Does anyone fish Canadarago lake anymore?

[BIGJim223]

That's because little known to most of you there were 2000 walleye taken from cando and put in otsego and this was done last year

I would like to see evidence of that......Documentation?

Maybe it has been the 80 thousand walleyes that have been stocked in Otsego every year since 2006?
 
DEC has just announced that walleye stocking in Otsego is being cut back this year as the alewives (that were out of control) have been controlled by the planting of walleyes over the past 6 years. They have also stated that they don't know why this cannot be duplicated on other lakes with a huge alewife population.

  I know that I cannot seem to find the huge clouds of bait that existed on Otsego just 2 years ago. But the walleye fishing this summer was phenomenal,  in my opinion. Cando has huge amounts of alewives yet the population of walleyes seems on the decline even with the huge stocking program going on there.
  
  I am sure "The System" will voice his thoughts on this matter!

BIGJim223

[z]

I would like to see evidence of that......Documentation?

Maybe it has been the 80 thousand walleyes that have been stocked in Otsego every year since 2006?
 
DEC has just announced that walleye stocking in Otsego is being cut back this year as the alewives (that were out of control) have been controlled by the planting of walleyes over the past 6 years. They have also stated that they don't know why this cannot be duplicated on other lakes with a huge alewife population.

  I know that I cannot seem to find the huge clouds of bait that existed on Otsego just 2 years ago. But the walleye fishing this summer was phenomenal,  in my opinion. Cando has huge amounts of alewives yet the population of walleyes seems on the decline even with the huge stocking program going on there.
  
  I am sure "The System" will voice his thoughts on this matter!
Maybe the eyes are still there, they're just stuffed with Alemives and dink perch

BIGJim223

[TheSystem]

Walleye population in Cando is necessarily on the decline as mature adults are being taken out while 7 year classes of fry and stockies have had a very low % reach maturity.  Cando is like a forest, we have "x" amount of mature trees, which , when cut down, will take years to replace.  The natural reproduction is almost completely wiped out by alweive predation and the 4" stockies are just a huge buffet for the predator fish in the lake.   I advocate extremely selective harvesting. 

[Raquettedacker]

Theres an old guy who lives down the road and fishes it several times a week and says its getting better every year...   He has no problem finding fish every time he goes.....   He only keeps the ones between 4 and 5 pounds and has let several over 8 pounds and bigger go this year.....

[TheSystem]

That's a fair management plan, good for him for thinking long term on the lake.  Hope he doesn't take a limit several times a week

[RIVERRAT2]

I would like to see evidence of that......Documentation?

Maybe it has been the 80 thousand walleyes that have been stocked in Otsego every year since 2006?
 
DEC has just announced that walleye stocking in Otsego is being cut back this year as the alewives (that were out of control) have been controlled by the planting of walleyes over the past 6 years. They have also stated that they don't know why this cannot be duplicated on other lakes with a huge alewife population.

  I know that I cannot seem to find the huge clouds of bait that existed on Otsego just 2 years ago. But the walleye fishing this summer was phenomenal,  in my opinion. Cando has huge amounts of alewives yet the population of walleyes seems on the decline even with the huge stocking program going on there.
  
  I am sure "The System" will voice his thoughts on this matter!

BIGJim223

THEY MAY learn,but D.E.C. IS UP TO THE QUEST
RAT

[MBrown4]

I was able to find bluegill in HEAVY numbers this spring. All great sized fish. Tough to fish them though but once u got it, u got it. My cousin lives on the lake and does catch some fish.not like he used to though. Used to limit crappie for years but last year, got a handful.didn't even try for them.pulled some nice walleye out but he fears they aren't reproducing like they should and the ones that are have alewives backed up right behind them sucking up future generations. To me it seems like a good solution to the wives would be to up walleye stocking of more mature fish.a bunch of 8-10 inchers would be big en,.ough to not be a meal of atleast ssomeof the other predators. I also thought that they should add a little bit of structure to the lake bottom. Seems like its all mud to me. Some nice gravel and rock bars im sure would be appreciated by the fish.my opinion though

[TheSystem]

MBrown you are dead on about the alewive predation of walleye fry and the necessity of stocking bigger fish.  I work with DEC and have evidence to support exactly what you said.  Unfortunately, it becomes too complicated for the state to grow walleye after 4", so that is what we get.  nearly useless as they may be.  On the up side, they really feed the bass and pickerel!

[MBrown4]

I felt like I had a good idea haha and if I had my way, id have the walleye eating the bass and pickerel haha

[iceplank]

Thinking of hitting this lake for the first time this week. Want to take my boy for some panfish . I hear the perch population is shot  i would settle for a bunch of bluegills for the frypan. Anyone been on it for the panfish?

[pmac3]

I wouldn't say the perch population is shot, just the population of jumbos. You'll get tons of dinks. Ask anyone who ice fishes (or used to) Cando.

[wellsley]

Got an 8" perch a couple of weeks ago. It gets a lot of pressure all year. I wouldn't say it's shot but it can be tough to fish. As said before there are a lot of dinks. I wish they would still stock tiger muskies. They seem to be trying to concentrate on walleye but I don't think there is enough oxygen in the 30' depth for them to flourish. There are blue gils there if you know where to find them, but again size might be a problem. 

[bigredfishing]

I wish they would still stock tiger muskies. They seem to be trying to concentrate on walleye but I don't think there is enough oxygen in the 30' depth for them to flourish.

FYI:  Adult Tigers (along with musky and pike) need more oxygen and cooler water than walleyes.

[1smoked_brooklyn]

I think they put out an advisory to not eat any fish out of cando recently due to the red algae bloom but I could be wrong

[Bluegillonafly]

MBrown.....Heavy numbers of bluegills but what about size?  In my opinion even that fishery is  on the decline.  The pressure on them is also intense.  During the spawn, with a 50 fish limit 2 guys getting their limit several times means hundreds of big males that guard the nest are removed.  When that happens the genetics gets out of wack and you end up with a lake full of runts (read about "sneaker" male bluegills in any fisheries management article).  The general perception is that you can not fish down a panfish population because they are so prolific.  Wrong.  Fisheries biologists have proven that wrong a long time ago.