Lake Pahoja Fishing Reports

[rundrave]

anyone on this forum familiar with this lake? I recently moved near the SD/IA border and this lake is close to me now.

Was going to scout it out and maybe use it for a hard water panfish lake as thats about all I have heard about this lake that its got alot of panfish in it. Anyone have anything to add before I go check it out for myself?

thanks,

[Joe]

Bluegill - Fair: Fish the brush piles with small jigs tipped with live bait. Crappie - Slow: A few fish have been caught by anglers while bluegill fishing.

[Joe]

Bluegill - Good: Use small jigs tipped with wigglers or worms around brush piles. Crappie - Slow: A few small fish have been caught while fishing for bluegill. Yellow Perch - Fair: Use small jigs tipped with wigglers or worms around brush piles.

[rundrave]

anyone been out to Pahoja and have an ice report?

[Joe]

Crappie - Fair: Fish around brush piles with small jigs tipped with wax worms. Yellow Perch - Slow: Fish near brush piles with wax worms. It has been reported that most of the perch being caught are small.

[rundrave]

any idea on ice thickness? safe for atv travel?

[muc33]

sorry dave, didn't see this till now, plenty of atv travel on big spirit ans smaller lakes, West you just never know. Big water and I never venture out very far.

[Clamhead]

I fished here on 01/09 and iced one green sunfish. There was tons of fish on the camera but locked up like a fence post. I didnt drive out but there was a dozen or so full size trucks and permies on there. I jsut talked to a coworker who was there this weekend and he did not catch anything. There is fish in numbers pretty much everywhere in the lake but it is on and off. Crappies, bluegill, bass, catfish, some northern and perch. I have never seen a northern caught, only seen them through the ice. Lyon county does a fantastic job with this lake, wish more parks/campgrounds got the attention it does.

[Rick]

There are good catches of bluegills being had and some crappie are being caught while fishing for bluegill.

[rundrave]

anyone been here since ice out? Are the docks in yet etc?

[mattrd]

Was there last week. Caught & released a couple of nice bass. Didn't see anyone else catching much. The dock is in at the ramp.

[rundrave]

anyone know how the ice is forming here? I know it will be a while yet, but I am curious with the current cold spell if any ice is being made yet?

I am going to guess the warmer temps and wind forecast for later this week will delay any ice fishing in the near future.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

looking like mid to late december before anything will be fishable

[rundrave]

anyone been here recently? I had heard about this and then was confirmed in this article:

Lyon County’s Lake Pahoja Experiencing Natural Fish Kill

Date posted - September 14, 2012

Rural Inwood, Iowa — Lake Pahoja in Lyon County is experiencing an ongoing fish kill that likely began Wednesday night.

Fisheries biologists from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources investigated the kill on Thursday at the 70-acre man-made lake west of the West Lyon School, and found low levels of oxygen and elevated levels of ammonia.

Mike Hawkins, fisheries biologist with the Iowa DNR, says all the evidence points to fall turnover happening at a bad time. He says that when a lake experiences turnover in the fall, nutrients that have been trapped in deeper water are suddenly available causing an algae bloom. In this case, the turnover followed a series of warm days and reports of a heavy blue-green algae bloom, something that is not typical, says Hawkins.

The two events together may have created enough biological demand for oxygen that levels fell critically low, he says.

There are other instances when a fall turnover causes problems in a lake, but this seems to be a rare set of circumstances, says Hawkins.

Although the fish kill is substantial, many live fish were seen by investigators. Oxygen levels are beginning to rise and many of these fish will survive.

He says it’s really too early to determine how this fish kill will affect the fishery and fishing on Lake Pahoja. Fish kills rarely kill all fish and fisheries normally fill back in very quickly through natural reproduction.

Lake Pahoja typically forms a thermocline that separates a zone of warm surface water from a zone of cooler deep water at about 12 to 14 feet. This thermocline prevents the two zones from mixing during the summer.

It is not unusual for biological processes in the deeper water to use up all available oxygen and then begin to build up large amounts of nutrients.

As the surface water cools in the fall, a windy day can break up the thermocline causing the lake to mix, releasing large amounts of nutrients causing an algae bloom

Not good, I liked this lake, hopefully it will rebound.

[rundrave]

anyone fishing here lately after its been restocked? Having any luck?

I was down there yesterday with the kayak but didnt attempt to fish. It looked really green with algae etc. Looks like with the heavy rain the water level got really high judging by all the debris up on shore.