Syracuse.com - Owasco Lake angler landed "huge" brown trout on Memorial Day

[HuntingNY-News]

At one time, it would have been a state record.

Submitted photo

Every once in a while a big fish creates a buzz.

That’s been the case for the past several weeks among Owasco Lake anglers concerning Gary Rule’s, 22-pound, 8-ounce brown trout caught on Memorial Day. At one time, it would have been a state record.

He caught the lunker fishing in 166 feet of water with a live mooneye (a baitfish), dangled some 50 feet down. He was fishing at the northern end of the lake, near Burtis Point.

Rule, who operates Reel Sportsman Fishing Adventures charter service, was out fishing with his wife and several friends at the time, he said.

He said once he hooked the fish “it ran all across the top of the water.” Whenever it got close to the boat, though, it would just dive to the bottom. That happened three times.

Rule was using a spinning outfit with 8-pound, fluorocarbon line. It took him about 45 minutes to land the fish and it broke his net. He said he weighed the fish on a digital scale he carries on his boat.

Hear him tells how he caught it.

trout.mp3" />trout.mp3" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="170" height="25" name="AudioPlayer" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />

Rule said he’s caught a lot of big fish over the years on Owasco, but this is his biggest brown trout ever. Last spring, he said, he caught one weighing almost 20 pounds. He also noted he landed a 16-pound, 3-ounce steelhead on the lake earlier this season.

In recent years, there’s been grousing by Owasco Lake anglers about the declining brown trout fishery on Owasco Lake.

But Owasco has produced some big browns in the past and Rule is thinking that the browns, along with the rainbow trout, have been making a comeback lately.

At one time, Owasco Lake boasted the state record for a brown trout. A 21 pounds and 5 ounce brown caught in 1954 by 13-year-old Tom Klink on a Pflueger Record 4 spoon lure held the state record until 1979. Klink, now 72, had a trophy mount made of the fish, and recently had it refurbished it. It still hangs on the living room wall at his Owasco home.

The current state record is held by Tony Brown, of Schenectady. He caught his 33- pound, 2-ounce brown trout fish using a Smithwick Rogue lure on a Lake Ontario fishing charter out of Oswego in 1997.

Rule, who lives above the Cascade Grill at the southwestern end of the lake, said he didn’t have the fish weighed on any other scale and in fact isn’t having a trophy mount made of the fish.

“I kept it, filleted it out and ate it the next day,” he said. “We had steak and brown trout for dinner— a land and sea meal.”

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog