Jump to content

otisco 8/8 and 8/9


Recommended Posts

Last 2 days I've been cheating or stacking a couple great lakes copper spoons about 10 feet over 60 degree water and each troll i picked up a good tiger. First was a 39 and second fish i was solo and couldnt get a measurement, but it was a little better than the first. Speed was 2.5-2.8 but id have been a bit faster if the spoons would take it. Both fish came on the dropoff along the causeway. Weedline action has dropped off a bit for me and 20-25 feet down seems to be where the action is...the fish are deeper but they won't take the other deeper stuff. If its not well above em they dont seem to willing to commit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We hooked into a 40 to 44" fish yesterday, but lost it near the boat. 13" grandma, about 20 feet down, 2.5mph. I have limited experience on Otisco but I agree the big ones are deep currently. We did a smaller 34-35" fish in the weeds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank for the report! It's been terribly slow for me up here, and while most suggest to speed up, I may slow down. The last fish I caught two weeks ago hit at 2mph running 10' down over 22 fow when I was still setting other lines and not up to speed yet. Thinking it was just a fluke, I went up to 3.8 and 4mph+ like normal. Now this has me wondering, and I'm going to pull it back a bit.

Maybe I'll get the leadcore out and do a little experimenting.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last 2 days I've been cheating or stacking a couple great lakes copper spoons about 10 feet over 60 degree water and each troll i picked up a good tiger. First was a 39 and second fish i was solo and couldnt get a measurement, but it was a little better than the first. Speed was 2.5-2.8 but id have been a bit faster if the spoons would take it. Both fish came on the dropoff along the causeway. Weedline action has dropped off a bit for me and 20-25 feet down seems to be where the action is...the fish are deeper but they won't take the other deeper stuff. If its not well above em they dont seem to willing to commit.

good info,thanks for sharing. I have caught a fair number of tigers on red eye spoons,casting. I haven't been out in three weeks and this month doesn't look any better. I will be good and ready for fishtember and fishtober.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Of course as soon as I say the fish have moved deeper my son caught a pig right in the narrows this afternoon on a jig n pit boss bass fishing. 4 go pros on board and no footage or pics....he got some really nice video of backing the boat in though!

FishinNY

Im combo trolling for more than one species and with a mix of deep divers and spoons so I'm not running at normal tiger musky speeds. I've learned that some times they are easier to catch when I fish for them as if they were aggressive walleye. Big baits and fast is very productive and fun, but a little stinger sized spoon trolled at the right depth will get results too. There is literally an infinite number of ways to catch em, but none are fool proof at least if you are talking big fish. I do still believe overall your best chance at a real big fish is always trolling deeper water in summer.

Sent from my XT1080 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Of course as soon as I say the fish have moved deeper my son caught a pig right in the narrows this afternoon on a jig n pit boss bass fishing. 4 go pros on board and no footage or pics....he got some really nice video of backing the boat in though!

FishinNY

Im combo trolling for more than one species and with a mix of deep divers and spoons so I'm not running at normal tiger musky speeds. I've learned that some times they are easier to catch when I fish for them as if they were aggressive walleye. Big baits and fast is very productive and fun, but a little stinger sized spoon trolled at the right depth will get results too. There is literally an infinite number of ways to catch em, but none are fool proof at least if you are talking big fish. I do still believe overall your best chance at a real big fish is always trolling deeper water in summer.

Sent from my XT1080 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

the go pro is a nice device but the owner's manual is 1.5 square inches and requires a microscope to read. I once taped three hours of my boat being towed to clayton.😜

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Otisco August 24 & 25

Had 6 tigers on in two days of fishing .. Spectacular jumps ..1 jumped 3 times , anothe twice then power dives ... Also landed a channel cat , perch , very slim 22 inch walleye and several bass ..going to try and post a pic of the tiger that jumped 3 times ... Enlarge it to see how pissed she was ....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fishing here has been stellar here for quality tigers all season! 40" + fish are commonplace. I took a father and son out this week... all the boy wanted was to catch a big tiger....only managed 1 bite in 4 hours....fish was the biggest of the year at 43...seems like almost every tiger we catch deep is a 40 or nearly, and if you work shallower numbers are also possible. As far as idiots arguing over fish goes i posted a pic of Tracy's big tiger on another forum i no longer participate on and and i had 100 experts telling me it wasnt a tiger....of course none of the experts could produce pics of real tigers they caught...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It can be difficult to Identify a tiger sometimes. Tigers can easily be confused with barred muskies. Sometimes a barred musky can be pretty dark in color to where someone might say it is a tiger. I have seen this at Waneta lake where tigers were never stocked and it would be highly unlikely since northerns a very very rare. Since only tigers have been stocked in Otisco, you can be certain when you catch one that it is a tiger but if you saw the a picture and did not know that fact and/or did not know where it was caught, you might think it is a dark purebred. Also pictures can look darker or lighter than the actual subject. If it has solid unbroken vertical bars, there is no doubt that it is a tiger. If it has broken vertical bars, it can be mistaken for a barred purebred. The fish that FishinNY gets in his home waters can only be tigers, as dark as they are an with the prominent vertical bars. The bars are very wade too. I would like to know why they look so different than the tigers in Otisco. They all come from the same hatchery. Some other tigers I have seen have much narrower bars but unbroken and very dark. The DEC regulations in waters that contain both tigers and purebreds are the same for both because they can so easily be misidentified.

 

I have attached a PDF (hopefully) showing how to identify the different types of muskies, tigers and pike and even with that it may be difficult to make the determination sometimes. If you are familiar with how they typically look in a particular body of water it is a lot easier. Even then, it can be difficult sometimes. The Upper Niagara River has both but sometimes the barred muskies are pretty dark and can be mistaken for a tiger. Looking closely at the fins and cheeks can help.Muskellunge_Northern_Pike_Signs_12x18_Print_-_NJ_Chapter_ (25%).pdf

 

I hope the NJ Chapter and Muskies Inc.doesn't mind I put this here. I couldn't figure out how to convert it to an image.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...