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Author Topic: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY  (Read 109444 times)

Offline bigredonice

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #510 on: Jan 08, 2018, 03:30 PM »
the deepwater fish used to look like this, for what its worth the lake trout that have figured out to eat perch up shallow are doing well in the lake


Offline bigredonice

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #511 on: Jan 08, 2018, 03:34 PM »
How many years does it take for them to reach 23" or upwards? Groups with electronics knocking off 30 or more per day must be figured in www. ::)

the first couple years we had it to ourselves were amazing, as the pressure increased our ratio of 32"+ fish dropped dramatically, but the fish were still really healthy until around 2008, by 2011 we were catching so many fish each time but they were getting skinnier and skinnier.   One of my last trips out there my dad jigged up a 32" fish that wasn't even 5lbs  :sick: .

Luckily, a number of other NY lakes have laker populations that are more robust than tiny Otsego Lakes', so we can bide our time until she's back at full capacity.

*not sure about those years, i need to look at my logs

Offline trouter

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #512 on: Jan 08, 2018, 04:04 PM »
The great idea from higher up to introduce walley to take care of the alwives was the killer. No food - no fish. Of course the internet didnt help. Ive got memories and lots of pictures anyway. Just a xxx shame. Leave nature alone and it will take care of itself. Im done, Have a great season and please dont litter on the ice.

Offline iloveacrappiedinner

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #513 on: Jan 08, 2018, 04:07 PM »
the first couple years we had it to ourselves were amazing, as the pressure increased our ratio of 32"+ fish dropped dramatically, but the fish were still really healthy until around 2008, by 2011 we were catching so many fish each time but they were getting skinnier and skinnier.   One of my last trips out there my dad jigged up a 32" fish that wasn't even 5lbs  :sick: .

Luckily, a number of other NY lakes have laker populations that are more robust than tiny Otsego Lakes', so we can bide our time until she's back at full capacity.

*not sure about those years, i need to look at my logs

That one was just over 28" and was pushing 8 lbs.

Offline ol crawdad

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #514 on: Jan 09, 2018, 05:54 AM »
The great idea from higher up to introduce walley to take care of the alwives was the killer. No food - no fish. Of course the internet didnt help. Ive got memories and lots of pictures anyway. Just a xxx shame. Leave nature alone and it will take care of itself. Im done, Have a great season and please dont litter on the ice.

Not introduce walleye, RE-introduce walleye.  And the lake has a history of crashes.  Walleyes disappeared.  Pickerel seem to go through huge cyclical crashes (last 5 years is the latest).  Alewives did not 100% disappear because of walleyes.  Some other natural phenomena did that.

Offline iloveacrappiedinner

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #515 on: Jan 09, 2018, 07:36 AM »
Not introduce walleye, RE-introduce walleye.  And the lake has a history of crashes.  Walleyes disappeared.  Pickerel seem to go through huge cyclical crashes (last 5 years is the latest).  Alewives did not 100% disappear because of walleyes.  Some other natural phenomena did that.

And the alewives are what is actually killing the eyes in Rago. People don't realize that alewives are a predator fish and eat the fry of all the other fish. Yes, big eyes and big trout LOVE to eat alewives. But Alewives decimate the YotY of everything. Big lakes (and yes, Otsego would certainly be a big lake) go through natural fluctuations of all fish species. A bad year can knock down a population of one fish and a new one takes it place, then a cycle of the fish being dominant happens, then something will knock that down and so forth. Natural systems are ALWAYS in flux. We try to control everything and make it consistent, but that just isn't how nature works.

Offline kjcroote

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #516 on: Jan 09, 2018, 11:25 AM »
Can anyone report on the depth of the ice? We're hoping to make it up there this weekend but I see warm temps and rain in the forecast this week. Thanks in advance!

Offline lil_coondog

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #517 on: Jan 09, 2018, 11:31 AM »
Can anyone report on the depth of the ice? We're hoping to make it up there this weekend but I see warm temps and rain in the forecast this week. Thanks in advance!

couple more posts to see the conditions page. welcome to IS




"Wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will."
-Theodore Roosevelt

Offline bigredonice

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #518 on: Jan 09, 2018, 11:34 AM »
(and yes, Otsego would certainly be a big lake)

compared to the other lakes we fish for Lake Trout like george, champlain, seneca, cayuga, keuka, canandaigua & ontario, otsego is tiny.

Also its amazing with all the damage that alewives do to walleyes, that a lake like Oneida can even exist.   Blaming the alewives for the low numbers of walleyes in Canadarago is interesting...the alewives were in there well before the walleye numbers peaked...   also, maybe the rise and fall of the adult yellow perch in 'rago might have played a role?  like you said "Natural systems are ALWAYS in flux"

Offline bigredonice

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Offline iloveacrappiedinner

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #520 on: Jan 09, 2018, 11:58 AM »
compared to the other lakes we fish for Lake Trout like .... ontario, otsego is tiny.

Well you can't include Ontario on that list :P Everything is tiny compared to Ontario except the other great lakes and maybe Lake Winnepeg. lol. But yes, compared to the other more popular lake trout lakes it is smaller, but that doesn't make it a small lake. Small lakes don't even have lake trout!

I wouldn't blame the alewive population on the walleye crash, but the reports on the lake are that they're whats preventing the walleye from rebounding. Stocking efforts are failing because the alewives are eating all the stockers and native born. It's why they upped the size this past year to 18". They're trying to help get an age structure with more larger fish to keep more of the alewives in check and hopefully increase survival rates for the smaller stocked fish and native born ones. The other effect of all this is the smallmouth population, and big smallie population, is loving the alewives. They're taking over as a top tier predator. I'm sure that's also having an impact on the perch populations. But in 5 years who knows. Maybe the walleye will come back, decimate the alewives, the big bass numbers will drop, and summer bass fisherman will be b***hing about the loss of the bass. I'll just fish for whatever is there.

But this is an Otsego thread, so back on topic.
Can anyone report on the depth of the ice? We're hoping to make it up there this weekend but I see warm temps and rain in the forecast this week. Thanks in advance!
You can now check the report page with just one post so go over there. North and south are fully locked. people are fishing with mixed luck. Middle of lake has ice but thickness varies so take caution. I might venture out this saturday myself. If I do, i'll probably be testing the ice off 3 mile. This little rain/warmup is only 2 days, so it's not enough to make a big impact on ice thickness.

Offline papacoondog

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #521 on: Jan 09, 2018, 12:01 PM »
Does anybody know off lake access near the opera house or sunken island.

Offline Fontona19

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #522 on: Jan 09, 2018, 12:42 PM »
Small lakes don't even have lake trout!



C'mon man. This isn't even close to true. There are so many small lakes with lake trout throughout this state.

Offline Neversink Jimmy

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #523 on: Jan 09, 2018, 01:23 PM »
I used to camp at Glimmerglass SP for a week every summer when I was a kid in the late 70's up through the late 80's.

We'd ride our bikes around the lake, including a stop for breakfast in Cooperstown before returning to Glimmerglass on the west side of the lake.

Back then, there was a little tackle shop on a corner on Main Street.  Right across from the Hall of Fame.

They used to have some MASSIVE mounted Brown Trout on the wall of that place.  From Otsego Lake. 

Whatever happen to those gigantic browns?  Seems like I never hear anything about Browns and LLS in Otsego Lake any more.  Weren't Browns the go-to sportfish in that lake before the Water Chestnuts, etc arrived?

"Once in awhile you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right" 


Offline Fontona19

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #524 on: Jan 09, 2018, 02:08 PM »
I used to camp at Glimmerglass SP for a week every summer when I was a kid in the late 70's up through the late 80's.

We'd ride our bikes around the lake, including a stop for breakfast in Cooperstown before returning to Glimmerglass on the west side of the lake.

Back then, there was a little tackle shop on a corner on Main Street.  Right across from the Hall of Fame.

They used to have some MASSIVE mounted Brown Trout on the wall of that place.  From Otsego Lake. 

Whatever happen to those gigantic browns?  Seems like I never hear anything about Browns and LLS in Otsego Lake any more.  Weren't Browns the go-to sportfish in that lake before the Water Chestnuts, etc arrived?


Holy crap! Look what the cat dragged in. Whats up Jimmy!

Offline iloveacrappiedinner

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #525 on: Jan 09, 2018, 02:39 PM »
C'mon man. This isn't even close to true. There are so many small lakes with lake trout throughout this state.

Guess that all depends on your def of a small lake! To me a small lake is under 1,000 acres and shallower than 30'.

Offline Neversink Jimmy

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #526 on: Jan 09, 2018, 02:53 PM »

Holy crap! Look what the cat dragged in. Whats up Jimmy!

Hey Buddy!

I have been killing time at work today...  At one point I was jigging up Walleye on an ice fishing game on my phone...

Then I saw a photo online of a massive 45"+ Northern Pike (26lbs) caught on Cranberry Lake last weekend...

Next thing I know, I'm on IceShanty telling stories about Otsego Lake in the 1980s, lol...

Life is weird like that.

"Once in awhile you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right" 


Offline lowaccord66

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #527 on: Jan 09, 2018, 07:16 PM »

Holy crap! Look what the cat dragged in. Whats up Jimmy!

Same to you...your posts are rarer than a LG walleye  :o

Offline lakearch

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #528 on: Jan 09, 2018, 07:59 PM »
fished at 3 mile point Sunday morning and only 3 cars at 6:30
fished until 11:00  Had 4 flags and got 3 fish all keepers about 25 inches
and also got one jigging 18"   All fish looked good   there was a good 8" of new ice
even with a couple of warm days this week, there should be enough ice on the weekend

Offline Fontona19

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #529 on: Jan 09, 2018, 08:08 PM »
Guess that all depends on your def of a small lake! To me a small lake is under 1,000 acres and shallower than 30'.


So a 25-acre lake that's 90 feet deep is a big lake?

Offline Fontona19

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #530 on: Jan 09, 2018, 08:11 PM »
Hey Buddy!

I have been killing time at work today...  At one point I was jigging up Walleye on an ice fishing game on my phone...

Then I saw a photo online of a massive 45"+ Northern Pike (26lbs) caught on Cranberry Lake last weekend...

Next thing I know, I'm on IceShanty telling stories about Otsego Lake in the 1980s, lol...

Life is weird like that.

Haha! Life is weird. You two need to come visit us. Anytime in the next few months and we can make some new ice fishing memories.

Offline Fontona19

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #531 on: Jan 09, 2018, 08:12 PM »
Same to you...your posts are rarer than a LG walleye  :o

This place does fine on its own without me stirring the pot.

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #532 on: Jan 11, 2018, 08:24 AM »
If anyone finds an orange 16' tape measure at 3 mile in about 115 fow could you pm me? I kind of need it

Offline shawn sponable

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #533 on: Jan 11, 2018, 06:16 PM »
Headed there in the morning - will keep an eye out , maybe it will float by me.........   

Offline Walleyes killers

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #534 on: Jan 11, 2018, 06:36 PM »
How do you access 3mile?parking?

Offline mkiburz

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #535 on: Jan 12, 2018, 09:30 AM »
3mile point has a parking lot. 

Offline Walleyes killers

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #536 on: Jan 12, 2018, 05:02 PM »
Thank you

Offline dthrckt

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #537 on: Jan 12, 2018, 07:27 PM »
C'mon man. This isn't even close to true. There are so many small lakes with lake trout throughout this state.

I caught a +10lb laker in an adirondack lake that is under 150 acres.  There are more, but there's so much life in the lake that they're picky.

Offline Brandon Broat

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #538 on: Jan 13, 2018, 10:02 AM »
Fished 3 mile yesterday. 3 to 5 inches black ice 1/4 inch water on top. Nice day in between rain stopped.

Offline jxh25

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Re: Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, NY
« Reply #539 on: Jan 13, 2018, 08:35 PM »
Anybody know if Glimmerglass is still locked up? I'm 2 hrs away and don't want take a scenic drive to not fish lol!

 



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