Old lake, new life

We have a lake here Called Duck lake and it is going through a change right now. There used to be tons and tons of Elodea and Mil foil in the lake that choked out everything and made catching any real numbers of fish a challenge to say the least.

Now the weeds have been killed off over the last 1.5 years and is gonna go through some changes. The size of fish is never in doubt there. They have a size limit for crappie of 10 inches and I know fishers that used to limit out anyway.

Anyone have any thoughts on fishing the lake and canals now as far as where to target the larger fish and larger numbers of them? They will be moving and looking for new territory now and could be hard to target, not like I have ever had much luck there anyway because you had to cast 60 feet just to get past the weeds.

I plan to hit this lake this spring and might even make a venture out there this winter just to see if I can find fish finally.

I would try to get a good idea of the bottom structure of the lake. Look for drop offs, humps, points, etc. and target those areas.

I have a Hummingbird Smart Cast portable sonar unit that I use when I fish a new lake. It's the kind where you tie the sensor to the line and cast it out. It really helps.

I found usually the best crappie spots were not very accessible from shore. Id recommend you save a few hundred $$$ and buy a jon boat or other small boat or make friends with someone who has one. Fish finders can really help to find warmer water temps, fish, and structure. The more you fish and work to find fish the better you will get. If in doubt fish in or near brush and the move around to different depths and locations with brush and hopefully you will find fish.

Yah I will have to do some searching but structure is gonna be hard to find. The lake is only about 15 deep at the deepest and most structure is fished often and hard because there are only 3 docks that have public access.

Is it better to target deep water right now or shallow water? If I get out there it will help to know where they should be right now in this cold arse water, it never gets really warm there but right now it is gonna be bitter cold but not frozen. I think the lake and canals stay below 65-70F all summer unless we have an exceptionally hot one.

I did find out that there are Brown bullheads in there so I will have to do a night fish this summer to try and get a big one or 20. Perch, crappie, bluegill, LM, rainbow trout, bullheads, hybrids and a few kokanee make for a lot of different species to target and lots of potential fun.

I do plan on taking my pontoon boat to find them though. I figure a basic slow rowing troll should be enough to find pockets of them and stop to fish them until the school moves one. The lake itself isn't very large as lakes come. It is the 35 miles of canals that hold the fish that are hard to explore and find where the fish are. A pontoon boat is so easy to row and can go anywhere so finding the fish shouldn't be too hard. Open water will be nice to see because the last time I was out on a boat there we had to fish the thick pockets of weeds and try punch through them to even get a bite and then it was small fish. The lead guy said the lake and canals were 86% covered by Elodea and Mill foil. Hopefully the open water will make a huge difference in both size of catch and numbers.

Still lots of lily pads, rush and grasses so they have lots of places to hide and spawn just like it used to be before they quit killing the weeds. If I lived out there I would have PVC and wood structure right on front of my house from the deepest point to the bank.

I did talk to the lead person in charge of the whole thing and he told me that the fish are still safe to eat after all the herbicides they used. It was a real shame that the old ways of maintaining the lake and canals was abandoned years ago because the lake really suffered from it. I have seen a lot of vegetative growth on lakes before but this one was bad.

They also are adding more grass carp to hopefully keep the plants under control but they plan to keep killing the weeds in spots where they need to be.

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Originally Posted by fish_4_all

Is it better to target deep water right now or shallow water?

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Try 'em both. I fished one of my favorite ponds recently. I began fishing a deep hole off the dam -- caught nothing. On a whim, I started casting into 3' water in front of me and caught bluegill after bluegill -- some up to 9".

I'd always start with the deeper water this time of year, but don't rule out the shallows if the deep water doesn't produce.

The lake I fish is only 10 ft deep. I walk the docks in the boat harbor and trool a Road Runner with the smallest Twister Tail I can get, some times I cut the body in half to get it smaller. I use a small, 64oz, jig head with a pice of nigh crawler and fish the shady side of the dock. Works great. Right now the ice is to thin to drill and to thick to fish through. The temp right now is 19* and we are going down in an hour and try it out. I will take pictures. Tight lines