytrolling

I can get canal info and heard saturday its been good as of late and prob into then. I used to fish it a lot and 1 of my customers is a commercial fisherman from there and he fishes it a lot still. Shoot me a text later if you are interested and ill get a hold of him. He might even take you. He had pics of him and his buddy recently with a 50 and a 60 he showed me when he was out with me saturday. Its a shore night gig, my favorite place to fish stripers from shore and you will hit the +/- tides nearly perfect

I pay for a duplicate and keep 1 on the boat and 1 in my wallet so I always have it if an opportunity to fish presents itself.

You won't be disappointed!!! I love both of mine. The new mega imaging unit has absolutely put fish in the boat I never would have found before.

The weeds have been atrocious for the last couple weeks, but there are ways of trolling through some them effectively. Half of learning to troll otisco is learning how to deal with the weeds. If anyone fishing otisco wants some trolling help pm me and make arrangements to see me in person. I'm easy to catch on the dock as well. Surface temp last night after dark was nearly 78, and weeds were starting to blow off. This morning 73 and nearly blown off. The mats were so bad I broke off yesterday morning when I hung a board in one.

Nice work! Some days the sunlight turns em on and some days it turns them off. Usually you have to make some adjustment for the change if you want to keep catching. Most days they don't shut down completely till 11 to 12.

Made it out fishing for my birthday last night. It was my first fall walleye casting trip and picked up a 6+ lb eye along with a nice upper 30's tiger and a 7 lb catfish that was a battle. Eyes really aren't in tight enough with recent warm weather especially for casting, but I managed to get on 1! Trolled three in the same time in daylight before supper.

Skaneatles will definitely support walleye! The proof is that they are thriving with out a massive introductory stocking. Stop stocking all trout in the fingers and see how well the rainbows and landlocked salmon do. The lake is loaded with perch and panfish. As far as it being a great rainbow trout and landlocked fishery goes there isnt near the cold water food source that there is for walleye. The stocked fish are basically the only fish that are successfully shocked fish in otisco as they live in the stained water. They didn't get natural reproduction fish until they Gill netted away from the pond after I found natural reproduction fish away from the causeway and reported it to the DEC. Now if the Gill nets were put were the fish are... wow they would have had some samples. Honestly I was surprised they got any where the nets were....go ahead and believe alewife predation wipes out reproduction completely, but you will be wrong.

The lake overall has fished OK for walleye, outside of the month of July due to the flooding, but it's nowhere near as easy as last summer. It's tough enough most guys have given up and are on Oneida. There are a few of us that can catch em often enough to keep us off Oneida. I caved in and went there once in July for a jigging fix and to make sure I hadn't forgotten what they looked like! Pm me if you are gonna make it and I can probably point you in the right direction.

I'm not blaming the DEC. There are only a couple techs and 1 biologist for region 7. I know exactly how little time they spend on Otisco and the lake is just 1 tiny body of water. The last full lake study on Otisco took place with 2 guys over 2 nights with a total of about 8 hours of electro shocking. You can't make major decisions based on an 8 hour study. I was on the water the entire time both nights and we caught 27 walleye all bigger than what they got and most of our time was sitting waiting for the fish to come in and that happened pretty much after they were done shocking. Plus if you turn tons of work lights on, run a huge generator, a loud 2 stroke, can only fish 8 fow or less, go out on a flat night in fall when the water is gin clear how many walleye will sit there and let you drive up on them and shock them....not many. DEC conclusion...most of the walleye are in the stained shallow "pond" where they happen to stock them and they have success shocking. My boat caught more with 5 of us on a 3 fish limit than they got when they moved away from the causeway on night 2. They skip huge portions of shoreline like the entire area I was both nights. Point is they don't have the resources or the time to have a clear picture. Many nights walleye don't even go in shallow and midnight isn't when you stop when you are looking for shallow eyes it's when you start. And of course they never found natural walleye in the muddy pond because any eyes spawning in Spafford creek aren't successful with all of the silt.

I base my statements based on actual fish caught. When you catch yoy walleye in a year none were stocked you know they reproduce. I personally proved the DEC wrong on Otisco and they now agree there is natural reproduction. There testing is limited and flawed. Alewife predation doesn't come close to wiping out all the fry. I have shone a light in owasco and I promise you there were tons of eyes and none were any 14 years old. You can't believe everything they tell you. I'm not saying they are lying I'm saying they theorize much more than they know. I know for a fact how they proved otisco had no natural reproduction and they were sure they were right. Now we KNOW they were wrong. When you don't look in the right place you don't find em...and that's what happens when guys who don't KNOW walleye look for them.

The original post said best bang for the buck....skip the touch screen.

Personally I like to put them back until I feel they have had a few spawns to replace themselves for the fish I eat. I don't have to fish below 30 feet for walleye here so that isnt a concern for me. Here on Otisco the fish grow fast, but don't live as long, so the ideal breeder is prob 22-24 in my opinion. I like to keep the 24+ as they aren't as viable as spawners here. I also limit myself to 2. A couple 7-8 pounders is perfect!

Personally I like to put them back until I feel they have had a few spawns to replace themselves for the fish I eat. I don't have to fish below 30 feet for walleye here so that isnt a concern for me. Here on Otisco the fish grow fast, but don't live as long, so the ideal breeder is prob 22-24 in my opinion. I like to keep the 24+ as they aren't as viable as spawners here. I also limit myself to 2. A couple 7-8 pounders is perfect!

Unfortunately Kevin it's only cuts in stocking for us walleye guys. Thank god for natural reproduction or we wouldn't have any walleye in the fingers. Funny that what we stock won't sustain itself, and the species that is indigenous that will sustain isn't stocked hardly at all. The more eutrophic the eastern fingers get the more they will suit walleye and the less they will suit trout but they keep stocking trout.

I think they will do very well there and I'm gonna be chasing them! I've heard they were in there for years but confirmation is excellent news!!! Walleye reproduce well in owasco and otisco so it doesn't surprise me at all.

Roosevelt sure makes a fish look small!!! Had a ball bud anytime! Not much too it with both of us on board. If I hadn't fished 13 hours already I'd have gone back out by myself...never know when you will see fish up like that again.

Absolutely we have to protect the prime spawners. The question is what size range are those fish. I'm all in favor of taking no fish in that range and definitely err on the side of caution. The SLR is a world class fishery and we all need to think long term. Everybody needs to use their voice now rather than rant later. I think this could be done statewide. What could it hurt to take a few less fish for a few years at least just be sure the fisheries remains sustainable. Kevin, Post the number you want us to call and I certainly will and will put the word out.