Otay Lakes

[NBK]

Are there any of you folks out there who have hunted Otay Lakes back in the day? Did you know that it was ranked as the best ducking hunting body of water in the state for many years. It averaged 3.8 ducks per hunter. I sure miss the place...but hey - isn't Eastlake much nicer? :'(

 

[Lungpopper]

Worked in that area for many years and the whole time I was thinking how we were ruining this place.
Sometimes progress sucks.

 

[NBK]

It sure does Darryl...I hunted every single Wednesday and Saturday for over two decades. I live 15 minutes away so it was like having a private duck club in my back yard. I had some great times there and I shot countless amounts of ducks! I had the opportunity on two different occasions to bring a limit of all green-head's back to the boat dock. In SD County...that's kinda' cool.

I did not realize how good I had it until it was gone!

John

 

[SoCalHunter]

That place was the best! I was only about 20min. from it and the hunting was epic at one time. As a matter of fact I think that is where I met Mr. NBK1 if I recall

 

[NBK]

Yes that is where we met. But you were notorious though. I had heard about you many times from Mr. Fine Firearms.

 

[sdhunter]

Otay was a great little SD gem for duck hunting. I miss it very much! Used to hunt it every hunt day for years until it shut down. Remember the camp outs just to get reservations?

 

[SoCalHunter]

Yes I remember those reservation camp outs.....I forgot about those

 

[NBK]

The camp-outs were awesome. It was a great time to unwind, get excited about the upcoming season and hang out with cool people. I looked forward to it every year. It also was a separation between people who really wanted to hunt and folks that weren't willing to invest in their own duck destiny.

I miss those days; a gentleman's hunt 20 minutes from my house. The lake had the highest duck harvest per person over any other body of water in the entire state. 3.8 duck average per person...in my back yard!

 

[Aeon]

Why did it close?

 

[NBK]

2006/2007

 

[sdhunter]

Why did it close?

Encroaching home developement. The East Lake home building boom basically came up to the western shorelines of both Lower and Upper Otay. As it was, they had to get special permits or whatever to be able to shoot at Otay when it was annexed into the Chula Vista City Limits.
I guess we were scaring joggers/bikers/hikers with the shooting??

It was a great mallard and gaddy shoot during high water years.

 

[NBK]

Yes and a great place for the family and friends to have an affordable place to hunt that was of high quality.

Back in the day, the diver duck hunt was spectacular too.

 

[Ghosthunter]

Yea I miss Otay allot, John and i grew up hunting and fishing Otay almost every night. We used to go to Barrett in the morning to see if we could get a spot and if everyone showed up we would bolt to Otay and usually get a spot. Really sucks what they did out there.

 

[Matagi]

Man I learned how to hunt ducks on Otay. I miss that place alot. Stupid east lake community...