# New Lyme Lake



## The Zodiac (Apr 10, 2010)

I havn't seen this one posted before & wanted to know if anyone else has fished this small lake. I have fished it a lot over the years & it seems the fishing has only gotten worse with each passing year. The place gets a lot of fishing pressure.

I have had just about zero luck bass fishing there over the years, & have only once seen someone catch a 5 pounder. I have caught some crappie there, but it seems the population of crappie have dwindled as I havn't seen any for a few years. The place gets stocked with channel cats, which is what the place gets the most pressure for, & I have caught some, but only small 10"-12" fish.

Most the people I see fishing here keep everything they catch. These are almost always the bank fisherman with 14 poles rigged, 10 on the bottom & 4 with bobbers, just filling the freezer. This may have had a serious affect on fish populations.

The fishing pressure has made this place a serious challenge to catch any kind of fish, so if you are tired of slaying the fish every outing, then this place is for you.


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## Wormser (Dec 16, 2009)

I have been fishing this lake for the past seven years, and I'm with you. Years back you could catch and release bass all day long and not see a soul. Still I don't see many people, but the fishing is not what it used to be. I was polled by an ODNR official there a while back. I know it is the spot for duck hunting. I don't know why anyone would fill their cooler up there though. Safe this lake.


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## HoggBoss (Nov 12, 2009)

Used to fish it all the time back in the early/mid nineties. Summer time, you could sit out in the middle and catch a dink LMB every cast on a chrome 1/2 oz ratl trap. I also hooked into a monster LMB or pike or something one time that I never saw. It hit a rubber worm, almost yanked the rod right out of my hand, ran like it wasn't even hooked, then broke me off. I'll prolly never forget that one. Haven't been there in about 15 years though, so I can't really say anything about recent fishing conditions.


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## fakebait (Jun 18, 2006)

I have fished there on and off over the last few years. It seems that alot of the pressure on that lake is after dark. Find alot of campfires on the shore line. I have showed up there at daybreak and there are guys passed out in their cars from bending their elbows all night and not with a fishing rod. I do not believe too many people out that way cares about size and species limits seeing most of the time the place is empty. Most of that area is left to the locals. I have not seen any state people there anytimes that I have been there. I just wonder how much the state is getting paid renting out the upper parking lot for tractor trailer parking?


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## The Zodiac (Apr 10, 2010)

I have never seen any state people there either in all the years I have fished. Most people know that too & have no problem drinking a few cases on the bank in broad daylight. Soon as nightfall comes, every campfire has beer. More like a campground hideaway than a state wildlife area, or is it ? lol

@ HoggBoss

I wonder if that fish you lost could of been a pike, sounds like it, but I have never heard of pike being put in there. If that is true then it would of had to of been a really big bass. Do you remember what pound test line the fish snapped ?


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## Iraqvet (Aug 27, 2009)

Dang that sucks..I was gonna try there this summer a few times..Its sad that Ohio lets this happpen..I guess when no one gets turned in,there is no one to get in trouble??..


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## Diehardfisher (Mar 13, 2010)

I used to fish this lake as a kid went there yesterday haven't fished it in over 10yrs used to be a fun lil lake the size of fish went down seen and caught dozens of bass all where dinks biggest was 14 inches lots of nice sized gills but I wasn't after those the lakes overall appearance was horrible it was kinda disappointing so was the fishing and the thing u could have been a grass carp they got some in there over 5ft long just seen one by the way I threw everything caught back in the lake


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## SumpinWong (Sep 15, 2007)

I have fished this lake several times in the past couple of weeks, and have fished it years ago (lmid 90's)... and have to stand behind what everyone has said so far.

There is a decent amount of small bass 6 to 14 inches or so, but it is uncommon to catch anything that is 15 inches (legal size for the lake) or larger. 
I have only seen three Crappie come to surface and they were nothing to get excited about.

I have watched people leave with *COOLERS and 5gal buckets FULL OF FISH*... 
I have called the Sheriff Dept and 1-800-Poacher and given the license plate numbers of the individuals; I hope they get what they have coming!
(when is open season on poacher's?)

Another issue that I find with the lake is the lack of vegetation and cover for the fish to relate too. 
I've covered darn near every square foot of the lake with my HDS-5 and there are no weeds or underwater vegetation in the lake, to speak of. There are very few pieces of underwater wood to speak of. 
The shoreline around the three islands is covered with stumps and a few lay-downs... but that disappears at the 3-4 foot depth area.
The Beavers have a few small dams built around the lake, but they are in the shallow (under 3 ft) areas.

I'm not sure if it is because the vegetation doesn't exist or if the large population of White Amur keep it nibbled down to nothing.
I have counted as many as 23 Amur in the backend of one of the coves/fingers... and that wasn't even half of them. 
There is one Amur that is almost 5 feet long with the majority of them on the 3 to 4 foot range.

I think the place has lots of potential - if the State of Ohio has the resources and desire to make it happen.


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## The Zodiac (Apr 10, 2010)

SumpinWong said:


> I have fished this lake several times in the past couple of weeks, and have fished it years ago (lmid 90's)... and have to stand behind what everyone has said so far.
> 
> There is a decent amount of small bass 6 to 14 inches or so, but it is uncommon to catch anything that is 15 inches (legal size for the lake) or larger.
> I have only seen three Crappie come to surface and they were nothing to get excited about.
> ...


I totally agree with you man. It is a beautiful lake & has great potential. The horrendous harvesting of fish by poachers, & the afore-mentioned lack of structure or vegetation, resulting in any fry that hatch getting devoured at a extremely high rate, has left the place with low fish populations (except the carp of course).

If the state would shut it down for 5 years, restock it & either introduce some vegetation or remove some of those carp, things could be great. But then after it re-opened the state would need to be vigilant with the poaching.


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## SumpinWong (Sep 15, 2007)

The Zodiac said:


> I totally agree with you man. It is a beautiful lake & has great potential. The horrendous harvesting of fish by poachers, & the afore-mentioned lack of structure or vegetation, resulting in any fry that hatch getting devoured at a extremely high rate, has left the place with low fish populations (except the carp of course).
> 
> If the state would shut it down for 5 years, restock it & either introduce some vegetation or remove some of those carp, things could be great. But then after it re-opened the state would need to be vigilant with the poaching.


Zodiac,
I would love to see the state allow the harvesting of some of the smaller bass, because there are a bunch of them in the lake.... but very few fish over the 1 to 2 pound mark. 
I also don't think it needs to be restocked due to the fact that there are a lot of dinks around (those 6 to 12 inchers)... but they get harvested too fast to growup and become "nice fish". 

I don't think closing the lake to fishing would improve it much: it would cut-off the poachers for a while, and allow the dinks to grow up a bit. 
As soon as it was reopened the poachers would catch the bigger dinks and we'd be back as square one.

I think getting some vegetation and other forms on cover in the would be far more beneficial - along with removing some of the Amurs and adding a shoot-on-site rule for poachers!

Poaching is the #1 problem, and no veggies is issue #2... at least in my opinion.


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## The Zodiac (Apr 10, 2010)

SumpinWong said:


> ......Poaching is the #1 problem, and no veggies is issue #2... at least in my opinion.


I agree with you there bro 100%. My reasoning behind wanting to close it for a few years would be to stock it with a good amount of large breeder bass & allow them a few years to get a good gene pool going in that place. All those damn baby bass you were talking about do need thinned out some. Adding a bunch of those big breeder bass would help thin those small ones out as well. Hell if they had a week of no limit size or number, you would be able to put a dent in them with your 70 in a few days bro. lol 

I think a good stocking of crappie wouldn't hurt either. The state doesn't mention crappie as one of the stocked species at New Lyme, so I wonder if it was just a small population that was introduced by some fisherman, or perhaps as eggs on a duck's feet for example.

Hopefully something will be done to bring this place back to life.


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## fakebait (Jun 18, 2006)

What gets me, I thought there was a law against open fires on state gamelands as well as designated fishing areas owned and operated by the State. It just shows the lack of coverage our state provides. This is nothing against the wildlife officers, they can only cover so much. I pitty any officer that has to cover Ashtabula Co. Between the poachers and meth labs. Not much of any county law enforcement left. They are pretty much left out on a limb all by themselves. I know I will not call anybody out on anything out there. Once you get back there, No one can see anything from any main roads and with such limited people using the area, if something did happen chances are you wouldn't make out or get help in time. The good part poachers will get bored with not catching much and move on and the lake will make a natural come back because the good and the bad will quit coming.


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## SumpinWong (Sep 15, 2007)

fakebait said:


> What gets me, I thought there was a law against open fires on state gamelands as well as designated fishing areas owned and operated by the State. It just shows the lack of coverage our state provides. This is nothing against the wildlife officers, they can only cover so much. I pitty any officer that has to cover Ashtabula Co. Between the poachers and meth labs. Not much of any county law enforcement left. They are pretty much left out on a limb all by themselves. I know I will not call anybody out on anything out there. Once you get back there, No one can see anything from any main roads and with such limited people using the area, if something did happen chances are you wouldn't make out or get help in time. The good part poachers will get bored with not catching much and move on and the lake will make a natural come back because the good and the bad will quit coming.


Fakebait,
You bring up several valid points and they are certainly worth considering.
Once you get to the lake at either parking lots - no one knows you're there and you're pretty much on your own at that point.

I know for a fact that no officers showed up because of my call(s); I remained at the lake for hours after the call. I'm hoping that by me calling and giving descriptions of the individuals as well as their license plate numbers will do the trick.

Tight lines fellas!


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## The Zodiac (Apr 10, 2010)

fakebait said:


> What gets me, I thought there was a law against open fires on state gamelands as well as designated fishing areas owned and operated by the State. It just shows the lack of coverage our state provides. This is nothing against the wildlife officers, they can only cover so much. I pitty any officer that has to cover Ashtabula Co. Between the poachers and meth labs. Not much of any county law enforcement left. They are pretty much left out on a limb all by themselves. I know I will not call anybody out on anything out there. Once you get back there, No one can see anything from any main roads and with such limited people using the area, if something did happen chances are you wouldn't make out or get help in time. The good part poachers will get bored with not catching much and move on and the lake will make a natural come back because the good and the bad will quit coming.


I always thought there was a law against open fires on state gamelands as well. But for over 10 years that I have been going here, there have always been the same exact fire pits scattered at different spots along the shorelines. Last August me & a friend stayed out there catfishing the night, & there was loads of people doing the same thing. We counted 6 or 7 fires we could see from our location. Looking at the map provided by the state for New Lyme, it says it was last surveyed in 2004. So they certainly knew about the fire pits, as quite a few are in plain sight from a boat.

Not to mention the enormous number of beer cans that line the wooded areas adjacent to the shorelines. Now I am all in favor of having a nice place to fish & drink a few, especially with a nice campfire, but common sense dictates that a state owned property just isn't the place for such activity. Just like Fakebait mentioned, the seclusion plays a big factor. This increases this activity by making it just to damn easy to get drunk, camp out, & clean the lake out of fish. The seclusion is also a good reason to not have drunks staggering around. I figure if you are responsible enough to drink, you are responsible enough to accept responsibility for any harm that comes to you because of it. Like tripping & falling onto one of those big rocks on the main beach point, & landing fade first in the water, only to drown. But families would try to sue the state for negligence. Also, a good portion of these people that do use this secluded area for a place to get wasted are not the kind of people you want to have around when you take your grandson, or child fishing. If one of these inebriated individuals ( or more ) decide it would be fun to cave in your skull with a log, & you were not aware of the danger before it was to late, chances are you will die & the perpetrator(s) would get away without anyone being the wiser, until the next drunks, or perhaps fishermen stumble upon your remains. Add in to the mix the likely hood of these same individuals being under the influence of meth & you have a very serious situation on your hands.

A little side note --

I read that the state continually stocks New Lyme with channels, but there was no mention of how often they stock it, or when the last time it was stocked.


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## SumpinWong (Sep 15, 2007)

The Zodiac said:


> I always thought there was a law against open fires on state gamelands as well. But for over 10 years that I have been going here, there have always been the same exact fire pits scattered at different spots along the shorelines. Last August me & a friend stayed out there catfishing the night, & there was loads of people doing the same thing. We counted 6 or 7 fires we could see from our location. Looking at the map provided by the state for New Lyme, it says it was last surveyed in 2004. So they certainly knew about the fire pits, as quite a few are in plain sight from a boat.


The islands are littered with the remains of campfires, and campsites (tent stakes anyone?)
I think this all goes back to the fact that there isn't enough law enforcement (sherrif, wildlife officer, etc) to police the area. 



The Zodiac said:


> Not to mention the enormous number of beer cans that line the wooded areas adjacent to the shorelines.


For the most part the park is fairly clean, I think. For the amount of people that use it - compared to the number of people who clean it... it's not too bad.
The beer cans are the biggest issue for sure!



The Zodiac said:


> Like tripping & falling onto one of those big rocks on the main beach point, & landing fade first in the water, only to drown


Sounds like a good solution for the poachers 



The Zodiac said:


> I read that the state continually stocks New Lyme with channels, but there was no mention of how often they stock it, or when the last time it was stocked.


I haven't fished for the Cats yet but I have caught a couple of soft plastics, and they are very healthy. I have seen a bunch swimming in the fingers and they were all in the 18 to 20" range.

Time will tell, huh?


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## The Zodiac (Apr 10, 2010)

SumpinWong said:


> Sounds like a good solution for the poachers


lol It is. A few years back I was fishing there & at that same spot with the big rocks I watched this old drunk guy stumble on those rocks landing on his pole, thus breaking it. He was so pissed, cursing up a storm about it being his birthday & all he wanted to do was fish. I had to turn my head & laugh on that one.

One time I was fishing the extreme north west shoreline with my girlfriend at the time. We were directly across from the parking lot where her car was parked. These 2 kids around 16 years old were fishing the boat "ramp" at the parking lot & we could overhear them talking about her car. How they was going to break the windows & this & that. From where we was at, they couldn't see us. I was so angry that I had to end my fishing day because of these 2 jackasses. We seen them looking in the windows of her car & rushed back there before they did something we all would of regretted. With them being minors my hands were tied, but I was so pissed that I just had to leave.

18"-20"ers you say ? Man I must just suck something awful here then, because I havn't caught a catfish over 12" at this place. lol


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## fakebait (Jun 18, 2006)

I know that sports stars never read the press printed against them. I just wonder if any state wildlife officers read our post and talk to their management about what is being posted about certain areas. As well as any local police officers. It just kills me all the info posted on here and you never see anything getting done. We are the eyes and the ears of pretty much everything outdoors in Ohio. I also know, I myself do not post every stupid thing I see because of the lack of response. I will continue to follow the laws because I owe that to everyone of you and myself. As they always say that locks are for honest people.


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## Iraqvet (Aug 27, 2009)

The Zodiac said:


> lol It is. A few years back I was fishing there & at that same spot with the big rocks I watched this old drunk guy stumble on those rocks landing on his pole, thus breaking it. He was so pissed, cursing up a storm about it being his birthday & all he wanted to do was fish. I had to turn my head & laugh on that one.
> 
> One time I was fishing the extreme north west shoreline with my girlfriend at the time. We were directly across from the parking lot where her car was parked. These 2 kids around 16 years old were fishing the boat "ramp" at the parking lot & we could overhear them talking about her car. How they was going to break the windows & this & that. From where we was at, they couldn't see us. I was so angry that I had to end my fishing day because of these 2 jackasses. We seen them looking in the windows of her car & rushed back there before they did something we all would of regretted. With them being minors my hands were tied, but I was so pissed that I just had to leave.
> 
> 18"-20"ers you say ? Man I must just suck something awful here then, because I havn't caught a catfish over 12" at this place. lol


Looks like I will be carrying if I decide to go there..


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## The Zodiac (Apr 10, 2010)

Iraqvet said:


> Looks like I will be carrying if I decide to go there..


Well, I wouldn't say it isn't wise to carry if you can legally. I just want to say that that was a single incident & through the years I have had no other issues with other people. But if I had a CCP I would carry there. But then I would carry it everywhere permitted by law if I had one, so at any rate, stay safe & good luck fishing.


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## Iraqvet (Aug 27, 2009)

The Zodiac said:


> Well, I wouldn't say it isn't wise to carry if you can legally. I just want to say that that was a single incident & through the years I have had no other issues with other people. But if I had a CCP I would carry there. But then I would carry it everywhere permitted by law if I had one, so at any rate, stay safe & good luck fishing.


Thanks...I will probably make my way down there somtime this summer...Camera cellphone in hand and a visable metal chunk of "hurt" on my waist lol...


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## The Zodiac (Apr 10, 2010)

Iraqvet said:


> Thanks...I will probably make my way down there somtime this summer...Camera cellphone in hand and a visable metal chunk of "hurt" on my waist lol...


No problem bro. Just wanted members to at least be aware of the potential. lol you will be fine for sure with the "big hurt".  Let us know how the fishing went when you go.


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## Iraqvet (Aug 27, 2009)

The Zodiac said:


> No problem bro. Just wanted members to at least be aware of the potential. lol you will be fine for sure with the "big hurt".  Let us know how the fishing went when you go.


Will do..Sounds like if I go it will just be to try and catch some carp with my nephew...Definetly an underated fish to go for..I will never eat one lol,but they are fun as heck to catch if you get some nice sized ones..


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## The Zodiac (Apr 10, 2010)

Iraqvet said:


> Will do..Sounds like if I go it will just be to try and catch some carp with my nephew...Definetly an underated fish to go for..I will never eat one lol,but they are fun as heck to catch if you get some nice sized ones..


I love Carp fishing myself, so I know what you mean. Good luck.


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