Cooperstown Bass Guides
Guided fishing trips on Otsego Lake
Fishing report
October 30:
Not sure what's going on with the smallmouths in Otsego Lake for the last couple of years. Traditionally the smallmouth fishing has been slow during the summer, and then picked up dramatically in the fall. But for the last couple of years we've caught plenty of smallmouths all summer and then the Fall fishing has been slow. This year has been the same - great fishing all summer, but it's been slow for the last few weeks. Last weekend we fished both days, and caught fish both days, but nowhere near the numbers we've caught in previous years. The fish are still there, they just don't seem to be feeding up for the winter in quite the same way as years past. Perhaps their forage has changed with the walleye stocking program.
Here are some photographs from the 2011 season:
Susan from Delaware caught a 4 lb, 4 oz smallmouth. Biggest smallie ever caught from our boat in 13 years of fishing Otsego Lake!
January 23, 2011:
Not much to report at this time of year, but here's a quick summary of last year's fishing:
Not sure what's going on with the smallmouths in Otsego Lake for the last couple of years. Traditionally the smallmouth fishing has been slow during the summer, and then picked up dramatically in the fall. But for the last couple of years we've caught plenty of smallmouths all summer and then the Fall fishing has been slow. This year has been the same - great fishing all summer, but it's been slow for the last few weeks. Last weekend we fished both days, and caught fish both days, but nowhere near the numbers we've caught in previous years. The fish are still there, they just don't seem to be feeding up for the winter in quite the same way as years past. Perhaps their forage has changed with the walleye stocking program.
Here are some photographs from the 2011 season:
Susan from Delaware caught a 4 lb, 4 oz smallmouth. Biggest smallie ever caught from our boat in 13 years of fishing Otsego Lake!
January 23, 2011:
Not much to report at this time of year, but here's a quick summary of last year's fishing:
- We first got out on the lake April 20, and caught plenty of bass, mostly smallmouths.
- The fishing continued to be outstanding through May and early June. Smallies seemed to spawn a little earlier than usual, and was the spawn was mostly over by early June.
- Largemouth fishing was a little slow early in the season, but we had some fantastic topwater fishing for largemouths in mid-July.
- July was hotter than usual, and strangely, we were catching large numbers of smallies all through the month, even in the heat of the day, in shallow water. We also caught lots of smallies on topwater lures early and late, through the end of July.
- In August the smallie fishing slowed, and largemouth fishing was only so-so. Fishing was about typical in August and September - fair numbers of largemouths, and a few smallmouths.
- The Fall is usually the peak season for smallmouths, but October and November were disappointing. We caught fair numbers of smallmouths, but nothing like previous years. Seemed like they fed much better than usual in July, and then not so much in the Fall. Strange!
- Overall, the year was fairly typical, except that smallmouth fishing was much better than usual in July, and worse than usual in the Fall. It will be interesting to see how 2011 shapes up. Can't wait!