onthewater102
Well-known member
When your water temperatures are in the mid to upper 40's what would your approach to fishing a 1500 acre power generating lake with natural flow of roughly 800 cfs this time of year (winter) and a peak flow during power generation of roughly 3500 cfs. Other facts include:
Max depth behind the dam is ~100'
There are two branches, only one has significant natural current.
Dominant predator species in the lake include LMB, SMB, Carp, Crappie & Perch (both yellow & white in large #'s)
Inconsistent landlocked alewife (small shad) population (fluctuates greatly year to year based on peak summer dissolved oxygen content)
Strong populations of forage including white suckers, bluegills, perch, shiners & minnows & crayfish.
The bottom composition is mainly steeply sloping with lots of rock (softball to basketball size with occasional boulders) but there are areas of gravel humps and silt flats too, a few sheer ledges, only a dozen or so building foundations, no standing submerged timber (all cut to the stump before the lake was filled), numerous submerged stone walls outlining old farms ~2 acres each & only one submerged road running along the original riverbed.
Curious what your approach to finding fish & what baits you'd be using. I've done very well here on an inconsistent basis, and have very little cold-water experience but there aren't similar bodies of water in the area that are fished regularly, and most in-state guys have a terrible time with this lake in general despite sampling done by the state indicating it has huge populations of both big largemouth and smallmouth.
Map is of the lower stretch of the river showing the stretch from the dam to about 2 miles upstream:
Max depth behind the dam is ~100'
There are two branches, only one has significant natural current.
Dominant predator species in the lake include LMB, SMB, Carp, Crappie & Perch (both yellow & white in large #'s)
Inconsistent landlocked alewife (small shad) population (fluctuates greatly year to year based on peak summer dissolved oxygen content)
Strong populations of forage including white suckers, bluegills, perch, shiners & minnows & crayfish.
The bottom composition is mainly steeply sloping with lots of rock (softball to basketball size with occasional boulders) but there are areas of gravel humps and silt flats too, a few sheer ledges, only a dozen or so building foundations, no standing submerged timber (all cut to the stump before the lake was filled), numerous submerged stone walls outlining old farms ~2 acres each & only one submerged road running along the original riverbed.
Curious what your approach to finding fish & what baits you'd be using. I've done very well here on an inconsistent basis, and have very little cold-water experience but there aren't similar bodies of water in the area that are fished regularly, and most in-state guys have a terrible time with this lake in general despite sampling done by the state indicating it has huge populations of both big largemouth and smallmouth.
Map is of the lower stretch of the river showing the stretch from the dam to about 2 miles upstream: