Article published Friday, May 9, 2008 Beaver Creek loaded with panfish Reservoir for Clyde ispeaceful site for angler
“Hey, you want to go catch some crappies over at Beaver Creek?”
That was brother Dave on the line earlier this week — Dave the crappie guy. They are his fish and all else drops away from his attention come a fine May day.
The Beaver Creek under discussion, by the way, is no creek but rather the 102-acre upground water-supply reservoir for Clyde. It lies along Seneca County Road 34, just east of State Rt. 101, southeast of the village of Green Springs. In any case, many of northwest Ohio’s fine upground reservoirs will do what Beaver Creek does, which is provide some fine spring inland fishing action.
Brother Dave is a live-bait kind of guy, and presently was dunking shiner minnows under a bobber and hauling in one crappie after another. Soon enough he had a fish-fry-in-waiting on his stringer. A bottom-fished nightcrawler on another rod resulted in a dandy two-pound largemouth bass, which we released.
At the same time, I was picking up largemouth bass in several sizes and crappies to boot on a standard 1/16-ounce Slider head with a four-inch black plastic worm with chartreuse tail. The fish were fairly inhaling it.
For variety, I switched to a 1/32-ounce Teenie by Mister Twister — a tiny jighead with a one-inch tail and a top-spin, similar to the Johnson Beetle Spin and various homemade rigs. Results were similar, though the catching slowed down, perhaps because of the change of baits or perhaps because the morning was wearing on and the sun was getting upright.
Last and not least, the new Berkley Power Bait, 1/32-ounce Atomic Teasers, got a chance in the water, slow-crawled like a little crawdad. The crappie loved them, just like smallmouth bass, rock bass, and sunfish did down in southern Ohio about 10 days ago.
Only a few other anglers were on the water, a couple boatloads of them electric-motoring up against the wind and drifting back down the reservoir. This day the shoreline fishing seemed at least as productive if not moreso.
Like so many other upgrounders, Beaver Creek harbors bass, crappie, bluegills, walleye, yellow perch, and channel catfish, not to mention the inevitable carp, the latter of which were making a big splash this week in spawning-season antics. A day on such a peaceful lake under a blue sky is full with a supporting cast beyond the fish.
An eagle here, an osprey there, a coot maybe trying to find the way to Fifth Third Field in Toledo, a mallard or two winging by as well, and loads of songbirds twittering up the wildflower-carpeted woods nearby.
Such a day doesn’t count against your life’s time-allotment. And that crappie-fry is going to be delicious at its mouth-watering best.
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Elsewhere on the fishing front, walleye have tuned into the jig-and-minnow game in earnest in Maumee Bay and along most inshore shallows all the way to Camp Perry.
Pirate charter skipper Keith Poland, for example, filled out with 42 fish in a single half-mile drift one morning this week, according to Rick Ferguson at Al Szuch Live Bait in Jerusalem Township.
Best bets for jig-and-minnow down east are the reefs west of Catawba Island and around Clinton Reef off Port Clinton, said Emelie Pride at Rickard’s Bait on Catawba Island. Trollers with worm harnesses are doing well north of Kelleys Island toward Middle Island, Pride said, and some drifters with harnesses and bottom-bouncers also are collecting their share of walleye as well there, including spawned-out females.
Dave Ray at Edgewater Bait in Point Place said walleye are being taken in as little as four to eight feet off Grassy Island and Turtle Island in inner Maumee Bay and east of the first radar buoy outbound in the Toledo Ship Channel. Most of his customers are using jigs and minnows, though some are switching to worm harnesses. Some anglers also are picking up jumbo perch.
Ray said a few bankside anglers took some walleye in the Maumee River downtown at the old Sports Arena property and that lower river anglers were taking white bass “like crazy” along the peninsula at Cullen Park and vicinity.
John Jokinen at Jann’s Netcraft said customers Monday showed up with two full buckets, each, of white bass taken from lower Swan Creek near Highland Park Dam.
“They’re still catching a lot of white bass on Swan Creek,” he said. “They’re in there heavier than they were before.”
Jig-spinner combinations or small spinners in white or chartreuse are doing the job on the creek.
Good numbers of jack walleye and white bass also are being taken in the popular runs in the Maumee-Perrysburg area.
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Longtime LEWT competitors Mike Solomey, of Demotte, Ind., and Shane Solomey, of Wheatfield, Ind., brought in a tournament limit of five walleye weighing 34.06 pounds to capture their first win in The Western Basin Sportfishing Association’s Lake Erie Walleye Trail Saturday at Lakevue Marina.
The weather presented some challenges with showers and wind most of the day for the full field of 43 teams, said WBSA’s Marc Hudson. The winning team stayed on the southeast side of Kelleys Island and kept working a small area to catch the top basket.
Finishing second for the second time this year was the team of Scott Geitgey, of Canton, and Tim Calvert, of Port Clinton, with five fish weighing 33.8 pounds. They reported catching close to 50 fish for the day on their way to second place.
Thomas Sibert, of Sandusky, and Tom Sibert, of Castalia, brought in 33.66 pounds of five fish to wrap up third place. The father-son Siberts set a new LEWT record with big fish weighing 14 pounds. Coming in second in the big fish race with a 10.62-pound walleye was Mike Miller, of Brunswick, and Dave Frey, of Avon Lake.
There were a total of 181 fish brought to the scales weighing an average of 4.92 pounds. The top few teams caught their fish on spinners in a variety of colors in water 15-feet deep to the bottom. Some of the teams also caught fish on Reef Runners fished 80 to 100 foot behind planer boards. Most teams reported fishing north of Kelleys Island, and around Middle Island and North Bass Island.
For more information about the LEWT visit on-line at wbsa.us.
In other walleye tournament news, the Wal-Mart FLW League’s Michigan Division has set its second event of the season for May 17 at Monroe. Takeoffs will be from Sterling State Park, 2800 State Park Rd., at 7 a.m., with weigh-in at 3 p.m.
To enter the event call 270-252-1000 or visit on-line flwoutdoors.com.
In bass fishing competition, Bill Herzog set a Toledo Bass Club record with a five-fish entry of 24.5 pounds to win the club’s first event of the season, based at Mazurik Public Access on Lake Erie at Marblehead.
Brent Dunmyer finished second with 23 pounds and Eric Herzog, Bill’s grandson, finished third with 20.5 pounds, said club spokesman Bob Priest. In all a dozen competitors entered 45 bass averaging 4.25 pounds each. All were released alive, Priest said.
The event’s big bass was landed by George Heltzel, a 6.1-pound smallmouth. The club’s next event is May 25 at Sterling State Park at Monroe. To contact the club call Priest at 517-414-0043 or Hal Graham at 419-356-9294.
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Registration begins Monday for the fourth annual Get the Lead Out cleanup campaign along the Maumee River, which is set for May 23 through June 9.
Volunteers are to collect lead sinkers, fishing line, and litter at Side Cut Metropark and other major fishing-runs. To sign up call 419-205-5588. Permanent Link
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