Oswego 4-22

[John Kelley]

I took a friend of mine and his nephew from Middleburgh NY, who had never been brown trout fishing before, to Oswego yesterday for my shakedown trip of 2018.  Aside from a blowout near Syracuse on my port trailer tire, we arrived in mostly one piece.  We got to the boat ramp around 10:30 and got some discouraging news from a boat that was pulling out already.  They said they had a bad morning and went 1 for 2.  My friend Tim Green had texted me earlier, from the Oak, saying that they had been doing pretty well right in the mudline with natural colors.  None of us had ever been to Oswego before, so I just pointed the boat to the east of port, where there was a healthy blue/green and green/brown color lines.  There were also quite a few boats fishing in this area.  After getting the 9 rods all out, and making a wide circle to the east, and out of the color, we headed back toward the mud-line, to the west, and popped a couple of nice fish just east of the break wall, in 18 fow, right in the mud, on black and silver Stinger Scorpions. We then missed 2 fish in the same  area, and the boat traffic got too congested for my liking, so we headed around the harbor and started trolling along the western breakwall, toward the double smokestacks power-plant, staying in about 20 fow.  The water over here was noticeably cooler, and I saw the temps drop from 42.5 to 41 degrees, and the water was really green over on the west side of the harbor.  When we were about 200 yards from the factory or powerplant, I noticed that the temps were starting to jump back up, and mentioned that to my friend Greg.  Then we almost instantly had a double on.  Fish hit the port side Big Jon mini diver out 70' and the 3 color down the chute.  Soon the water temps rose to 43.6 degrees, and I told the boys to "get ready, because I believe we have found our spot!"  We spent the next couple of hours doing some circles between what I think is a college and that double smokestack factory, and had our limit of nice browns by 5 p.m.  We caught a couple of fish on gold and black Rapala husky jerks on the boards, but the majority of our fish came on Stinger scorpion and standard sized spoons.  It was awesome, because we were the only boat over there, and the lake just kept getting calmer and warmer.  Black and silver and anything that had browns and chrome in it did very well for us.  Couldn't move a rod on any high visibility colors.  The best lure was a brown and chrome stinger spoon, with UV decal on the front on our chute rod 3 color rig. Not sure of the name of that spoon, but I can add a pic later.  20-22' seemed to be the magic depth for us in that area, and 2.2 to 2.4 MPH was the speed they wanted.  We ended up 9 for 11.  One fish we missed was about a 5 pound steelhead, all the rest were Browns.  Thanks.

Edited April 23, 2018 by John Kelley

[garrymny]

Thanks for the detailed report. I was at Olcott. Muddy water 37 degrees, and nothing. Your report helps.

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[John Kelley]

Here is the pic of the hot Michigan Stinger we were running on our 3 color rod. The back is gold or brass colored.

Edited April 23, 2018 by John Kelley

[four60]

Nice thanks for report spoon looks like a stjnger brown trout i think anywayl thanks

[Giz9219]

Nice day!! Hoping to get out this weekend!!

 

 

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[bandrus1]

1 hour ago, four60 said:

Nice thanks for report spoon looks like a stjnger brown trout i think anywayl thanks

 

 

Agreed think it's brown trout

[Xxx]

11 hours ago, John Kelley said:

Here is the pic of the hot Michigan Stinger we were running on our 3 color rod. The back is gold or brass colored.

 

Awesome looking spoon John, can’t say I have that one, but sure looks impressive, plus it works like a charm. Your post reads like a well seasoned fisherman, just don’t drive out to 20ft of water and throw a hodgepodge of crap overboard and expect a cooler full of fish in a few hrs. Many details if you read the post and reread between the lines. Great job John. Where are you going to be going out of this year, would like our paths to cross if possible!!! PAP. I guess it might be a good think I picked up a nice assortment of copper backs and some with copper showing on the front. Might have to make a few of them. LOL

Edited April 24, 2018 by pap

[John Kelley]

1 hour ago, pap said:

 

Awesome looking spoon John, can’t say I have that one, but sure looks impressive, plus it works like a charm. Your post reads like a well seasoned fisherman, just don’t drive out to 20ft of water and throw a hodgepodge of crap overboard and expect a cooler full of fish in a few hrs. Many details if you read the post and reread between the lines. Great job John. Where are you going to be going out of this year, would like our paths to cross if possible!!! PAP. I guess it might be a good think I picked up a nice assortment of copper backs and some with copper showing on the front. Might have to make a few of them. LOL

Howdy Pap, I think I am going to call Oswego my home port this summer, as it is much closer to where I am working, and I want to hone my big brown trout skills until around July, when I hear the kings really turn on around there.  I would love to meet up with you at the ramp, and swap tactics and tales!   This weekend, however, I plan on hitting Lake George, and targeting some LL's and browns there!

[Lakeside41]

Great report! I too was there for my shakedown of the year and trying out some new tactics that I haven’t tried yet on my new boat. We had similar success mainly in the dirty water. Water was 38 in most areas and when we found the 40 degree water rods fired. Black and silver was our ticket. Had a much better stick bite then spoon bite but caught fish on both. Big fish of the day was 9 lbs.
great job venturing away from the crowd wish we were smart enough to give that try. Either way it was a beautiful day on the water and the fish cooperated enough to make it a great day! Tight lines!


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[John Kelley]

5 minutes ago, Lakeside41 said:

Great report! I too was there for my shakedown of the year and trying out some new tactics that I haven’t tried yet on my new boat. We had similar success mainly in the dirty water. Water was 38 in most areas and when we found the 40 degree water rods fired. Black and silver was our ticket. Had a much better stick bite then spoon bite but caught fish on both. Big fish of the day was 9 lbs.
great job venturing away from the crowd wish we were smart enough to give that try. Either way it was a beautiful day on the water and the fish cooperated enough to make it a great day! Tight lines!


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Agreed, it was a beautiful day on the water, for sure!!  Weird how Black and silver was so effective in that dirty water!  I was expecting high visibility colors to do much better in the mud.