Lake Ashtabula Fishing

[durham1296]

How has the fishing been on ashtabula? I am heading up in a couple of weeks and was wondering the bite is going. Do they still have the bullhead derby? I only make it up there a few times a year and the past few years, I haven't caught very many compared to what I used to.

[holmsvc]

The fishing on Ashtabula has been pretty good for walleyes really early in the morning. There is no longer a bullhead tournament at the crossing.

[durham1296]

How is the ice coming along on ashtabula? I was hoping to get up there next weekend?

[marine_man]

I have not been by there for a while... but, I would guess that it's iced over, with pretty thin ice based on the warm temps in the last week or two.. most ponds lost their ice after the warm up last week.. I would imagine Ashtabula would be the same, but would have since froze over again.

Just my thoughts.. haven't been there to verify / prove anything.

marine_man

[fishuhalik]

Drove by it on Monday. There was a guy in an ice house off the bridge on the south part of the lake. No clue how much ice he was on though

[durham1296]

Thanks for the info. I talked to a friend in valley city and he said that his brother in law was fishing at sundstroms on 6" of ice on Thursday. Hopefully next week doesn't screw it up too much.

[JacobG]

Fished yesterday, all day. The bite was pretty slow with spurts of activity throughout the day. Caught several keeper perch and a few walleyes. Nothing over 20" Interestingly we also caught 3 crappies and missed a few others! Can anyone give me some insight as to the crappie population? The ones we caught we pretty nice, near slab size. But I was told quite some time ago that to catch one is pretty rare and we caught 3 yesterday alone. ANy info would be appreciated. BTW I measured 13" of good ice. No slush and very little snow. Ice is in great condition.

[holmsvc]

Crappies are tough to find in numbers. The bald hill creek channel can be good at times for them, but finding numbers is rare.

[JacobG]

thanks for the info. there were definately small schools of crappies that came thru on 2 occasions, prolly the same school because we never really moved. Interestingly tho they were all 11". same year class and/or stocking year. Hopefully year class. would like to see a few more lakes out here with crappies. Especially when they have the potential to grow slab size fish.

[JacobG]

was out yesterday, south of the creek. fishing was slow, a 17" walleye and about a dozen perch. several small walleyes as well. Seeing lots of walleyes about 10-12" so the future looks good. No pike and No Crappies tho. Fished several areas from shallow to deep all day. Didnt seem to matter, perch are everywhere and the walleyes are just scattered throughout. Nothing real solid. Fished shallow after dark 8 FOW. just lil walleyes

[JacobG]

well finally got back out yesterday. Drove on at the crossing and the road conditions were fair. Glare ice in spots and 3 foot drifts in others so be carefull. Brought the extentsion but was not needed. Fished a new area yesterday south of the creek bout a mile. Fishing was very good! caught over 40 perch, most of them were keepers, nice fat ones. fished an area of 24 feet of water with humps to the north and south. Most perch came in the deeper water and bit most of the day. Ended up with 4 really nice walleys from 16-19" and also released a dandy 28". And once again stumbled onto a few crappies keeping 3. I am still very interested in the crappie population in Ash. I know there arent many but There must be areas that concentrate them more than others. Have caught crappies from the north end clear pass the crossing, so they inhabit the entire lake. All 3 crappies were 11' BTW all the fish yesterday came on glow jigging spoons tipped with waxies, no minnows.

[JacobG]

fished yesterday the 28th. The morning bite was really good, consistant bites and marked fish. Ended up fishing three different spots. All deep water areas with sharp breaks. We caught fish on all three spots but the first two were rather slow. The last spot we fished was a deep water slot that produced the minute we got there. Wished I wouldve went there first! UGH! THats how it goes tho. Were able to catch a mess of big perch, a few walleyes, and once again caught a few crappies. THe bite was non existent by 2 in the afternoon. I saw a few others that were out yesterday also packing up about that same time. Id guess the eve bite wouldve been pretty good, dont know didn't stay

[marine_man]

Thanks for the report!

marine_man

[JacobG]

sounds like I have the wife talked into going out tomorrow again. Hope so anyhow. Gonna look at a few areas that look promising. Gonna target crappies again since ive had my best luck doing this catching a few crappies but lots of perch and several really nice walleyes as well. The walleyes have been in the deeper areas as of late. Also seems to be less pike in these areas, dont need to lose any more jigs to the toothy critters this year, already lost an entire tackle box of spoons on pike this year.