Cowanesque lake

[old man]

Always looking for new waters to get skunked in,I fished here the last three days. On the plus side the campground is awesome. Paved level pads with full hookups,nice docks and launch. Honor system for buying wood and ice. Primo fish cleaning station with garbage disposal. On the downside I put in 20 hours of casting and never moved a fish,not even a bass. I spoke to two other musky guys who were also shut out. Lots of wildlife.

[bobcat]

That used to be our "home" lake. We tent camped there 7 or 8 times a year for the last 6 or 7 years. It is a weird lake. There are some huge fish on there but sometime you can't get anything going. We always did better there trolling that casting. The only fish we ever had that I'm sure was over 50 came in front if the upper swim area. Broke the net and we never got to boat it. That was a pure. There are huge tigers in there also. Down by the dam was always most productive for us though. Did you see any tigers swinging on top. Sometimes we would see 3 or 4 a day.

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[bobcat]

These are a couple cowy fish.

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[zach]

Are they all tigers? Thought pures were in there also

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[bobcat]

Pure in there also

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[Chas0218]

They used to have walleye in that lake until they stocked muskies unfortunately. It's really too bad, I talked to a bunch of older guys that grew up fishing that lake and they could limit on nice eyes in just a few hours jigging the stumps but since they stocked the muskies the fishing went to crap in the lake. That lake was only 5 minutes from my house I used to ice fish there and caught a few perch and 1 bass. I wouldn't waste my time there anymore. It's more of a pleasure lake than a fishing lake you're better off going south another 20 minutes to tioga-hammond and hills creek.

[bobcat]

I used to fish Hammond. Switched to cowy to get away from the pleasure boaters. No place to hide from them there.

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[Ivan]

They used to have walleye in that lake until they stocked muskies unfortunately. It's really too bad, I talked to a bunch of older guys that grew up fishing that lake and they could limit on nice eyes in just a few hours jigging the stumps but since they stocked the muskies the fishing went to crap in the lake. That lake was only 5 minutes from my house I used to ice fish there and caught a few perch and 1 bass. I wouldn't waste my time there anymore. It's more of a pleasure lake than a fishing lake you're better off going south another 20 minutes to tioga-hammond and hills creek.

  

Thats funny...typical old walleye guy attitude. "The muskies are eating all my walleye." I wonder how many walleye that guy kept and ate vs how many he released. The decline is probably due to other factors. Many good walleye fisheries are also good muskie fisheries, so the fish exist together fine.

 

I looked up stocking reports and they only go as far back as 2000. Both muskies and walleye have been stocked in Cowenesque Lake at least since that time. I guess the walleye fishing went to hell there more than 17 years ago.

 

Nice tigers bobcat.

 

 

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[Chas0218]

15 hours ago, Ivan said:

  

Thats funny...typical old walleye guy attitude. "The muskies are eating all my walleye." I wonder how many walleye that guy kept and ate vs how many he released. The decline is probably due to other factors. Many good walleye fisheries are also good muskie fisheries, so the fish exist together fine.

 

I looked up stocking reports and they only go as far back as 2000. Both muskies and walleye have been stocked in Cowenesque Lake at least since that time. I guess the walleye fishing went to hell there more than 17 years ago.

 

Nice tigers bobcat.

 

 

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Yeah I'm not sure I thought they stopped in 2000 so It hasn't been stocked in 17 years and if there isn't any natural reproduction going on then it's no wonder it went to crap. The fishing in that lake isn't very good compared to others that are within spitting distance. Really not worth fishing unless it's a leisure stay at the campgrounds. The facilities on that lake are top notch North and south shore. The launches on the South side are a little long but are a nice angle.

[Ivan]

You may be right.  I thought when I looked yesterday the PFBC had walleye stocking numbers from 2000-2016 for Cow.  As I look again this morning under Tioga County, they only had walleye stocking number since 2011.  Maybe they didn't stock anything from 2000-2011.  If that lake touches another county beside Tioga, I may be missing some walleye stockings.  Here's what they have for Cow in Tioga county as far as # of walleye fingerlings stocked:

2011	Walleye	Fingerling	11,000
2013	Walleye	Fingerling	82,000
2014	Walleye	Fingerling	22,000
2015	Walleye	Fingerling	22,000

[Chas0218]

1 minute ago, Ivan said:

You may be right.  I thought when I looked yesterday the PFBC had walleye stocking numbers from 2000-2016 for Cow.  As I look again this morning under Tioga County, they only had walleye stocking number since 2011.  Maybe they didn't stock anything from 2000-2011.  If that lake touches another county beside Tioga, I may be missing some walleye stockings.  Here's what they have for Cow in Tioga county as far as # of walleye fingerlings stocked:

2011	Walleye	Fingerling	11,000
2013	Walleye	Fingerling	82,000
2014	Walleye	Fingerling	22,000
2015	Walleye	Fingerling	22,000

Yeah that sounds right. It is a tough lake to fish there really isn't any structure other than stumps/trees. It is a flooded river basin with very steep sides. I really wanted to catch some walleye in there but never had any success. There were only a handful of a few guys that ice fished that lake just from tracks and holes in the ice. There are a couple areas with some current so you had to be careful on early ice.