Underwater trees.

[Slyster]

I watch all the fishing shows... and so often they fish dead trees that are deep in water. Where can you find area's like that? I have never seen dead trees in water before- only flooded trees on the rivers.

Is this a 'southern' thing? Like with all the resevoirs they have down there? And does this mean it is also a temperary thing? I can't imagine those trees will last too many decades after a new dam is bulit.

Any lakes around here have submerged trees?

[FishinFool]

Chesterwoods resevoir just outside of Rochester does. Most bass are pretty small (10"), but there are some piggies in there.

[carlcmc]

and just how do you go about catching those piggies by the trees?

my only luck in chester woods is using senko worms and occasionally cranking shallow running fat cranks through submerged weeds. I routinely get fish in the 1-2 lb range. Never any higher.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Sly, Minnesota has very few resivoirs.. Hence, very few trees in the water.. You will find a few laying on the back , but never in deep water.

There are a few lakes in MN that have trees out deeper.. Chisago has some...

[Slyster]

Since there are a finite number of dams to be built.. does that mean that all those lakes with 'underwater wood forests' will eventually be gone forever? I wouldn't think a dead tree underwater would last more then a few decades.

[Wayne Ek]

Deitz, make a trip up here after bass opener and we will fish a lake that is nothing but flooded timber for some real piggies.

[Slyster]

How did the timber get flooded? A farily recent dam construction?

[carlcmc]

built in the 90s if understand correctly.

flooded wood rots extremely slow. Lack of adequate oxygen slows the process.

[ikeslayer]

i have fished chesterwoods (bear Creek Resevor) many times especially this past summer and fall. 100 fish days are easy. It is a bass fishermans paradise. there are more trees in the water than water. However like stated before there are some piggies in it i have never caught any however. and i have only seen one that ran about five pounds. seems like some kid off of one of the fishing peirs always catches one on a hook and worm. I would love is some of the good bass sticks that are on this forum would come down and take their stab at chester. I can gauruntee you catch fish however i want to know what a guy can do to consistantly catch the hogs that i know are in there. There are no toothy critters in these waters so bass are the top of the food chain. it is as close to the south as it is going to get.

Secondly the lake that i beleive agape is talking about is flooded because they closed the outlet of the lake and now the water has no where to go but up the shore. That is if it is the lake i am thinking of. Makes for some good bank beating though.

if anyone wants to fish chester ever look me up. be glad to help ya. ike

[Wayne Ek]

This lake has no outlet and the lake level creeps up a little each year. This makes for some very unique fishing in Minnesota.

[CorynTracySellHomes]

Agape,

Does the lake you are talking about have some nice muskies in it as well???

Cory Frantzick

[carlcmc]

actually there are muskies in chester woods. at least the DNR says there is on the signs.

ikeslayer, do you fish of a boat or from shore?

perhaps you saw me this past year. i went out there probably 10 times. i have a big 20' pontoon boat that i take my family out on the little lake :-)

[Wayne Ek]

Yes it does, and some monster northerns, not a good place for a Lucky Craft bait

[ikeslayer]

Carl i never did see you out there and i knew you had a pontoon from a previous question you asked in the Roch forum. but nope i never saw ya. i fish from a boat a blue crestliner Amf. i never knew there were muskies in it and i checked the dnr HSOforum and it says nothing about muskies. Is this new. i always wanted there to be a muskie (tiger) or two in there to take care of some of the small stuff. Is this muskie business farely new or old news. ike

[JPSavage]

In my neck of the woods there is a great Largemouth and Smallie water that has trees around most of the perimeter of the lake, all in 2-10 feet of water....This lake is up about 15 feet from 10 years ago....You see a number of cabins 50feet out in the water half submerged.....Jigs, senkos, worms,plastic jerks,top water all work well....Very little fishing pressure,clear, moderate weed line, a real gem....Being a bit off the beaten path seems to have helped save this lake.

[carlcmc]

i base my statement upon the fact that at the boat launch there is that sign that say muskies below a certain size must be released. Never have caught or seen one. Never thought to check the dnr web page. my guess is web page just shows what was netted and the sign there indicates that some have been stocked.

[FishinFool]

There are no muskies in Chesterwoods. There is a minimum size limit for bass though(15" I think). Carl, do you think you might be confusing it with that?

[carlcmc]

you have placed enough doubt it my mind not to make a definitive statement. I definitely remember the sign about the bass, but I could *almost* swear that I have seen a sign in regards to muskies. There is one just like it at the Lake Zumbro boat ramps...

[kt]

Hey agape,

How is the public access at the lake. I haven't been there in a couple years, have they improved it at all?

[CrappieJohn]

Olmsted County here in Minnesota's SE corner is one of four counties in Minnesota without a natural lake. All of the waters we consider and refer to as Lakes here are reservoirs.

Lake Zumbro is a prime example of a deep water reservoir with some ares approaching the fifty foot mark, but lots of thrty foot water. Chesterwoods is another , much smaller, lake sporting some deep water. Where these deeper reservoirs flooded valleys, the trees and shrubs got covered with water and today are super cover for many different species of fish.

At Chesterwoods, bass and the panfish are the biggest benefactors of this cover....hence the large catch numbers. The Zumbro , having a distinct current, prone to heavy run-off fluctuations and being considerably older has lost much of it's "old wood" but sees new stuff come in every time the water comes up.

There are places where the Zumbro has huge piles of submerged rock and boulders....can we say smallies?

[CorynTracySellHomes]

Agape,

Thought that was the lake! A good friend of mine has a cabin on that lake, and his wife and my wife took my Ranger out there while we were fishing a Denny's Tourney on the chain, long story short my wife got REAL nervous with the amount of trees standing up in the lake!!

Cory Frantzick

[Wayne Ek]

kt, no improvement. That access scares alot of folks. I drop my ranger 520 in there all the time with no problems either going in or coming out. Now stumps, that's another store....

[CrappieJohn]

Ike and Carl...The muskies are in the Zum. Chesterwoods has none. There are signs about the muskies at the Zum at every entry and at the public fishing piers.

[ikeslayer]

Say there were some muskies in chester. what would that do for this fishery. would it change it alot. or not so much? just curious what anyone thinks. This would make the bass no longer the top of the food chain and some would even become prey. So what changes would we see over time? ike

[FishinFool]

If there were some muskies in Chesterwoods I think that they would really cut down on the small sunfish. With all the bass being 10-13" they would be prey for some bigger muskies. If there were less of those bass around I think that there would be potential to grow bigger bass. Most if not all of the big bass in Chesterwoods right now are from when the DNR first stocked it with adult largemouth.